Saw the Holdovers this past weekend. Really good. The kid, newcomer Dominic Sessa, who plays Tully, did an amazing job for his first movie role. He did “plays” in high school and college I believe. As a Deerfield alum, he was given the opportunity to audition for a bit part, since the movie was being shot on Deerfield’s campus. The casting director fell in love with him for the role of Tully. Amazing opportunity.
Yes, I was pretty enthusiastic about The Holdovers in the “Movies you’ve recently watched” thread and was happy to see it nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. Everyone in it, without exception, did a fantastic job.
We saw three of the best picture nominees tonight. At this point the only one I had seen so far is Barbie, and we will be re-watching that tomorrow.
Maestro. I was pretty torn on this one, as I spent much of it struggling not to see Bradley Cooper as Bradley Cooper, but on the other hand I thought Carey Mulligan was just fantastic, and in someways it felt like more her movie than his. In the end, I settled on a Metacritic-style score of 73. Pretty good, probably a reasonable nomination.
Private Lives. For some reason this did not resonate with me the way it did other people. Greta Lee was terrific, but otherwise it just felt like a traditional bittersweet relationship movie, with some philosophy shoveled on top of it. That’s probably not fair. People clearly really like this movie. 68.
American Fiction. I initially really liked it a lot, though when one of my co-watchers commented on how broad some of the satire was, I had to acknowledge that was true, and my rating slipped a bit. This is why I never look at book reviews after I read a book. 
still, I’ve got a soft spot for Jeffrey Wright and some of the other actors, in particular I loved seeing Leslie Uggams. 80, I think.
For me these are generally low scores for best picture nominees, it will be interesting to see how tomorrow goes.
My feeling is that that movie got progressively better as it went along. I thought the movie was over directed and over acted in the beginning. The directing stopped being distracting as it progressed. I felt he did a much better job depicting the older Lenny than the young Lenny. The old age makeup was also the best I’ve ever seen.
Yes, I definitely agree it got better as it went along. I also meant to mention that Maya Hawke did a great job as one of the daughters.
Three more movies yesterday.
Barbie. This was, and will be, my only re-watch this weekend. And weirdly, I liked it even more than I did the first time around, maybe because I got to watch some of the finer details. It’s just very well done, and many of the jokes do a good job of sneaking around corners at you. I’m going to give this an 82.
Oppenheimer. The second-longest film I will watch this weekend. Very much a Big Biopic, but Nolan I assume intentionally leaves a lot of ambiguities around how Oppenheimer himself is thinking, and the third act feels kind of long, but I certainly understand its importance to his story. Terrific acting all around, and Robert Downey Jr. is cleared a space to give an Oscar-grabbing speech. I gave it an 85 when I came out of the theater, but I further thought I really don’t wanna see it again, so, 80.
Zone of Interest. I was kind of looking forward to this, kind of not. But this film takes a very slow cinema approach to focusing on the horrors of not just silence, but complicity, and hit me pretty hard. 86 for me.
My issue with Maestro is that is not at all interested in why Lenny was famous, or what made him so great. It thinks the only interesting thing about him was his sexuality and his marriage. It’s my least favorite of the 6 nominees I’ve seen so far.
We saw Killers of the Flower Moon last night (Apple TV+) and loved it. Yes, it’s long. Doesn’t matter; it held interest throughout. (Although it did make me want to read the book – I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not, in a movie.) (And Scorsese found a great alternative to the traditional end text that recaps who went to jail and who didn’t. And found a way for a cameo.)
The nomination should have gone to David Krumholtz as Isidor Rabi
I agree with your comments about Oppenheimer and Zone of Interest, and particularly the latter. Zone was certainly not a “fun” movie, but it was definitely a deeply insightful one.
As for Barbie, meh! I’m aware of all the accolades, but all I see is silliness trying to be smart and clever but not really succeeding. I can’t even honestly say that I’ve watched it because every time I try, I just get bored and go on to something else.
I have to agree with this. They showed glimpses of his genius. In particular near the end when he was teaching the class it showed his connection to the music and to the students. Then it immediately showed him trying to fuck the student. Undermined the point a bit.
Ugh, I hate when movies do that. If a person is supposed to be a genius, show us, don’t tell us. Put the art at the center of the movie, or don’t bother making the movie at all.
