Return to 2022 Oscar Nominees

Ana de Armas in Blonde
Credit: Netflix

Now that the 2024 Oscars are over, I can return to catching up on nominated films from previous years. Recently viewed on Netflix were Blonde, the bizarre adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates' massive novel based on the turbulent life and career of Marilyn Monroe which earned Ana de Armas a Best Actress nomination and Animated Featured nominee Marcel the Shell with Shoes On. Ironically, Blonde also won Worst Picture and Screenplay from the Golden Raspberry Awards. It was also nominated for Worst Director and Worst Supporting Actor for  Evan Williams and Xavier Samuels who played Charlie Chaplin Jr. and Edward G. Robinson Jr. The film switched from black and white to color. The cinematography was beautiful, creating the look of black and white photography of the 1950s and the super saturated color of the era. de Armas gives a heartfelt performance, but the film is exploitative while condemning the exploitation of Marilyn. There are numerous gratuitous topless scenes.

Marcel was cute as the dickens and very sweet. Mixing animation and live action, Marcel depicts the relationship between a documentary filmmaker and a one-inch shell whose family has disappeared. Sentimental without being cloying.

Marcel the Shell with Shoes on
Credit: A24

Updated List of 2022 Oscar/Other Award Nominated Pictures Seen:
All Quiet on the Western Front (Netflix)
The Banshees of Inisherin (Amazon)
Elvis (HBO Max)

Everything Everywhere All at Once (Amazon)
The Fablemans (Amazon)
Tar (an actual movie theater--Kaufman Astoria Studios)

Triangle of Sadness (Hulu)
Women Talking (Amazon)

Till (Amazon)
To Leslie (Amazon)--surprisingly moving little indie film with a great lead performance by Andrea Riseborough as an alcoholic ex-Lottery winner (also loved Allison Janney as usual)

Aftersun (Amazon)

Living (Amazon)
The Whale (Amazon)

Causeway (Apple TV+)

EO (Lufthansa Flight 0404--Frankfurt to JFK)
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Netflix)
All the Beauty and Bloodshed (Amazon)
Navalny (HBO Max)

Fire of Love (Disney +)

Pinocchio (Netflix)

Puss in Boots 2 (watched half of it on Amazon)

Blonde (Netflix)

Marcel the Shell with Shoes on (Netflix)

Nominated Short Films:
The Flying Sailor (YouTube)
The Ice Merchants (YouTube)
My Year of D**ks (Hulu)
An Ostrich Told Me the World Is Fake and I Think I Believe It (Vimeo)--I liked this one best. Very funny satire on stop-motion animation.
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse (Apple TV+)
The Elephant Whisperers (Netflix)
Haulout (YouTube)
The Martha Mitchell Effect (Netflix)
Stranger at the Gate (YouTube)--Very moving story about a former Marine who plans to bomb a mosque, but ends up converting to Islam after meeting the people there.
Nightride (YouTube)
La Pupille (Disney +)