The Nominations Are In

First of all, I’d like to thank the Academy for choosing to reveal this year’s Oscar nominees on my birthday. It was truly a fantastic way to begin the celebrations. Overall, I’d say I’m happy with the choices this year. I was holding my breath when they announced the nominees for Best Actress because I was so afraid Kristen Stewart was going to be snubbed. Thankfully, she pulled out a nomination and who knows? Bella Swan may be walking away with an Oscar come March 27th.

Now I’d like to compare my personal choices in eight major categories with the choices made by the Academy. Without further ado, here they are:

My Choices: Best Picture

Belfast
CODA
Drive My Car
Dune
King Richard
Licorice Pizza
The Lost Daughter
The Power of the Dog
The Tragedy of Macbeth
West Side Story

Official Nominations: Best Picture

Belfast
CODA
Don’t Look Up
Drive My Car
Dune
King Richard
Licorice Pizza
Nightmare Alley
The Power of the Dog
West Side Story

It looks like the Academy agreed with me on all but two films: The Lost Daughter and The Tragedy of Macbeth. I knew The Lost Daughter was a long shot but I’m really offended about Macbeth. In place of the films I picked, the Academy chose Don’t Look Up and Nightmare Alley. All of the films are worthy of the distinction but there can only be so many nominees.

My Choices: Best Director

Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza
Kenneth Branagh, Belfast
Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog
Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Lost Daughter
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Drive My Car

Official Nominations: Best Director

Kenneth Branagh, Belfast
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Drive My Car
Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza
Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog
Steven Spielberg, West Side Story

So I overshot on Maggie Gyllenhaal. Sue me. Four out of five isn’t bad.

My Choices: Best Actor

Benedict Cumberbatch, The Power of the Dog
Peter Dinklage, Cyrano
Andrew Garfield, tick, tick… Boom!
Will Smith, King Richard
Denzel Washington, The Tragedy of Macbeth

Official Nominations: Best Actor

Javier Bardem, Being the Ricardos
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Power of the Dog
Andrew Garfield, tick, tick… Boom!
Will Smith, King Richard
Denzel Washington, The Tragedy of Macbeth

Switch Dinklage and Bardem and I nailed it. I’m not surprised Bardem secured a nomination given how much the Academy loves movies about show business, but I still remain unimpressed with his performance. I may need to watch Being the Ricardos again and reevaluate my opinion. If I do, you all will be the first to know.

My Choices: Best Supporting Actor

Bradley Cooper, Licorice Pizza
Ciarán Hinds, Belfast
Troy Kotsur, CODA
Jesse Plemons, The Power of the Dog
Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Power of the Dog

Official Nominations: Best Supporting Actor

Ciarán Hinds, Belfast
Troy Kotsur, CODA
Jesse Plemons, The Power of the Dog
J.K. Simmons, Being the Ricardos
Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Power of the Dog

I’m not surprised about J.K. Simmons. For one thing, he’s already won the Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role once and the Academy tends to reward industry veterans. Combined with that, he was a very convincing William Frawley. Up until now, the award has all but sat atop Kodi Smit-McPhee’s mantle. Now, it’s anyone’s guess who will walk away with Oscar gold. One thing that’s working against Kodi Smit-McPhee is that his costar Jesse Plemons is competing against him in the same category. Greater odds have been surmounted but now that Simmons is in the ring, we’ll have to wait until the night of the ceremony to see who will win.

My Choices: Best Actress

Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Olivia Colman, The Lost Daughter
Nicole Kidman, Being the Ricardos
Frances McDormand, The Tragedy of Macbeth
Kristen Stewart, Spencer

Official Nominations: Best Actress

Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Olivia Colman, The Lost Daughter
Penélope Cruz, Parallel Mothers
Nicole Kidman, Being the Ricardos
Kristen Stewart, Spencer

Frances McDormand is usually a safe bet, but I guess the Academy has decided she’s been recognized enough in the past several years. At any rate and once again, four out of five isn’t bad.

My Choices: Best Supporting Actress

Caitríona Balfe, Belfast
Jessie Buckley, The Lost Daughter
Ariana DeBose, West Side Story
Ann Dowd, Mass
Kathryn Hunter, The Tragedy of Macbeth

Official Nominations: Best Supporting Actress

Jessie Buckley, The Lost Daughter
Ariana DeBose, West Side Story
Judi Dench, Belfast
Kirsten Dunst, The Power of the Dog
Aunjanue Ellis, King Richard

I’m the most angry about Kathryn Hunter being snubbed. Did the Academy voters even watch The Tragedy of Macbeth?

