I haven’t watched the Academy Awards for years now, just not enough interesting films. In fact, I watch very little television except for NASCAR Sundays. But I’m excited to watch on March 4 when the Oscars are bestowed because there are some really great films and performances in the running.
Now, to be fair, while I go to a lot of movies I haven’t seen all the nominated films and will likely skip some just because they do not call to me. I have not seen “Dunkirk” and won’t – don’t like death and destruction films; there’s enough of that in today’s world. I’ve seen previews for “Call Me By Your Name” and “Phantom Thread,” and they do not interest me, and I’ll skip “The Darkest Hour” and Winston Churchill.
Now, I am officially old, having just turned 80, so maybe that is why I can’t even remember much of “Ladybird.” It may resonate for younger folks, but not for me. That does not mean I don’t like films about young people; my favorite movie of all time is 1955’s “Night of the Hunter,” the only film ever directed by Charles Laughton, with a script by James Agee from the novel by Davis Grubb. That starred two amazing children along with Robert Mitchum, Shelley Winters and Lillian Gish.
So that leaves “The Shape of Water” (thirteen nominations), “Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri” (seven nominations), “Get Out” (four nominations) and “The Post” (two nominations). All worth seeing, and for many of the same reasons. They are about real people who have been marginalized because of race, class and gender, those “others” society has preferred to ignore or label as “deplorable.” Us.
Wait wait, you say, “The Post” is about a rich lady and her newspaper, and that is true. Director Steven Spielberg shows us that it was a man’s world, with owner Katherine Graham (another wonderful performance by Meryl Streep, one of the greatest actors of our time) on several occasions entering rooms of investors, of Wall Street, of editors – and she is the sole woman in the room. Spielberg also shows the process of printing and delivering a newspaper, done by unsung blue-collar workers rarely shown in stories like this.
The film also shows the seductiveness of having access to power, with Robert McNamara a good friend of Graham’s, JFK part of editor Ben Bradlee’s social circle, and how those relationships influenced the news. Graham’s decision to run with the “treasonous” and thus marginalized Daniel Ellsberg’s whistleblowing of the Pentagon Papers did not come easy. The film is also a reminder, during these days of TV and social media “if it bleeds it leads journalism,’ of what the job of the press really is in a free society.
“Get Out” was billed as a horror film, but it is pure social satire that was never expected to be the hit it is. It is a scary statement on contemporary race relations and, if you see it, you will never look at white people the same again!
“Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri” is also about race relations, and gender, and class. Irish-English playwright and director Martin McDonough has been accused of being “out of touch” on racial matters, but his creation of the deputy is spot on – a casual racist who assumes that’s the way of the world and knows no other way. I know a whole lot of white people just like him.
That deputy, played by Sam Rockwell whom I suspect has a lock on the Best Supporting Actor award, could have been a clown, or a stereotypical skinhead, but he’s not. He is human, and takes a vicious beating to get some DNA from the man who was probably the rapist and killer of Frances McDormand’s daughter. It is McDormand’s demand for justice that creates the three billboards. There is some ambiguity in the film that might have been made clearer – a possible military cover-up of the rape/murder, what the mother and now-ex-deputy will do when they find the perp, but even so, a movie that will make you think, and well worth seeing.
I am adding “The Shape of Water” to my short list of best films ever. On one level it is a sort of “monster movie” with an amphibious creature from the Amazon, much like the Creature from the Black Lagoon. But that is just the hook. Teaming up to save the creature from torture and death by a white male Cold War military and law enforcement power structure are mute Latina and African American night shift cleaning women, a gay artist, and a Russian spy (!!), along with the “monster.” These are truly the “deplorables,” the others, marginalized, ignored, or hated. They are all expendable to their American or Soviet masters. The movie shows us their worth. It is a plea along the lines of Rodney King’s words, “Can’t we all just get along?”
Director Guillermo del Toro said of his film, “it explodes the myth of us and them…Not fearing the other but embracing the other is the only way to go as a race…we are all, in some way or another, a bit of an outsider in different ways.” If there is justice in this world, del Toro should win Best Picture and Best Director awards against some very stiff competition.
If the Academy Awards were based strictly on merit, Sally Hawkins should win Best Actress for “The Shape of Water.” Appearing in virtually every scene, she never speaks a single word yet carries the film. It is an extraordinary performance. But she is up against one of the greatest actors of our time, Meryl Streep (who has earned 21 nominations over the years), and a stellar performance by Frances McDormand in “Three Bilboards.” I think sentimentality will carry the vote with McDormand getting the Oscar. I can live with that.
If you get the chance, do see the Best Documentary nominee “Faces, Places,” with French New Wave filmmaker Agnes Varda (now 89) and newcomer JR teaming up to take giant-size photos of ordinary people, working families, and posting them prominently. Another recognition of real people, of us. It is no longer playing at The Loft, so you might have to rent a DVD.
“Coco” should take the Best Animated Feature award and deservedly so. It took some guts for Pixar Studios to make a film 1) about death, and 2) about Mexican culture in this time of anti-immigrant hysteria. Another film well worth seeing by all ages.
For a complete list of nominations, visit: http://oscar.go.com/nominees.