#oscah talk 2k19

[aliveandfullofjoy]

Trivia: 2018 Oscar Winners

Green Book is the worst movie to win Best Picture since Crash in 2005! Exciting times!

With Roma’s all-but-guaranteed win in Foreign Language Film, it marks Mexico’s first ever win in that category. It is the fourth win in the category for a Latin American country (the third was last year, for Chile’s A Fantastic Woman).

Also for Roma -- director/cinematographer/writer Alfonso Cuarón became the first ever winner of the Best Cinematography category to also serve as director for his film. It is also the first black-and-white film to win this category since Schindler’s List in 1993. Similarly, Cuarón is the first person to win Best Director for a film he acted as cinematographer on.

Similarly, Roma is the first foreign language film to win Best Director. 

In decades past, there would be a split between the Best Picture winner and the Best Director winner approximately once every ten years. However, since the implementing of the preferential ballot system for Best Picture, the Green Book/Roma split is the fifth one since 2010. In all situations, the Best Director winner was tech-heavy (Life of Pi, Gravity, The Revenant, La La Land, Roma) while the Best Picture winner was decidedly more a showcase for acting and writing (Argo, 12 Years a Slave, Spotlight, Moonlight, Green Book). It’s important to note all of the Best Director winners won at least tech award and all of the Best Picture winners won for screenplay. 

Another Roma stat! Cuarón’s victory in Director is the fifth win for a Mexican director since 2013 (when Cuarón won his first Oscar for Gravity). Alejandro G. Iñárritu won in back-to-back years (2014′s Birdman and 2015′s The Revenant) while Guillermo del Toro won last year for The Shape of Water. 

And final Roma stat, I promise: Alfonso Cuarón is now the fourth person to win two Best Director Oscars for two Best Picture losers. He joins Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain, 2005, and Life of Pi, 2012), George Stevens (A Place in the Sun, 1951, and Giant, 1956), and Frank Borzage (Seventh Heaven, 1928, and Bad Girl, 1932). 

The 21st Century Deborah Kerr and Thelma Ritter: Glenn Close and Amy Adams keep their records as the living actors with most nominations and no wins. Close has seven; Adams has six. Both lost to first-time nominees this year. 

Olivia Colman’s somewhat surprising win for The Favourite marks the second time someone won in the Best Actress category for playing a queen. The first was Helen Mirren as Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen in 2006. 

Every Best Picture nominee left the ceremony with at least one win.

Green Book is Universal’s first Best Picture winner since 1993′s Schindler’s List. It’s the first time one of the old major Hollywood studios has won Best Picture since Warner Bros.’s Argo in 2012. 

Mahershala Ali is the 4th person to win two acting Oscars in two different Best Picture winners. His win for Green Book was his second after he won for Moonlight in 2016. He joins Marlon Brando (Best Actor 1954 for On the Waterfront and Best Actor 1972 for The Godfather), Gene Hackman (Best Actor 1971 for The French Connection and Best Supporting Actor 1992 for Unforgiven), Dustin Hoffman (Best Actor 1979 for Kramer vs. Kramer and Best Actor 1988 for Rain Man), and Jack Nicholson (Best Actor 1975 for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Best Supporting Actor 1983 for Terms of Endearment -- he would also later win Best Actor 1997 for Best Picture nominee As Good As It Gets). He is the first actor of color with this distinction. Only men have achieved this distinction so far. 

Mahershala Ali joins Michael Caine, Melvyn Douglas, Anthony Quinn, Jason Robards, Peter Ustinov, and Christoph Waltz as two-time Supporting Actor winners. He is the first black actor to achieve this. Walter Brennan still holds the record in the category with three wins. 

Two for two: Mahershala Ali also joins Vivien Leigh, Luise Rainer, Hilary Swank, Christoph Waltz, and Kevin Spacey as two-time acting winners for only two nominations. 

Rami Malek is the first non-black person of color to win Best Actor since Ben Kingsley (Gandhi, 1982). 

Wakanda, indeed, forever: Hannah Beachler and Ruth Carter (both for Black Panther) made history as the first black women to win Production Design and Costume Design, respectfully. 

Black Panther’s three wins mark the first wins ever for a Marvel movie. 

Bohemian Rhapsody is the first music-themed film to win Sound Editing. The award has traditionally gone to action or war films. 

