One of the proven benefits of receiving an Oscar nod, nominated films get a boost. Many film fans want to watch all the nominated pictures before the March 10th, 2024, Academy Award telecast. This year, there are a lot of fans that believe that the Academy voters sidelined some major talent. Yes, there’s the kerfuffle over Greta Gerwig not being nominated for Best Director, and Margot Robbie was also sidelined. But Robbie forged a path forward for women last year, proving that women can star, produce and nurture a concept film like “Barbie” and champion it to its billion-dollar world-wide success. Women were central to all the major successful films this year and it’s a lesson Hollywood seems slow to learn.
This year, it was refreshing to see that even in the supporting roles, women got to shine. We had Da’Vine Joy Randolph give a soulful performance in “The Holdovers” and Danielle Brooks shining bright in “The Color Purple”. Carey Mulligan had the less showy role in “Maestro”, yet her role is the heart of the film. These actors have all received Oscar nominations and deservedly so. “Oppenheimer” received the most Academy Award nominations and that included Emily Blunt in her pivotal role as Kitty Oppenheimer. The film won seven BAFTA Awards including Best Picture last night, Feb 18th, 2024.
Perhaps it takes filmmakers and writers from other countries to celebrate women in leading roles. Yorgos Lanthimos is a Greek director known for his unusual and often subversive films. You may have enjoyed “The Favourite” (2018) which also starred Emma Stone. “Poor Things” has been nominated in multiple categories for the 2024 Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Hair and Make-Up, Best Original Screenplay. It’s a film that’s best enjoyed on the big screen because the Production Design and Cinematography are extraordinary. Stone won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress.
It’s fascinating to see how audiences respond to the completely bonkers, and wonderfully strange film from Lanthimos and writer Tony McNamara. “Poor Things” is a black comedy with fantasy elements and an incredible Victorian Goth-Punk production design. It’s an outlandish Frankenstein fable with over-the-top performances by a cast that all deserve their awards attention. Emma Stone is phenomenal in a sexual-daring role that is both shocking and tender.
Stone’s audacious portrayal of Bella, a woman with a baby’s brain, is nothing short of astonishing. She and Lanthimos came up with different ways for the character to walk, articulate and respond to the world as her creature ages and becomes a woman. Her brain must develop to catch up with her mature body. Mark Ruffalo is hilarious in his surprising turn as the lothario that seduces Bella and steals her away. The costumes and settings are outlandish but suit the story and characters beautifully.
Watching the physical and emotional journey of Bella, we’re privy to her sexual awakening. We experience her mental anguish as she witnesses man’s inhumanity to man. Stone is the emotional core of the film. She gives a performance that she acknowledges in interviews–might be the highlight of her career.
Sandra Hüller has had a banner year with two stunning performances. The German actress was nominated in her lead role in “The Zone of Interest”. The film is a Polish/German production written and directed by British filmmaker, Jonathan Glazer (“Birth”, “Under the Skin”). Hüller portrays Hedwig, the wife of Rudolph Höss. The story has an unusual approach to showcasing the banality of evil. Using sound design and subtle details in the story, the horrors of the Holocaust are both highlighted and hidden.
Here is a married couple who seem to have a good relationship, raising their five children in a lovely home with a garden. The twist is that Höss is the Commandant of the Auschwitz Concentration Camp. And the house shares a wall with the camp. An authoritarian mother who loves to entertain, it’s the subtle details in Hüller’s performance that reveal the corruption of her soul. The way Hedwig’s seemingly casual acceptance of evil and the nearby perpetration of annihilation of another race can play out in her daily routines.
She hides in her room to try on her ill-gotten gains like her fur coat. Yet it’s not because the coat is from someone that’s recently been gassed, but because she doesn’t want to flaunt her prosperity in front of the servants. When her mother comes to visit, Hedwig shows off her garden proudly; a garden that’s fertilized with the ashes of burned bodies. Her mother isn’t as immune to the horrors that Hedwig has assimilated and after one night next to roaring furnaces killing people, she leaves in disgust.
Hüller gives a restrained performance in “The Zone of Interest” and she’s the heart of the film. She’s also nominated in the Best Actress category for her lead role in “Anatomy of a Fall”. The film is also nominated in the Best Picture category. Hüller portrays another woman who is flawed and not presented in a stereotypical way. She’s defending her innocence but isn’t behaving like a Hollywood bereaved spouse and mother is often presented. She’s an intelligent successful woman who’s not given to weepy displays of emotion. French director Justine Triet, who wrote the film with her husband, created this nuanced portrait.
Justine Triet is the only woman in the Best Director nominations this year. Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig may not have received nominations that were richly deserved, but I’m sure they’re pleased to see so many other women receiving acclaim. Maybe Hollywood will pay attention and encourage more films like “Barbie” to break the glass ceiling. We need to encourage writers and directors to produce films with women leading the stories.
Drinks with Films rating:
“Poor Things”: 4 ½ martinis served in a fantastical London menagerie (out of 5)
“The Zone of Interest”: 3 glasses of German wine, sipped while wearing the spoils of war (out of 5)
Drinks with films 