The lead up to the 2019 Oscars has been strange. The Academy has added new a new category for 2019 (Achievement in Popular Film), then removed it. The Academy removed awards from the televised show (Achievement in Editing, Achievement in Cinematography), then added them back.
There is no host for the first time in 30 years because the Academy asked Kevin Hart to apologize for something he had already apologized for and he stubbornly refused. (The last time there was no host, it was a disaster: Fresh out of rehab and seeking to repair his image, a 25 year-old Rob Lowe and a no-name actress dressed as Snow White opened the show with an 11 minute musical act. Seriously: Watch here)
This year, there seems to be more ambiguity and disagreement about which films will win, and should win, than in recent memory. Unfortunately, that’s because there are no truly great films in the 2019 crop. There are great individual performances (Rami Malek), cultural milestones (Black Panther), and plenty of controversies (Vice, Green Book).
In this issue of Height, you’ll find grades and analysis of eight films (including seven of the eight best picture nominees).
BlacKkKlansman
Grade: A-
Spike Lee delivers a searing portrait of the 1970’s Klu Klux Klan and two undercover detectives (one black, one Jewish) who successfully infiltrate the ranks of America’s most heinous organization.
Lee’s depiction of Colorado Springs KKK members and the cult’s national leader David Duke is masterful. He cushions these abhorrent, violent racists with enough moments of comical idiocy and conspiratorial insanity, that the audience is afforded an opportunity to laugh in between cringes. The result is a story that paces like an action/comedy but punches like a heavyweight drama.
Vice
Grade: A-
I was already a fan of Writer/Director Adam McKay (Anchorman, Step Brothers, The Big Short) and his work with Vice cements his place as one of the most talented big screen storytellers of his era. As expected, Christian Bale (Dick Cheney) and Amy Adams (Lynne Cheney) are excellent in their portrayal of the dubious couple. Sam Rockwell does fine in his role as George W. Bush, but his performance feels more like it belongs on the SNL stage.
As a distracted teenager during the Bush administration, I remember many of the headlines that play out in Vice but lacked sufficient understanding of these events to gauge the film’s accuracy in real time. A few minutes of post-screening research revealed that Vice is more historic satire than non-fiction. Thematically, it succeeds: Cheney’s tenure as Vice President was unorthodox and pernicious. And Bush/Cheney legislation re: big oil and the environment helped pave the way for Trump-era Republicanism. But I don’t blame right-wingers for being frustrated with the buffoonery and backwards patriotism depicted in McKay’s film
Overall, Vice is a well-directed, wildly entertaining caricature of Cheney and his enablers.
Bohemian Rhapsody
Grade: B+
“Bohemian Rhapsody” is simultaneously elevated, and held back, by the magnitude of its subject. Freddie Mercury epitomized the most romantic aspects of rock and roll – he was flamboyant and masculine in a time when those adjectives were not mutually exclusive as they, unfortunately, are now. He was a brazen iconoclast. And most of all, he was incredibly talented. Rami Malek somehow captures all of this in his portrayal of Mercury.
Queen’s music is anthemic and as you’d expect from musician’s biopic, plays a pivotal role in the film’s effectiveness. Together, Malek and the Queen anthology co-pilot an entertaining, enthralling, and emotional story. Queen’s inherent magic seems easy for director Bryan Singer to coax out and translate to 2019 movie-goers.
The only problem with BR is that there is a little too much Hollywood magic added to a story that doesn’t need it. The re-arraigned chronology fits a bit too perfectly into a two-hour cinematic experience. And as fans of Queen will tell you, the writers’ artistic license borders on disingenuous – you just can’t alter time and place this dramatically when it concerns an international mega-star that so many viewers were alive to remember. Especially when that person became an adopted symbol of free love and the tragedy of the AIDS epidemic.
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Grade: B+
“Can You Ever Forgive Me?” is based on the true story of a lonely middle-aged biographer who resorts to crime when her writing career flatlines. The story itself is interesting but would fail if not for a sensational performance from Melissa McCarthy, who perfectly captures Lee Israel’s desperate, pathetic existence as a depressed alcoholic in the pre-gentrified East Village of the early 90s.
McCarthy is complimented by a superb performance from Richard E. Grant, who plays Lee’s immature drinking buddy and literal PIC. I believe this unheralded stranger-than-fiction adapted screenplay should have been nominated for Best Picture, especially considering the far-less substantive “Black Panther” got a nod. I’ll be rooting for McCarthy and Grant to win their respective “Best” nominations.
The Favourite
Grade: B
Excellent acting and fantastic set and costume design make “The Favourite” worthwhile. Olivia Colman (Queen Anne) won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama and I think she will take the Oscar, too.
The direction of Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster) feels gimmicky at times due to a multitude of wide angles shots, but he otherwise stays out of the way and let’s his three leading women shine.
This dark comedy is as entertaining it is uncomfortable at times.
Black Panther
Grade: B-
So here’s the thing: Black Panther is a good movie. It’s fun and clever and exciting. It becomes even better when you add the “for a superhero movie” qualifier. It’s also an important film considering the glaring lack of non-white faces in the enormous Marvel cinematic universe. It is a definitive piece of 2018 pop-culture.
The credentials above apparently suffice a Best Picture nomination. I’m not entirely sure I agree but it’s tough to challenge a decision that seems, in large part, an acknowledgment of overdue racial progress.
If Black Panther somehow wins Best P
Wakanda forever.
Green Book
Grade: B-
Green Book is a clunky, aloof but well-intentioned film that is ultimately successful thanks to its feel-good ending and a great performance by Mahershala Ali as pianist Dr. Don Shirley.
The film gives the audience a PG-13 history lesson with examples of 1960’s discrimination and prejudice in nearly every scene (veiled in the north, blatant in the south). The effect is a pat on the back for the white folks in the audience: “Look how far we’ve come!”
For a film that bets its effectiveness on the ability to invoke emotion via race relations, Green Book uses an incredibly stereotypical and, frankly poor, impersonation of a
Another enormous mistake made by Green Book is its inclusion of a cringe-worthy moment in which a Tony (Viggo Mortensen) introduces Dr. Shirley to Kentucky Fried Chicken. Yikes.
Roma
Grade: C+
I was very excited about Roma. I thought this would be the center pole to prop up 2019’s somewhat underwhelming class of Best Picture nominees. Often, I find myself defending movies like Roma – the critic-darling, art-house films that clean up on Oscar night but perform poorly at the box office. I loved Moonlight, Birdman, Boyhood, and The King’s Speech. I enjoyed the Shape of Water and Lady Bird. I cannot say the same for this film.
Roma earned a C+ thanks to the exquisite directing by Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity, Children of Men). Each shot could hang in a sunlit art gallery. Unfortunately, Cuaron’s plot is more like a stuffy museum: plodding, boring, and uncomfortable. There are some interesting components of the story, especially the juxtaposition of an upper-middle-class wife’s exaggerated distress and her stoic maid’s actual trauma. It’s an intriguing statement about class and self-centeredness.
But the powerful climax of Roma and its barely-happy ending are an insufficient payout for the audience, who suffer through two hours of dreariness beforehand. There are plenty of characters in Roma but we only get to know one of them. The rest swirl around the quiet protagonist in a half-interested blur.
This is the most beautiful boring movie I have ever seen. Unfortunately, critics apparently adore it — Roma will likely win Best Picture.