Get Out and Call Me By Your Name - Best Picture, Best Actor nominations

2/2/18 Get Out, nominated Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay, 2017

I was pretty leery of seeing Get Out, mainly because it was hyped as a horror film, and in my mind, no good can come of that. Maybe because I was watching it with the lights on, in the comfort of my own home, that I didn't get freaked out or hide my eyes. It was suspenseful and pretty violent at the end, but I wouldn't call it a horror movie (by my above definition). Anyway, enough about me. Get Out broke a lot traditions (if I can call them that) in scary movies (and just plain old movies), but also poked fun at some of society's stereotypes. This was done by comedian (and writer and director of the film) Jordan Peele, an African-American who seems to delight in skewering the white characters in his film. Chris, a young black man (Daniel Kaluuya) is getting ready to visit his white girlfriend's (Allison Williams) parents' house in the country. He's not thrilled about it, but Rose is determined, and tells him it will be fine. Chris's friend, Rod (Lil Rey Howery), is a TSA Agent, and provides humorous insight into Chris's circumstances and life. It's kind of hard to give you a synopsis without ruining the story, and that is part of what makes the movie fun. Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener are Rose's parents; I like Whitford, but there was something annoying about Keener. Speaking of annoying, Caleb Landry Jones as Jeremy, Rose's brother, brings the most out of place accent to the role, and I wanted him to shut up. You'd think that was not a big deal, but it seemed so dissonant compared to the others. I did like the movie, and I thought it pretty fresh, with a combination of drama, suspense, creepiness and timely observations and humor. I think it's got some pretty tough competition for its awards, but I would like to see it win for Best Original Screenplay. I have told you very little about the movie, so you'll have to see it for yourself, and it's not as scary as you might think. If I can watch it, you'll be fine.

2/4/18 Call Me By Your Name, nominated Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Song, 2017

I realize that I am serious danger of entering a permanent state of curmudgeon, and I'm kind of sorry, it could also be that I just don't think some movies are up to the hype of 'this is the best movie ever'. It's not that I hated Call Me By Your Name, I didn't, I liked it, but I didn't love it. Call Me By Your Name is set in the 1980s in Italy, and Armee Hammer is Oliver a visiting graduate student. He is staying with Professor Perlman (the ubiquitous Michael Stuhlbarg) and his family, including his teenaged son, Elio (Oscar nominated Timothee Chalamet). There is some weird tension between Elio and Oliver, partly because Oliver is very popular with the locals, especially the woman, partly because Oliver seems aloof from Elio; it's a version of cat and mouse. It's not secret if you've seen some of the trailers that this is a love story; the secret is a little better kept in the film, because it has to be. The Italian countryside is beautiful, and the fruit trees and other food made me think of Babette's Feast; theaters could have made a lot of money selling apricot juice. Chalamet and Hammer seemed very comfortable in this story of young love, and were very respectful; Stuhlbarg, in my snarky opinion, was like a manila folder: serviceable, but nothing special (which is so rare for him). Just blah, and his speech to Elio towards the very end of the film seemed contrived and something I just couldn't believe. I don't have a better way to express it, it just rang false to me. I think part of what made it false was he talks about all this time that they spent together, and goes on and on about that, when to my mind, they didn't spend ALL THAT TIME together. They did have some intense moments at the end of Oliver's stay. Maybe that's hair-splitting, but it just bugged me. Maybe what really bothered me was the Oscar-nominated screenplay by James Ivory, which seemed full of holes: Oliver and the Perlmans are Jewish, a fact which is pointed out in a very obvious way, and I kept waiting for some more on that topic, and it was just some cursory thing. So to me, why bother? There is barely any mention made of Oliver's studies or work with the professor, some, yes, but, the movie was 8 hours long, so there was time to be more than casual about somethings. Oh yeah, a gay couple is introduced, friends of the family, but Elio has some unkind comments about them. So, is he showing his internalized homophobia? Probably, and that's actually not unusual. The couple are on screen for maybe 5 minutes. Maybe with a different screenplay, I could have really loved this movie. Oh, and when characters were smoking, it looked like they were goldfish eating those food flakes. We will probably see a lot more of Chalamet (who also appears in Lady Bird) who is very charismatic, but sensitive, funny, and (it appears) very musical.