92 TIMES UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD

A few weeks ago on Saturday Night Live, the comedienne Melissa Villasenor performed song summaries of several of this year’s Oscar nominated films. Each time, her summary closed by noting that the film in question was rooted in “white male rage.”

It’s arguable that, in some sense or another, white male rage is the single most pervasive theme in the history of American movies, maybe of movies worldwide. But Villasenor’s point is taken; from Joker to The Irishman to Jojo Rabbit to 1917 to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, white male rage seems particularly well-represented among this year’s Academy Award nominees.

Anyway, here are a few notes on the 92^nd annual awards, to be presented earlier than usual, tonight, Sunday, February 9:

Best Picture: My prediction to win—and that of Vegas, at this writing—would be the Sam Mendes WWI drama 1917. It’s an absorbing film, but my own favorite of the nominated pictures is Bong Joon Ho’s hilarious, horrifying, wildly original class satire Parasite, followed closely by Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and then by Scorsese’s The Irishman.

Best Actor: Probably the closest there is to a lock is Joaquin Phoenix as the title character in Joker, and it’s hard to argue with Phoenix’s achievement. But in a subtler way, Leonardo DiCaprio seemed just as good to me as the jittery cowboy star in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Snubbed Robert DeNiro did restrained, ultimately moving work in The Irishman, and Jonathan Pryce was great as one of the title characters in The Two Popes.

Best Actress: Renee Zellweger is heavily favored to take the award for her impressive turn as late-vintage Judy Garland in Judy. Again, I’d be hard pressed to dispute the greatness of her acting feat, whatever the shortcomings of the surrounding movie. But a word should also be said for Charlize Theron’s flawless impersonation of Megyn Kelly in the slightly underrated Bombshell.

Best Supporting Actress: I thought Florence Pugh’s Amy was the best thing about Greta Gerwig’s generally overrated version of Little Women. But Laura Dern is favored to win for her turn in Marriage Story, and I’ve always been a fan, so that’s what I’m rooting for.

Best Supporting Actor: The current favorite here is Brad Pitt as the unflappable stuntman in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and his easygoing performance was a delight. So was Anthony Hopkins as cranky, troubled Pope Benedict in The Two Popes, and Tom Hanks as a relentlessly compassionate Fred Rogers in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. But Al Pacino’s grandly clownish Jimmy Hoffa in The Irishman is his most memorable performance in years.

Best Director: Sam Mendes leads the pack for 1917, and will likely take home the Oscar unless the opinion takes hold that his one-continuous-shot approach on the film is a gimmick. I loved his quote dismissing this criticism, however: “We experience life as a single shot. We go through life with one unbroken take. It’s editing that’s the gimmick.”

The Show: Like last year, the show is scheduled to do without a host, opting instead for a procession of presenters. Presumably this was seen as the likeliest way to prevent controversy. It’s also the likeliest way to prevent entertainment.

Snubs: No doubt any number of omissions could be cited, but two leap to mind: First, how does Rami Malek win Best Actor last year for lip-synching Freddy Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody, but the excellent Taron Edgerton, singing for himself, get overlooked for (the admittedly uneven) Rocketman? Second, Lulu Wang’s The Farewell was overlooked in general, but especially for Best Original Screenplay, for Best Supporting Actress for Zhao Shuzhen as the formidable Nai Nai, and for Awkwafina for Best Actress. No offense to anyone in that category, but I didn’t see five better performances than her’s this year.

Snack suggestions: Peaches and “Ram-don” (Ramen and Udon) in honor of Parasite. Pizza and Fanta pop in honor of The Two Popes.

One More Prediction: …also a boast; this past year, on this very blog, I predicted that the animated short film Hair Love, which showed before The Angry Birds Movie 2, would be nominated for an Oscar. I was right; now I’ll go out on a limb and predict that it will take the award. But I could be wrong, of course; the film is definitely, and refreshingly, not about white male rage.

A REAL TEAMSTER PLAYER

Happy Friday everybody!

