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Oscars 2024 Best Picture Reviews: Part One

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment

Ten is not a set number for the number of Best Pictures nominees. Nevertheless it’s still nice to have ten as the total of nominees.

This year, there are a wide variety of films nominated from science fiction to two musicals to a musicography to a dark comedy to a horror movie to many types of dramas. Here  are my first two reviews of the Best Pictures nominees:

Anora

This is quite the unexpected comedy that delivers an unexpected sad ending. A sad ending was anticipated but the sad ending we got was not the one anticipated. It seems odd to have a story about a stripper/hooker marrying a rich kid to be one of the best films of the year but Sean Baker has developed a reputation for directing films about people in the sex trade. This is quite the story itself. We have a stripper who plays a ‘love kitten’ day after day for lusting men, but craves real love. We have a billionaire’s son who’s too spoiled, immature and careless to get it about life and love. He thinks marrying Anora is easy like that and he can live the same irresponsible life again, but he has a lot to learn. We have Igor, the henchman hired by the Zacharovs to have the marriage annulled, but Igor becomes the first person to see Anora as a human being throughout this whole ordeal. We also have the Zacharovs who are so obsessed with their money and power, they think they can do whatever they want. This is the kind of story that brings a lot to the table to talk about.

It’s hard to pinpoint the exact theme of the story because there’s so many topics and themes this story presents a point about. One could be the theme of sex workers. As I mentioned, Baker’s films often deal with sex workers. Here we see the case of a sex worker who is treated like a piece of meat and there are times her true feelings are shown. There are moments we stop seeing Anora as ‘this thing’ and start seeing her as a person. There’s also the case of wealth and privilege. Not only do we see wealthy people having the best luxuries but we see them having a privileged son living a careless irresponsible life, we see how the rich devalue marriage both with Vanja’s eloping of Anora and the Zacharov’s own marriage, we see how being a henchman to the Zacharovs means having to leave a christening of your godchild because your boss demands so, and we also see how the rich Zacharovs know that their money gives them power and uses it against Anora. Especially when the mother insists the family doesn’t apologize to anyone just as Igor points out Vanya owes Anora an apology for the eloping. It’s quite the irony when a stripper or prostitute has a better sense of what marriage is all about than a billionaire’s son. Or even his parents.

Often overlooked, I feel one of the top themes in the film is love. We have Anora, a stripper who pretends to love the men she sleeps with, but she craves real love. We have Vanya, whom Anora thinks she found love with as she spends weeks with him and easily falls for his marriage proposal. Anora is oblivious Vanya wants to marry an American so he doesn’t have to return to Russia and work his father’s business. Even the scenes as Vanya’s playing video games after the two marry hinds at Vanya’s irresponsibility. We also have Anora’s delusion with the marriage. Even though Vanya continues to play video games after they marry, she still thinks she met her love. We have the Zacharovs who view their son marrying a sex worker to be a disgrace to the family. We also see scenes which make you question the Zacharov’s own marriage. Finally we have Igor who becomes the first person to see Anora as a human being instead of ‘that thing.’ It was made obvious in the scene where Igor says Vanya owes Anora an apology. That ending where he allows her to stay at the Zacharovs one last night to sleep, bathe and pack and the ending scene as he’s about to drop her off is also an irony. He’s first hired as a henchman to stop the marriage, even if it means brute force, and now he actually has feelings for Anora. A shock to us all, and to a disheartened Anora as well.

This is the big breakthrough film Sean Baker has been waiting for. The film world has known Baker for a long time as one knocking on the door. He’s delivered small breakthrough films before with 2015’s Tangerine and 2017’s The Florida Project. Here, he directs a story that’s intriguing and unpredictable. It first seems like a film that would give us a cartoonish story but as the film progresses, the story is a lot deeper and it’s not the story we thought it was. Also worthy of top acclaim is lead actress Mikey Madison. If you thought you’d never shed tears for the character of a stripper, you will be wrong. It’s remarkable we have a film where the character of a stripper is shown to have real three-dimensional feelings, but Mikey’s performance of Anora was deep and revealing and we actually start feelings for her. He go from seeing her as ‘that thing’ to seeing her as a frail hurt person. Also excellent is Yura Borisov. Nobody expects any of the henchmen to have feelings for Anora, but Yura catches us by surprise. It’s also he who makes the movie into something we didn’t expect. Also good is Mark Eydelshteyn in playing Vanya. His portrayal as an immature irresponsible spoiled rich son makes you want to hate him in the end. Both Aleksey Serebryakov and Darya Ekamasova are great at Vanya’s parents. They also succeed in making you hate them as much as you’ll hate Vanya. We can see why Vanya is a spoiled brat.

Anora is not your typical story of a prostitute or a stripper. It’s a story of a love gone wrong and ends with a love you don’t know if it should be. Those who see it won’t forget it.

