News of the World [Netflix]

This was a feel good Western drama that was well rounded in every senses. A simple, straight-forward screenplay that was well directed by director/co-writer Paul Greengrass. That shoot-out scene was tense and exciting and classic Greengrass action. It also featured the always reliable Tom Hanks who turned in another well-liked, daddy-good-shoes performance that just seen so genuine and unassuming and unfortunately also very expected from Hanks and unexciting. However, the film also showcased a star-is-rising turn by Helena Zengel who was a refreshing breath of raw talent. Rounding off the impeccable production, we also have James Newton Howard doing his usual thing and providing a beautiful score, and Dariusz Wolski lensing the wide-opened prairie as gorgeously as the closed-in, light-scarce frontier towns. The film also obviously had the budget for costumes and set-designs to lend itself an air of authenticity. 

Greengrass is a very competent director and this film moved along at a steady pace. Each set and sequence was given its necessary time and space to breathe. Nothing felt rushed or bloated, but again at the same time, it was also very expected and predictable with nary a surprise. There is some sort of comfort in that and this type of film. But, like aforementioned, the one standout was the classic Western shoot-out scene, and good old Hanks pulled it off with aplomb.

Hanks reunites with Greengrass following Captain Phillips for another Captain role, but this time it required less emotional lifting from him. This is not to say that it was an empty performance or that Hanks sleepwalked through it, but that his character just had less complexity. This was an archetypical hero/father-role that really only required Hanks to be full-on paternalistic to the absence of any other real characteristics. 

Zengel, on the other hand, was revelatory. She had a raw, unfettered energy that translated across the screen and though she had limited lines, her eyes and body language spoke volume. Her easy chemistry with Hanks also made the evolution of their relationship believable. And that definitely helped to sell the ending.

This was an impeccably produced studio film that entertained, but, after nearly 2-hours, also equally forgettable. It is likely to grab a bunch of nominations, but unlikely to convert any of that to wins. 

On a separate note, it is a pity that Kelly Reichardt's similar frontier-era Western First Cow is more or less going to be left out of the big awards although, compared to News of the World, it was a  more exciting and refreshing film, with a great, original story and outstanding acting.

Judas and the Black Messiah [HBO Max/VOD]

A powerful biopic that unfortunately still remained relevant and resonant in this day. 

The film showcased a ferociously passionate and magnetically charismatic Daniel Kaluuya as Fred Hampton, and a more subdued and nuanced - but nevertheless equally involved - performance by Lakeith Stansfield. 

Directed and co-written by Shaka King, this film depicted the rise and death of Hampton through the lens of Stansfield's William O'Neal, a FBI informant planted within the Black Panther. We witnessed O'Neal's rise within the structure of the movement, his internal struggles between his community and the authority, and between his political apathy and greed. At the same time, we were also offered glimpses of the many faces of Hampton, from passionate freedom fighter and savvy political player to loving partner and humble leader. 

All these gave the two leads a rich field to play with and they sure went all out. The accolades were well deserved and Kaluuya is assured of a Best Supporting Acting nomination more so than Stansfield just because the former had the showier role. It will be tough for Stansfield to break into the Best Actor category given that he will be competing for the remaining two spots (Riz Ahmed, Anthony Hopkins and Chadwick Boseman are more or less confirmed nominees at this point).

Comparisons with Aaron Sorkin's The Trial of the Chicago 7 will be inevitable given the intersection of their story, but where Sorkin told his story from a mainly white perspective that was also slightly clinically detached, King's Judas wore its heart on its sleeve and the emotional weight hung heavy. However, on the other hand, Chicago 7 was also more defined with regard to its political leanings whereas Judas never seemed to land firmly its political believes. It remained more of a dramatic biopic with political leanings rather than a political drama. 

Steve McQueen's Mangrove  - the first instalment of his Small Axe anthology - was a stellar example of a film that successfully managed to marry the politics with the drama without sacrificing authenticity, passion and beliefs.

Shoutout also goes to Dominique Fishback who gave a striking and memorable performance as Hamptom's girlfriend Deborah Johnson.

Cinematography was by Sean Bobbitt and it was evocative of the period. The film's score was by Mark Isham and Craig Harris, and was unfortunately not very memorable. However, the end-credits song, "Fight for you" by H.E.R. was a powerful anthem that resonated and echoed the preceding 2 hours.

Judas and the Black Messiah was a powerful film with great acting and a story that deserved to be told. It is just unfortunate that things seemed to have changed so little since then.

