Thursday, May 28, 2020

OVP: Picture (2016)

OVP: Best Picture (2016)

The Nominees Were...


Shawn Levy, Dan Levine, Aaron Ryder, & David Linde, Arrival
Scott Rudin, Denzel Washington, & Todd Black, Fences
Bill Mechanic & David Permut, Hacksaw Ridge
Carla Hacken & Julie Yorn, Hell or High Water
Donna Gigliotti, Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, Pharrell Williams & Theodore Melfi, Hidden Figures
Fred Berger, Jordan Horowitz, & Marc Platt, La La Land
Emile Sherman, Iain Canning, & Angie Fielder, Lion
Matt Damon, Kimberly Steward, Chris Moore, Lauren Beck, & Kevin J. Walsh, Manchester by the Sea
Adele Romanski, Dede Gardner, & Jeremy Kleiner, Moonlight

My Thoughts: And here we go.  After 19 contests, and way too long spent between them, we are at the finish line ready to discuss the Best Picture nominees of 2016.  A bit of housekeeping before we go into the contest-if you are new, you can review all of the past 2016 contests, as well as Best Picture races (and the links to any contests within those years) in the giant link roundup at the bottom of this article.  We will be kicking off a new season very quickly of this series on Sunday, with new competition articles as early as next week.  My goal, as ever, is to get this done in roughly three months, but as I have not pulled that off to date, I shall stop promising it to you (even if I'm goaling it still for me).  What I will promise is a fitting tribute to these nine films we know so well at this point, and we will start that conversation with Fences.

Fences is a weird film for me to review, because the story and acting are solid.  This is an incredible feat, and the writing is brilliant-August Wilson at his best.  But it's basically a staged play, the kind we used to get more of in the 1950's where it felt more natural for such a situation (as most films limited their set counts and where they could film their movies).  Here, I feel like Washington's take on Fences never escapes its Broadway beginnings, playing too loud or too constrained, trying to bring not just the words of Wilson's play to life, but the play itself.  This would be mesmerizing, five-star entertainment in real life, but on a movie screen it feels like he doesn't meet the challenges of the medium he's crafting for, and as a result we get only a ground-rule double rather than a home run.

The same could be said for Lion, but instead of missing its setting, here we get a movie that can't ever get past its incredible first half.  The nail-biting adventure of the first half of Lion, of a young boy who moves halfway across a gigantic country by accident, is the stuff of great movies-it's action, drama, and terrific cinematography all rolled into one.  The movie never captures that energy in the second half, though, becoming a family drama without enough introspection or vision.  I'm excited this brought about new chapters for Nicole Kidman & Dev Patel's careers, but the movie is just fine.

This is more than I can say for Hacksaw Ridge.  I've been more charitable with this movie than most throughout these write-ups, but when it comes down to it, this is a film with some very strong elements that doesn't ultimately come together.  The first twenty minutes are embarrassing, and the movie's middle third is more homoerotic than you could possibly imagine, but that really doesn't make it a good movie (even if it got my attention with a cascade of shirtless men).  The final third the movie comes to life, but with so little payoff emotionally, we are left with some creative action sequences, but some featuring a bunch of soldiers we haven't grown to cherish or aren't really invested in their journey.  This has always been a problem with Gibson's movies, but it's easier to scrutinize with the shimmer of a Best Picture nomination surrounding Hacksaw.

Hidden Figures is, along with Hacksaw, the only other "populist" film of this bunch, but whereas Hacksaw simply ignores anything not directly related to the meat of its plot, Hidden Figures makes these touches the main course.  The three central performances are sublime, but they're also great movie star turns from actresses who can, well, act.  The movie isn't as deep as it could've been, but it doesn't matter-it generally avoids the sort of "white savior" racial politics that might have made it age poorly (specifically with Kevin Costner's character), and shows three accomplished women & the "hidden" story that they made incredible.  Fun, fluffy, but really well-done popcorn fare.

Moonlight is not popcorn fare by any means, but it might be the most cinematic movie of all of these when I think about it in this context.  I've talked about the best elements of this a few times now, but the pacing once again bears repeating.  Moonlight doesn't give you time to breath-it pushes Chiron's story forward, and those who are left behind (both onscreen and off) are forced to reckon with the young man he's become.  Visually compelling, haunting music, great performances-Moonlight is not the kind of film you normally associate with the Oscars, but it's so good that it demands Oscar's attention.

