Academy Awards

Movies to See Right Now

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Olivia Colman in THE LOST DAUGHTER. Courtesy of Netflix.

This week on The Movie Gourmet: new reviews of The Lost Daughter and The Pact – and my first thoughts on the Oscars.

CURRENT FILMS

  • Drive My Car: director and co-writer Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s engrossing masterpiece about dealing with loss – and it’s the best movie of 2021. Layered with character-driven stories that could each justify their own movie, this is a mesmerizing film that builds into an exhilarating catharsis. In theaters.
  • Nightmare Alley: enough burning ambition for a thousand carnies. In theaters.
  • Belfast: a child’s point of view is universal. If you have heartstrings, they are gonna get pulled. In theaters.
  • The Power of the Dog: One man’s meanness, another man’s growth. Netflix.
  • Don’t Look Up: Wickedly funny. Filmmaker Adam McKay (The Big Short) and a host of movie stars hit the bullseye as they target a corrupt political establishment, a soulless media and a gullible, lazy-minded public. Netflix.
  • The Tragedy of Macbeth: No surprise here: Joel Coen, Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand deliver a crisp and imaginative version of the Bard’s Scottish Play. AppleTV.
  • Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn: completely different than any movie you’ve seen. AppleTV, Drafthouse On Demand.
  • Parallel Mothers: Pedro Almodovar gives us a lush melodrama, sandwiched between bookend dives into today’s unhealed wounds from the Spanish Civil War. In theaters.
  • Jagged: Insightful biodoc of Alanis Morissette, who is really not that angry, after all. HBO.
  • The Lost Daughter : Great, Oscar-nominated performances by Olivia Colman and Jessie Buckley in this dark, unsettling exploration of the obligation of parenting. Netflix.
  • House of Gucci: Lady Gaga and Adam Driver shine in this modern tale of Shakespearean family treachery. In theaters.
  • Licorice Pizza: When nine years is a big age difference. In theaters.
  • The Hand of God: Filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino’s own coming of age story – and a time capsule of 1986 Naples. Netflix.
  • Being the Ricardos: a tepid slice of a really good story. Amazon (included with Prime).

Remember to check out all of my Best Movies of 2021.

MORE RECOMMENDATIONS ON VIDEO

ON TV

OSCAR MICHEAUX: THE SUPERHERO OF BLACK FILMMAKING. Courtesy of TCM.

On February 13, Turner Classic Movies airs the documentary Oscar Micheaux: The Superhero of Black Filmmaking. I haven’t seen it, but I have seen some Oscar Micheaux films, and, if you don’t know who he is, you should. As writer/director/producer, the African-American Michaeux created so-called “race films” – movies made for black audiences from a black perspective during the most shameful years of American racial segregation. Michaeux himself directed 42 feature films DURING Jim Crow. It’s an important story, and Michaeux’s films, freed of the White Hollywood lens, are eyeopening. I am presuming that University of Chicago cinema professor Jacqueline Stewart, TCM’s silent film expert, will introduce the screening.

First thoughts on the Oscars

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The Power of the Dog: Kodi Smit-McPhee on his breakout performance | EW.com
Photo caption: Kodi Smit-McPhee in THE POWER OF THE DOG. Courtesy of Netflix.

The Oscar nominations are out, and I am NOT howling with outrage. I’m generally pleased that the year’s best movies are receiving lots of recognition: The Power of the Dog, Belfast, Nightmare Alley, Don’t Look Up and CODA – and even my top choice Drive My Car, which I feared would be overlooked (because it is a fairly obscure, three-hour long Japanese movie).

Being the Ricardos is nominated for several major awards despite being a so-so movie; my guess is that Aaron Sorkin, Nicole Kidman and Javier Bardem are so popular and respected among the Academy voters, that voters expected it to be really good and somehow failed to recalibrate after watching it.

Emilia Jones, Troy Kotsur, Marlee Matlin and Daniel Durant in CODA. Courtesy of AppleTV.

