Garry Gillard > Australasian Cinema > awards > Oscars > GG rating
See also: long list of possibles as @ end 2021.
Here are my best film nominees, in my preferred order, and also awards won.
1. Nightmare Alley (Guillermo del Toro, 2021)
Helluva good film, with a bit of everything, and something for everyone, as the carny folk in it might say. There's a intriguing story to start with. Then, it has excellent casting, acting, editing, cinematography, design, and of course direction, and should earn Guillermo del Toro his second Oscars for best film and direction (but won't).
2. West Side Story (Steven Spielberg, 2021) Best Supporting Actress
Not a reinvention of the Jerome Robbins film: it's a tribute. Though it is better – it has more energy, more style, more finish, and more seriousness - it's not because it's trying to outdo Robbins and Wise - it's because it's sincerely trying to be worthy to be in the same universe of film-making as the original film. And it is.
3. Belfast (Kenneth Branagh, 2021) Best Original Screenplay
Excellent film, in the tradition of British working-class films from directors like Mike Leigh. The people we see in shades of grey are seen by each other at this time as black or white, Protestant and Catholic. The childhood Romeo and Juliet, are one from each group. The little boy asks his father if he has a future with the girl. The film hopes so.
4. CODA (Sian Heder, 2021) Best Film, Best Adapted Screenplay
This is the film I enjoyed most. Apple paid $25m just for the rights to distribute this film, which gives you a good idea of how sure they were that it would be popular. They were right. It has all kinds of popular appeal. It's funny, and you care about the people because you get a real insight into their lives. Great craftpersonship from Emilia Jones.
5. Drive My Car (Ryusuke Hamaguchi, 2021) Best International Feature
A long film in which not a lot happens, but it's very satisfying. As the title implies, there is lot of time spent in the titular car. But it's shot steadily and it's not tedious. Which is characteristic of the whole film: there is a steady pace throughout, along the three or four story strands, with the interest being maintained by the integrity of the acting.
6. The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion, 2021) Best Director
Campion has always been interested in deviations from the norm, and the disturbance of conventional gender expectations. Excellent lensing makes Aotearoa look what (I imagine) Montana might look like. But I felt no empathy, nor interest in the matters raised. Cumberbatch is miscast; and the less said about the tall skinny kid the better.
7. Don't Look Up (Adam McKay, 2021)
A comedy of a kind, a satire. I didn't find it amusing because I'm not an American. Which also explains why I didn't understand all of the dialogue. I enjoyed very few moments of this - although most of the actors do an excellent job, especially Cate Blanchett. She is so in character that I had to check the credits!
8. Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2021)
This film only exists because Philip Seymour Hoffman died in 2014 and Anderson wanted to make a film starring his son Cooper. Why else would there be a film trying to make some random dumb kid look interesting, playing opposite a chick who looks like one of the witches from Macbeth (but has worse taste)?
9. Dune: Part One (Denis Villeneuve, 2021) Best Picture, several other awards
I sat through it all. Heroically.
10. King Richard (Reinaldo Marcus Green, 2021) Best Actor for Will Smith
It's about tennis.
That's it for the ten films nominated for Best Film. There are others I would have included in the ten rather than some of the above.
Tick, Tick... Boom! (Lin-Manuel Miranda, 2021)
I might have been more involved in this if I'd heard of Jonathan Larson, who died very young after a brilliant beginning to a career. It's a much better than acceptable musical and passed the time very pleasantly. Andrew Garfield is consistently good.
Parallel Mothers (Pedro Almodovar, 2021)
All of the acting is outstanding. All the technical stuff is excellent. But there are two completely separate stories. One is about two mothers and their babies. The other is about a mass grave from a Spanish conflict being dug up. I can't see any connexion between the two, so don't know why they're in the same film. It's not life, it's art.