Nomadland [Hulu/VOD]

 

This was an amazing film! I really, really liked it. Definitely the Best Film of this awards season (thus far, but then, not many films are left to watch). 

Writer/Director/Editor Chloe Zhao did a fantastic, stupendous, there-are-not-enough-adjectives-to-describe job in creating this deceptively simple but yet utterly complex film. At times almost documentary-like in its coverage of the nomads it depicts, and at times a gorgeous travelogue of middle America, and yet at times an intimate character study of a fascinating and deeply flawed but oddly relatable individual. 

Absolute kudos to Frances McDormand for giving yet another transformative and riveting performance rooted in a sincere honesty that really did seemed genuine and heartfelt. 

Also, hands down one of the best cinematography of the season! Cinematographer Joshua James Richards captured an almost National Geographic/BBC Earth-like depiction of the American landscape with his stunning wide-angles and all the beautiful light mother nature has to offer. But not just the great outdoors, one of his best moments was a tiny, indoor, private moment where the light was just so intimately captured as it played across the faces. 

Zhao also had the music of Ludovico Einaudi played throughout the film and his haunting piano scores added even more textures and emotional resonance - but never cloying or manipulative - to the film. 

This truly was an extraordinary film and a pity it could not be fully enjoyed on the big screen. 

The only other named actor in the film was David Strathairn but even he paled in comparison with the first-time performers that Zhao had surrounded McDormand with. Zhao managed to coaxed performances out of these true nomads that was, again, honest and sincere. And this translated beautifully on the screen with their relationship with McDormand. That really gave this film a rare coat of authenticity that was not glossy or false. 

Zhao non-narrative storytelling never felt difficult nor pretentious. As we followed McDormand, we slowly understood the purpose and the story that Zhao wanted to tell. There was no rushing, no dramatics, no histrionics but yet this film had so much soul, so much feelings and so much emotions. Each passing encounter or each fleeing moment just made sense. There was love, there was tragedy, there was friendship, there was fear, there was anger and there was - ultimately - hope. A Best Adapted Screenplay nomination is definitely on the cards, but this will a tough category this season and it will be unlikely to win given that it will be going against a few heavyweights like Mank, One Night in Miami, The Father, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and even the Borat sequel.

McDormand is definitely in line for another Best Actress nomination. Looks like it will be either be her or Viola Davis for the statuette (with Carey Mulligan a dark horse). McDormand's vanity-free performance was riveting and like all great actors, she does so little but yet achieves so much. Hers is a face that speaks a thousands words. Her eyes holds so much emotions that you fear you might drown if you stare at them too long. This is a woman that has connected with her character and has became her. McDormand was Fern and Fern was her. Where Mildred Hayes - her last Oscar-winning performance in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - was loud and commanding and demanded your attention, Fern was quieter, controlled but yet equally your eyes are drawn to her.

This was an unlikely hopeful film. It has hope for the present and hope for the future. It is a film that dared you to be you and dared you to believe in yourself. Simply amazing. Zhao has outdone herself and now has made the upcoming MCU Eternals a must-watch (no pressure!)

Sound of Metal [Amazon]

This was a good, albeit slightly unfocused, film that had a fantastic leading man performance by Riz Ahmed and an even more amazing sound design. The latter will surely nab the film Oscar nominations for Sound Design and Mixing, and Ahmed is now also definitely going to be in the running for an unusually wide-field of Best Actors nominees. The other standouts were Paul Raci, a dark horse for Best Supporting Actor, and Lauren Ridloff, a very charismatic actress who will next be seen in the MCU's Eternals.

Directed and co-written by Darius Marder (the other co-writer is his brother Abraham Marder; Derek Cianfrance shared credits for the story and his fingerprints are obvious), this film explored the themes of lost of self and identity, strength and importance of community, addiction, and happiness. The film started off strong with a great first and second act bolstered by a lived-in and possessed performance by Ahmed that showcased the terror, fear, hopelessness and desperation of an ex-addict, musician coping by sudden hear loss (although that "sudden" bit was rather unbelievable from a medical POV) that slowly evolved to a grudging acceptance tinged with the eternal hope of recovery. 

However, the third act was an unnecessarily long and meandering route to a heavily telegraphed and soapy conclusion. That was where Cianfrance's fingerprints were most obvious in the story but the execution lacked his usual flair. If perhaps this was a three-episodes mini-series more could have been mined from this finale, but here it almost felt like a separate story tagged onto the more engaging prequels. Nonetheless, the final moments remained a showcase for Ahmed. In addition, his co-star Olivia Cooke was also at least given some sort of character/narrative closure.