The most exciting category is Best Supporting Actor, where three exquisite performances are recognized. Kodi Smit-McPhee takes over the final third of The Power of the Dog and elevates it. Deaf actor Troy Kotsur is as fine an actor as any hearing person, as he demonstrates in his moving performance in CODA. Always very good, Ciaran Hinds knocks a grandpa role out of the park in Belfast (and gets to deliver the film’s most moving line). I will be elated whichever of the three win the statuette.

In the Best Actress category, Olivia Colman delivered another performance for the ages, but in The Lost Daughter, a film that is just not going to be popular.

My biggest quibble is in the Best Supporting Actress category, which bypassed Cate Blanchett despite her TWO spectacular supporting performances in Don’t Look Up and Nightmare Alley.

Since summer, I’ve found it inevitable that Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) would win the Best Documentary Oscar. I wasn’t expecting the Academy to spurn The Velvet Underground in this category, though.

Drive My Car and The Worst Person in the World should contend for the International Cinema Oscar. I’m dissatisfied that the Academy failed to nominate Riders of Justice, Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn or Lamb. (To be fair, Riders of Justice wasn’t even submitted by Denmark, which went wih Flee instead.) Instead, Academy nods went to a movie I had never heard of – Luriana:A Yak in the Classroom from Bhutan – and to the underwhelming The Hand of God.

The Animated Feature category is usually thought of as a category for children’s films. It’s interesting that a film decidedly for adults (Flee) has a chance.

Finally, I know this is geeky, but I was especially pleased that Tamara Deverell was nominated for Best Production Design for Nightmare Alley. She created an astonishing art deco office suite for Cate Blanchett’s character and an extraordinary world of mid-century carnivals.

Judi Dench, Jude Hill and Ciarán Hinds in BELFAST. Courtesy of Focus Features

an unexpectedly comfortable Oscars

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Caption: Watching the Oscars in The Movie Gourmet’s screening room

Oddly, watching the Oscars seemed so comfortable in such a bizarre year. Less was more. The no-host format, the Union Station set, the incorporation of the remote locations and subbing Questlove for the orchestra, each improved the show. Steven Soderbergh and the other producers finally off-loaded the Best Song category to the pre-show – a huge help. And I sure didn’t expect the most powerful moment to come from Tyler Perry and the funniest from Glenn Close.

The awards, for once, pretty much all went to deserving winners. My only quibble was the atrocious Documentary Feature win for the good but not great My Octopus Teacher, an opinion shared by critics such as Christy Lemire and Jason Gorber. (I did like the octopus in the movie, just not the human.)

In each of The Movie Gourmet’s ten years of blogging, The Wife and I watch the Oscars while enjoying a meal inspired by the Best Picture nominees. For example, we had sushi for Lost in Translation, cowboy campfire beans for Brokeback Mountain and Grandma Ethel’s Brisket for A Serious Man – you get the idea. The high point has been the Severed Hands Ice Sculpture (below) in 2011 for 127 Hours and Winter’s Bone. Here is the 2019 version.

The Movie Gourmet’s culinary tribute to 127 HOURS and WINTER’S BONE

The characters in Nomadland, Sound of Metal, The Father and Minari all spent time in kitchens, so we could have come up with an Oscar menu. But it didn’t seem right this year. I, for one, haven’t been inside a movie theater in 417 days. To honor the movie theater experience, we chose movie popcorn and movie candy (Hot Tamales for me, DOTS for The Wife) and settled in for the telecast.

The Wife and her father indulging in The Movie Gourmet’s 2021 Oscar dinner

Movies to See Right Now

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Brad Pitt in ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD

It’s time for the Oscars, and The Movie Gourmet will be rooting for Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood and Parasite, which lead my Best Movies of 2019. I’ll be rooting for Adam Driver (actor), Brad Pitt (supporting actor), Laura Dern (supporting actress), Bong Joon Ho or Quentin Tarantino (director and original screenplay) and Taika Waititi (adapted screenplay for Jojo Rabbit).

