The Academy Awards are airing live on March 12, and for the first time, I have set out to break down every nominee in every category in order to assess, as accurately as I can, who and what has the best chance of winning. Today I will be discussing the nominees for Best Cinematography!
All Quiet on the Western Front
Visually, All Quiet on the Western Front is a harrowing experience, and seeks to assault your senses with the horrors of war up-close. It’s brutal, but it doesn’t revel or enjoy its own brutalities — in fact, it often frames its subjects with plenty of space around them, as if to contextualize them and their story within the largeness of the world they inhabit, and prove how small their lives really are, especially in comparison to those in power who are perpetuating the war for their own gain; another storyline that the film does not dedicate too much time to, but makes sure to emphasize is incredibly valuable when closely examining the Great War.
Bardo, False Chronicles of a Handful of Truths
As indulgent and consistently off-kilter it is, Bardo isn’t a wholly empty experience — though sometimes it does feel like “weird for the sake of weird,” introducing and continuous motifs without a satisfying resolution. By far the highlight is its visual style, which fits in with writer/director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s body of work — through Bardo, he bestows upon the audience imagery such as which I’ve never seen in anything else, and I’m not sure I’ll see anything else like it anytime soon. Once thought to be an awards frontrunner (no doubt spurred on by the success of Iñárritu’s last two films, Birdman and The Revenant), this is Bardo’s only nomination this year, but it’s the one that comes most naturally.
