Oscars 2023: The Screenplays

Jeremy BeckOscars
Jeffrey Wright in American Fiction; Sandra Hüller in Anatomy of a Fall

Look out, we’ve got some races! Most of the high-profile categories at this year’s Oscars are open and shut, draining any suspense from the announcement of the winners. But the screenplay fields are (har har) a different story. Both races are legitimately competitive, requiring a delicate combination of mathematical analysis and historical intuition. Or you can just guess.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

NOMINEES
American Fiction—Cord Jefferson
Barbie—Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach
Oppenheimer—Christopher Nolan
Poor Things—Tony McNamara
The Zone of Interest—Jonathan Glazer Read More

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Oscars 2023: The Supporting Actors

Jeremy BeckOscars
Da'Vine Joy Randolph in The Holdovers; Robert Downey Jr. in Oppenheimer

And now, we get to the good stuff. Having previously analyzed the odds and ends and the big techies, we move on to the categories that are more likely to provoke excitement, debate, and name-calling. “He’s overacting!” “She disappears into the role!” “How could the Academy have nominated that guy over THAT guy??”

In my view, discussion of the acting categories isn’t especially interesting in terms of who will win (especially not in these two races, which are both veritable locks), or even who should. It’s most valuable as an excuse to publicize my own ballots, which are meant to fend off post-hoc grumblings about “snubs,” and which can be cited (and ridiculed) in perpetuity. Sure, it’s fine years after the fact to kvetch that Lily Gladstone should have been nominated in 2016 for her devastating performance in Certain Women, but how many of you monsters were on record saying that at the time?

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

NOMINEES
Emily Blunt—Oppenheimer
Danielle Brooks—The Color Purple
America Ferrera—Barbie
Jodie Foster—Nyad
Da’Vine Joy Randolph—The Holdovers Read More

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Oscars 2023: The Big Techies

Jeremy BeckOscars
A scene from El Conde

With the Oscars fast approaching, we’re digging into the various feature categories. Yesterday, we looked at some odds and ends; today, we’re moving on to “the big techies.” What makes these below-the-line categories more significant than yesterday’s grouping? My random and arbitrary opinion, that’s what. In fact, I’d like to congratulate Best Costume Design on graduating from the minor leagues and making its first ever appearance in this batch; the promotion was long overdue, given that roughly 80% of my Twitter account these days is just screenshots of actresses in beautiful dresses.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

NOMINEES
El Conde—Edward Lachman
Killers of the Flower Moon—Rodrigo Prieto
Maestro—Matthew Libatique
Oppenheimer—Hoyte van Hoytema
Poor Things—Robbie Ryan Read More

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Oscars 2023: The Odds and Ends

Jeremy BeckOscars
A scene from Nimona

Welcome to Oscars week! Over the next five days, we’ll be running through each of the 20 feature categories at the 96th Academy Awards, bestowing upon you our predictions, preferences, and assorted grievances. Will our analysis be rooted in a painstaking combination of industry buzz and historical research? Not remotely. But it’s important to go on record with these things, if only to have the receipts. Ten years after every Oscars, people invariably say things like, “How could the Academy not have nominated that guy for that movie??” Well, unless you file your own contemporaneous ballot before each ceremony as I do, I hereby decree your grumbling invalid.

Today we’re running through six miscellaneous categories—the fields that no normal human cares about, but which might make a difference in your Oscars pool (do people still do Oscar pools?). Let’s get to it.


BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

NOMINEES
The Boy and the Heron
Elemental
Nimona
Robot Dreams
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Read More

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Drive-Away Dolls: Sapphic Jam

Jeremy BeckReviews
Margaret Qualley and Geraldine Viswanathan in Drive-Away Dolls

One of the most deliciously perverse surprises of the Coen Brothers’ Burn After Reading occurs more than an hour into the movie, when the ominous device George Clooney has spent so much time tinkering with is revealed to be an elaborate sex toy. Drive-Away Dolls, Ethan Coen’s first venture (ignoring his little-seen documentary on Jerry Lee Lewis) without his sibling Joel, exhibits rather less patience in bombarding viewers with adult paraphernalia; within its first 15 minutes, contraband is inserted into various orifices, while a divorcing couple fights over ownership of a rubber phallus that protrudes invitingly from their living room wall. Sure, this movie may have half the number of usual Coens, but it has way more dildos.

This isn’t to suggest that Drive-Away Dolls is immature or unsophisticated. Setting aside that sex jokes can be very funny when delivered well, Coen’s solo debut is deceptively ambitious, cramming plenty of plot, action, and ideas into its fleet 84 minutes. Yet it lacks the elegant deftness of that Burn After Reading scene, which embodied the brothers’ nimble fusion of polished technique and puerile humor. Read More

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