The Other Side of the Wind (2018)

Film: The Other Side of the Wind (2018)
Stars: John Huston, Oja Kodar, Peter Bogdanovich, Susan Strasberg, Norman Foster, Bob Random, Lilli Palmer, Edmund O'Brien, Mercedes McCambridge, Tonio Stewart
Director: Orson Welles
Oscar History: The film was declared ineligible for Best Score, but the film was still eligible in other categories; that it wasn't nominated is a damn shame.
Snap Judgment Ranking: 5/5 stars

We complete our mini-tribute to the best 2018 films that Oscar didn't find room for, though considering the unusual nature of this film coming to exist, this might be the most understandable (if not necessarily forgivable) of the three "snubs."  After all, almost every person involved with this movie is dead, because The Other Side of the Wind is more of a film of 1970 than 2018.  The final flick directed by Orson Welles, long-gestating on a shelf, had become the stuff of cinematic legend since I began studying film, one of the greatest movies never made, until Netflix came along and saved the picture by working with Beatrice Welles (the director's daughter) and Oja Kodar (one of the film's stars and screenwriters) to ensure it would could be edited and seen.  The result was a dream for cinema-lover's everywhere-the actual release of a movie that had been talked about in hushed tones for decades.  I watched it with baited breath, and felt almost winded by the experience afterwards, it was that intense to finally be a part of the Master's final work, decades after he made it and even after his demise.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is made in a mockumentary-style, and isn't really a movie that is supposed to be summed up with a plot as is our wont on this site for the first paragraph of a review, but I'll try.  Essentially, we have Jake Hannaford (Huston), a once-brilliant Hollywood director whom we find out at the beginning of the picture has died on his 70th birthday in a car accident.  Hannaford's movies had become out-of-fashion, and he had been trying to reinvent himself in the New Hollywood-style with a violent, sexually charged, and ambiguous picture entitled The Other Side of the Wind.  We then hear flashbacks about the last night of Hannaford's life, when a party was happening at his home that was supposed to be a screening of the picture, but instead turned into a disjointed look at his own life, as well as key figures in his life such as protege Brooks Otterlake (Bogdanovich), film critic Juliette Riche (Strasberg), and Zarah Valeska (Palmer), an aging beauty & seemingly the only person who is willing to call out Hannaford for some of his more heinous actions & behaviors.  As the film progresses, it's clear that most people don't understand the movie, and aren't impressed by it, and instead they're more interested in the decay of a once great man, as well as getting soused on his booze while it's still flowing.  Questions about Hannaford's sexuality are thrown about (which arise as much from the reporters that seem to pop up everywhere in his house as from the way the we see from the movie-within-the-movie how he carefully frames the perfect posterior of his leading man, who has quit the production and seems to have doomed the film).  The movie ends in a drive-in theater, with everyone driving away, including Hannaford (likely to his death after his leading man refuses to ride in the car with him), with only one person, his unnamed leading woman (Kodar) standing and continuing to watch the movie, the only person whom it spoke toward.

The film isn't meant to be particularly linear.  This is a movie it would be impossible to watch from another room & is not one for your cell phone; Netflix deserves massive credit for finally letting this picture see the light of day, but it is most definitely intended to be viewed on a big-screen with your rapt attention.  The party scenes will not be for everyone-frequently Welles goes into almost Terrence Malick-style runs of visuals (except Malick would never allow so much dialogue), but I LOVED this movie.  I have always been a sucker for Welles as a director, as I think he finds fascinating things to do and say about his characters, and as Wind indicates, he never really lost his touch for making important, seismic movies in the vein of Citizen Kane or Touch of Evil.  The film's screenplay is rich with depth and shows up well in repeat viewings.

The film is littered with great performances, as was Welles's wont (I know I'm a fanboy, but honestly-name a stronger actor-turned-director who also managed to get strong performances out of his entire cast).  Pretty much everyone has someone in mind from Welles's real-life that they're impersonating here, but the creations are unique enough that they feel like fictional creations.  Huston is going after Ernest Hemingway, John Ford, Orson Welles, and himself seemingly all-at-once, and this is an indication of what his greatest performance would be just a few years later when he would tackle Noah Cross in Chinatown (for my money, among the best supporting actor performances ever).  Lilli Palmer wasn't Welles's first choice for the part of Zareh, as both Marlene Dietrich and Jeanne Moreau were considered before Palmer eventually got the part, but she can monologue just as well as Dietrich, and no one can monologue like Dietrich.  Strasberg's Pauline Kael impression is grating but also knowing (as if Strasberg was aware that Kael would occasionally have a point even if filmmakers didn't agree with it), and a host of actors who had littered Mercury productions for years make it feel almost like a series finale as much as a movie.

About the only complaint I have about the film is what its distribution model represents.  Welles admittedly didn't live very long into the home video era, but as he was far more attuned to bringing art directly to the masses, it's hard to imagine he'd approve a system where his films could be locked away forever.  The Other Side of the Wind is the kind of movie the Criterion Collection was made for, with its marquee director and artsy approach.  That Netflix will continue to have the ability to bogart Welles's film and not bring it to the masses is a damn shame.  I'm aware this film might not exist without Netflix (in a way that Roma, Buster Scruggs, and The Irishman wouldn't...all of those movies would have easily gotten theatrical releases based on the celebrity of their directors), but if Netflix wants to be someone who respects cinema, they need to release this film on Blu-Ray so it can be owned and preserved by cinephiles for years to come.

(Editor's Note: A previous version of this review stated that Other Side of the Wind was was not eligible for the Oscars, but it turns out I was wrong here-Other Side of the Wind was eligible for most categories save for Best Score, but they didn't get nominated in any category, which is a damned shame-thank you to Wellesnet on Twitter for clarifying this for me)