2023 Academy Awards Nomination Breakdown: Best Production Design & Sound

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 Production Design and Best Sound!

All Quiet on the Western Front

Best Production Design & Best Sound

Nearly everything nominated for Best Production Design this year is a period piece, which requires a definite skill in bringing everything to life, something that the All Quiet team excels in. The sound gets progressively louder, and bolder, as the weight of the characters’ situation sets in — after all, this is war; it isn’t pretty nor calm, and the sound sets out to hammer that home in a brutal and merciless fashion; whether it’s artillery falling, comrades shouting, or auditory death and destruction, there’s no break from the carnage.

Avatar: The Way of Water

Best Production Design & Best Sound

An alien planet such as Pandora takes several villages to bring it from concept to screen, and the visual factor is paramount, beyond even the effects. In Avatar’s case, inspiration can be taken from our world, especially in the depictions of the new Na’vi cultures that will have major roles going forward in the future of this franchise. The auditory elements are also incredibly important, as this is an entirely fictional world — every sound we hear is engineered, especially considering that the world is built from the ground up from scratch.

Read my review of Avatar: The Way of Water here.

2023 Academy Awards Nomination Breakdown: Best Picture (Part One)

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 start discussing the nominees for Best Picture!

Triangle of Sadness

“Models Carl and Yaya are invited for a luxury cruise with a rogues’ gallery of super-rich passengers. At first, all appears Instagrammable, but the cruise ends catastrophically and the group find themselves marooned on a desert island.”

As one might expect, Triangle of Sadness is nowhere near subtle with its messages. Everything has a point — the repeating motif of buzzing flies, the lavish production design, and the incessant use of the cell phone camera shutter sound effect, among pretty much everything else — which is impressive, to say the least. Though that care on the production side is present throughout the entire film, that effort becomes more noticeable as the events progress, eventually escalating to the ridiculous and absurd heights I expected from a two-and-a-half hour awards contender. Is it this year’s Parasite? Well, you don’t win the Palme d’Or for nothing, but it seems like these days you’re most likely to win if you’re a movie about how terrible and crazy rich people can be — especially when they come into direct conflict with those of a lower tax bracket. It can be tough to categorize exactly what the film’s attitude towards its characters is, but what’s crystal clear is that they don’t deserve salvation. It does not reject capitalism or socialism, but doesn’t endorse them either, giving us a statement beyond the par-for-the-course conclusion that “rich people are awful.” Despite how viscerally uncomfortable and explicitly gross it can get, that’s the way the world works…and we all know how difficult that is to change.

Read my review of Triangle of Sadness here.

Avatar: The Way of Water

“Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, learn the story of the Sully family (Jake, Neytiri, and their kids), the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure.”

It would be hearsay to claim that Avatar: The Way of Water is not incredibly beautiful to look at. Every frame is rendered meticulously, and because most of what we’re seeing on-screen is composed entirely of visual effects, it’s unequivocally awe-inspiring. I also had the opportunity to see it in 3D, a medium I’m not always the biggest fan of — in fact, I was worried about subjecting myself to it for the three and a half hours this movie runs — but it seemed effortless more than anything else, like the 3D is a natural part of the world that Cameron has created. The biggest letdown was an issue that plagued the first Avatar as well: I couldn’t, for the life of me, care about most of these characters. They’re not developed nearly well enough, despite the inordinate amount of time we spend with them. For example, Jake Sully and Neytiri’s children are a major focal point of the film, and I couldn’t tell you any of their names without looking it up. The Way of Water’s story, by itself, is very interesting, but the characters are still not compelling enough to merit my investment. You’d think that after a cumulative six hours with them, I would have more of a stake in this world, but the sad truth is that the more there are, the harder it is to care. Regardless, Avatar: The Way of Water is a visual spectacle on every conceivable level, yet there’s still something lacking here in the human (or, in this case, the Na’vi) factor. Unfortunately, it’s just about as testosterone-fueled and vaguely offensive as the original, and absolutely more indulgent than it should be. A solid 192 minutes is still 192 minutes.

Read my review of Avatar: The Way of Water here.

2023 Academy Awards Nomination Breakdown: Best Makeup and Hairstyling

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 Makeup and Hairstyling!

All Quiet on the Western Front

War takes a toll on a person, and All Quiet on the Western Front exemplifies that with both intense depictions of the battles themselves and the emotional and physical toll that comes with them. Aside from being a period piece — and, thus, obligated to accuracy when it comes to period styling — All Quiet commits to visualizing the descent of its central characters into very different versions of themselves as they endure more and more horrors of war. It’s terrifically effective, if a little terrifying in it of itself — it makes you wonder about how you yourself would be affected by a war like this, should you ever be so unlucky to fight in one.

The Batman

The Batman is my favorite nomination in this category — not in terms of overall quality (but I think it might crack that as well), but it’s largely because of the service it does for the superhero genre in terms of proving that technical prowess don’t need to be over-the-top to be excellent representations of their craft. In The Batman, Colin Farrell becomes the Penguin with flawless makeup and prosthetics that not only completely hide the actor’s identity, but make him fit in with the brutal, lived-in world of this Gotham City. Most of the other makeup and hairstyling is more under-the-radar, but if you want a better example of the great work that this team’s done, look up the deleted scene with Barry Keoghan’s Joker. Now that’s terrifying.

