Oscar Volley: High Quality / Low Suspense in "Best Director"

The Oscar Volleys continue with Ben Miller and Nathaniel R talking Best Director

Paul Thomas Anderson will FINALLY win an Oscar... for ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER

BEN: Welp Nathaniel, this felt like the most boring category of the whole Oscars a month ago. Luckily, there seems to be a bit of flux in this race. Paul Thomas Anderson seemed poised to run away with the statue, but Ryan Coogler can't stop butting in.

Before we get to that, I wanted to know your thoughts on this lineup as a whole. This certainly wouldn't be my personal lineup, but there aren't any Todd Phillips or Adam McKay mucking up the group.  How do you feel about this Best Director lineup?

NATHANIEL: What a lede to entice the readers, Ben. "Most Boring" Ha ha. But true. What I really want to know is WHY do you find it boring?

Please click all that apply...

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Best International Film: And Then There Were Two...

The Oscar Volleys continue. Today, ERIC BLUME and NATHANIEL R discuss the Oscar race for Best International Feature Film. 

NO OTHER CHOICE, Park Chan-wook | © NEON

ERIC:  Hi Nathaniel, I feel lucky getting you all to myself to discuss Best International Film.  I do think the slate is ultimately very strong overall, but before we get to our five nominees and an assessment on the race, can we take one last brief moment to mourn the EXCLUSION of a film in both of our Top 10 lists, Park Chan-Wook's No Other Choice?  It's no easy feat to make a film that's both political and funny, and he really nailed his tiny little bullseye.

NATHANIEL:  Maybe it's a tiny bullseye but I bet if you zoom way in that bullseye is as intricate as the lines in a diamonds or as multi-colored and weirdly patterned as an iris. Which is to say that not only was it my favourite of the submissions but it's quite literally my #1 film of the year. (Why leave everyone in suspense since it takes me so long to post my awards). I really am just obsessed with it and Lee Byung Hun absolutely deserved a spot in the Best Actor lineup too. The Korean superstar is so confident in his gifts that he's able to be goofy and pathetic and sad without ever losing his Movie Star-ness. It's really a miracle performance if you ask me because he does all that while feeling utterly spontaneous in each scene. Anyway I could talk about this movie for days...

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Oscar Volley: Best Costume Design is all about aliens, monsters and demon twinks

Our Oscar volleys continue with the site’s weekly RuCappers, Cláudio Alves and Nick Taylor, tackling Best Costume Design…

Never trust a twink in oversized clothes and Coke bottle glasses with a hungry gaze.

CLÁUDIO: Hello, hello, hello, it's time to discuss my favorite Oscar category - Best Costume Design! And to keep the tradition going from these volley's last few seasons, why don't we start by describing a sartorial mélange of all nominees? Imagine me coming to you in Varang's war headdress and Marty Mauser's Coke bottle glasses. I'm also in a plus-sized cut of Smoke's azure-leaning ensemble, but instead of a 1930s suit jacket, I'm donning the powder-blue doublet from Hamlet's first staging. For extra accessories, let's go with the anachronistic Tiffany beetle jewelry with which Mia Goth adorns herself in Frankenstein.

What about you, dear Nick? What are you wearing, diva?

NICK: For this year’s runway, I’m seizing on the crimson death currents uniting these films…

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Oscar Volley: The Inaugural "Best Casting" Race

We kick off our annual post-nomination Oscar Volley series with the newest Oscar category: Best Casting. There have been calls to add Casting as a category for decades but the Academy always resisted... until now. 

Regina Hall & Chase Infiniti in ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER. Casting by Cassandra Kulukunis

NATHANIEL: Abe, I'm sure I've shared this before but since we were assigned Best Casting -- in its inaugural year! -- I feel the need to shout that this film craft, alongside Editing, are the only two I feel I would have been great at, had my life taken a different path. I never took any steps toward making movies -- mostly scared off by how much time people devote to making just ONE if they're on the filmmaking side when my appetite is closer to 200 movies a year and ample time to obsess over about 30 of them as an audience member.

To jog your memory as we begin our discussion, here were the finalists in the category with the eventual nominees in bold...

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Oscar Volleys: Let’s wrap this up!

The Oscars are TONIGHT. To end the volleys, Cláudio Alves and Nathaniel Rogers are here to cover all the categories the team hadn't yet discussed…

THE BRUTALIST | © A24

CLÁUDIO: As much as we try to cover every Oscar race at The Film Experience, it isn't always easy to get conversations going for all of them. So, here we are, Nathaniel, dealing with the last slew of races before the big night. Since last time, we focused so much on the eye candy trifecta, we could give the place of privilege to the aural achievements now. Or Best Editing since that's so strongly correlated to Best Picture. And let me tell you, I am quite lost when it comes to that particular lineup. I could see all five of the nominees winning. Though I presume The Brutalist has the least chance since it is my favorite, and I've learned, over the years, to predict pessimistically to avoid disappointments. It's a good method - everyone should try it.

NATHANIEL: Predicting pessimistically has cost me at times for overall punditry scores (not that I care to much about those stats) but the amount of emotional armor it provides is helpful…

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