La La Land is the sort of film that you associate with the Oscars, in many ways because it associates itself with so many Oscar-nominated classics.  The movie is occasionally luminous-the costumes and cinematography are gorgeous, and the two leads have never looked better.  But the film is too much facade, not enough substance, and certainly not enough originality when it comes to how it pays homage to movies of the past.  In a lot of ways it reminds me of The Artist-a film that seems tailor-made for my sensibilities, and yet I was left cold by the director's inability to make it sing.

Manchester by the Sea is also the sort of film you associate with the Oscars, albeit not necessarily in Best Picture.  While this field oftentimes is littered with depressing tales of humanity, they aren't usually as subtle and specific as what Kenneth Lonergan crafts for Manchester.  The movie simmers and stirs, making sure to highlight each performance and each curve of the story without it feeling forced or too quick.  Manchester is a good lesson to the many, many lesser dramas that get nominated for a plethora of awards each year-focus on the story rather than ensuring a character meets a specific arc.

Then again, if you make a film that is leading to one specific arc, you need to ensure that what came before it will make that twist worth it.  Arrival is loving cinema, unfolding with great wonder, but it would fall apart if we didn't care enough about Amy Adams' Louise by the end in order for us to feel the bittersweet emotion of the final scenes of the picture.  Arrival achieves that final moment, and it does so after giving us a great leading performance (that should have been nominated), wonderful visual effects and beautiful cinematography.

And that leaves us with Hell or High Water, the movie weirdly of this bunch that I most want to see again after writing about these pictures for so long.  Hell is a really good movie, and the sort of morality tale that people forget was central to the western, possibly my favorite film genre (give or take noir).  David Mackenzie spices this film just right with solid performances, believable twists, and escalating stakes so that we stay vested, even if we don't always understand why we're taking a detour.  This is the sort of film that people forget was nominated, and then revisit & reassess as better-than-they-originally thought twenty years later, a classy & smart choice by the Oscars.

Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes split their nominations between Comedy/Musical and Drama, so we have a full ten nominees here.  The Drama categories went all with Oscar-nominees, bringing Moonlight to the top over Hacksaw Ridge, Hell or Hight Water, Lion, and Manchester by the Sea.  In Comedy, we saw only La La Land of Oscar's choices (it won), besting 20th Century Women, Deadpool, Florence Foster Jenkins, and Sing Street.  BAFTA still only goes five-wide, though they did have the very British I, Daniel Blake losing to La La Land, which also beat Arrival, Moonlight, and Manchester by the Sea.  And finally, the PGA Awards once again goes ten-wide, with every Best Picture nominee accounted for, as well as Deadpool (oh, the PGA), and La La Land emerging victorious.  If we were still in the ten-wide field you could make a lot of arguments, some even sound for a film like Deadpool, but my gut says it would've been Nocturnal Animals, which had a lot of last-minute momentum even if it stalled out with AMPAS.
Films I Would Have Nominated: Since Oscar is given nine slots in 2016, I'm going to get the same (I hate when people give a laundry list of snubs without acknowledging that there is a finite number of slots you can fill for a category).  I would keep my Top 3 here (with sincere apologies to my #4, who might on some days make this cut), and then add in six other favorites we've talked about a lot throughout these write-ups.  Certainly the introspective Jackie, the epic Silence, and the clever Everybody Wants Some! must make the cut, as will my personal beloved A Monster Calls.  I'd also add in two under-sung foreign language films: the grief meditation L'Attesa and the sexually-charged film noir From Afar, both of which you should add to your "to watch" list if you like smart, modern cinema.
Oscar’s Choice: The Academy went with the expected La La Land over some bolder choices...wait, no, that's not right-we spoke too soon.  In one of the most unforgettable moments in Oscar history, we briefly had two Best Picture winners, but it was Moonlight that ended up victorious.
My Choice: Moonlight was a shock, and a pleasant one.  The best film of the year, and the best film that the Oscars had honored for their top prize in almost a decade.  Follow that with (in order): Arrival, Hidden Figures, Manchester by the Sea, Hell or High Water, Fences, Lion, La La Land, and Hacksaw Ridge.

And with that, we close 2016, though it will carry on in the comments if you so choose.  Are you with me on Team Moonlight, or do you join many of the precursors voting for the "City of Stars?"  What was the tenth place film-it feels like Oscar nominated everything that was remotely in conversation here?  And who ended up with a better lineup for Best Picture-Oscar or me?  Share your thoughts on anything 2016-related below!


Past Best Picture Contests: 20072008200920102011201220132014, 2015

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