This is me- I did finish it but I could not tell you what the plot really involved and I think I instantly forgot how it ended. I have a thing about cartoons (though this did not surface until I was an adult ) where I just do not process them, they instantly make me tune them out. This movie was the same. I did “tune in” to the speech that everyone was so impressed with, but I did not find it particularly earth shattering.
Admittedly, I was the little girl that loathed Barbie and I never found a reason to reverse that childhood impression.
Three more movies today.
Anatomy of a Fall. I went in knowing nothing about it, which is a delightful way to see a movie. Sandra Hüller was fantastic, and the plot kept me gripped. Still. Other than her acting, it felt in many ways like just another jurisprudence movie. At the end, I thought that she had done it, in fact of the eight of us there, I was the only one who thought that. If you go to the website, about a third of the people who vote vote her guilty. 70 score for that one.
Killers of the Flower Moon. Well now, this movie knocked me over. Very well-acted (mostly, and we’ll get to that later), moving, and angering. Lily Gladstone has a remarkable way of filling the screen, and even that DiCaprio fella did fine as a weak-willed bastard. This was definitely my favorite movie of the cycle (with the holdovers yet to be seen). My only real complaint is that Robert De Niro couldn’t hold an Oklahoma accent if he were paid triple whatever Scorsese gave him. He just can’t do it. And the way he moved in and out of it really took me out of a couple of scenes. Still, he does play “evil old guy” quite well. 90 overall.
Poor Things. Another one I went in blind to, except I know & like Yorgos Lanthimos, and I knew it was going to be interesting. To be honest, we got home a little while ago and I am still processing this movie. I know I enjoyed it while I was watching it, and at the same time it was easy to pick out elements of his other movies and see how he had woven them into this one. Does this replace The Lobster out as my favorite movie of his? Maaaaybe. No score yet.
I saw it a few weeks ago and I am still processing it although I will say the longer I process it the more I like it. Better than “The Lobster”? Close…(definitely more strange which is saying something).
I wish you had left it there, which I fully agree with. I think “just another jurisprudence movie” is unwarranted for this skillful piece of filmmaking. Sandra Hüller deserves the Oscar IMHO for an astonishing performance in two different languages, neither of which are her native language!
I’d also be happy if Annette Bening gets the Oscar for Nyad. I haven’t seen Poor Things yet but I admire Emma Stone as a terrific actress. Not sure if I’m ever going to get around to Flower Moon, but the way the Oscars lean these days, I expect Lily Gladstone will get the award.
I watched The Holdovers, and… it just wasn’t for me I guess. I seemed a fairly average curmudgeonly professor and young kid story, though it did add the grieving cafeteria worker. Decent story about lonely people finding comfort in each other over the holidays… while steeped in a ton of 70s nostalgia, but I don’t get the love for it. Meh.
Anatomy of a Fall last night. I fell asleep at one point in the middle but I don’t appear to have missed anything; which is not surprising because there are long stretches (say, about 2 hours long) where nothing happens. The biggest impression it made upon me is that: whoa, French courtroom procedures are very different from American and British.
We just watched it tonight, and…eh. A lot of predictable beats and really good acting. Nce to see all the local scenery. 68.
I’m putting this over here from the “Movies Recently Watched” thread because it’s digressing into a conversation about the Oscars.
But before that, I will disagree with some of my fellow Dopers on both The Holdovers and Anatomy of a Fall. Holdovers was sweet and gentle with a lot of understated subtleties, which I think tends to get it underrated especially by those expecting any sort of dramatic action sequences. Anatomy was basically a courtroom drama, but featuring about half its action outside the courtroom. What put it way over any average such movie was the flawlessly terrific acting by all, and when I say “all” I include not just the Oscar-nominated Sandra Hüller but also the now-famous border collie Messi who plays the dog Snoop. A seriously good movie by any measure and a real star on artistic merit.
And I’m also willing to bet that neither Sandra Hüller, The Holdovers, Oppenheimer, or Anatomy of a Fall is going to win, because of industry politics.
Thanks for the info. I should do more reading about the industry instead of just watching movies! 
Zone of Interest was a very good movie, but I was less impressed than Academy members who seem particularly keen on understated social commentary. The French authorities were nuts not to submit Anatomy of a Fall for foreign language/international (well, about half of it was English, but was certainly “international”) and I’m delighted that it was voted into the big boys’ league of Best Picture nominee.
The Academy actually has specific rules on how much English a film can have and still be considered “Foreign Language”. If half of it really was in English it might not be eligible.