Ahmed deserves the praises that has been lavished on him throughout this awards season. He gave an engaging and riveting performance that felt authentic and lived-in. The feelings that his character went through translated clearly in his body language and haunting eyes. From the frustration and desperation, to the fear and pain, and eventually to hope and acceptance, here was a portrait of the stages of grief/loss and the internal, eternal, struggle of an addict, brought alive in the big screen with no major histrionics or over-the-top melodrama.

Kudos too to Marder for keeping the authenticity in casting Raci and Ridloff. Raci, as a hearing child of deaf parents, definitely brought a sense of legitimacy to his role and performance as a mentor/leader; Ridloff, a deaf actress, was also crucial in helping to establish the bond between Ahmed's character and the deaf community in which he found himself with. 

Co-writer Abraham Marder also shared credits with Nicholas Becker for the music, and cinematographer Daniel Bouquet did some beautiful lensing of the film. 

However, technically, it was Becker's amazing sound design for the film that stole the show. It totally enveloped you into Ahmed's character's world. It was as disorienting as it was immersive, and one could only imagined how much more powerful the impact would have been in a cinema. This will be surely beat Tenet in the Oscar race. 

Marder's film is not without its flaws, but led by a top-of-his-game Ahmed in a riveting performance and the superb, immersive sound design, this was an engaging film that shed a spotlight on the deaf/hearing-impaired community and the struggles of those who suffered later in life.

Pieces of a Woman [Netflix]

Vanessa Kirby was brilliant and the highlight of an otherwise slightly uneven film about grief and loss.  She is a sure lock-in for a Best Actress nomination. Shia LaBeouf and Ellen Burstyn were both good too, the former highly underrated, pity about his personal life though. Nonetheless, they were both excellent scene partners that allowed Kirby to bounce off against. 

This film was really a showcase for Kirby, hence it was a bit unfortunate that director Kornel Mundruczo and writer Kata Wéber decided to not solely focus on Kirby's character and her journey. I do wonder what had been lost in the translation of their play from stage to screen. Because other than the home-birth scene and the final act, which seemed very stage-appropriate, the intervening vignettes depicting the passages of time just seemed falsely deliberate and fleetingly shallow. This scattered narrative only then served to dilute the emotional resonance after that amazing - utterly harrowing - home-birth sequence. 

Equally, and personally, as a supporter of hospital-based delivery, the emotional disconnect in the middle act was at times confusing and disconcerting. 

If Mundruczo and Weber had wanted to explore more of LaBeouf's and Burstyn's characters then they should have used the immediate post-tragedy period to elucidate each of these characters' drive and motivations, instead of diverging the narrative and emotional-weightage away from Kirby. Although, it was good that they chose to do a lot more showing than telling, but that did not take away from the uneven-ness of the film. 

Thankfully, they managed to stick the ending and the resolution was both satisfying and appropriate. It provided the necessary closure and did not seemed too false or saccharine.

Once again, Kirby was fantastic. She was riveting throughout as she fully committed to the role and especially that home-delivery sequence. Her navigation through her grief, her disconnect with her partner and family, and her longing desperation of a child lost was palpable and visceral. But, like I said, the film should have really focused on her; Kirby definitely had the goods to carry the whole 120 minutes on her shoulders. 

Looks like the race for Best Actress is likely settled. My bet for nominees will be Kirby, Carey Mulligan, Viola Davis, Frances McDormand and Sidney Flanigan, with only McDormand's performance still sight unseen. And my favourite to win would be Mulligan (for now, and even then, McDormand already has two Oscars). 

The music was by Howard Shore and was beautiful and elegiac if sometimes a bit too on the nose. Cinematography was by Benjamin Loeb and there were some really gorgeous interior shots and outdoor lighting captured.

Pieces of a Woman was a beautiful piece of film that unfortunately, after a terrific, standout opening sequence, did not fully live up to its potential to be unreservedly great despite Kirby giving a career-best performance and a standout supporting cast.

One Night in Miami [VOD]

 

An assured feature film directing debut for Regina King that continued this year's award trend for translating projects from stage to screen, from Netflix's Ma Rainey to the upcoming Anthony Hopkins/Olivia Colman's The Father. Adapted to the big screen by Kemp Powers from his own stage play, this was a powerful film that mediated on the themes of racism, equality, societal justice and personal duty and obligations. It also featured a breakthrough performance by Kingsley Ben-Adir as Malcolm X and supported by a well-cast Leslie Odom Jr doing a great Sam Cooke impersonation, Eli Goree as the young, cocky Cassius soon-to-be-Muhammad-Ali Clay and Aldis Hodge as the steady rock of the quartet, Jim Brown.

