The Oscars are looming. You can’t stop what’s coming.
So, in that spirit of inevitability, I’ll be doing a predictions post closer to the ceremony (it’s March 10th btw). In the meantime, though, I’m changing things up with this weekly column a bit.
Over the last several weeks, I’ve been focusing more on double features. From now until the Academy Awards I’ll be taking a closer look at this year’s nominees and some of their best work in previous years.
First up: The actors! Because they don’t get enough attention, right?
Here are a few movies starring this year’s acting nominees that I find exceptional, and that I think are exceptional because they are in them.
(Unless otherwise noted, all movies are available to rent from Apple, Amazon, etc. in addition to the listed streaming services. But if you watch them and like them, I’d consider buying physical copies 😃)
Movie Recommendations:
Certain Women (2016) – Streaming on the Criterion Channel, Mubi, AMC+, Kanopy, and Tubi
Martin Scorsese has pointed to this film specifically when he talks about casting Best Actress nominee Lily Gladstone in his latest film, The Killers of the Flower Moon.
There’s a reason for that. She gives one of the great performances of the last decade as a lonely rancher in Kelly Reichardt’s film, a moving triptych about women living on the Montana plains. When the unnamed woman played by Gladstone is inexplicably drawn to a lawyer (Kristen Stewart) teaching a school law class in her town, she taps into a profound, quiet longing, enhanced by Reichardt’s devastating use of close-ups.
Toni Erdmann – Streaming on Starz
Like Anatomy of a Fall, this epic comedy from Maren Ade finds Best Actress nominee Sandra Hüller in a bind. She’s a professional businesswoman, you see, and her father (Peter Simonischek) shows up unexpectedly in the middle of a deal and tries to bring humor back into her life.
That this nearly 3-hour movie’s premise can be boiled down to that may give some people pause, but Ade never takes the predictable route. And Hüller and Simonischek are perfect foils: She brings the right amount of steely grit to keep the movie away from sentimentality, and he has a balance of warmth and deviousness that matches Ade’s wide-ranging, free-wheeling narrative.
Cosmopolis – Streaming on Prime Video, Kanopy, and Tubi
David Cronenberg’s Cosmopolis is a cooly intellectual tour through the deranged psyche of its billionaire protagonist Eric Parker, played by Robert Pattinson. Over the course of a day, he attempts to travel across traffic-jammed New York City in his limo to get a haircut, all the while meeting with advisors, doctors, his wife, and other people he considers business associates.
One person he does not plan on meeting is a very disgruntled ex-employee played by Best Actor nominee Paul Giamatti. Their confrontation ends the movie, and Giamatti brings genuine rage to a character that shatters Parker’s calmly psychotic exterior.
Inside Man – Streaming on Peacock and Starz
This underrated Spike Lee bank robbery/hostage drama is a taut, suspenseful star vehicle for Denzel Washington, who is not nominated for any Oscars this year but I think he should be even though he wasn’t in a movie.
Jodie Foster, who scored a Best Supporting Actress nod for the disastrous Nyad, stars alongside Washington as a sleek, devious power broker. Now here is a role that is perfect for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, so naturally she was never really in the running. Watching her and Washington’s police detective navigate a hostage situation while trying to achieve very different ends is thrilling.
Now, before we go, there are a few movies featuring this year’s nominees that I wanted to include but that are not currently streaming. I think you should buy, rent, or steal these from a friend:
- Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch, starring Best Actor nominee Jeffrey Wright
- Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right, starring Best Actress nominee Annette Bening and Best Supporting Actor nominee Mark Ruffalo
- Lone Scherfig’s An Education, starring Best Actress nominee Carey Mulligan
- David O. Russell’s Joy, starring Best Actor nominee Bradley Cooper and Best Supporting Actor nominee Robert De Niro
That’s enough with the actors, I think. Next week, we’ll be spotlighting work from nominees in a different category 😜
Matt Erspamer is a writer and movie lover who lives in Seattle.
Any views or opinions expressed in this letter are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the Watershed Voice staff or its board of directors.