OVP: Best International Feature Film (2019)
The Nominees Were...
Corpus Christi, Poland
Honeyland, North Macedonia
Les Miserables, France
Pain and Glory, Spain
Parasite, South Korea
My Thoughts: I've been sticking very true to the naming of each of the Oscar categories as we've gone through these ballots, so I'm particularly excited to have the (welcome) name change of the Foreign Language Film into the International Feature Film category, and to do so in a year that was widely-celebrated by cinephiles. Obviously 2019 was the first year to give the top prize to a movie that was not (predominantly) in English, but along with Parasite there's actually a few films on this list that were critically-acclaimed, though one of the movies (through no fault of its own) holds a bit of anguish in my heart right now, and will until I get vaccinated.
Corpus Christi is a movie I look on with sadness not just because the plot is rough (though it is-a town full of dead young people & a reformed criminal trying to find absolution in a world that will grant him none), but because it is the last film that I saw in a traditional, indoor movie theater before the pandemic, and will likely remain that way for a while as I am dead-last on the vaccination priority list (which I'm okay with, obviously, but that doesn't mean I'm not anxious for my turn). The film itself is just okay-the movie has a great lead, but the rest of the cast doesn't go very far, it's somewhat repetitive, & the ending is a mess. But for me Corpus Christi stands out more on a personal level because of its fate as my last film that I watched before my favorite pastime was taken from me for a year (or probably longer, let's be real).
As a result, Honeyland is the only film on this list I caught during the pandemic (the rest were all theater films), and is weirdly the first documentary film to ever be nominated in both Best Documentary & this category. The movie is short, but it's brilliant. It reads like a narrative feature, about a woman living in extreme poverty with her dying mother, whose entire income is based around the bees she keeps. When one of her neighbors learn her secrets, then destroy her business, it's devastating, but inevitable, as the movie is about grief but not necessarily redemption or forgiveness, and becomes a profound commentary on our "gimme more" culture. I loved it-I thought it was a breathtaking movie, and one of my favorite documentaries in a long time.
Les Miserables has nothing to do with Victor Hugo's magnum opus, at least not the novel itself, though the spirit of that anti-revolutionary film runs through this somber look at the modern day criminal justice system in France. The movie, particularly in the light of 2020, becomes shocking reality (at least for American audiences who have seen large-scale violence/riots on their television screens for most of the last year), though the movie doesn't ever (quite) justify its long first-half running-time, as while I get the point of maintaining the anonymity of most of the key characters (other than the three police officers) to get a better payoff for the second half, the point is made well-enough & eventually steps into indulgent. Still, a bold message picture that doesn't try to provide easy answers when there are none.
Pain & Glory is Pedro Almodovar's first invitation to this category since 2006's Volver, and one of his most personal films to date. While it's not top-tier Pedro, it's still eminently watchable & delicious (few directors have the kind of winning streaks that he has amassed in his career), with Banderas' solid performance assisted by both a tender mid-movie mature romance with an old flame, as well as Penelope Cruz playing the all-knowing mother of a young gay boy, both of them not ready to admit what they each know (particularly about his lust for a young man who is painting their home). It's great, and in a normal year it probably would've been a contender to win this prize, but this is not a normal year, which brings us to...
...Parasite. Even a year after the fact, it's hard to comprehend how good Parasite was and how joyous it is that it won so many Oscars. The film is a brilliant study on class systems, systemic privilege, and it's also a bonkers movie with a second act twist that had people in my theater gasping. Second act twists are tough, because when you upend your movie like this you have to do so with confidence, and thankfully Parasite has the goods to actually pull off this twist, in addition to a strong, difficult ending that could have been polarizing in the wrong hands. There's a reason this is the movie that finally got Oscar to honor a non-English language film in the top category-it's just that good.
Other Precursor Contenders: Awards ceremonies like the Goyas and the Cesars aren't good representatives here since they're typically honoring the main films of a specific country, so I usually only count the Globes among the awards bodies we check-in with for Foreign Language film. They went with Parasite (duh) for their top prize, besting both Pain & Glory and Les Miserables, as well as two films that weren't eligible here for Oscar-The Farewell and Portrait of a Lady on Fire. For those keeping score the films that made the AMPAS shortlist but not the final cut were The Painted Bird (Czech Republic), Truth and Justice (Estonia), Those Who Remained (Hungary), Beanpole (Russia), and Atlantics (Senegal)
Films I Would Have Nominated: I am a little bit embarrassed to admit that I never gotten around to Beanpole or Atlantics (both of whom had their critical champions). That said, And Then We Danced from Sweden made my personal Top 10 of 2020, and would have definitely gotten a nomination for me here over the majority of Oscar's nominees.
Oscar’s Choice: As I said above, in a normal year Pain & Glory would've been Pedro's big comeback with Oscar, but 2019 wasn't a normal year, and Parasite got its expected victory.
My Choice: I'm also going with Parasite-it's just too good to ignore, even in a better-than-usual field. I'll follow it with Honeyland, Pain & Glory, Les Miserables, and Corpus Christi, in that order.
Those are my thoughts-what about you? Is everyone pretty much unanimous that Parasite deserved the top prize, or does someone want to stray from the pack? Which Pedro film is your favorite, and how many Oscars should he have at this point? And Beanpole or Atlantics-are these worthy of the hype? Share your thoughts below!
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