Roger Deakins should win the cinematography Oscar for 1917; overall, I wasn’t impressed with 1917, except for the technical achievements, so I would be OK with 1917 winning some technical Oscars. I haven’t yet seen the favorite for best documentary, American Factory, which is streamable.

If Honeyland or The Joker win anything, I will become nauseous. If 1917 takes Best Picture, it will be projectile vomit.

OUT NOW

  • The masterpiece Parasite explores social inequity, first with hilarious comedy, then evolving into suspense and finally a shocking statement of the real societal stakes. This is one of the decade’s best films.
  • Adam Driver and Scarlett Johannson are brilliant in Noah Baumbach’s career-topping Marriage Story. A superb screenplay, superbly acted, Marriage Story balances tragedy and comedy with uncommon success. Marriage Story is streaming on Netflix.
  • Martin Scorsese’s gangster epic The Irishman is tremendous, and features performances by Al Pacino and Joe Pesci that are epic, too. It’s streaming on Netflix.
  • Uncut Gems is a neo-noir in a pressure cooker. Adam Sandler channels a guy racing through a gambling addiction and the resultant financial desperation. It’s the most wire-to-wire movie tension in years.
  • Rian Johnson’s Knives Out turns a drawing room murder mystery into a wickedly funny send-up of totally unjustified entitlement.
  • Refusing to play it safe, director Francisco Meirelles elevates The Two Popes from would have been a satisfying acting showcase into a thought-provoker. It’s streaming on Netflix.
  • 1917 is technically groundbreaking, but the screenplay neither thrilled me nor moved me.
  • The earnest documentary Honeyland failed to keep me interested.

ON VIDEO

The character-driven suspenser The Gift is more than a satisfying thriller – it’s a well-made and surprisingly thoughtful film that I keep mulling over. The Gift is available to rent on DVD from Netflix and Redbox and to stream from Amazon Video, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

ON TV

Burt Lancaster and Susan Sarandon in ATLANTIC CITY

Turner Classic Movies continues its 31 Days of Oscar on February 8 with Atlantic City, one of only 43 movies that have been nominated for all of the Big Five Oscars (Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay). Susan Sarandon plays Sally, a hard luck waitress in Atlantic City at its shabbiest. She’s never met anyone like her neighbor Lou (Burt Lancaster), an elderly small-time hood, who behaves as if he’s mob royalty, despite the fact that he lives across the alley from Sally. Despite his station, Lou has the confidence that comes from having seen every situation before. Sally’s nogoodnik ex entangles the two in a life or death drug buy. Top rate.

Susan Sarandon and Burt Lancaster in ATLANTIC CITY

REMEMBRANCE

Here’s my tribute to Kirk Douglas.

The Movie Gourmet’s 2019 Oscar Dinner

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ROMA

Every year, we watch the Oscars while enjoying a meal inspired by the Best Picture nominees. For example, we had sushi for Lost in Translation, cowboy campfire beans for Brokeback Mountain and Grandma Ethel’s Brisket for A Serious Man – you get the idea. The high point has been the Severed Hands Ice Sculpture in 2011 for 127 Hours and Winter’s Bone (photo below). Here’s last year’s menu, centered on Reynolds Woodcock’s (Daniel Day-Lewis) comically elaborate breakfast order from Phantom Thread.

This year’s dinner will be built around Mexican cuisine as a tribute to Roma, the Oscar-nominated movie that we most admire.  We’ll have some shrimp (the family dines at the beach resort restaurant with the giant octopus sculpture outside) and The Movie Gourmet’s famous elote (street corn). The table will be adorned with references to the other Best Picture nominees.

So here is this year’s menu:

Gambas al ajillo, elote, frijoles y arroz from Roma.

Jack Daniels from A Star Is Born. A fifth of JD Black, just like the one drained by Jack (Bradley Cooper) in his limo.

Fried chicken from Green Book: Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen) lights up with Kentucky Fried Chicken! In Kentucky! When’s that ever gonna happen!.