The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun (Wes Anderson, 2021)
Wes Anderson might be an acquired taste. If so, I've acquired it. (Except for his continuing connexion with his very good friend Owen Wilson, who drags all of his films down.) Apart from him and Elisabeth Moss – great cast in this.
The Lost Daughter (Maggie Gyllenhaal, 2021)
I assume it's meant to be read as an 'art film' - which label lets the director do what she likes (and as it is her first go, why not?) The main character can appear to be dying and then sit up and brightly take a phone call while at the same time peeling an orange which has miraculously appeared.
No Time to Die (Cary Joji Fukunaga, 2021)
It's James Bond, so no surprises. It's a tradition. But it cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make - and it is up there on the screen. Waste of time (and money) if you like, but for me it passed it pleasantly (the time, not the money).
Being the Ricardos (Aaron Sorkin, 2021)
I might have tried to squeeze this into my top ten, but it's ... our Nic. She works so hard ... and she's never quite right. In this one, I kept thinking (obviously) of Lucille Ball. And, because she's in another 2021 film, of Cate Blanchett. It's almost unfair to compare Kidman to a real actress ... but she's trying. Very.
Old Henry (Potsy Ponciroli, 2021)
A beautifully crafted western. I was fortunate to see it without knowing anything about it. By the time you read this you'll probably know who Old Henry was. But I didn't, so the story was a delicious experience in itself. ... The only film I've seen since I can't remember that has not a single female in it.
C'mon C'mon (Mike Mills, 2021)
This is one of the two films made in an attempt to win the best actor award. Joaquin Phoenix is good, despite having to work with a cute kid. (There might even have been a dog as well.)
Pig (Michael Sarnoski, 2021)
Nicholas Cage is the other would-be best actor. Making a better choice than Joaquin (a pig is less cute than a dog) he doesn't ham it up. Sorry. ... He's a better actor than Benedict Cumberbatch in the other film about a Dog.
Red Rocket (Sean Baker, 2021)
It's a bit embarrassing admitting you liked a film about a porn star. It's both exploitative trash and also perhaps a work of art. I suppose the compromise position is to say that it's a great show about some pretty ordinary people. (And at least one of them is really pretty :)
Bergman Island (Mia Hansen-Løve, 2021)
The Bergman interest is signalled in the title - flagrantly selling the film to every would-be cinephile - as who could possibly resist the desire to see a film set on Farö, where Bergman lived and died. There's the scenery and beautiful young people. It's also has two stories, and Tim Roth. What's to not like?
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (Will Sharpe, 2021)
I thought this was charming, and Benedict Cumberbatch wonderful — and I don't even like cats. The critics don't seem to like BC. I suppose they've just seen too much of him. He's not good in the Dog film, but he is in this. 'Tics'? That's acting. (Louis Wain, a real painter, did like cats.)
Swan Song (Todd Stephens, 2021)
This is a sort of road movie (walking, not driving), a (gay) love story, and it's also about mortality - not to mention coiffure, and queer culture. Udo Kier is perfectly cast in the lead role in this, as a camp hairdresser making his last appearance and doing his last do. I think it's charming.
The Hand of God (Paolo Sorrentino, 2021)
Excellent movie if you're Italian (and especially if you're a Maradona fan), but I didn't get personally involved. Not the movie's fault, I assume, just my failure to empathise with a different culture. I feel the same way about Fellini.
The Humans (Stephen Karam, 2021)
Seeing this was first a play, I was looking out for theatricality, in the sense of the set looking like a stage set with actors in the kinds of compositions found on a proscenium arch stage. Nuh. Nothing remotely like that. On the contrary, this is a very cinematic film, in that it has lots of shots and camera angles chosen for their striking visuality.
India Sweets and Spices (Geeta Malik, 2021)
The title refers to both a fictional store in New Jersey and also to the nature of the relationships in and between families of financially successful Indian-Americans: there is conflict both internal and external. But it all ends well.
