Oscar Nominees Watch List Continues: Spencer, Drive, Power

Kristin Stewart in Spencer.

The quest to view as many Oscar-nominated films as possible before the ceremony on March 27 continues. Friday night March 4, I watched Spencer on Hulu with Kristin Stewart nominated for her bizarre performance as Diana, Princess of Wales. She was the last Best Actress nominee on my list and it was weird. The screenplay is set during a tense Christmas weekend at Sandinghurst Castle, right next to the now-abandoned estate where Diana grew up. Diana is practically off her chump at this point as her marriage with Charles has deteriorated. She suffers from bulimia as visions of Anne Boelyn dance in her head. The director and cinematographer cast everything in nightmare hues. Stewart's performance cries out "I'm having a nervous breakdown, see!" The Crown made more sense. This was like a bad psychological dream. So I don't think she stands a chance of winning and probably stole Lady Gaga's spot for House of Gucci. (If I can squeeze in the Gucci pic which is nominated for Hair and Makeup, I'll try. I want to see if was worthy or if the Academy just had it in for Gaga and Jared Leto. But I want to get in all the candidates for Best International Film, Animated Film, Documentary Feature, etc. first).

I've now seen all the 20 acting nominees and will make predictions and preferences just before the ceremony. Additional factors will include the BAFTAs and Critics Choice Awards which will take place on the same night. (March 13) Evidently, because of the 8-hour time difference, British nominees will be able to attend the Critics Choice via Zoom and then troop off to the BAFTAs immediately thereafter. 

The Critics' Choice Awards are looking to take over from the Golden Globes as an Oscar-influencer since NBC dropped the latter when the Hollywood Foreign Press Association failed to diversify its membership and there was some financial shenanigans.

Hidetoshi Nishijima and Toko Miura in
Drive My Car
Credit: Sideshow/Janus Films

Sat. March 5, we watched Drive My Car on HBO Max, the next to last Best Picture nominee I've caught. That only leaves Licorice Pizza, which just became available on streaming. Drive is a brilliant three-hour expansion of a short story by Haruki Murakami about an actor-director dealing with the loss of his playwright wife. As he stages a multi-language production of Uncle Vanya in Hiroshima, he comes to term with his grief by bonding with the young female driver he has been assigned by the theater company. I read the short story again just before seeing the film. The screenplay by the director Ryusuke Hamagushi and Takamasa Oe adds several plot lines including other Murakami short stories for a multi-layered, complex film which will probably win the Best International Film category. I would think it deserves Best Adapted Screenplay but that night go to Jane Campion for The Power of the Dog.

Other Oscar thoughts on Dog: Sam Elliott's homophobic remarks about The Power of the Dog may help the Jane

Sam Elliott; Benedict Cumberbatch:
Who owns the West?

Campion pic's chances. The star of Paramount Plus' 1883 series recently went on a sort of rant in an interview with Marc Maron on the WTF podcast, castigating the Power of Dog as an inaccurate depiction of the American West for its "allusions to homosexuality" including nude cowboys frolicking in some creeks and subtextual references to the relationship between Benedict Cumberbatch's character and a long-dead mentor. There may be a backlash against Elliott and toxic masculinity and in favor of the Power of the Dog among the younger generation of Oscar voters who may want to make up for the homophobic vote against another gay-themed Western Brokeback Mountain (2005). That film which was even more homoerotic than Dog, won Best Director and Adapted Screenplay, but lost Best Picture to the vastly inferior Crash. 

Elloitt seemed to take umbrage with Campion's depiction of a Western theme, as if she was saying the entire western USA was being covered in her film, and not just a piece of it. And how dare she film in her native New Zealand instead of Montana? What nerve to try and save some money. 

Oscar Nominees/Buzzed Movies Seen:
West Side Story (in the actual cinema, Kaufman Astoria on a Monday afternoon, we were the only ones in the theater)
The Power of the Dog (Netflix)

The Lost Daughter (Netflix)
tick...tick..Boom! (Netflix)
Don't Look Up (Netflix)
Passing (Netflix)
Being the Ricardos (Amazon)
The Tragedy of Macbeth (Apple Plus)
CODA (Apple Plus)
Belfast (iTunes)

Nightmare Alley (HBO Max)

Dune (iTunes)

King Richard (iTunes)

Flee (Amazon) 

Ascension (Paramount Plus)

Parallel Mothers (iTunes)

The Eyes of Tammy Faye (HBO On Demand)

The Mitchells Vs. the Machines (Netflix)

Spencer (Hulu)

Drive My Car (HBO Max)

Nominated Short Films

Lead Me Home (Netflix)

Three Songs for Benazir (Netflix)

Audible (Netflix)

Queen of Basketball (NY Times/YouTube)

On My Mind (The New Yorker/YouTube)

The Long Goodbye (YouTube)

Affairs of the Art (The New Yorker/YouTube)

The Windshield Wiper (YouTube)

Bestia (Vimeo--rented for $2.50)

Robin Robin (Netflix)