by Nathaniel R
I had the pleasure of serving once again on Middleburg Film Festival's Oscar-discussion panel this past Friday. Jazz Tangcay, Clayton Davis, and I chose the name "Coffee & Contenders" because when we launched the event last year it was first thing in the morning in a cozy room designed specifically for group gatherings at the Salamander Resort and Spa in Middleburg Virginia. You grabbed your complimentary coffee and pastries on the way in. This year we were completely virtual and on Zoom but the title was still literal. Coffees in hand we discussed the race.
The race is a mess of possibility without much clarity. It's not that there aren't contenders or reason to celebrate film (see Juan Carlos' recent rant). It's that we're in uncharted territory given the pandemic and suddenly virtual nature of movies and campaigning; Publicists and awards strategists have their work cut out for them!
But let's talk about the winning film...
Minari (Lee Isaac Chung)
A24's gently powerful Korean-American family drama, set in the 1980s, is piling up a big stack of awards including Audience Awards from both Sundance and Middleburg. We now join its growing chorus of fans.
We first meet the Yi family when they're moving into their new home... on wheels... in the middle of nowhere. They've come from California, where their life we glean was comfortable and filled with Korean-American neighbors but had no rewarding job opportunities, to build a farm in Arkansas. Now they're on their own in an all white religious community. The ambitious husband Jacob (Steven Yeun) and depressed wife Monica (Han Ye-ri) don't see eye to eye on this new business and personal venture (to put it mildly) though Jacob throws himself into farming and Monica, who clearly longs for community, takes some solace in churchgoing. Yeun and Han's resentments simmer for most of the picture but when they reach full boil about the state of their marriage it's wrenching and superbly acted.
The parents supply the narrative arc and soulful drama but the heart of the picture comes from their youngest sickly child David (Alan Kim) and the mom's mother (Young Yuh-Jung). The old woman and little boy have never met when she comes to live with them (primarily to help with Monica's loneliness). The little boy doesn't like her or believe she's a "real" grandma for reasons he is quite willing to vocalize. Their evolving relationship is genuinely moving without ever feeling manipulative. This same observational calm applies to the movie's very subtle handling of topics like racism and religion, which are usually treated with a sledgehammer approach by filmmakers. Writer/director Lee Isaac Chung has crafted a wonderful confident picture from his own memories of his childhood and he's done so without treacly sentiment despite an obviously huge heart. A
Oscar thoughts: I have more and more faith in this as an Oscar contender. That said, the hype could be a stumbling block as it's a surprisingly gentle movie and "gentleness" if you will, is not typically Oscar potent. It's calm rural power reminded me a bit of David Lynch's G-rated The Straight Story (1999) actually. Most of the wonderful cast of Minari was on a Zoom call at Middleburg for a conversation to celebrate the "Ensemble Cast Spotlight Award". Young Yuh-Jung (you might remember her from her equally stunning performance in The Housemaid ten years back) was the MVP of that discussion. She rejected the term "legend" during the conversation as it makes her feel old (she's 73) and she just wants to be thought of as an actor. When they were all discussing their takeaways from the picture (most of them gushing that this one was different), she was amusingly unsentimental, saying she's made so many movies that she's essentially always 'next!' when its a wrap, but she does genuinely love the finished movie and has been delighted that audiences are responding so well. She was quite funny and speaks English well. Normally we'd think this a huge plus for an Oscar campaign but given that there's no schmoozing events this year perhaps it won't help...
Director and cast
Not that prizes should be about schmoozing, he quickly adds, but the truth is that every little bit helps when you're trying to overcome typical awards obstacles. And trust that Oscar's history shows a definite reluctance to honor Asian actors. Even when the films are firmly in the awards conversation (The Farewell, Memoirs of a Geisha) or even Best Picture winners (The Last Emperor, Slumdog Millionaire, Parasite) the actors are ignored. We hope that won't be the case again this year with this cast.