Check out my "Friday Flicks" column, online at Phoenix Magazine, this week featuring reviews of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood...

...and Martin Scorsese's The Irishman.

The Scorsese flick was of special interest to me, as my Dad was a Teamster, and had seen Jimmy Hoffa speak to his local (and was unimpressed, he said), but I was never able to get him to tell me where the body was.

RIP to Michael J. Pollard, passed on at 80. Out of his vast body of work, I have a favorite moment: When he remarks "You sure are good, Melvin" after Paul LeMat, who is driving, refuses his flask in Melvin and Howard.

Happy Thanksgiving week next week everybody!

For nearly twenty years, it’s been a Thanksgiving tradition in our house, once the massive portions of food have been ingested and we’ve collapsed on the couch, to watch the 2000 film What’s Cooking? It’s an ensemble piece, set on Thanksgiving in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Fairfax, which cuts between four families of different racial and ethnic backgrounds—Vietnamese, Hispanic, African-American and Jewish—as they prepare the big dinner and navigate family drama and revelations. Funny, sweet and poignant, the movie is at least as refreshing and meaningful now as it was when it was made.

What’s Cooking? was directed and co-written by Gurinder Chadha, a Kenyan-born Brit of Indian descent. Needless to say, cultural diversity is a recurrent theme in her work. This week another film directed by Chadha was released on video: Blinded by the Light...

...an exuberant coming-of-age comedy-drama-musical set in Luton, England.

Based on the youth of writer Sarfraz Manzoor, it’s the story of teenage boy, Javed (Viviek Kalra), in a traditional British-Pakistani family in the ‘80s who was inspired to a career as a writer through his enthusiasm for the lyrics of Bruce Springsteen. Despite the film’s modest budget, Springsteen allowed the filmmakers to use his music, and Chadha ingeniously turned the Jersey legend’s work into the soundtrack for a Brit adolescence.

I had the chance to chat with Chadha when she visited the Valley recently in connection with the release of Blinded by the Light, and she described the balancing act of her directorial approach:

“I’ve always worked with music a lot in my films; I love music. The challenge here was in making a film about a writer, and making that cinematic. But at the same time I had a big responsibility to Bruce, not only because he gave me carte blanche on his catalog, but also because all those songs mean something to him, and Bruce fans. So my challenge was to direct a movie where I used the music so that it stood up to what the intention was of the songs in the first place, so I didn’t disappoint Bruce, and didn’t disappoint Bruce fans. But at the same there are a lot of people who aren’t Bruce fans, so I had to make sure it wasn’t just about the music.”

Even though she was there to talk about Blinded by the Light, I couldn’t resist asking Chadha about the scene in What’s Cooking? that brings tears to my eyes every year, when we hear a nearly a cappella version of the Beach Boys song “Wouldn’t it Be Nice?”; in the movie’s context the lyrics take on an unexpectedly moving, emotional cultural resonance. Said Chadha:

“I found that version, and I really wanted to play it at the end of the movie. Everyone was like, it’s never going to happen. You’re not going to be able to afford a Beach Boys track. You’ll have to get permission from Brian Wilson…so I wrote him a letter, based on what my movie was about, what I was trying to do. I was trying to show different communities in L.A. Movies show people not getting on; I saw people getting on around me in L.A. It was my first time in L.A., and I saw that and I was struck by that. The letter went out as a fax, and everyone was like, you’d better have a Plan B, and blow me down, I think it was like an hour later, not even a day, we got a fax back saying sure, she can use it. It was incredible. It turned out he’s from L.A., and he really liked the sentiment.”

It seems like a Thanksgiving showbiz miracle, but the current Chadha project experienced a similar generosity; notes Chadha: “The way that Brian responded to my letter was similar to the way we got permission from Bruce on Blinded the Light.”

If you’re looking for a pleasant after-dinner Thanksgiving video double feature, What’s Cooking? and Blinded by the Light might just leave you thankful.