The Beautiful Dryness of "1917"

by Lynn Lee

[This article contains spoilers]

“One of the best war films ever made.”

That’s not a critic’s blurb – that’s how my father described 1917 to me the other day. The fact that he and my mother loved the film didn’t surprise me, given that I was the one who recommended it to them.  What did surprise me was how much they loved it.  It’s not that they haven’t seen many war movies – to the contrary, my childhood and adolescence included a healthy dose of them, from early black and white greats like Grand Illusion to sweeping Hollywood epics like Lawrence of Arabia.  Over the years my parents have continued to add films as varied as Das Boot, Gallipoli, Saving Private Ryan, and Master and Commander to their favorites.

So what was it about 1917 they deemed worthy to stand with the classics? My dad cited the cinematography, of course, and the vivid realization of the WWI battlefields and trenches, but he also extolled the “delicacy” and “dryness” of the story.  And I think he was on to something there...

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Film Bitch Awards: Screenplays, Score, and Sound

We started a week ago with a few appetizers but now the 20th (gulp) annual Film Bitch Awards are finally in full swing. Here are the new categories that are up

BEST ORIGINAL & ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Wouldn't it be neat if Marriage Story or Parasite could snag a surprise win from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood at the Oscars in Original Screnplay. All three are also nominated for the Film Bitch Award but we don't think Tarantino needs a third Oscar and for the first time since Kill Bill his visuals feel even more noteworthy than his writing anyway. Not that it's not a grand script. But the raw wound comedy and drama of Baumbach's reflection and Parasite's ingenious construction are right there for the honoring so we hope the Academy thinks it through.  We're happier about the other impending Oscar win for Adapted because Greta Gerwig takes Little Women apart and puts it back together again in such a personal and fresh 'life-of-an-artist' way. 

BOTH SCORE & SOUND CATEGORIES
Music and sound preferences are so hard to articulate so forgive the very short notes.

As a reminder, if you haven't voted on the "should wins" for those categories at the actual Oscars, do that on the charts please. 

WGA nominations don't tell the whole story

This week is huge for precursor nominations (Visual Effects Society, DGA, PGA, and BAFTA all hit tomorrow) but today was the Writers Guild of America's turn.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• 1917 -Sam Mendes & Krysty Wilson-Cairns
• Booksmart - Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Susanna Fogel, Katie Silberman
• Knives Out - Rian Johnson
• Marriage Story - Noah Baumbach
• Parasite - Bong Joon Ho & Han Jin Won

A strongish lineup even if we wouldn't single out 1917's strength as its writing. Curiously, both The Two Popes and Hustlers were eligible for Original with the WGA (and missed) but they're both competing in Adapted for Oscar voters where they actually belong since they're based on a play and a magazine article respectively. Did the confusion cost them votes?  This WGA lineup is bad news for critical darlings like Honey Boy, Uncut Gems,  and Dolemite is My Name, any of which might have made headway in a weaker year for Originals. But the three strongest alternate threats for an Oscar nomination weren't eligible...

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Name 5 things you're currently obsessing over!

Apologies for the sparse posting the past couple of days we've been buried in screenings & events and the like. I'm currently obsessing about five things...

1) How wrong I was assuming the character of Amy could not be the MVP of any iteration of Little Women (hi, Florence!) so our SAG screening guest was correct. 

2) Potential trickery in the Original / Adapted screenplay placements with Ford v Ferrari attempting a Gangs of New York 'no, we're an original! a category in which they have virtually no chance of scoring... (so what is the campaign reasoning? Bizarre) and The Two Popes attempting a 'never mind that play the screenwriter wrote, we're an original)

3) TODD PHILLIPS DIRECTING STYLE ON JOKER WHICH IS THE MOVIE EQUIVALENT OF CAPS LOCK FOR AN ENTIRE DOCUMENT. 

4) How we're seeing Glenn Close on the campaign trail tonight stumping for Jonathan Pryce in The Two Popes and how lovely that is that she is undeterred by her own horrible recent loss and right back out there. 

5) We've updated Picture / Director / Screenplay / Actor and Supporting Actor Oscar charts but we know you're just waiting for the ladies and we'll do them tomorrow! 

The New Classics: Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol

by Michael Cusumano

Scene: Scaling the Burj Khalifa
In the course of writing this column, I eventually got around to asking myself the inevitable question:  “What is the 21st century scene I’ve watched the most times?” 

I knew with certainty that the answer was the Burj Khalifa scene from Brad Bird’s Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, even if I couldn’t immediately account for the why. Of course you could simply say ”Why not?” It’s already firmly established in the pantheon of great action scenes. But it’s not like the past two decades have seen a dearth of great action filmmaking. Why not “Ship’s Mast” from Death Proof or the centerpiece car chase from Drive? What exactly is it about Tom Cruise pawing his way up the side of the world’s tallest building? 

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