My Choices: Best Original Screenplay

Belfast
Don’t Look Up
The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun
King Richard
Licorice Pizza

Official Nominations: Best Original Screenplay

Belfast
Don’t Look Up
King Richard
Licorice Pizza
The Worst Person in the World

Four out of five. That appears to be how I’m trending.

My Choices: Best Adapted Screenplay

CODA
Dune
The Lost Daughter
The Power of the Dog
The Tragedy of Macbeth

Official Nominations: Best Adapted Screenplay

CODA
Drive My Car
Dune
The Lost Daughter
The Power of the Dog

Well, that’s it. Let me know what you think. Like the rest of you, I’ve got a lot of movies to watch.

Thanks as always for being a faithful reader of The Voracious Bibliophile. If you like what you see, please like, comment, follow, and subscribe to my email list to get notified of new posts as soon as they drop. You can also email me at fred.slusher@thevoraciousbibliophile.com or catch me on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest @voraciousbiblog. Keep reading the world, one page (or pixel) at a time.

Film Review: The Lost Daughter (2021); Directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal

Elena Ferrante is one of my favorite writers, so you can imagine how nervous I was when I first heard that The Lost Daughter (2008) was being adapted as a feature film. To give you some context, I have yet to watch a single episode of HBO’s My Brilliant Friend, which is based off Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels. The series, which includes My Brilliant Friend (2012), The Story of a New Name (2013), Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (2014), and The Story of the Lost Child (2015), follows two friends, Elena and Lila, from the time they are little girls to when they are elderly women, through love, marriage, heartbreak, and not least of all the changing sociopolitical landscape of their neighborhood in Naples, Italy.

I tried to watch an episode when it first came out, but those books mean too much to me to have them sullied by a less-than-sensational adaptation. There’s a chance it’s decent, yes, but I am not that much of a gambler.

There is no better marriage than that between literature and film, but only when it’s done right.

Then I found out that Maggie Gyllenhaal would be helming the ship as both director and screenwriter of The Lost Daughter, and quelle intrigue, I was starting to feel a little hopeful. There is no better marriage than that between literature and film, but only when it’s done right. Finally, I heard that Olivia Colman was starring as the lead and that sold me. Colman, who won an Oscar for her portrayal of Queen Anne in Yorgos Lanthimos’s 2018 film The Favourite, is a fierce, intelligent, and inimitable talent. She’s nearly unmatched.

Colman, who won an Oscar for her portrayal of Queen Anne in Yorgos Lanthimos’s 2018 film The Favourite, is a fierce, intelligent, and inimitable talent. She’s nearly unmatched.

I mean, how many actors do you know who can hold their own (much less shine, as she did) when paired with someone like Sir Anthony Hopkins? The answer is not many, of course.

The idyllic scene is almost too idyllic, as if something dark and primordial is lurking just beneath the surface, waiting for the veil of darkness to ensnare whom it may.

In The Lost Daughter, Colman plays Leda Caruso, a professor and scholar of comparative Italian literature on holiday in Greece. The idyllic scene is almost too idyllic, as if something dark and primordial is lurking just beneath the surface, waiting for the veil of darkness to ensnare whom it may. The bowl of fruit in Leda’s rented apartment, at first sight so inviting, conceals rot. The gentle breezes blowing through her bedroom carry an insect to her pillow which startles her awake and stains her pillow with its blood.

The shifting tectonics of the fractured idyll create an atmosphere of unease which pervades the entire island.

The shifting tectonics of the fractured idyll create an atmosphere of unease which pervades the entire island. One day, a boisterous family interrupts Leda on the beach and asks her to move her lounge chair so they can all sit close together, unbroken. Owing them nothing and caught off-guard by their crassness, Leda (at first politely) tells them no. She is not interested in moving. Some viewers might watch this scene and think, Why doesn’t she just move? It’s not that big a deal, right? But it’s not really that simple, either. Some people’s lived experiences socialize them to be protective of any space they’re able to carve out for themselves. Naturally, they become fiercely protective of that space and those boundaries. As they should. As we all should.

Some people’s lived experiences socialize them to be protective of any space they’re able to carve out for themselves. Naturally, they become fiercely protective of that space and those boundaries. As they should. As we all should.

After her initial run-in with some of the members of the family, Leda makes a connection with Nina (Dakota Johnson) after Leda finds Nina’s daughter Elena when she goes missing on the beach. Then Leda does something that at the time seems strange—she steals Elena’s doll. Nina and the rest of her family search high and low for the doll, even going so far as to offer a reward for its safe return. Nina is worn threadbare. Elena is fractious and inconsolable. All the while, Leda is surreptitiously caring for the doll—cleaning it, buying it clothes, and caressing it much like one would an infant.

