OVP: Best Foreign Language Film (2018)
The Nominees Were...
My Thoughts: 2018 is bringing us not just three films we've already discussed (a rarity for this category, which is almost always represented solely by single-nominee films), but also the last year of the Foreign Language Film category. We generally use the historical names of this category, particularly with the tags (not just here, but also for Art Direction or Visual Effects) because it's easier, but this is now known as the International Feature Film category, a significantly more inclusive title for the contest. It feels a fitting year to sendoff such a name considering how strong the field was, and how important it was to the rest of the Academy's nominees.
Take, for example, Roma, which won not just this category but also Best Director & Cinematography. When I first reviewed Roma, I called it both "gargantuan and meticulous" which is still how it feels three years after-the-fact. The movie is filled with specifically-selected scenes, not just in showing the life of two women in 1970's Mexico who are both at a crossroads, but also in the way that every scene feels upfront and yet like a hazy memory, where everything is a little more golden than reality could make it possible. This is a brilliant trick, and goes to show why Cuaron is one of our finest filmmakers-he picks everything so carefully so there's nothing to spare in Roma.
The same can be said for Cold War, which lost all three of its Oscar races to Roma. This is a movie that was accused by some critics as being too short, and to a degree you can see their point but I think the brevity works out in the film's favor. The lives of these two lovers (ably played by Joanna Kulig & Tomasz Kot) lies in the decisions they make having real-life consequences, the moments they spend together feeling like they're lifting away from the audience in the same way that they are from the main characters' lives-they can't be together unless they make the correct sacrifices. That attention-to-story is a winner for me, as is the gorgeous, melodic cinematography.
Speaking of cinematography, I'm going to land on a different angle with Never Look Away than most critics (it, too, competed in that category against Roma & Cold War)-I quite enjoyed the movie. Yes, it's too long, and yes, there are repetitive aspects as a result. But I think it does an excellent job of trying to incorporate its loose telling of the life of Gerhard Richter, particularly through the performance of lead actor Tom Schilling, who plays him as an empty vessel, only truly able to communicate wordlessly (through his paintings, and admittedly, through his endless series of sex scenes). I found the film engrossing if conventional, and I don't get why so many turned up their nose at it at the time.
Shoplifters is a movie I wanted to love more than I did, which is a feeling I get when a movie has an ending that is way better than the movie that proceeds it (a jaw-dropping conclusion can never make up for the rest of the film being meh, but it can also give you the illusion that you've been blindsided into a higher-quality picture). The first half is kind of repetitive, with little growth & a lot of actions from the main (very good) actors that don't make a lot of sense or feel like growth. The second half pulls such a massive twist on the audience that I feel that the first half is almost justified, though it doesn't quite sell it for me. Still, Shoplifters is a fascinating movie, one that is watchable (more than once), and I get the fan love here even if I can't fully subscribe.
The one movie in this bunch I couldn't stand was Capernaum, which I've literally gotten into an (ill-advised) discussion about on a date. With the exception of the child performances (solid) and the cinematography (I enjoyed the juxtaposition of something people enjoy like an amusement park against the reprieve of a world in turmoil), I couldn't get into this picture. I found the plot exploitive, constantly dealing out misery-the kind of movie that says "realism" without acknowledging that the film itself is not very good; just because something makes you cry doesn't make it great cinema, otherwise we'd all just be handing Oscars over to videos of people hugging their dogs. I thought it was a poorly-patched script, and left the film feeling miserable, not just for the people onscreen, but for the people who found that to be a full-sided portrayal of the human experience.
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 only count the Globes among the awards bodies we check-in with for Foreign Language film. They went with Roma for Best Picture, here over Capernaum, Girl, Never Look Away, and Shoplifters. The Oscars does reveal its shortlist here, which included Birds of Passage (Colombia), The Guilty (Denmark), Ayka (Kazakhstan), & Burning (South Korea)...none of which I've seen at this time.
Films I Would Have Nominated: I don't see enough of the contenders to have a cohesive opinion here, and I don't have an obvious nominee I would've included that was in the running.
Oscar’s Choice: In a different year, this could've gone a lot of directions (pretty much everyone but Capernaum would make an interesting second place), but against Roma there was no competition.
My Choice: I'm not bound by Academy custom, though, to pick the Best Picture nominee here, and so I'm going with Cold War barely over Roma. Both are superb choices & would make a decade's end Top 10, but I cannot deny that Cold War was the superior film in my eyes. Never Look Away, Shoplifters, and Capernaum follow in order.
Those are my thoughts-what about you? Are you sticking with consensus (and the Academy) over in Camp Roma, or does anyone want to venture into the lovelorn Cold War? What am I missing in Capernaum that everyone else is so mad about? And which of the shortlisted pictures do you think I should prioritize? Share your thoughts below!
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