Domee Shi (Bao) is the first Asian woman to win Animated Short. 

Peter Ramsey (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse) is the first black director to win an Oscar as a director. The category for Best Director has still never had a black winner.

Of all 91 Best Picture winners, the color green is still the only color to be featured in the title of a Best Picture winner: How Green Was My Valley (1941) and Green Book (2018). 

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is the first non-Disney/Pixar winner in Animated Feature since Rango in 2011. Unlike Spider-Verse, Rango had no Disney/Pixar competitors. 

Green Book is the third film to win Best Picture after winning the Golden Globe Best Picture (Comedy/Musical) Award since 2000. The other two are Chicago (2002) and The Artist (2011).

For the first time in Oscar history, three of the four acting winners are people of color.

#oscar trivia #oscah talk 2k19 #2018 oscars #trivia #oscars #movies #sometimes elliott watches movies

[aliveandfullofjoy]

ALRIGHT let’s get this nonsense over with! Final Oscar predictions!

BEST PICTURE: Roma (dreading Green Book)

DIRECTOR: Alfonso Cuarón

ACTOR: Rami Malek

ACTRESS: Glenn Close

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Mahershala Ali (praying for a Richard E. Grant upset)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Regina King (though Rachel Weisz wouldn’t shock me)

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: The Favourite (though, if Green Book wins here, beware a Best Picture win)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: BlacKkKlansman 

ANIMATED FEATURE: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

ANIMATED SHORT: Bao 

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Roma 

COSTUME DESIGN: The Favourite 

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: Free Solo (rooting hard for Minding the Gap)

DOCUMENTARY SHORT: Period. End of Sentence.

FILM EDITING: BlacKkKlansman (fearing Bohemian Rhapsody)

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: Roma 

LIVE ACTION SHORT: Marguerite 

MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING: Vice 

ORIGINAL SCORE: If Beale Street Could Talk 

ORIGINAL SONG: “Shallow”

PRODUCTION DESIGN: Black Panther 

SOUND EDITING: Black Panther

SOUND MIXING: Bohemian Rhapsody

VISUAL EFFECTS: Avengers: Infinity War 

All Best Picture nominees win at least one award. 

Roma gets 4, BoRhap, Panther, Klansman, Favourite, and Beale Street get 2, Star is Born, Vice, Wife, and Green Book get 1. 

That feels pretty painless.

#oscah talk 2k19

[aliveandfullofjoy]

I have more Oscar-nominated performances left to go than usual on the day after the nominations! i haven’t seen BlacKkKlansman, Vice, Bohemian Rhapsody, or At Eternity’s Gate yet. but!! i have seen all the best actress nominees! so let’s do a ranking!

Olivia Colman, The Favourite (I’d personally put her in supporting, but I understand the leading placement -- she’s still the best in the category regardless)

Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me? (this performance is so so so beautiful y’all)

Glenn Close, The Wife (not a good movie by, like, any stretch of the imagination, but Close is so fucking good and will make for a truly great winner)

Yalitza Aparicio, Roma (she does really lovely, committed, honest work, but the script fails her)

Lady Gaga, A Star is Born (that scene where she sings “Shallow” onstage for the first time? beautiful acting. sincere. vulnerable. loved it. everything else? i’ll pass.)

Honestly?? It’s a very strong lineup. @ joe - we need to bring the best actress brawl back. omg.

#oscah talk 2k19

[aliveandfullofjoy]

REVIEW: A Star is Born (Cooper, 2018)

“...Music is essentially twelve notes between any octave. Twelve notes and the octave repeats. It's the same story told over and over, forever. All any artist can offer the world is how they see those twelve notes. That's it.”

Remember that moment when Ally is putting mascara and fake eyebrows on Jackson in the bath? And he says something like, "This has never been done before," and she laughs and says, "Oh this has definitely been done before." That's the part that I enjoyed this movie the most.

I think the pieces are all there with A Star is Born. Lady Gaga makes for a decent actor, even if her dead eyes were really wearing me down by the end of the movie, and she's indisputably a phenomenal vocal talent. Bradley Cooper, in a classic Best Actor winning performance, conveys every breakdown he has with such intense commitment that it's hard to not find his character pitiable (and his singing is VERY impressive). Sam Elliott is there and he doesn't do a lot but he's pretty alright at what he does! Oh, and Dave Chappelle? And the rest of the cast is pretty rough.

