Thoughts on The Room Next Door

Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore in
The Room Next Door.
Credit: Warner Brothers
Entertainment Inc.

The characters in Oscar winner Pedro Almodovar's The Room Next Door speak as if they've translated from another language. The dialogue is in complete sentences and is stiffly formal. It reminded me of Woody Allen's "serious" films like Interiors where everyone spoke as if they were at a board meeting. This is probably because it's Almodovar's first English-language feature. It felt as there was a filter between me and his protagonists Ingrid and Martha. I couldn't relate to their serious dilemma--the terminally ill Martha (Tilda Swinton looking like the White Witch of Narnia) wants her friend Ingrid (Julianne Moore) to be in the next room when she commits suicide and handle any pesky loose details like dealing with the police. I kept thinking, "Can't she just move to a state where euthanasia is legal like Oregon?" The lady in front of me at the movie said a friend of hers just told everyone she was ending it all and heading to New Jersey where the practice is evidently OK. It's also legal in Washington (both the state and in DC), Hawaii, Maine, Colorado, California and Vermont. But maybe you have to be a resident there and Martha couldn't wait. Another element that reminded me of Allen's Interiors: there was no humor. A big switch from the auteur of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.

The lead actresses and John Turturro as a former lover of both deliver bloodless performances. Turturro plays a pompous author forecasting gloom and doom because of climate change and the pairing of the radical right with neo-liberalism. He seems to exist solely for Ingrid to declare optimism while they eat lunch in a beautiful upstate restaurant. (The art direction is tastefully sterile, like the film itself.)

Swinton did receive a Golden Globe nomination, probably because in addition to playing Martha, she dyed her hair and doubled as Michele, Martha's estranged daughter. Due to the crowded Best Actress field, she probably will not make the Oscar list.

Meanwhile, in this year's quest to see as many potential Oscar nominated films as possible, I viewed animated features Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl and The Wild Robot, as well as Dune Part 2 on Max. The cartoons were charming and the sci-fi spectacle featured impressive special effects (for which it was undoubtedly receive a nomination), but if I hadn't read the books 50 years ago when I was a teenager, I would have had no idea what was going on.  

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)

Dune: Part Two (Max)

Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (Netflix)

The Room Next Door (Kew Gardens Cinema)

The Wild Robot (Amazon Prime)

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, bafta, cc, fis, gg, LAFCA

The Brutalist (bafta, cc, CFC, GG, NYFCC

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

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

Emilia Perez (bafta, 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 (bafta, cc, gg, sag

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

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

Angelina Jolie --Maria (cc, gg

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

Saiirse Ronan - The Outrun (bafta

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 (bafta, cc, CFC, GG, NYFCC, sag
Timothée Chalamet - A Complete Unknown (bafta, BOS, cc, gg, sag
Daniel Craig - Queer (cc, gg, NBR, sag
Ryan Destiny - The Fire Inside (fis
Colman Domingo - Sing Sing (bafta, cc, fis, gg, GOTH, NSFC, sag, SD, WDC
Jesse Eisenberg - A Real Pain (gg
Ralph Fiennes - Conclave (bafta, cc, gg, sag
Hugh Grant - Heretic (bafta, 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 (bafta, 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 (bafta, 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 (bafta, gg
Ariana Grande - Wicked (bafta, cc, gg, sag, SD
Felicity Jones - The Brutalist (bafta, 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 (bafta, cc, gg
Zoe Saldana--Emilia Pérez (bafta, cc, GG, sag

Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role

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

Winners are in caps, nominees are in lower case. BAFTA=British Academy of Film and Television Arts; 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