Not a role that I liked, but I do hope she wins (admittedly I’m not familiar with the other nominees) — I really liked her in Field of Dreams. She is 75 today. When she was 35 she was nominated for best supporting actress in Twice in a Lifetime (1985), and per wiki this 40-year gap is the longest between two nominations for an actress.
The Short Film nominees have been in the theaters (and are most likely streaming as well) for about a week. I saw Animated and Live Action Yesterday and thought I better post my thoughts before they begin to blur together in my memory.
Best Live Action Short Film
Butcher’s Stain
A Friend of Dorothy
Jane Austen’s Period Drama
The Singers
Two People Exchanging Saliva
The good news is that this year’s nominees are not as relentlessly downbeat as is traditional in this category. The bad news is that the most downbeat nominees are the most likely to win (the voters like their faux profundity, yes they do). My favorites are the most upbeat, The Singers, which is a nice little shaggy dog of a story, and Jane Austen’s Period Drama, which is just laugh out loud hilarious. Neither has any chance. Most likely winners are either the dystopian Two People Exchanging Saliva or Butcher’s Stain, which makes a timely political statement. A Friend of Dorothy is the nominee that is most out of place. Nice, but aside from the obvious theme, not much there there,
Best Animated Short Film
Butterfly
Forevergreen
The Girl Who Cried Pearls
Retirement Plan
The Three Sisters
Another category which usually downbeat (because profound is always tragic, dontcha know). So the most downbeat nominee, Butterfly is the one most likely to win (though it deserves some merit for the innovative animation). Both Forevergreen and The Three Sisters are pleasant, but not remarkable. I liked The Girl Who Cried Pearls, despite the poor story resolution and Retirement Plan is clever and sly, so I’m torn between these two as to the “best”.
I actively hated The Three Sisters. The messaging of it was so bizarre and tone deaf. Women are sad and lonely and drab unless a man is in their life, no matter how gross he is. Any man will do. I kept waiting for the twist that would turn that idea on its head but nope, that’s literally all the story is. No thank you.
Butterfly is heads above all the other nominees both in animation and story. I was really enjoying Forevergreen until they added the religious glurge at the end.
I just saw a movie I liked: Song Sung Blue. A nice story, albeit a bit sad. A good movie. It helps that I like Neil Diamond’s music but I don’t think that’s required to like this movie.
For the 3rd year in a row, I have now completed seeing all 50 nominated films in all 24 categories! This year was much easier to see all the films than the past two. (Could have finished last week but was putting off The Lost Bus and Relentless. Turns out the Dianne Warren doc was actually rather good!)
I still have Train Dreams to watch, otherwise I’ve seen all the other Best Picture nominees. And I’m sticking with (in no particular order) Frankenstein, Hamnet, and Sentimental Value. But I predict (do not want, and will not agree, but predict) that Sinners will win Best Picture.
The first Brutally Honest Oscar Ballot has dropped. To be honest, it’s way less brutal than they often are, but at least you can see how a voter’s wheels turn while voting. (Hollywood Reporter has a lot of damned ads, hopefully you’re blocking them)
Brutally Honest Oscar Ballot: ‘Sentimental Value,’ Jessie Buckley
I actually found Two People Exchanging Saliva quite funny and the most enjoyable save The Singers. The most worthy is probably Butcher’s Stain though it was the hardest to watch.
I found the animated shorts rather disappointing. Technique seems to have trumped storytelling in that category this year.
We just got back from watching five nominated films in a row at the theater, and…
Train Dreams. The only one of the five I’d seen before, and I liked it even more the second time. There’s something I like very much about a pace that gives you time to absorb things and think about them. I’m scoring it 82/100.
The Secret Agent. An engaging film, and Wagner Moura was compelling to watch. I did also like seeing these old views of Brazil, though coming literally one year after a very similar film (I’m Still Here) made it feel a little familiar. 76.
One Battle After Another. It can sometimes not work when satire and polemics mix, and making fun of self serious revolutionaries and rich white men while showing the plight of immigrants, and then let’s throw in a father daughter relationship, I don’t know, it was a lot of tonal shifting for me. I did find parts of it funny. 65.
Hamnet. A predictable movie (it’s not whether the play Hamlet will be used to reflect the death of a child and its resulting grief, it’s how it will be used) with the best lead performance in maybe a couple of years and an ending that made it difficult not to sob in the theater. 80.
Frankenstein. I had heard that this was a more faithful version of the book, and I guess if you compare it to the Abbott and Costello version that’s true, but generally this is a very poor adaptation. On top of that, Guillermo del Toro has zero subtlety, and everything gets its exposition. Who’s the real monster Victor? It’s you! It’s you! And that ending, just terrible. Gah. 45.
I agree with many of the assessments but certainly not all. Glad to see Sentimental Value getting major kudos, and especially Renate Reinsve for Best Actress. I think Frankenstein is being underrated – it’s well-crafted entertainment.
I think that’s kinda the point - it’s the obligatory average blockbuster nominated to show the public that Academy members don’t only nominate and vote for artsy movies that the general public can’t relate to. Remember the “Best Popular Film” category the Academy proposed until the members had a fit?
Not always. Titanic was an immensely popular blockbuster with a mediocre and maudlin script that was nominated for 14 Oscars and won 11 of them, including Best Picture, Director, and Cinematography. It sure as hell didn’t get any nominations for “Best Writing”!
This year we have an example of the opposite in Sentimental Value, whose strength lies entirely in the writing and stunningly realistic performances. I’m curious to see how well it does.
That’s about the only movie with a nomination in the major categories I’ve seen this year. I’m rooting for Kate Hudson, but I don’t think she has much of a chance. I’m disappointed that the film didn’t pick up any other nominations besides Kate’s and that “Rental Family” didn’t get any (I’m guessing because Brendan Fraser won for “The Whale”).
Wait; F1 was a popular film?
7.6 on IMDb, 82% on RT (critics) and 97% on RT (audience), so I’d say yes, pretty popular, though certainly no Titanic. It’s a technically well-made movie with great cinematography, but a movie that has no artistic pretensions. I expect it may win something minor like cinematography or sound, but nothing major.
And $633M in worldwide box office.
A reminder that back when there were only five best picture nominations, there were occasional calls to expand it…it was only when The Dark Knight was snubbed that the call was finally heeded.
F1 is much MUCH better than the old Days of Thunder, if anyone here remembers that one (or is old enough to have seen it).
F1 is much better than Frankenstein. That’s a film that I really don’t understand how it got so hyped up to get into so many categories especially Best Picture. “You’re the real monster Victor!” 
I’m very much with you on that.
Hot take: Both were adequate, but not great.