The Brutalist

We’ve seen stories about the difficulties of achieving the American Dream before. Some are harder than others. This film takes a cynical look at an architect who achieved his American Dream. We have a Jewish architect who left post-Holocaust Hungary to find refuge in the United States and achieve his success there. We see how he has to fight his demons like his infidelity, family members that are petty, harrowing memories that cause him to take heroin, a difficult market for his Bauhaus style, rival architects, people that want to use him and above all, his own egotism. It’s not at all a pretty sight to see but it does tell a good story of a man hoping to pursue his greatness in the United States.

The thing that makes this film is not just the telling of Laszlo Toth’s story, but how it’s presented. The film begins as Laszlo’s ship sails past Ellis Island and he sees the Statue Of Liberty, but from his angle, he has to look at it upside down. He has to struggle to achieve his dream by eating at soup kitchens, living at the YMCA, embraced and then neglected by a family member who’s a successful business man, and having to prostitute himself at times. His breakthrough comes by fluke as it was the renovation unapproved by Harrison Van Buren where they first meet, and the meeting is bad. It’s after Harrison discovers who Laszlo is and of Laszlo’s pre-war success in Hungary that he’s willing to take him on. It’s not an easy task as it involves years of work and labor, supplies cancellations, dirty work form Harrison, his friendship with Gordon put to the test and Laszlo’s own ego coming to light. Then there’s how Laszlo’s attempt on success threatens his marriage to Erszebet as she has now arrived in the United States. She knows his secrets and she says she’s fine with it, but it will become obvious she’s not. His success threatens family unity with the niece as the daughter adopted after the Holocaust.

The crazy thing about the film having a half-hour intermission may have some question its purpose. We should remember many decades ago, it was common for long movies to have intermissions. This film’s intermission is very successful not only in dividing the movie properly, but give you the feeling you’re watching two different films. The first half focuses on Laszlo’s arrival, his attempt to make it in the United States, the dirty obstacles he has to face and his big break. And right while he’s writing to Erzsebet with the hopes of her coming to the United States. At the end of the intermission comes a new scenario. As Erzsebet finally arrives in the United States with niece Zsofia, there’s the added pressure of keeping a family together. Especially since Laszlo can’t keep his secrets to Erzsebet any more and she has a disability to deal with. Over time, she senses things like Laszlo’s ego and how Harrison wants to make a pet out of him. Despite being confined to a wheelchair, Erzsebet is able to muster the strength to use her walker to confront Harrison about his mistreatment of Laszlo. The ending epilogue is also something as Laszlo is saluted for his work, in Italy. It’s like he achieved his American Dream but had to achieve it at a harrowing cost and he had to get his honor from outside the US.

This is an accomplishment from Brady Corbet. Younger adults may remember his teen actor days in films like Thirteen and Thunderbirds. Like a lot of young actors, Corbet felt the need to make films of his own. This is Corbet’s fourth feature film. This film that he directs and co-wrote the story with wife Mona Fastvold is definitely something. It mixes some classic film styles while telling the story of a Holocaust survivor’s pursuit of the American Dream. There have been films where the American Dream has been achieved at a big cost before, but this film meshes Laszlo’s pursuit with the shaping of the United States and most notably Pennsylvania after World War II. As the US shapes itself after the war, Laszlo attempts to shape his success in the US, but at a huge price that comes at the cost of him, his dignity and his marriage. Right at the end as they have the tribute gala in the epilogue, you wonder if this should be a happy occasion or not with what Laszlo has gone through.

Excellent performance from Adrien Brody. Remember him from 2003’s The Pianist? He appears to have kept it low-key since. This year, he comes back with another performance of a lifetime where he shows Laszlo to be a creative man and a troubled man. He will make you hate him as much as he will break your heart. Also great is Felicity Jones as Erzsebet. It’s the appearance of Erzsebet that most turns this film into two films in one. With her arrival comes the change of environment. She appears to be one who will most interfere with Laszlo’s success and even a victim of his own selfishness but in the end, she’s the best person Laszlo needs during his most troubling time. Guy Pearce is also great as the deceptive Harrison. He’s excellent in portraying an all-American businessman who welcomes Laszlo and his talents, but as long as something’s in it for him and is willing to make a toy of Laszlo. Additional excellent acting comes from Raffey Cassidy, as the niece Zsofia who’s mute at first but soon develops her ability to talk, and from Isaach de Bankole as Gordon, Laszlo’s first friend and business associate who Laszlo later turns on in his success. Excellent technical merits are the cinematography of Lol Crawley, the production design of Judy Becker and the musical score from Daniel Blumberg.

It’s easy to see why The Brutalist is a heavy favorite to win Best Picture. It combines a graphic disturbing story of one man’s pursuit of the the American Dream and shows it in a stylish artistic fashion. Hard to outdo it.

And there’s my look at the first two Best Picture nominees for this year. If you’ve seen them, you can understand why they’ve won most of the Best Picture awards.