The problem is the script. Eric Roth (my nemesis, it seems), Will Fetters, and Cooper himself are credited with the writing, and it hampers every single aspect of the movie. Why does the film seem to not care about its titular Star, so much so that we can't even give her a last name? Why exactly does Ally stay with Jackson, beyond owing him the birth of her career? Why is Ally so weirdly spineless in every decision made about her career and her life? Why did they give these actors so many terrible lines of dialogue (and so many gratuitous "fucks")?

Gaga gets the short end of the stick. Like I said, the film seemingly couldn't give a damn about her once it makes her into a star. I found her performance in the first 25 minutes or so to be extremely compelling and believable (save for the parking lot scene which...was something), climaxing in her being pulled onstage to sing "Shallow" for the first time. There's a palpable sense of vulnerability and anxiety and of just putting blind faith to work in jumping off the deep end (pardon the pun). The rest of the performance, unfortunately, I didn't really buy. Her chemistry with Cooper is strong and undeniable, but just about all of her major acting beats felt really...directed? Like almost none of it felt like her actually creating a character and living truthfully in it. She walked there because Cooper told her to.

Cooper, again, acts the shit out of his role, and makes an impressive directorial debut. He has a remarkable eye for composition, but his handling of the actual storytelling falters for me (which, again, I blame on the script). The script's big injustice towards Jackson is in not showing the audience nearly enough of his highs--we only see him on the skids or slightly above the skids. I try not to critique movies on what they are not, but it seems obvious to me that Jackson's downfall would be that much more moving if we were to actually see him at his best for more than, like, half a scene. If we got some sense of him getting better.

The music is fun and surely soon-to-be-iconic. "Shallow" will make a fine Best Song winner (congrats on that Oscar, Gaga and Mark Ronson!), and I'm sure "I'll Never Love Again" will be lip-synced in drag bars the world over for years to come. My girlfriend and I have growled "Maybe it's time to let the old ways die" multiple times since leaving the theater! So not all hope is lost.

(Also, the camp factor cannot be denied. My favorite lines in any movie in years are now from the out-of-fucking-nowhere screaming match between Cooper and Elliott: "YOU TURNED THE RANCH INTO A FUCKIN' WIND FARM!!" "Our father's GRAVE GOT WARSHED AWAY IN A STORM!!!" Reader, I cackled.)

For me, there were passing moments where I found myself moved. Unfortunately, it just didn't add up to anything cohesive enough to really move me enough. Bravo to Cooper on his debut, and brava to Gaga for being a charismatic singer. But that's about all I got.

#a star is born #bradley cooper #lady gaga #sam elliott #sometimes elliott watches movies #film reviews #oscah talk 2k19

[aliveandfullofjoy]

some wishes for oscar nomination morning, as far fetched as they may be. if any of these happen, i’ll be over the MOON.

Beale Street overperforms! i’ll be thrilled with Jenkins in directing, but recognition for its immaculate costuming and cinematography and score would be awesome. in my wildest dreams, a nomination for Brian Tyree Henry.

Green Book underperforms! no Viggo! no screenplay! preferably no nominations at all but that’s too unrealistic. 

Bohemian Rhapsody underperforms! no best picture nom! no below-the-lines! literally only Rami and I’m good. 

Vice underperforms! no best picture nom! i can live with only Bale and Adams tbh!

any big (good) surprises in director! Chloé Zhao, Debra Granik, the Coens, Bo Burnham!

Elsie Fisher coming through and Castle-Hughesing the shit out of everyone in Best Actress!

Steven Yeun in supporting actor! 

Buster Scruggs overperforms! I’m not holding my breath, especially because Netflix has put all their efforts into Roma (and understandably so), but any recognition whatsoever will be accepted and embraced! screenplay, score, production design, cinematography, costume design, SONG!

“OYAHYTT” gets in best song!

lordy. let’s do this thang tomorrow.

#oscah talk 2k19

[aliveandfullofjoy]

Oscar nominations are about five days away! Here are my final predictions. 

