Today is the second of three days' worth of the 2024 Hollmann Awards. The full list of nominees is here, the first six winners are here. Six more categories we'll discuss today, beginning with:
Best Director
I talked about the elements I consider in this category when discussing Best Director 2003. This group of nominees all also wrote their films, executing the extra challenge of successfully depicting on screen what's on the page and in their heads. They had a vision, they saw it through.
Impressive when you consider how Brady Corbet had both a strong character piece and sweeping American epic in The Brutalist. Or when you consider the fount of information and music Johan Grimonprez had to keep coherent in Soundtrack to a Coup d'État. Or when you consider how Mike Leigh continues to burrow into the lives of people with humanity and understanding, deftly balancing Hard Truths' comedy and drama. Or when you consider the absolute swing Bertrand Mandico makes with gory, glamorous take on human barbarity through the ages in She is Conann. Or when you consider how Jane Schoenbrun taps into collective nostalgia to make The Pink Opaque and the late-90s/early-00s past familiar, nostalgic, melancholy, haunting...a beautiful nightmare.
The winner is:
Jane Schoenbrun
I Saw the TV Glow
2. Brady Corbet for The Brutalist; 3. Johan Grimonprez for Soundtrack to a Coup d'État; 4. Mike Leigh for Hard Truths; 5. Bertrand Mandico for She is Conann
Best Actor
Surprisingly, this was a year where the industry kept getting it right. Three of my nominees are also Oscar nominees, and all three are performances that I've heard nary a criticism against. One of my nominees almost made it, and it's no surprise I included him here, but to me, it's an undeniable performance. And one was a surprise for me, a performance I saw by chance and was floored by.
Adrien Brody goes through it in The Brutalist, and he's convincing at every turn, whether it's the tearful hopes of reunions, the awkward pride-swallowing of service, the unpredictable outbursts of post-trauma, or the confident rhapsody with which he expresses his vision. Daniel Craig may be used to playing boisterous fellows, but in Queer, his loquaciousness barely hides deep pain and a desperate need to be wanted and fulfilled, all while scoffing at the idea - a painful, funny, real performance. Colman Domingo has a kind the confidence of one who rules his area of Sing Sing, but he also conveys the fear of wasting away in that prison before that parole board scene where the wind is knocked out of him - and us. Ralph Fiennes gets one of his juiciest roles in Conclave, his furrowed brow telegraphing silent doubt, quiet anger, and a very general worry that is poorly hidden - he's quite witty, too. Guy Pearce arrives as a man of the cloth but he is the titular The Convert, and it is an inherent goodness within the flaws that he makes clear, so much so that his conversion is a welcome inevitability.
The winner is:
Adrien Brody as László Tóth
The Brutalist
2. Daniel Craig in Queer; 3. Ralph Fiennes in Conclave; 4. Guy Pearce in The Convert; 5. Colman Domingo in Sing Sing
Best Original Song
We rank them from fifth to first:
5. I Saw the TV Glow - "Another Season"
music and lyrics by Frances Quinlan and Kyle Pulley
4. Hundreds of Beavers - "Jean Kayak and His Acme Applejack"
music and lyrics by Wayne Tews
3. Problemista - "Huele a Fraude"
music by Lia Ouyang Rusli
lyrics by Julio Torres, Stefa Marin Alarcon and Lia Ouyang Rusli
2. Emilia Pérez - "Mi Camino"
music and lyrics by Camille Dalmais and Clément Ducol
1. I Saw the TV Glow - "Claw Machine"
music and lyrics by Haley Dahl
Best Visual Effects
One must not just consider most effects or even, frankly, most realistic effects. Rather, how the visual effects enhance the narrative and its environment. Even if the effects are cartoonish or "cheesy", do I still believe them within the context of the story? That's what I'm rating here.
Gladiator II uses VFX to create a true spectacle for us and the bloodthirsty Colosseum crowds: armored rhinos, a staged sea battle complete with hungry sharks, and actual bloody warfare between civilizations come to visceral, entertaining life. Hundreds of Beavers is a live-action cartoon, only as effective as the VFX artists' commitment to "the bit" that enables our hero to face harsh winters, an out-of-control barrel run, and a beaver mech. I Saw the TV Glow recaptures the magic of 90s television with The Pink Opaque's tie-dye skies and viscerally horrifying rogues' gallery (Mr. Melancholy is a nightmare) but doesn't skimp on the "reality" outside the show, like neon static floating in the air or sparks flying from a burst TV. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes maintains the honesty of its mo-cap performers' work while allowing them the freedom to play chimps and orangutans in a fertile, wild landscape. Megalopolis is as committed to "the bit" as Hundred of Beavers, allowing its hero to stop time and walk in the sky above New Rome, which itself is full of statuary wincing, mourning, crumbling to the ground.
The winner is:
Hundreds of Beavers
Brandon Kirkham, puppet builder and performer
Mike Cheslik, visual effects
2. I Saw the TV Glow, 3. Megalopolis; 4. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes; 5. Gladiator II
Best Production Design
The Brutalist brings to us a mid-century America in the process of change, a complex, labyrinthine structure that looms large yet unassuming, the polished, perfect wood of American wealth, the cramped warmth of its jazz clubs, a party in the heart of a mine. I Saw the TV Glow gets the colors just right, leaves clues (or misdirection?) in the background and props of its reality, and, most importantly, recalls the importance of Fruitopia. Lisa Frankenstein is so specific and accurate that I whispered to a friend, "It looks like 1989," before it was revealed that it was exactly 1989, so even through the lens of its classic movie-loving goth girl heroine, the shades of pastels came through as just right. She is Conann has cocaine sex appeal and a lake of human art and a cave of Hell and a decadent window into the end times, it's both proudly theatrical and boldly cinematic. The Substance just wouldn't work without Elisabeth Sparkle's penthouse - that huge carpeted living space, that narrow underused kitchen, that impossibly white bathroom, the negative space where the undesired self is hidden - or that TV studio with the endless hallway and coke-ready executive desk, or that awful side street where the substance is obtained.
The winner is:
The Brutalist
Judy Becker, production design
Csaba Lodi, supervising art direction
Patricia Cuccia / Mercédesz Nagyváradi, set decoration
2. The Substance; 3. I Saw the TV Glow; 4. Lisa Frankenstein; 5. She is Conann
Best Original Screenplay
I love the complexity of character and narrative of The Brutalist, how full an experience it feels yet still allows for lingering questions and conversations. I love Dìdi's commitment to a character who keeps royally fucking up, sees it happening, and is embarrassed yet helpless: this is what adolescence is, the wrong thing, all the time. I love the warmth of Chantelle's home and the cold of Pansy's and how their dialogue with others - an exchange for Chantelle, an endless monologue of grievances for Pansy - gets at the rhythm and the tension in Hard Truths. I love the mystery, the bittersweet haunt of memory, the texture of moments felt in I Saw the TV Glow - yes, texture, for even just reading the script, you can see and smell and feel the film vividly. I love September 5's accurate depiction of the excitement and tension of a television control room, the thrill of getting great TV, the horror of having to show...well, horrors.
The winner is:
I Saw the TV Glow
Jane Schoenbrun
2. Hard Truths; 3. The Brutalist; 4. Dìdi; 5. September 5
Tomorrow is the final day, where I reveal my picks for, among others, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Picture of the Year.
No comments:
Post a Comment