VIFF 2018 Review: Dovlatov (Довлатов)

Jon The Blogcentric1 Comment

Dovlatov
Dovlatov is a focus on writer Sergei Dovlatov, played by Milan Maric (right), and what drove him to defect from the USSR.

Every now and then one sees a biographical film that not a lot of people know a lot about, but grow to understand after the film’s end. Dovlatov is the Russian film of the Soviet-American writer Sergei Dovlatov.

It is November 1, 1971. Leningrad resident Sergei Dovlatov has a talent and a yearning to write, but the Soviet government won’t accept his writings. His writings are very truthful to what is happening, but the Soviet government wants writings that glorify the nation, especially the Soviet regime of the time, and champion factory workers. With Leonid Brezhnev in power, the pressure is even harder as writers of such are either censored or unemployed. Dovlatov is denied membership into a Writers Guild and can’t get any of his poems or stories published. Dovlatov is reduced to pounding out articles for a factory magazine like many of his peers. Dovlatov is expected to help contribute to a film from the factory where workers dressed up as legendary writers commemorate Soviet achievements on the eve of the Revolution. Dovlatov can’t take that seriously and his superiors aren’t happy.

His married life is a frustration. He is on the verge of divorcing his wife Lena and he’s currently living with his supportive mother. He is allowed to see his daughter Katya. Dovlatov does find a break from it all. Each day he meets up with many other literary comrades going through similar struggles in this Communist regime. They listen to jazz, play music and tell stories of their frustrations.

Dovlatov’s life during this six-day period seems like a daily ritual. He begins the day with assignments he finds uncomfortable, tries to make the necessary connections to get his Guild status, and ends his day in a literary and artistic salon with colleagues of his own.

However there are two incidents that shake Dovlatov up. The first is when he’s sent to do a celebratory article of subway builder and poet Anton Kuznetsov. They meet in a subway dig with the intention of doing a ‘pure and prose’ article, but both are shocked to have discovered skeletons of children from a World War II bombing. The second is when he meets with a friend who’s a Black Market dealer. Often throughout the film, Dovlatov talks of looking for a German doll for his daughter. He talks with the man, but the police crack down on him and shoot him dead. The film ends after those six days.

I’ve seen a lot of biographic films. I’ve seen a lot of biographies that are frequently from birth to death. There are even some that focus on the period of a person’s life where they emerge into their greatness. They could be a short period of time but most end up being a long period of time. There have often been a lot of films that focus on that one moment in a famous person’s career that either makes or breaks them, like the Emancipation Proclamation in Lincoln or the writing of In Cold Blood in Capote. It’s even possible to use a week’s period of time that could be when this famous person chances leading into the future path of greatness.

Here in Dovlatov, the focus is on six days. Usually a film maker would pick out a six-day period that could be what changed Dovlatov. Instead the film focuses on a six-day period that could be any six-day period in Dovlatov’s life before he finally defected to the United States in 1978. I think what the focus of the film maker was intended to be was to focus what it was like for Dovlatov to live in Soviet Leningrad. The filmmaker’s intention is to have Dovlatov’s feelings and mindset resemble his works of writing. We shouldn’t forget that soon after the death of the USSR, writers that defected or writers that talk of past-Soviet life became writers of high fixation. Dovlatov may have died in 1990 at the age of 48, but his writing became hugely admired in Russia.

The film doesn’t just show life in Soviet Russia at the time, but gives the viewer a good feel of it. It seems slow at first, but it is very telling. It’s about a writer seeking renown or simple publication, but won’t get credentials because he won’t conform to the writing style the Soviet government demands. During his life, he sees the troubles and the weariness of people in Soviet Leningrad. We should also remember that Leningrad was the name of St. Petersburg during the days of the USSR. What he sees is ugly and hard. Even his own personal life is a frustration. He may get a break when he’s at the parties with his artistic colleagues, but it’s only temporary. The next day, he has to go back to doing what the government wants him to do. One can see the frustration he goes through. One could even understand how trying to get a German doll for his daughter isn’t really something simple and may actually be valuable for this film.

This is the latest film from Russian director Alexei German Jr. German Jr. has had racclaim for his films in the past like 2005’s Garpastum which was nominated for the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, 2008’s Paper Soldier which won the Silver Lion in Venice and 2015’s Under Electric Clouds. In this film he directed and co-wrote the script with Yuliya Tupikina, he delivers a piece that’s less of a film with a beginning, middle and end and more of a film that’s a portrait of a famed writer. It’s interesting they casted a Serbian actor, Milan Maric, to play Dovlatov. Maric has a reputation as a stage actor and this is Maric’s first film role. Maric does a very good job getting into the heart and soul of Dovlatov and he plays the part very well.

Dovlatov may not make sense to most people who see it at first. For those that are into writers and into the writing of Sergei Dovlatov, it’s a good look into the inside of the man and what made his writing.