(in alphabetical order)

BEST PICTURE 01. Black Panther 02. BlacKkKlansman 03. Bohemian Rhapsody 04. The Favourite 05. Green Book 06. If Beale Street Could Talk  07. Roma 08. A Star is Born 09. Vice 

DIRECTOR 01. Bradley Cooper (A Star is Born) 02. Alfonso Cuarón (Roma) 03. Barry Jenkins (If Beale Street Could Talk) 04. Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite) 05. Spike Lee (BlacKkKlansman)

ACTOR 01. Christian Bale (Vice) 02. Bradley Cooper (A Star is Born) 03. Ethan Hawke (First Reformed) 04. Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody) 05. John David Washington (BlacKkKlansman)

ACTRESS 01. Yalitza Aparicio (Roma) 02. Glenn Close (The Wife) 03. Olivia Colman (The Favourite) 04. Lady Gaga (A Star is Born) 05. Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)

SUPPORTING ACTOR 01. Mahershala Ali (Green Book) 02. Timothée Chalamet (Beautiful Boy) 03. Adam Driver (BlacKkKlansman) 04. Sam Elliott (A Star is Born) 05. Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS 01. Amy Adams (Vice) 02. Claire Foy (First Man) 03. Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk) 04. Emma Stone (The Favourite) 05. Rachel Weisz (The Favourite)

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY 01. Eighth Grade 02. The Favourite  03. Green Book  04. Roma  05. Vice 

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY 01. BlacKkKlansman 02. Can You Ever Forgive Me? 03. The Death of Stalin 04. If Beale Street Could Talk 05. A Star is Born

ANIMATED FEATURE 01. Incredibles 2 02. Isle of Dogs  03. Mirai 04. Ralph Breaks the Internet  05. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse 

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM 01. Burning (South Korea) 02. Capernaum (Lebanon) 03. Cold War (Poland) 04. Roma (Mexico) 05. Shoplifters (Japan)

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE 01. Minding the Gap 02. RBG 03. Shirkers  04. Three Identical Strangers 05. Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

ORIGINAL SCORE 01. BlacKkKlansman 02. First Man 03. If Beale Street Could Talk 04. Isle of Dogs  05. Mary Poppins Returns 

ORIGINAL SONG 01. “All the Stars” (Black Panther) 02. “Girl in the Movies” (Dumplin’) 03. “I’ll Fight” (RBG) 04. “Shallow” (A Star is Born) 05. “Trip a Little Light Fantastic” (Mary Poppins Returns)

FILM EDITING 01. Bohemian Rhapsody 02. First Man  03. Roma 04. A Star is Born 05. Vice 

CINEMATOGRAPHY 01. Cold War 02. The Favourite  03. First Man  04. Roma  05. A Star is Born 

PRODUCTION DESIGN 01. Black Panther 02. The Favourite  03. First Man  04. Roma 05. A Star is Born 

COSTUME DESIGN 01. Black Panther  02. Bohemian Rhapsody 03. The Favourite  04. Mary Poppins Returns  04. Mary Queen of Scots 

MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING 01. Black Panther 02. Border 03. Vice 

SOUND MIXING 01. Black Panther  02. Bohemian Rhapsody 03. Mary Poppins Returns  04. A Quiet Place  05. A Star is Born 

SOUND EDITING  01. Black Panther  02. First Man  03. A Quiet Place  04. Roma 05. A Star is Born 

VISUAL EFFECTS 01. Avengers: Infinity War  02. Black Panther  03. Ready Player One 04. Solo: A Star Wars Story 05. Welcome to Marwen  

DOCUMENTARY SHORT 01. Black Sheep 02. End Game 03. Lifeboat 04. Period. End of Sentence. 05. Zion

ANIMATED SHORT 01. Age of Sail 02. Bao 03. Late Afternoon  04. Lost & Found 05. One Small Step 

LIVE ACTION SHORT 01. Caroline 02. Chuchotage  03. Marguerite  04. Skin 05. Wale 

--

Nomination tally: 11 - A Star is Born   9 - The Favourite; Roma  7 - Black Panther  6 - BlacKkKlansman; First Man; Vice   5 - Bohemian Rhapsody; If Beale Street Could Talk; Mary Poppins Returns  3 - Can You Ever Forgive Me?; Green Book  2 - Cold War; Isle of Dogs; A Quiet Place; RBG

#oscah talk 2k19 #oscar predictions

[aliveandfullofjoy]

The Globes were last night and they were messy as always! I’m gonna articulate some thoughts on the state of the Oscar race. Hell yeah hell yeah hell yeah.

LMFAO Bohemian Rhapsody!?! Is a fucking top five Best Picture contender? Jesus Christ. Woof. Okay. 