Cake with blue icing from The Favourite: In one of the least appetizing food scenes in recent cinema, Queen Anne (Olivia Colman), gout and all, battles this cake.

Almond croissant from Vice:  Offered some food at a meeting, Dick Cheney (Christian Bale) mumbles, “Nah, I’m eating healthy” – and then scarfs something from the pastry tray.

Coors from BlacKkKlansman: Something for all those Colorado Springs white supremacists.

Purple potion from Black Panther: Not having any real superhero potion, The Wife and I faked it with a sports drink.

Novelty false teeth for Bohemian Rhapsody. As a table decoration, we chose novelty false teeth to represent the horrible prosthetic teeth that Rami Malek had to wear as Freddie Mercury. The real Freddie was a very handsome guy with prominent teeth; the movie Freddie is downright horse-faced – and it’s a terrible distraction from Malek’s fine performance.  Speaking of which, on YouTube, you can find a side-by-side of the actual Queen performance at LiveAid and the Bohemian Rhapsody version – great stuff.  Still, why is this movie nominated for Best Picture?

My thanks to The Wife, who has been the real driving force behind this meal in the past few years.

The Movie Gourmet’s culinary tribute to 127 HOURS and WINTER’S BONE

Stream of the Week: INCENDIES – lives created by violence

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Lubna Azabal in INCENDIES

This searing drama was my pick for 2010’s best film. Upon their mother’s death, a young man and woman learn for the first time of their father and their brother; they journey from Quebec to the Middle East to uncover family secrets. As they bumble around Lebanon, we see the mother’s experience in flashbacks. We learn before they do that their lives were created – literally – by the violence of the Lebanese civil war.

Because the film is anything but stagey, you can’t tell that Canadian director Denis Villaneuve adapted the screenplay from a play. Lubna Azabal, a Belgian actress of Moroccan and Spanish heritage, is brilliant as the mother.

It’s a tough film to watch, with graphic violence against women and children. But the violence is neither gratuitous nor exploitative – it is a civil war, after all, and the theme of the film is the cycle of retribution.

Incendies was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar, but lost out to a much inferior film on the same subject of violence, In a Better Life. You can stream it from Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube and Google Play.

The Movie Gourmet’s 2018 Oscar Dinner

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the breakfast order in PHANTOM THREAD

Every year, we watch the Oscars while enjoying a meal inspired by the Best Picture nominees. For example, we had sushi for Lost in Translation, cowboy campfire beans for Brokeback Mountain and Grandma Ethel’s Brisket for A Serious Man – you get the idea. The high point has been the Severed Hands Ice Sculpture in 2011 for 127 Hours and Winter’s Bone. Here’s last year’s menu, centered on the diner scene from Hell or High Water.

This year’s dinner is really breakfast because so many of the Oscar-nominated movies depict the morning meal. The most memorable, of course, is in Phantom Thread, where Reynolds Woodcock (Daniel Day-Lewis) gives a comically elaborate breakfast order to waitress Alma (Vicky Kneps): Welsh rarebit with a poached egg, bacon, scones, butter, cream, jam, a pot of Lapsang souchong tea. [Pause] And some sausages.

So here is this year’s menu:

Bacon, scones, butter, jam.  And some sausages from Phantom Thread.

Fried eggs from Darkest Hour:  Early in the film, Winston Churchill (Gary Oldman) is shown breakfasting in bed.  Our eyes are drawn to the glass of whisky and the glass of champagne, but he’s got eggs on the tray, too.

Scrambled eggs from Lady Bird: In one of the many scenes around the McPherson kitchen table, Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig) and her mom (Laurie Metcalf) bicker about who is fixing Lady Bird’s breakfast.

Hardboiled eggs from The Shape of Water: In an act of interspecies kindness, Elisa (Sally Hawkins) feeds that starkest of breakfast food to a grateful Amphibian Man.