King's direction was graceful as she weaved the camera in and out and around these four men in a space as they talked, fought, laughed and debated. And when they split up into pairs for deeper - more personal communication - King choreographed the separations naturally and leaned in closer with her camera to capture the more intimate conversations and more subtle nuances.

Powers - in his second screenplay of the year, following Soul - fictionalised what happened behind closed doors in this real meeting of the four men. His screenplay spoke the truth but also tried to portray both sides of the coin but it was clear which side Powers (and perhaps even King) leaned towards. 

Comparisons with Ma Rainey's Black Bottom will be inevitable. Although both films dealt with similar themes, "One Night in Miami" was more overt in its presentation. However, where Ma Rainey's best it was in its acting and writing. The powerhouse performances by Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis anchored the film, and the very strong supporting actors that surrounded them capably lifted the strength of the ensemble as a whole. In addition, August Wilson's words had a more lyrical cadence and elegance that provided an hauntingly beautiful narrative.

Direction wise, both George C. Wolfe's and King's were comparable in that both films did not feel too stage-y despite the limited set pieces, but King attempted more versatility with more varied shots and angles whereas Wolfe opted for more close-ups and tightly composed shots to amplify the sweltering heat and heated emotions.

But where both films did well in were the music choices. It was 20s Ma Rainey blues with saxophonist Branford Marsali vs. the King of Soul, Sam Cooke, and jazz musician Terence Blanchard. Odom Jr might also be getting an Oscar nomination for his original composition, "Speak Now", played over the ending credit.

Ben-Adir was a revelation. His Malcolm X was a quiet, resolute man that belied a fiery passion that would erupt and engulf, but he was also fiercely compassionate, deeply religious and genuinely loving. Ben-Adir portrayed him with all these layers that slowly unpeel and unfurled and re-folded unto itself. 

Odom Jr had the next showiest role and although he did a great impersonation of Cooke, he did tend to veer towards over-acting. Perhaps it was a choice - director's or actor's - to elucidate Cooke's success with a more exaggerated performance, but it was a tad distracting.

Hodge and Goree had a little less to do but at least they each had one showcase scene. 

An engaging film by King that will surely remained in the awards conversation this year, but lacking  any powerhouse acting performances, it might be tough for it to break into the race proper. It's closest bets will be Best Song and Best Adapted Screenplay and a long shot for Best Actor and Best Director (never underestimate the love for Emmy and Oscar-winner Regina King).

Promising Young Woman [VOD]

A timely and bitingly smart revenge thriller that showcased a Carey Mulligan in a career-best performance that will surely propel her towards the front of the Best Actress race. Mulligan was smart, gorgeous, vulnerable and sympathetic all rolled into one, and each little gesture, glare and tick of the  lips conveyed so much knowingness and depth. This was a complex character brought amazingly to riveting life by the subtle nuances of Mulligan and it is hard to imagine another actress playing this role (maybe except a young Nicole Kidman during To Die For which this film clearly related to). 

In addition, this was also a tremendous feature film debut for writer/director Emerald Fennell that clearly portends an exciting future ahead. The writing was smart and clever, and the directing assured albeit a bit derivative but the potential was clearly there. Fennel amassed a great supporting cast around Mulligan, especially Bo Burnham, Laverne Cox, Jennifer Coolidge, Clancy Brown, Connie Britton and Alison Brie. They all brought their own individual distinctiveness to their characters that allowed them to shine. In particular, Burnham and Mulligan had great chemistry together and it was easy to ship them. 

Fennell created a Wes Anderson-esque film filled with symmetry and awashed in pastel hues. The pacing was smooth but overall it could have been just a bit tighter. At just under two hours, Fennell could have trimmed another 10 minutes off to really tighten up the story and focused a bit more on showing than telling to get the exposition across. Regardless, she did peppered the script with a lot of great one-liners, delivered with dry aplomb by Mulligan mostly. There is a real possibility that the smart script, coupled with the originality and timeliness of the film could score Fennell a nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

Another highlight of the film was Fennell's music choices. Together with Anthony Willis, they have curated a pop-soundtrack filled with girl-powered themes and remixes of classic hits that drove and teased the narrative. Britney's Toxic had never sounded so titillatingly ominous. 

Mulligan's Best Actress Oscar nomination is a sure thing, and for now, she is definitely my front runner. An utterly entertaining and intelligent film that just went slightly beyond expectations which made it exciting and satisfying to watch.