Looks like Rami Malek is gonna go all the way. I had a feeling it would be a hard train to stop if it ever started, and this is all he needed. SAG will fall in line (as will BFCA, but they don’t really matter). BAFTA was never not going to award Freddie Mercury. And then there’s no way he loses the Oscar. And statistically, someone like Malek beating someone like Cooper -- who has three previous acting nominees in the last six years and made his directorial debut with one of the very biggest movies of the year, which he also starred in and is Hollywood catnip -- makes absolutely no sense to me. But this just means Cooper can build his overdue narrative for a Pacino-esque win down the line. Yikes. 

Speaking of overdue! Glenn Close is here to make it a race! She is probably winning SAG too, after that great speech. Colman could spoil at SAG, but she will win BAFTA in her sleep. Nothing would make me happier than a Close/Colman tie, but honestly between the two, I’m happy with either. I would be slightly happier with a Colman win, because I think it’s a much better performance, but I also have a strong hunch this isn’t the last we see of her at the Oscars -- after the last couple years that she’s had, she is winning at least one someday. Close is terrific in her (very bad) movie and it’s such a feel-good moment. And Sony Pictures Classics is so so so good at getting overdue actresses Oscars based solely on the overdue narrative -- they just did it with Julianne Moore. AND NO GAGA IN SIGHT LOL. Sad for McCarthy, but she and Blunt will be fourth and fifth place. 

And for another overdue actress... sorry, Amy. It’s just not your year. Regina King is in it to win it. She obviously can’t win SAG because lol, that snub. I don’t think she’ll win BAFTA (I’m leaning towards Weisz because they’re bound to love The Favourite and she’s never won there). Assuming SAG goes for someone else (Blunt?), King can walk away with a win in a split race. She has the backing of every major critics group, and her film is a passion pick anyway. I’m so thrilled for her. 

The Globes had an IOU for Ali because it’s one of the two major awards he lost for Moonlight (the other being BAFTA and I’m super curious to see if he’ll pick that up this year too), but even with that in mind, I think Supporting Actor is his to lose. Grant’s movie is too weak, Chalamet is barely hanging on, Driver has never had the momentum to win, and Elliott will be happy to be nominated. Ali is a co-lead in a top five Best Picture nominee, and it is not at all unheard of for someone to randomly win a second Oscar in supporting with that exact same formula -- Christoph Waltz just did it.

Roma was the other big winner last night, despite not being eligible for Best Picture Drama. The Globes have historically been very friendly to actors-turned-directors. Robert Redford, Kevin Costner, and Mel Gibson all won there, and then went on to win the Oscar, but the Globes also awarded Ben Affleck, Barbra Streisand, and Paul Newman, all of whom were snubbed by the Academy -- a bad sign for Cooper? If Cuarón can win here, he’s steamrolling to a second Oscar. Roma is a weird Best Picture situation because it won’t be competing for acting nominations or a win in screenplay, but it can and will win Cinematography, Directing, and Foreign Language Film, and could even conceivably take Editing, which would be more than enough for a Best Picture win. Also, here’s a fun fact: if Roma were to win all of those awards, Cuarón himself would end the night having gotten onstage to accept an award FIVE TIMES. 

#oscah talk 2k19

[aliveandfullofjoy]

Caty and I saw the Oscar-nominated animated shorts last night and here is my Very Important Ranking and Thoughts!

Bao (dir. Domee Shi) - A I loved this so much. It's such a deeply felt and emotionally mature fable. I can't think of too many Pixar shorts I like better, to be entirely honest. This is very clearly a miniature masterpiece, a gorgeous testament to motherhood and to post-empty nest depression and a testament to the cultural and familial bonds forged through cooking. Like, the music! The character design! The image of mother and son, estranged, eating together and crying says so much more with no dialogue than practically any of this year’s Best Picture winners.

One Small Step (dir. Andrew Chesworth and Bobby Pontillas) - A- It's very cool that the two best and most emotionally affecting of this year's animated short nominees feature Asian women as their protagonists. Though the mother in Bao and Luna Chu in One Small Step couldn't be further from each other, it's a really touching testament that more inclusive representation could be finally on its way (with each “one small step”). This film is a miniature marvel -- Luna makes for an incredibly endearing protagonist, and her unspoken relationship with her father is very moving, right down to the film's hard-earned happy ending. Undoubtedly one of the best of the bunch. 