Froot Loops and milk from Get Out: As the terror builds, we see Rose (Allison Williams) eating dry Froot Loops, chased by a glass of milk.

Peach from Call Me by Your Name: Not having access to the apple pie in American Pie, Elio (Timothee Chalamet) makes the peach unforgettable.

Rice Krispies and Froot Loops from Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri: Teenage son Robbie (Lucas Hedges) is splattered with soggy Rice Krispies by his Mom (Frances McDormand) and, at one point, he’s called Froot Loop Boy.

Tea from Dunkirk (and Darkest Hour): Essential to fortifying oneself against the threatened Nazi invasion.

Lemonade from The Post: Not your more common breakfast drink, but it was such an adorable moment when Ben and Toni Bradlee’s daughter earned a wad of cash by selling lemonade to a captive audience – the editors and reporters frantically studying the Pentagon Papers on the Bradlee’s living room rug.

The Movie Gourmet’s culinary tribute to 127 HOURS and WINTER’S BONE

DVD/Stream of the Week: UNDEFEATED – an Oscar winner you haven’t seen

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UNDEFEATED

With football season (finally) approaching, it’s time for a Feel Good, Oscar-winning story set on the gridiron. The extraordinary documentary Undefeated begins with a high school football coach addressing his team:

Let’s see now. Starting right guard shot and no longer in school. Starting middle linebacker shot and no longer in school. Two players fighting right in front of the coach. Starting center arrested. Most coaches – that would be pretty much a career’s worth of crap to deal with. Well, I think that sums up the last two weeks for me.

Undefeated is the story of this coach, Bill Courtney, leading his team through a season. The kids live in crushing poverty and attend a haplessly under-resourced high school in North Memphis.

Undefeated may be about a football team, but isn’t that much about football. Instead of the Xs and Os, it shows the emotional energy required of Courtney to keep each kid coming to school, coming to practice and on task. He gets many of the kids to think about goals for the first time in their lives. He is tireless, dogged and often frustrated and emotionally spent.

The film wisely focuses on three players, and we get to know them. Like the rest of the team, all three are from extremely disadvantaged homes. One is an overachiever both on the field and in the classroom, but surprisingly emotionally vulnerable. Another has college-level football talent but very little academic preparation. The third, recently back from youth prison, is impulsive, immature, selfish and extremely volatile.

Undefeated won the 2012 Oscar for Best Documentary for filmmakers Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin – but it didn’t get a wide theatrical release. It’s available now to stream from Amazon, Vudu, YouTube and redbox.

The Movie Gourmet’s 2017 Oscar Dinner

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HELL OR HIGH WATER
HELL OR HIGH WATER

Every year, we watch the Oscars while enjoying a meal inspired by the Best Picture nominees. For example, we had sushi for Lost in Translation, cowboy campfire beans for Brokeback Mountain and Grandma Ethel’s Brisket for A Serious Man – you get the idea. You can see some of our past Oscar Dinners on this page (including our Severed Hands Ice Sculpture in 2011 for 127 Hours and Winter’s Bone).

Here’s the menu for tonight’s Oscar Dinner.  It’s centered around a scene in Hell or High Water which rates as one of the all-time great Diner Scenes in movie history (along with Jack Nicholson ordering the chicken sandwich in Five Easy Pieces and Meg Ryan’s faked orgasm in When Harry Met Sally).

Candles and flowers from La La Land: It’s not clear what food Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) is serving Mia (Emma Stone) in his apartment, but he had gone to great lengths create a romantic setting. (That dinner doesn’t go well.)

T-bone Steak, baked potato and green beans from the ancient cafe waitress (Margaret Bowman) in Hell or High Water. She asks what the boys are NOT having because they ARE having T-bone steak and baked potato. We’re NOT having the corn.

Cornbread muffins from Hidden Figures: Those are on the family dinner table when Colonel Johnson (Mahershala Ali) proposes to Katherine (Taraji P. Henson).

Palak Paneer from Lion:  This is not actually consumed by any characters in the movie, but, hey, it’s Indian and we needed another veggie dish.