The Worst Person in the World (Joachim Trier, 2021)
An essay on freedom. But the main character has only been 'free' to be seen engaging in her different challenging and high-level occupations for very limited amounts of screen time, because the (male) writers are not interested in her except as a vehicle for the investigation of a woman's negotiation with men.
Lamb (Valdimar Johannsson, 2021)
It's a well-made, good-looking film but the story is so silly that I literally laughed at loud at the 'reveal'.
Cyrano (Joe Wright, 2021)
All of the cinematic stuff is OK, but there are two major faults. The obvious one is casting a vertically-challenged person as Cyrano de Bergerac. (Sorry, but I just don't buy it.) And the other is that it's a musical, and the music is crap.
Spencer (Pablo Larrain, 2021)
This is a poor, third-rate film. Particularly in relation to the acting. It's about the royals: the Spencer of the title is Lady Di – and of course we know just what they look like and how they act and speak. And the cast in this isn't much better at portraying them than the people at your local rep. Except for Kristen Stewart: she's my vote for Best Actress!
Spider-Man: No Way Home (Jon Watts, 2021)
This grossed US$1.8 billion: that's obscene. I wonder how Benedict Cumberbatch deals with his peers when they're having a drink, and they give him a hard time for making a million dollars for waving his hands around in front of a green screen. I suppose he buys them another round of swimming pools.
Black Widow (Cate Shortland, 2021)
I watched enough of this to establish that it's a Marvel franchise film, and that's all that needs to be said. I'm glad for Cate Shortland that she's reached the top level of directing in the narrow sense of being paid most, but I hope she goes back at some stage to making films about people instead of comic book characters.
Eternals (Chloé Zhao) not yet seen
Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Destin Daniel Cretton, 2021) not yet seen (but I've seen Thor:Ragnarok :)
House of Gucci (Ridley Scott, 2021)
The story, such as it is, is thin. People do crime, do time, the end. It's the kind of thing you pay brief attention only because you're in the dentist's waiting room and it's the only magazine to read. The Gaga person is apparently in some form of showbiz other than acting. Adam Driver has always looked to me like a robot - one without AI.
The Tragedy of Macbeth (Joel Coen, 2021)
The Tragedy of Mrs Joel Coen only exists (I think) because Fran McDormand, having often been told she's a good actress, wanted to have a go at Lady Macbeth (as you do). As a friend said, she looks like a cleaning lady. But she's not as bad as Denzel. His Macbeth is just a grifter who happens to try the wrong sting in the wrong situation.
The Last Duel (Ridley Scott, 2021)
Matt Damon and Adam Driver as 14C French knights?! Yeh, right. I really can't imagine why Ridley Scott (born 1937) would be the slightest bit interested in a medieval costume drama with crap actors. I didn't bother to see all of this. Two Ridley Scotts in the bin. Tch.
Green Knight, The (David Lowery, 2021)
See the previous title. Isn't it a bit too woke to cast Indians as characters from Welsh legends? But then this is a film in which the writer doesn't know his 'thee' from his 'you', and has never heard of 'thou'. The last line of dialogue is one of the few uttered by the green knight. He has just stroked Gawain's cheek, and says, 'Now give me your head.' Um.
Annette (Leos Carax, 2021)
I sat through Adam Driver's inadequate performance as 'standup comic', thinking 'this will never end' and 'at least once it's over I'll never have to watch it again' — and then just a bit later he did it all again - only worse. After all that, and a couple of Marion Cotillard's pathetic attempts at singing operatically, I gave up.
Card Counter, The (Paul Schrader, 2021)
The story is really about what happened at Abu Ghraib, and what should happen to the perpetrators as a result. So it's to do with retribution (but not forgiveness.) The other manual that's referred to (and demonstrated) is to do with Enhanced Interrogation Techniques (torture). It's a horrible film, and I recommend you don't see it.
Garry Gillard | New: 7 March, 2022 | Now: 29 January, 2023