More Oscar Catching Up

Anora may have peaked too early 
for the Oscar race

The Golden Globes and the SAG nominations have upended awards season with surprises and snubs. In addition, the horrific Los Angeles wildfires have disrupted film production and forced the postponement of the Critics Choice Awards to Jan. 26 and the Oscar noms were pushed back to Jan. 19 and then again to Jan. 23. The catastrophic events have thrown Hollywood into disarray and many are questioning the appropriateness of celebrating during such a time of sorrow. I suspect the Oscars on March 2 will become a rallying cry to rebuild and carry on. Some celebs such as Jean Smart and Rosanna Arquette have called for the Oscars and the Grammys to be turned into telethons to raise money for the victims. In the meantime, I've viewed more potential Oscar contenders including Anora, A Complete Unknown, Babygirl, The Substance and The Last Showgirl. 

Like the transient, motel-dwellers in Sean Baker's Tangerine and The Florida Project, the characters in his Anora live on the edges of conventional society. Anora, a Brooklyn-based exotic dancer who falls for the son of a fabulously wealthy Russian oligarch, unashamedly pedals her body. The oligarch family and their minions operate above the law and other constraints. The difference is Anora and Igor, the hired muscle who tries to support her and is attracted to her, have a sense of honor beyond themselves. Ivan and his parents don't care who they step on as long as they get what they want. Mikey Madison is unvarnished and uncynical as the title character, fiercely believing in herself and the possibility of love in her sordid surroundings. Anora has collected numerous Best Picture awards from critics' groups and the Palme d'Or at Cannes, but may have peaked too early. Front-runner The Brutalist still has not had a wide release. Its three-hour-plus running time, weighty subject and Golden Globe Best Picture win put it at the front of the Oscar pack.

Nicole Kidman of Babygirl
may miss out on an Oscar nom

Babygirl, The Substance and The Last Showgirl are directed and written by women and feature female protagonists facing aging issues. The first two rely on the respective genre tropes of erotic thriller and horror while Gia Coppola's Showgirl is an intimate character study. I felt I knew the characters and what drove them in Anora. From Anora herself to the disgusting oligarch family to the hired goons who accompany Anora on a bizarre trek through Brooklyn and Manhattan, they were all real, three-dimensional beings. I didn't get the same depth from Baby Girl which stars Nicole Kidman as a super-successful CEO with serious sexual issues. In a reversal of Fatal Attraction, she begins a weird, semi-sadomasochistic affair with a 20-something intern (Harris Dickinson) who possesses almost supernatural sensitivity and wisdom. Apparently her husband (Antonio Banderas) just doesn't do it for her and doesn't understand her need to be humiliated. He's portrayed as out of touch with up-to-date psychology and power dynamics. He's a theater director staging a modern production of Hedda Gabbler. The fact that he's directing an "old-fashioned" play about women is supposed to be evidence of his cluelessness of his wife's needs.

Both Kidman and Dickinson's characters are not clearly defined beyond their sexual roles. Apart from a few lines and rapid flashbacks, we know nothing of their respective pasts or what motivates them. 

Demi Moore in
The Substance.
Credit: Working Title Films

The Substance is deliberately over-the-top, peopled with caricatures of show-biz types. Demi Moore stars as Elisabeth Sparkle, a mature exercise video star who has aged out of her network TV show. In a bow to Death Becomes Her, she becomes hooked on a mysterious formula which allows her to regenerate every other week into a younger, tighter self (Margaret Qualley, deliciously evil). The only problem is she must follow strict guidelines. Of course she doesn't with horrific results (no spoilers but the climax references Carrie). It's a wild, goofy film and Moore works hard, enduring prosthetic make-up (always a help in the Oscar race) and conveying Elisabeth's self-loathing and nutsy determination to stay young. Dennis Quaid is a zany cartoon as the chauvinist producer of her show.

Pamela Anderson in
The Last Showgirl
Credit: Roadside Attractions

While Babygirl is all about sex and The Substance is an elaborate parody, The Last Showgirl is sensitive and realistic. Like Elisabeth Sparkle, Shelly (Pamela Anderson in a career comeback not unlike Demi Moore's), is facing an uncertain future after decades of getting by on her looks. After 30 years, her tacky Vegas spectacle is closing and there is nowhere else for her to go. Anderson is touching, tender and transparent as Shelly. You can see her thoughts play across her beautiful features, especially when she is about to go onstage and her forced smile at first resembles a death's head grimace. But then the spotlight hits her and she exults in her natural element: the limelight. Jamie Lee Curtis is a riot as Shelly's gambling-addicted, cocktail-waitress friend, Annette.

The only negative result of so many strong performances by leading actresses is that some may be edged out of the final Oscar noms list. Jean-Marie Baptiste of Hard Truths has won the LA, NY and National Society of Film Critics Awards, but she was overlooked for the Golden Globes and SAGs. She, Kidman and Angelina Jolie of Maria might not make the Oscar cut.

Among the men the field is pretty solidified to Adrien Brody (The Brutalist), Daniel Craig (Queer), Colman Domingo (Sing Sing), Ralph Fiennes (Conclave), and Timothee Chalamant (A Complete Unknown). Chalamant impressively captures Bob Dylan's laconic, arrogant charm and the fireball of talent burning beneath his quiet exterior. The film concentrates on Dylan's emergence in the early 1960s to his embrace of electric rock, abandoning folk. So we don't get to know much about his earlier life. It's not strictly speaking a bio-pic, but a fascinating snapshot of a moment in musical history. 

