by Nathaniel R
Rachel McAdams in "Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret."
Oscar nomination voting began yesterday morning and will continue through Tuesday, January 16th at 5 PM. Word has it that the bulk of Academy members vote early in the time frame. For those holdouts who are still thinking about their ballots and screening a couple more films just to be sure, we asked members of Team Experience to share what they hope will be considered...
Rachel McAdams is always excellent. Whether it's a terrible rom-com or sci-fi drivel, she knows how to elevate the material. But what happens when the material is already great? In Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret., McAdams takes what should be a stock parent and imbues her with such warmth, life, and humanity, she almost pulls too much focus. It's her best performance in a film with material that is worth her talents. It might be a stacked Supporting Actress Year, but she shouldn't be denied. - Ben Miller
I was ready for this season to go by without any love for Rachel McAdams in Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret. Instead, pockets of support have shown up in some surprising places. When I was at AFI Fest, I heard this movie brought up more than anything at the festival. I'm glad it has received as much attention as it has, but if you haven't tracked it down - this is subtle, empathetic work that's the best we've seen from her since Regina George. The movie is also one of the best of the year, and her warmth is one of the reasons I'll be coming back to it in the future. - Eurocheese
"Past Lives" from A24
Two words: Past Lives. Two others: Greta Lee. Neither the Best Picture nor the Best Actress are complete or can compete without ’em, Oscar voters (ditto Teo Yoo in Best Actor and Celine Song in Best Director & Best Original Screenplay—each exquisite).
Wavering between making some costume or international film recommendations, I'll go with world cinema. The Oscar lineup is dominated by European titles every season, but it needn't be so. Among this year's shortlisted submissions, it's safe to say Academy members will check out the flicks pushed by Neon and Netflix, so they don't need any help. Of the remaining possibilities, I'll bat for Mexico's TÓTEM and Moroccos' THE MOTHER OF ALL LIES, two tremendously bold works that seek to portray and examine complicated family dynamics. The Mexican drama moved me beyond words, so aching in its observations you can't help but feel invested in the characters' reckoning with a loss that hasn't yet come. On the other hand, the Moroccan documentary considers the historical past, weaving a family's tragedy with national politics, all while playing with meta-cinematic devices and a Rithy Pahn-esque device. Please, AMPAS, give these films a chance. - Cláudio Alves
"All Of Us Strangers"
Dear Academy, please watch All of Us Strangers. You'll find that Andrew Scott is giving the best performance by any lead actor this year, acting filled with so much raw pain, measured control, and bristling immediacy that you'll feel good about voting for him twenty years from now. Feel free to make room for Jamie Bell and Claire Foy while you're at it! Please also watch Society of the Snow and vote for it in a bunch of tech categories, because it's astonishingly well-made and uses technical effects for drama, and should really be in the Best Picture and Best Director races. And finally, be generous with May December. Portman and Moore are doing very sophisticated stuff here, much more dimensional than most other acting this year, and Melton supports with the distaff heart and soul portion. Plus you've fucked Todd Haynes for too long now...get him in that Best Director line-up! - Eric Blume
If there were any justice, ALL OF US STRANGERS would be a major contender in all categories. Andrew Haigh's latest film is an emotional wrecking ball, devastating anything in its path. Its dreamlike quality lulls you into a state of hypnosis, thanks to the cool, muted hues of cinematographer Jamie Ramsay and the nimble editing tricks of Jonathan Alberts. It seems like the movie is in sixth or seventh place in Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay. Andrew Scott is terrific in the film. Each scene finds him tearing down his character's high emotional walls, as he opens himself up to love for the first time. I hope voters check the film out and it becomes a surprise nominee in any category, but specifically those two.
It's incredibly heartening to see FOUR DAUGHTERS make the shortlist for Best Documentary Feature and Best International Feature, as it's one of the most daring and inventive films of the year. The way it uses the form of Documentary to tell the central family's story is fully unique and engrossing, as if Day for Night were mixed with high family melodrama. In re-enacting the events that led to two of her daughters leaving home, our lead Olfa Hamrouni gets to share hindsight and perspective. It's a fascinating watch that's not just emotionally involving, but also features a fair degree of personality and spunk.
There's no better performance in the Supporting Actress category than Rachel McAdams in ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT'S ME, MARGARET. My heart breaks in one of the early scenes where Barbara (McAdams) has to explain to her daughter why she doesn't talk to her parents anymore. From the onset of the question, you see McAdams face sink - she's been preparing for this conversation for years. The words and stifled sniffs all feel controlled, but the hurt she feels still punctuates the conversation. This informs so much of the rest of the movie, as Barbara enthusiastically overcommits herself to school projects in an attempt to reinforce the love she has for her daughter. The beauty in McAdams performance is that she never oversells it. She's an emotional rock for her family, even though inside she crumbles more and more with each passing day. It's a beautiful performance that would be my winner on my personal ballot. - Christopher James
Scarlett Johansson in "Asteroid City"
Each year it's painful to watch critics and precursor groups join in lockstep in narrowing things down for the Academy rather than really engaging in conversation about ideas of "Best". Annual Opinion That I'm So Committed to It Feels Like a Fact: There are more then five worthy achievements in any given category so the idea that we shrink down to like six options everywhere by this point each year is ludicrous.
My personal pick for most egregiously overlooked actor this season is Scarlett Johansson in Asteroid City. Year after year she proves incredibly versatile and skilled at navigating / elevating the demands of genre, story, and auteur sensibility. Oscar's acting branch have always struggled in recognizing the worth of stylization, usually reducing ideas of quality to 'realism' but Johansson is inspired and deft in every moment of this presentational worky. Lesser actors in Wes Anderson's filmography can sometimes over-cartoon themselves to fit into his box of crayons, but Scarlett's Mitch Campbell, like all of the best characters/performances in his filmography, conveys three dimensional humanity within his delightfully flat dioramic world. She's funny, sure, but also works the undertow of this movie star's depression and the specificity of her sexual curiousities. I have no hopes whatsover that she might surprise on Oscar nomination morning but it would be fun if at least the costuming, music ("Dear Alien Who Art in Heaven"), or production design branches would notice the film!
Two more quick recs: Robot Dreams is immensely charming and brilliant, too, but its profile is painfully low in Best Animated Feature. Academy members will hopefully surprise us (and delight themselves) by watching it. Finally, I'm hardly alone in feeling that Past Lives is a miracle but it's smaller scale than Oscar often goes for so I can't resist one last plug: See it. Love it. Vote for it. - Nathaniel R
Flora and Son is John Carney’s latest film and certainly deserves consideration. Two of its songs made the shortlist but the rest of the movie is equally worthy of praise. Eve Hewson leads a terrific cast in yet another musical winner from Carney. -Abe Friedtanzer
Your turn, readers, what are your last minute FYCs?