2024 Oscars

 

As I write this, the Academy Awards will be held tomorrow, Sunday, March 10 and I figured this would be a good time to sum up what I watched in 2023.  I was not great on keeping up on posting my movie reviews last year.  This is a good excuse to provide a quick summary!  For me, movies have to hit on one of three areas for me to want to watch it – preferably more than one of the three:  Interest in the topic, interest in the actors, interest in the director.  This is why it is tough for me to get through award season movies as they often miss on all three of my personal criteria.

First, a quick mention of what the academy thinks was the best of the year.  Honestly, the academy and I almost never see eye to eye and I will tell you that I have genuinely watched 3 of the 10 Best Picture nominees at this point, fast-forwarded through 2 others, may zip through 2 others and will absolutely not with the rest.  

·       Oppenheimer (13 nominations): One of the three I watched – I figured once they put it on Peacock (“It’s streaming on the Cock!”), I could play it like a mini-series and watch a half-hour at a time.  In all honesty, I found it so interesting I did watch all of it at once – which is crazy, because it is far too long.  And, okay, I did fall asleep in the middle.  It is brilliantly acted and definitely well-made, not enjoyable, but watchable.  I would like to especially point out how great Josh Hartnett and David Krumholtz are.  Krumholtz especially – he offered some much needed heart in a movie that was very cold.

·       Poor Things (11 nominations): There are some that love Lanthimos movies, so I am sure they love this.  I hated the Favourite, and tried this – I had to turn it off after about a minute and a half. I even tried fast forwarding through the rest and had to stop that thirty minutes in.  It is just not for me and that is okay – it is why we are blessed to live in a time that has so many entertainment options!

·       Killers of the Flower Moon (10 nominations): I do not like DiCaprio or De Niro, and while I am happy for Lilly Gladstone (she seems to be a shoe-in for best actress), I am not a fan of Scorsese movies, so this is another one that I will miss.  

·       Barbie (8 nominations): Saw this in the theater and loved it.  Watched it again on Max and loved it some more. Subversive and somehow both very smart and very dumb – it is a delight of a movie.  I do find it interesting that the Billie Eilish song will probably win – I think the Lizzo song at the beginning is overlooked, and I love the Dua Lipa song Dance the Night.  The performances are great and I would single out America Ferrera, all the supporting Kens, and especially Michael Cera. Their performances enhance Ryan Gosling’s insanity.

·       Maestro (7 nominations): Here is one of the movies I fast forwarded through. It felt very much like a Bradley Cooper passion/vanity project with a great performance from Carey Mulligan. Although, as good as she was...Felicia Montealegre was born in Costa Rica and I am fairly certain Mulligan was not.

·       American Fiction (5 nominations): Equally funny and upsetting on all the levels, this movie is great.  I really enjoyed Jeffrey Wright and I think he nailed the frustration, anger, and just general flailing of a person trying to exist in complicated times.  Also – Erika Alexander – my goodness. Max was always my favorite on Living Single and it was amazing to see her steal scenes in this movie.

·       The Holdovers (5 nominations):  Fast forwarded through this one as well. Da’Vine Joy Randolph seems to have a lock on best supporting actress and she was wonderful in this – holding down the center while Giamatti swirled around her.  A tight and slow character study – I could not help but wonder if this was a play? Should be a play?

·       Napoleon (3 nominations): Since my Napolean is the one who spent the day cheating at bowling and enjoying the water park in Bill & Ted, not sure I need to see Phoenix trudge through a Ridley Scott epic.  Although, I do enjoy Vanessa Kirby, and I do wonder if the coronation scene looks the way Jacques-Louis David depicted it – in either version.

As a slightly off-topic brief rant - I have to mention, it is an outright shame that the Oscars do not honor stunt teams.  The Screen Actors Guild awards do, however, so as an aside – the nominated stunt teams for film this year were:

·       Barbie: The work on the Ken fight alone was fantastic!

         Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3: Some of the zero-G fight scenes in the very globby station were bizarre, but that one hallway sequence was fantastic.

 Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: Love a good train fight.