Read my review of The Batman here.

2023 Academy Awards Nomination Breakdown: Best Cinematography

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.

2023 Academy Awards Nomination Breakdown: Best Costume Design

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 Costume Design!

Babylon

After such a big awards presence with La La Land, it’s jarring to see a Damien Chazelle having such a small number of nominations — but every single one of them is well-deserved. This is the first appearance of his Golden Age Hollywood epic Babylon in my breakdown of the awards, and while my personal feelings about Babylon are pretty mixed, it’s an undeniable fact that the costume design is absolutely stellar. The outfits and styles of every single main character are instantly iconic, and it would seem that each and every side character, however long they appear, is decked out as lavishly or simply as their role requires.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Ruth Carter’s win for costuming the first Black Panther was a major victory and a big surprise when it comes to superhero films at awards shows, so it’s only sensible to see her nominated once again for Wakanda Forever — a film with less opportunities to show off lavish costumes, but with a whole batch of new characters to clothe in a vast manner of fascinating regalia. The introduction of underwater nation Talokan, led by villain Namor, offered ripe opportunities with whole new worlds to create. Other new characters like Val (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne) are either costumed “normally” or dressed up entirely in a CGI creation — an issue which plagues many parts of this film (see my Visual Effects breakdown for more on that front).

Read my review of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever here.

2023 Academy Awards Nomination Breakdown: Best Editing

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 Editing!

The Banshees of Inisherin

The calm, tranquil cutting of Banshees is a neat contrast to the film’s dark subject matter, and especially interesting once McDonagh realized that quiet establishing shots of the Irish countryside with beautiful score over it could be beneficial to the story instead of detracting. I will say that the editing of Banshees never stood out to me both times I’ve seen it, so it is a surprise nomination…but a welcome one.

Read my review of The Banshees of Inisherin here.

Elvis

Frantic editing is a staple of Baz Luhrmann’s films, and probably my least favorite mainstay of his. Elvis is done no less frantically, with more cuts-per-minute than I could keep up with. Still, it’s unique, and some might consider it great, so its presence in the category is not entirely surprising.

Read my review of Elvis here.

2023 Academy Awards Nomination Breakdown: Best Actor

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 Actor in a Leading Role!

Austin Butler, Elvis

Playing the King would be a tricky role for anybody to tackle, especially for former Nickelodeon star Austin Butler. At age 29, Butler was given the momentous task of playing Elvis Presley through almost a quarter century of the rock star’s life. This performance, combined with Baz Luhrmann’s bombastic filmmaking sensibilities, could have very quickly taken the turn into a straight impression, SNL style. Butler avoids that pitfall nearly every step of the way, playing Elvis with equal parts humility, grace, sex appeal and hostility. Don’t forget, Elvis is told from the perspective of Colonel Parker (played by Tom Hanks, who was thankfully not recognized by the Academy for his role in Luhrmann’s film), so we are seeing Elvis’ life and career from an outside point of view. Butler is by far the highlight of Elvis, and however you might feel about the film as a whole, it’s impossible to deny the strength of Butler’s performance.

Read my review of Elvis here.

Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin

Of his four big-screen performances in 2022, the role of Pádraic Súilleabháin (try saying that five times fast) is by far Colin Farrell’s best. The empathy oozes through every second he’s on-screen, and although he often strays into pitiful — all intentional, I have no doubt — Farrell makes Pádraic an engaging and sympathetic figure, as well as eliciting the most laughs of anyone in the film’s cast. This is the first Oscar nomination of Farrell’s storied career, and one that I say is very well-deserved.

Read my review of The Banshees of Inisherin here.

My Top Ten Movies of 2022 (so far)

I intended to do this at the mid-year point, but due to shifting schedules and the general chaos of life, it’s now an August event. Because of this, there are definitely some films on here that are more recent than the mid-year, but my hope is that it will be diverse enough from my end-of-year list that they will be able to function as separate lists. From the Space Age to the ’60s, Nic Cage to the Dark Knight, slasher homages to viking epics, and the emotionally heartfelt to the gripping drama of real life, this list has it all.

“Elvis” is a Biopic Fit for a King (Review)

How can you tell the story of an iconic industry titan in a way that does justice to their influence and legacy — while also telling a story appealable to the masses? The answer to that near-impossible question is: you don’t. Not in a conventional way at least.

Image courtesy of Warner Bros

Baz Luhrmann, not necessarily known for his faith in source materials (or to history, in this case), has taken the reins of an Elvis Presley biopic. The King of Rock and Roll, a towering historical figure (despite not being confident in his own impact) was only 42 when he passed away, but managed to create an indelible impression in very little time. Luhrmann’s Elvis is simultaneously a tribute to his musical brilliance, a reflection on the lasting trends he pioneered, and a portrait of United States history across three decades.