Rations from Hacksaw Ridge: Smitty Ryker (Luke Bracey) gobbles down a mid-battle meal while sharing foxhole with Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield).

Gin from Fences: Troy (Denzel Washington) is always pulling from a pint of rotgut gin.

Frozen chicken from Manchester by the Sea: Patrick (Lucas Hedges) is very upset that his father can’t be buried until the New England soil defrosts, and he has a melt down at the fridge when the frozen chicken reminds him of Dad on ice.

Ketchup and hot sauce from Moonlight: they are on the diner table where Black (Travante Rhodes) meets up again with Kevin (Andre Holland).

Edible alien art from Arrival (photo below):  The Wife worked in the medium of black beans to re-create one of the messages communicated by the aliens.

edible alien art from ARRIVAL
edible alien art from ARRIVAL

A plea from The Movie Gourmet for Critics’ Awards and the Oscars

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Lily Gladstone in CERTAIN WOMEN
Lily Gladstone in CERTAIN WOMEN

I’m always worried that the work of deserving filmmakers will get overlooked by the Academy Awards. It’s time for the critic’s awards, which can prompt Oscar nominations. And I have some opinions about some nuggets that should be recognized.

BEST PICTURE

I’m glad to see the San Francisco Film Critics Circle at least shortlisted Hell or High Water as a finalist for Best Picture. It’s getting overlooked among all the Holiday Prestige Movies, but it’s my pick for the best film of the year.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

  • Lily Gladstone’s heartrending performance is the most indelible in Certain Women, a movie co-starring much more recognizable actresses (Laura Dern, Michelle Williams and Kristen Stewart).
  • You can imagine the entire back story of Katy Mixon’s waitress in Hell or High Water, a gal who is fiercely determined to hang on to her tip, no matter what.
  • The absolutely irreplaceable Margo Martindale is the heart of The Hollars.
  • Michelle Williams doesn’t need any help from me to be nominated for her six or seven heartbreaking minutes in Manchester by the Sea.

Alan Rickman in EYE IN THE SKY
Alan Rickman in EYE IN THE SKY

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

  • The late Alan Rickman is more than a sentimental choice for a posthumous award for Eye in the Sky; it’s one of the best performances by any actor this year.
  • Simon Helberg’s hilarious non-verbal reactions are actually the funniest part of Florence Foster Jenkins.
  • I would also recognize Devin Druid in Louder Than Bombs;  it’s easy to overlook even the most brilliant portrayals of teenage boys who don’t talk much and sure don’t show their feelings (like Miles Teller in Rabbit Hole or James Frecheville in Animal Kingdom).
  • Michael Shannon is the best thing about Nocturnal Animals.
  • Jeff Bridges should get another nomination for his superb performance in Hell or High Water.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

  • Isabelle Huppert’s performance in Elle is so astonishingly sui generis, it is so essential to the movie’s success and she has such an amazing body of work, that I can’t imagine her not winning this Oscar. It doesn’t help that, as usual, there’s shortage of other excellent roles for women.
  • I loved Imogen Poot in Frank & Lola. The entire movie hinges on whether she is a Bad Girl or a Troubled Girl, and she plays it credibly both ways.

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

  • Like Huppert, Casey Affleck is a deserving lock to win the Oscar for Manchester by the Sea.
  • But, in Hell or High Water,  Chris Pine finally got to act in a complex, textured role and he really delivered.  Deserves a nod.

BEST WRITING, ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

  • Kenneth Lonergan will certainly snag a nomination for Manchester by the Sea.
  • So I am campaigning for Taylor Sheridan and his masterpiece screenplay for Hell or High Water.

Jeff Bridges and Katy Mixon in HELL OR HIGH WATER
Jeff Bridges and Katy Mixon in HELL OR HIGH WATER

 

Richard Jenkins and Margo Martindale in THE HOLLARS
Richard Jenkins and Margo Martindale in THE HOLLARS