Nina is worn threadbare. Elena is fractious and inconsolable. All the while, Leda is surreptitiously caring for the doll—cleaning it, buying it clothes, and caressing it much like one would an infant.

Intermittent flashbacks show Leda as a young mother interacting with her daughters, Bianca and Martha. Anyone can see that she loves her daughters fiercely but lacks the mothering instinct often idolized in the popular culture. She feels smothered, bombarded. Every plea and poke strips her of something she’d much rather keep exclusively for herself. She’s like a beachcomber dodging scores of dive-bombing pelicans, a trapeze artist balancing on an ever-thinning wire. She cycles through irritation, rage, and agony like they’re outfits picked for different days of the week. When she begins getting recognized for her scholarship, she feels the pull toward escape like an iron filing to a magnet. Once a successful and handsome colleague (Peter Sarsgaard) gives her the professional validation she seeks as well as the sensual adulation she craves, the frayed apron strings are all but severed entirely.

She feels smothered, bombarded. Every plea and poke strips her of something she’d much rather keep exclusively for herself. She’s like a beachcomber dodging scores of dive-bombing pelicans, a trapeze artist balancing on an ever-thinning wire.

I won’t spoil the ending, mostly because I want everyone who reads this blog and everyone I know in real life to watch this film. Maggie Gyllenhaal and Olivia Colman have gifted us with one of the most honest depictions of motherhood ever seen in any medium. Many scholars have waxed poetic about the divided feminine for years, as anyone who’s had to listen to a lecture on the Madonna-whore complex can tell you. But, Gyllenhaal moves the dial beyond this simplistic dichotomy to encompass all the parts of womanhood seldom spoken about in tandem with motherhood. And she does so, with the help of Colman and Johnson, of course, without placing a value judgment on any of these planes of existence. These women are simply allowed to be, in all of their glorious complexity. That in itself is a tremendous achievement.

The Lost Daughter received a limited theatrical release beginning on December 17th, 2021 and began streaming on Netflix on December 31st, 2021.

Film Review: Being the Ricardos (2021); Directed by Aaron Sorkin

Promotional poster for Aaron Sorkin’s *Being the Ricardos*. Copyright 2021 Amazon Studios.

In Being the Ricardos, Kidman lends her talents for transformation to her portrayal of Lucille Ball, almost inarguably the greatest television comedienne to ever work in the medium.

If I hit him in the face until he is bleeding, does our insurance cover that?
Lucille Ball (Nicole Kidman), to her husband Desi Arnaz (Javier Bardem), about an irksome director

By now, American moviegoers are well-acquainted with Nicole Kidman and her talent for transformation. Woe unto the would-be cinephile who neglects to study her performance as Virginia Woolf in Stephen Daldry’s The Hours, for which she was awarded the 2002 Academy Award for Best Actress. In Being the Ricardos, Kidman lends her talents for transformation to her portrayal of Lucille Ball, almost inarguably the greatest television comedienne to ever work in the medium. You have to give props to pioneers Carol Burnett and Betty White as well, but I would argue that they were not possible without Lucille Ball paving the way for them with her grape-stained feet. Javier Bardem stars alongside Kidman as Desi Arnaz, Lucille’s real-life and television husband. Being the Ricardos also benefits from its stellar supporting cast, including Academy Award-winning actor J.K. Simmons as William Frawley, Tony Award-winning actress Nina Arianda as Vivian Vance, and Alia Shawkat as Madelyn Pugh. Linda Lavin portrays an older Pugh in mockumentary-style interviews interspersed throughout the film, and it should be said that any production benefits from Lavin’s inclusion.

Far from being an overarching biopic of Ball’s life or the marriage of Lucy and Desi, Being the Ricardos instead focuses in on one turbulent week during the filming of I Love Lucy.

Far from being an overarching biopic of Ball’s life or the marriage of Lucy and Desi, Being the Ricardos instead focuses in on one turbulent week during the filming of I Love Lucy. I have to mention here that parts of the film are blatantly ahistorical. Desi’s ousting as a philanderer, Lucy’s Communism debacle, and the announcement of her pregnancy did not all occur in the same week. However, I am willing to forgive Aaron Sorkin for condensing more drama into that fateful week than actually existed because we are talking about the cinema here and sometimes the cinema requires a little greasing of the wheels, so to speak.

What chafes me is that Lucy’s deeper involvement with Communism wasn’t explored. If they weren’t going to do it justice it should have been left out entirely. Along with that, certain episodes of I Love Lucy that were discussed in the film were misnumbered for no justifiable reason, allowing the pedantic among us (yours truly included) to itch with irritation.