2024 Oscar contenders seen:
Between the Temples (Angelika Film Center)
Conclave (Angelika Film Center)
Gladiator 2 (Regal Kaufman Astoria)
Wicked (IMAX at Lincoln Square)
The Piano Lesson (Netflix)
Hard Truths (Walter Reade/Lincoln Center)

Maria (Netflix)

His Three Daughters (Netflix)

A Real Pain (Kew Gardens Cinema)

Emilia Perez (Netflix)

Queer (Angelika Film Center)

Flow (Angelika Film Center)

Anora (Amazon Prime)

A Complete Unknown (Regal Kaufman Astoria)

Babygirl (Kew Gardens Cinema)

The Substance (Amazon Prime)

The Last Showgirl (Angelika Film Center)

Doc. Shorts

The Only Girl in the Orchestra (Netflix)

Eternal Father (New Yorker/YouTube)

Live-Action Shorts

I'm Not a Robot (New Yorker/YouTube)

AWARD WINNERS AND NOMINEES FROM MAJOR GROUPS:

BEST PICTURE

Anora (BOS, cc, fis, gg, LAFCA

The Brutalist (cc, CFC, GG, NYFCC

Challengers (gg
A Complete Unknown (cc, gg
Conclave (cc, gg

A Different Man (GOTH
Dune: Part Two (cc, gg

Emilia Perez (cc, GG

I Saw the TV Glow (fis
Nickel Boys (cc,  fis, gg, NSFC

A Real Pain (gg

Sing Sing (cc, fis, SD,
September 5 (gg

The Substance (fis, gg

Wicked (cc, gg, NBR, WDC

Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture

Amy Adams - Nightbitch (fis, gg

Pamela Anderson - The Last Showgirl (gg, sag
Cynthia Erivo - Wicked (cc, gg, sag

Karla Sofía Gascón - Emilia Pérez (cc, gg, sag 

Marianne Jean-Baptise - Hard Truths (cc, CFC, LAFCA, NYFCC, NSFC, SD

Angelina Jolie --Maria (cc, gg

Nicole Kidman - Babygirl (gg, NBR
Mikey Madison - Anora (BOS, cc, fis, gg, LAFCA, sag, WDC
Demi Moore - The Substance (cc, fis, GG, sag

June Squibb - Thelma (fis

Tilda Swinton - The Room Next Door (gg
Fernanda Torres - I’m Still Here (GG
Kate Winslet - Lee (gg

Zendaya - Challengers (gg

Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture 

Adrien Brody - The Brutalist (cc, CFC, GG, NYFCC, sag
Timothée Chalamet - A Complete Unknown (BOS, cc, gg, sag
Daniel Craig - Queer (cc, gg, NBR, sag
Ryan Destiny - The Fire Inside (fis
Colman Domingo - Sing Sing (cc, fis, gg, GOTH, NSFC, sag, SD, WDC
Jesse Eisenberg - A Real Pain (gg
Ralph Fiennes - Conclave (cc, gg, sag
Hugh Grant - Heretic (cc, gg
Keith Kupferer - Ghostlight (fis
Gabriel LaBelle - Saturday Night (gg
Jesse Plemons - Kinds of Kindness (gg
Glen Powell - Hit Man (gg
Hunter Schafer - Cuckoo (fis
Justice Smith - I Saw the TV Glow (fis
Sebastian Stan - The Apprentice (fis, gg
Sebastian Stan - A Different Man (GG

Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
Michele Austin - Hard Truths (NSFC
Monica Barbaro - A Complete Unknown (sag
Joan Chen - Didi (fis
Jamie Lee Curtis - The Last Showgirl (sag
Danielle Deadwyler – The Piano Lesson (BOS, cc, fis, sag, WDC
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor – Nickel Boys (cc
Elle Fanning - A Complete Unknown (NBR
Selena Gomez - Emilia Pérez (gg
Ariana Grande - Wicked (cc, gg, sag, SD
Felicity Jones - The Brutalist (gg
Carol Kane -- Between the Temples (fis, NYFCC
Karren Karagulian - Anora (fis
Kani Kusruti - Girls Will Be Girls (fis
Brigette Lundy-Paine - I Saw the TV Glow (fis
Natasha Lyonne - His Three Daughters (CFC
Margaret Qualley-- The Substance (cc, gg
Isabella Rossellini--Conclave (cc, gg
Zoe Saldana--Emilia Pérez (cc, GG, sag

Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role

Jonathan Bailey - Wicked (sag
Yura Borisov - Anora (cc, fis, gg, LAFCA, sag
Kieran Culkin - A Real Pain (cc, CFC, fis, GG, LAFCA, NBR, NSFC, NYFCC, sag, SD, WDC
Clarence Maclin - Sing Sing (cc, fis, GOTH
Edward Norton - A Complete Unknown (BOS, cc, gg, sag
Guy Pearce - The Brutalist (cc, gg
Adam Pearson - A Different Man (fis
Jeremy Strong - The Apprentice (gg, sag
Denzel Washington - Gladiator II (cc, gg

Winners are in caps, nominees are in lower case. BOS=Boston Society of Film Critics; cc=Critics Choice; CFC=Chicago Film Critics Association; gg=Golden Globes; fis=Film Independent Spirit; GOTH=Gotham Awards; LAFCA=Los Angeles Film Critics Assoc.; NBR=National Board of Review; NSFC=National Society of Film Critics; NYFCC=New York Film Critics Circle; SAG=Screen Actors Guild Awards; SD= San Diego Film Critics Society; WDC=Washington DC Area Film Critics Association