Oscar Nominees

Having finally seen Women Talking I can now comment on the full slate of Oscar nominations for Best Picture, as well as many of the subcategories. Fortunately, my favorite English-language movie of the year, The Banshees of Inisherin, is also the leading Oscar nominee, with nods for Director, Actor, Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress as well as Picture. Maybe it wasn’t that great a movie, but the competition is unusually thin, especially if, like me, you just didn’t like Everything Everywhere All At Once.

The oddsmakers are favoring Ke Huy Quan from that film for Supporting Actor, but for me Brendan Gleeson gave the performance of the year and shouldn’t even be in the “Supporting” category. The other nominees include Brian Tyree Henry from Causeway and Barry Keoghan from Banshees. Both gave fine “performances,” but I couldn’t understand half their dialogue, which would seem a basic requirement for this award. Judd Hirsch’s dialogue in Fabelmans was perfectly clear but he was so obstreperous I cringed when he was onscreen.

Kerry Condon was a revelation in Banshees. Her role as Colin Farrell’s sister seemed minor at first, but by film’s end you realized how much she added to the otherwise male-heavy story. I thought I was discovering her and was surprised that I wasn’t alone. (I wonder if her residing in LA the last ten years instead of, as she sounded, Ireland made a difference for the Academy.)

I hope Colin Farrell repeats his Golden Globe win as Best Actor, although I am slightly less impressed after watching his almost identical performance in In Bruges ten years before.  I didn’t like Austin Butler’s rendition of Elvis, I didn’t, and probably won’t, see Brendan Fraser in The Whale, and I didn’t notice any acting by Paul Mescal in the plotless Aftersun, which is the exact quality the L.A. Times theater critic raved about recently. Bill Nighy was wonderful, as usual, in Living, which I discount because it was a pale imitation of Ikiru (although Kazuo Ishiguro cast a cloud over Takashi Shimura’s original interpretation at his SBIFF panel appearance).

The big battle is expected to be the Best Actress race between Cate Blanchett and Michelle Yeoh. The other three nominees–Michelle Williams, Ana de Armas and Andrea Riseborough–can be dismissed out of hand. We have been to tributes to both Cate and Michelle and were impressed by each of them. Unless voters feel that it’s Michelle’s turn, however, I expect the award to go to Cate, and I will approve.

I have no credentials to opine on the technical categories, but as a layman I would give awards to Avatar for Visual Effects; to Wakanda Forever for Costume Design; to All Quiet on the Western Front for Cinematography and, spreading the wealth, to Top Gun: Maverick for Editing. I remember being struck by the score of more than one movie, but I can’t remember which they were. Since All Quiet is the only film nominated for both Score and Sound, I have to think that was one of them. One award I would not give is Original Song. In general, they have nothing to do with their movie and only play over the final credits, when most of the audience is leaving or has left the theater.

International Feature is easy, for Argentina, 1985 was my favorite film of the year. I haven’t seen two of the nominees, but having seen short clips and heard from their directors I feel certain that they wouldn’t change my choice.