I feel like the film would have been better served by focusing on one conflict rather than oscillating between numerous subplots that make the narrative shallow when the objective is depth.

I feel like the film would have been better served by focusing on one conflict rather than oscillating between numerous subplots that make the narrative shallow when the objective is depth. They could have eighty-sixed the Communism and the concomitant hokey convo between Desi, J. Edgar Hoover, and the live studio audience near the end of the film. Instead, to give the film its proper denouement, Lucy could have confronted Desi about his philandering right before the taping of the episode, leaving him shocked and shaken while Lucy triumphs once more as America’s most-beloved housewife.

The fact is, I hate to be so critical of a movie I enjoyed so much but I feel like a good movie was robbed of the opportunity to be great simply because Sorkin was trying to do too much at once. In my opinion, the best scenes in the film are the ones between Kidman and Arianda (Vivian Vance) and Kidman and Shawkat (Evelyn Pugh), respectively.

In my opinion, the best scenes in the film are the ones between Kidman and Arianda (Vivian Vance) and Kidman and Shawkat (Evelyn Pugh), respectively.

During the scenes where Lucy is engaged in conversation with the two women, the gender politics of the era (of any era, really) are thrown into sharp relief. Pugh’s presence as a woman in a writer’s room when so few women were given seats at the table provides fodder for excellent conversations about agency, representation, and the sharing of credit in a collective creative process. At the same time, Vance’s body issues and self-consciousness surrounding her weight illuminate the stark contrast in privilege that exists between Lucy, who is thin, trim, and wields enormous power on the set as the title character, and Vance, who is often written as the designated ugly fat friend married to a cantankerous old man when she is so much more than that.

Pugh’s presence as a woman in a writer’s room when so few women were given seats at the table provides fodder for excellent conversations about agency, representation, and the sharing of credit in a collective creative process…At the same time, Vance’s body issues and self-consciousness surrounding her weight illuminate the stark contrast in privilege that exists between Lucy, who is thin, trim, and wields enormous power on the set as the title character, and Vance, who is often written as the designated ugly fat friend married to a cantankerous old man when she is so much more than that.

J.K. Simmons is being lauded for his turn as William Frawley, and while his performance is more than solid, I really want to see the Academy give Nina Arianda some love too, if for nothing else but deftly navigating Vance’s struggles vis-à-vis the gendered body politics of both the entertainment industry and the country at-large during the 1950s. When you see Vance struggling, it reminds you that precious little progress has been made toward body positivity and acceptance of people of all sizes, especially for women and femme-presenting people.

All in all, despite its cluttered script and odd pacing, Being the Ricardos succeeds due to its incredible performances from not only Kidman, who is a revelation, but the rest of the powerhouse cast as well.

Being the Ricardos was released on December 10th, 2021 and is now available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.

Film Review: Spencer (2021); Directed by Pablo Larraín

Kristen Stewart as Diana, Princess of Wales in Spencer (2021); directed by Pablo Larraín. Copyright 2021 Neon.

When we first meet Kristen Stewart’s Princess Diana, she is running late to spend the Christmas holiday with other members of the royal family at Sandringham House, one of Queen Elizabeth’s sprawling country estates. She is desperate and harried as she drives aimlessly through the countryside, her frustration mounting when she can’t seem to find her destination. Discordant notes and flourishes, which characterize the film’s score, heighten the moment’s anxiety, thereby drawing the viewer into concert with Diana’s inner turmoil.

Discordant notes and flourishes, which characterize the film’s score, heighten the moment’s anxiety, thereby drawing the viewer into concert with Diana’s inner turmoil.

It will not escape the notice of the attentive viewer that the story of Diana chosen to be told by the filmmakers is that of the events surrounding the royals’ Christmas holiday in 1991. Sandringham House lies in close proximity to Park House, the abandoned neighboring estate which was Diana’s childhood home. Periodic flashbacks return Diana to that idyllic past, one which remains for her devastatingly out of reach.
Stewart’s Diana is a luminous and haunted creature, much like she was in real life. She is surrounded by the ghosts of all the lives she is not allowed to live and constrained by a future she can predict with startling accuracy. Throughout the course of the film, she is made at every turn to feel like she’s dancing on the knife edge of sanity, but to the working class viewer Diana appears to be the only sane one in the group of royals. I mean, how hard should it be to get someone to turn the heat on? And is it really asking too much to not want to be weighed before entering the hallowed premises like some Holstein cow at a livestock auction?

She is surrounded by the ghosts of all the lives she is not allowed to live and constrained by a future she can predict with startling accuracy.