 John Wick Chapter 4 (my pick for winner):  So many fantastic sequences!  The fight with Scott Adkins and his fat suit (why was he in that suit?) Anything with Donnie Yen. The from-above room-to-room sequence which was mind-blowing.  The absolutely stunning in, on, and around cars fight around the Arc de Triomphe, and finally the epic step sequence in Montmartre, leading up to Sacre Coeur. Incredible work from the team on that one.

·       Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One (this did win): Yes, the motorcycle jump was good, and again – love a train fight, but the rest of the sequences were nothing we had not seen before.

Here is the list of what I liked best last year – certainly not the best made or acted, but the things I enjoyed the most!  Sharing so that you can perhaps add some things to your watchlist that you may have missed over the course of 2023.

·       Next Goal Wins:  A charming little flick from Taika Watiti about the worst football team in the world – literally.  I liked it, I didn’t love it, mainly because the one was a little uneven and I would have cast anyone but Michael Fassbender in the lead (you have Will Arnett in the movie – just let him do it). I think because it is based on a true story, they wanted someone to do an impression of the real guy – but just commit to doing a full comedy and go all the way.  

·       Plane: What a surprising delight of an action flick.  A Gerry Butler/Mike Colter movie that understands its assignment: Plane goes down, pilot has to team up with convict to save passengers from local thugs. Period – nothing fancy, nothing excessive.  Exactly what it promises.  Perfect.

·       Barbie: The only one on both the Oscar list and my list.  Fun, big, and yes, aggressively feminist and I loved it.  Also – special acknowledgement of Ariana Greenblatt.  She is building herself a heck of a resume.

·       Spider-Man: Across the Universe: A near flawless piece of stunning art.  It almost requires multiple viewings to see the true beauty in each character’s color themes and backgrounds and how they shift and adjust as the character moves and grows.  Plus – fantastic action and deep-cut Spider-references.  And Donald Glover. 

·       They Cloned Tyrone: Starts as something that could have been a plot point in American Fiction and then takes a turn.  Fun, weird, and my goodness, the best I have seen Jamie Foxx in years. 

·       Fast X:  Insane, over-the-top, and unashamedly silly.  Another fun romp with family and Coronas.  Is Dom teaching his 8 year old how to drive?  And it is wonderful that they let John Cena off the leash in this one.  Also - I don’t know why Dom was surprised…Aquamen are always going to stick together.

·       Polite Society: Perhaps my biggest surprise of the year.  A young woman who wants to be a stunt woman is suspicious of her sister’s new man – with good reason!  Hijinks ensue!  If you missed this one, check it out. Equal parts heart and action.

·       John Wick Chapter 4:  Speaking of action – so much of it and so much of it throughout Paris.  Really entertaining.

·       The Marvels:  Hands down with no question my favorite movie of the year.  It had great power-switching action sequences, embraced its own zaniness, had three wonderful leads (Iman Velani is perfection), plus a lovely cat sequence.  And oh yes, the lesson that “to stand tall, you don’t have to stand alone” – sometimes we all need to hear that.

And because it is always more fun – here are the things I liked the least last year!

·       Shazam! Fury of the Gods:  I liked the first Shazam movie because of the F&F style family bits to it.  This sequel immediately removed that piece and then went off the rails from there.

·       The Out-Laws: What should have been fun and wild was just off-putting and irritating.

·       Expend4bles: I have loved a lot of the movies in this series, but this fourth one was rough.  Fifty Cent is not an acceptable trade out for Terry Crews. Is Megan Fox playing the same character that Charisma Carpenter played?  No parts made sense, especially the fact that you had Tony Jaa and Iko Uwais in the movie, on opposite sides, and they at no point fight each other? You are wasting talent, movie. Except for Andy Garcia – he was definitely having a great time.

·       Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3: This is so low on my list because I was just so disappointed in it.  I think I had really high expectations – I loved the first one and the second one. The found family of the first two movies is what was so charming. This one felt mean-spirited and yes, the piles of animal cruelty (that were, I acknowledge, integral to the plot) really turned me off. 

The Flash: I am not even sure where to begin. What an absolute mess of a movie.  I suppose you do have to take a really big swing to miss that badly, so maybe that’s a plus?  And Michael Keaton was delightful.

There you have it!  A summary of a year’s worth of film-going.  Hopefully you found something on this list to go check out on some streaming service and are already looking forward to plenty of things that are coming out in 2024!