Late Afternoon (dir. Louise Bagnall) - B+ A few years ago, during the 2016 marathon, one of the "highly commended" films was a Canadian-French short called The Head Vanishes, with some similar subject matter (an old woman in the throes of dementia). Late Afternoon treads on similar ground, but in very different ways, and while I find the other film superior, this one is still a moving and beautifully realized piece of work.

Weekends (dir. Trevor Jimenez) - B I wanted to like Weekends so much more than I actually did. On one hand, it feels like a beautifully rendered working-through of childhood traumas (those nightmare scenes might not add too much in the way of plot, but they are visually stunning). On the other hand, it feels a bit too fuzzy in narrative and unclear in its conclusion. There are some indelible images here, and the warmth is palpable, but I just wanted more?

Animal Behaviour (dir. David Fine and Alison Snowden) - C- Uuuuuuuuuuuuuugh. This one is, at best, aggressively dumb and at worst, offensively bad. With a sense of humor that's as obvious as it could possibly get ("see, the pig is a glutton! the cat coughs up a hairball! leeches!"), Animal Behaviour is the easy fifth place of this year's offering of animated shorts. Aimless, unfunny, and ugly.

I’m firmly #TeamBao.

#bao #animal behaviour #weekends #late afternoon #one small step #oscah talk 2k19 #animated shorts

[aliveandfullofjoy]

some Oscar observations on A Star is Born

Cooper is winning Best Actor and it’s gonna be a solid win. just from this decade, I like the performance more than Oldman’s, DiCaprio’s, McConaughey’s, and Redmayne’s wins. so it’ll be nice not hating the winner! 

My money is still on Glenn Close to win Actress. 

I truly think Cooper will make a serious fight for Director. I can see it being Cooper vs. Cuarón in a nailbiter. 

Honestly? I don’t see how it keeps up the steam to win Best Picture. The whole name of the game nowadays is to not be seen as the frontrunner and right now, Star is Born is THE frontrunner. It’s only October and there’s a long way to go. Also though, if it did end up winning Picture, it wouldn’t be the worst winner ever, but it’d pretty easily be my least favorite since Argo.

#a star is born #oscah talk 2k19

[aliveandfullofjoy]

REVIEW: First Man (Chazelle, 2018)

“Your dad’s going to the moon.”  “Okay. Can I play outside?”

Huge shoutout to Ryan Gosling real quick. He manages to imbue Neil Armstrong with an enormous amount of pathos and humanity despite playing a famously private and withdrawn human being. I made some passing comment about this in my collection of thoughts on Blade Runner 2049, but Gosling is a tremendous actor, especially with what he does in silence. Still waters run deep with Armstrong, as we see multiple times over. That he turns in such a moving performance with so little dialogue is a real achievement.

First Man is also an impressive directorial achievement from Damien Chazelle. With his other two feature films making significant splashes in their respective years (2014's Whiplash, a film I really like, and 2016's La La Land, a film I was pretty meh on) and in becoming the youngest person to win a Best Director Oscar, Chazelle has become something of a wunderkind in Hollywood. This is the first film of his that he hasn't written, and because of that, the film doesn't quite carry the youthful energy that the others do. Whereas his two earlier films were bursting at the seams with vibrant joy and enthusiasm, First Man is patient, almost clinical in its handling of its subject. Chazelle handles every moment in a spacecraft with intense claustrophobia--the stakes feel super high all the time--but it's his moments with his family that stuck out the most to me. Adopting almost a home video aesthetic, he pushes us into the center of the domestic drama between Armstrong and his wife (a superb Claire Foy) and two sons.

Another shoutout to Foy for being the only other person in the film to really leave an impression. Her Janet is the quiet emotional anchor of the homefront half of the film, and she does so with a quiet and beautiful dignity, and an impressive American accent.

The film looks great, sounds great, and is intelligently written by Josh Singer. The cast is strong, even if very few characters have the opportunity to stand out. The story moved me, even with its cold nature. I do get the feeling that the passion, the drive, the "why are we telling this story in 2018" was lacking a bit, and I doubt it's something I'll revisit anytime soon. Still, very well done, and very successful in what it sets out to do.

#first man #damien chazelle #sometimes elliott watches movies #oscah talk 2k19 #ryan gosling #claire foy