To a far lesser degree, I feel as if I understand Diana’s plight. I know what it’s like to have seemingly everyone in the world wanting something from you that you feel ill-equipped to give, wanting nothing more for yourself than to be left alone. During one scene from the film, Diana is secretly eating when one of the Sandringham House caretakers accosts her and tells her that because of the recent media attention she’s attracted, she would do well to close her blinds while she changes clothes. It’s a little early to speculate, but if (and this is a big if) Stewart wins the Oscar for Best Actress, it will be in large part because of her retort, which I’m including below:

Their lenses are more like microscopes, really. And I’m the insect in the dish. See, they’re pulling my wings and my legs off one by one — making notes on how I react.

At every turn she is weighed and found wanting until there is nothing left of her but the image and the simulacrum of the person she wants to be.

Princess Diana was one of the first women castigated on a truly global scale by the mass media. Every grain of her private life was excavated and inspected for its potential value. The scales at Sandringham House become a metaphor for Diana’s entire existence: At every turn she is weighed and found wanting until there is nothing left of her but the image and the simulacrum of the person she wants to be.

It [Spencer] is a snapshot, a few pages torn from the diary of a life. It’s a deeply-felt character study of a woman flirting with the darkness in her own mind.

Whatever you want to call Spencer, it is not a biopic. It is a snapshot, a few pages torn from the diary of a life. It’s a deeply-felt character study of a woman flirting with the darkness in her own mind. There are parts of the film I wouldn’t hesitate to call Hitchcockian, and it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if Stewart watched Kim Novak’s performance in Vertigo before filming a pivotal scene at the ruins of Park House.

All in all, Spencer is a delightfully stylish, if unsettling portrait of one of the most beloved, misunderstood, and mercurial figures of the twentieth century. Just give Stewart the freaking Oscar already.

Spencer was released on November 5th, 2021 and is now available to stream on YouTube, Google Play Movies & TV, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV, and Vudu.

Quote for the Day: November 28th, 2021

*The Life of Emile Zola* (1937); directed by William Dieterle

All my friends have told me that it was insane for a single person to oppose the immense machinery of the law, the glory of the army, and the power of the state. They warned me that my actions would be mercilessly crushed, that I would be destroyed. But what does it matter if an individual is shattered if only justice is resurrected?
The Life of Emile Zola (1937); directed by William Dieterle

Quote for the Day: November 27th, 2021

Each serves his country in his own way – one with a sword, the other with a pen. Posterity will choose between your name and mine.
The Life of Emile Zola (1937); directed by William Dieterle

Quote for the Day: November 22nd, 2021

Xavier Dolan as Maxime (left) and Gabriel D’Almeida Freitas as Matthias (right) in a scene from *Matthias & Maxime* (2019); directed by Xavier Dolan

Sometimes, you spend your life doing one thing, and in the end, it wasn’t your thing.
Matthias & Maxime (2019); directed by Xavier Dolan

Is this primarily a book blog? Yes. Have I been posting a lot of quotes from films? Also yes. Well, this is my blog, and I’ll post whatever I want whenever I want for as long as I want. I am also of the opinion that film, as much as literature, is text. Don’t take my word for it, though—Thomas C. Foster’s Reading the Silver Screen: A Film Lover’s Guide to Decoding the Art Form That Moves is the perfect place to start for any would-be cinephile or for that matter, anyone who appreciates the movies and wants to learn more about them.

There are hints of Bergman, of course. Some Truffaut and Fellini. Van Sant is flickering always in the background. But there’s something else there too, something which belongs wholly and exclusively to Dolan.

I love Xavier Dolan. Some of you may remember my review of his film J’ai tué ma mère (I Killed My Mother) (2009), which I called a “semi-autobiographical, near-perfect evocation of the vagaries of queer adolescence”. You can tell that the young auteur is well-read when it comes to great films from the way he sets up his mises en scène to the way he is able to harness every drop of emotional resonance in each frame. There are hints of Bergman, of course. Some Truffaut and Fellini. Van Sant is flickering always in the background. But there’s something else there too, something which belongs wholly and exclusively to Dolan.

The fact that Dolan is only 32 years old means that we’re hopefully only seeing him at the depth of his powers. I only hope the planet holds out long enough for us to see him at his height.

Quote for the Day: November 21st, 2021

*Sound of Metal* (2019); directed by Darius Marder

…so disconcerting the things that your memory holds onto without you knowing.
Sound of Metal (2019); directed by Darius Marder

Quote for the Day: November 17th, 2021

*The Human Comedy* (1943); directed by Clarence Brown

Sing me a song, boy. Protect me from the murder of age and time. Protect me with your songs and your young dreams.
The Human Comedy (1943); directed by Clarence Brown