WatchSeeLookView - Oscar Season

Yep, it’s that time of year when all the films get together and have a massive fight that was started by some bloke called Oscar many years ago to see who gets to say they’re the best in the playground (I think that’s what it’s all about anyway, I’ve not really been paying attention). This means that it’s the time of year where there are loads of films to watch that you’re supposed to think are the good ones because Oscar says so (again, I’m not up on the details). Let’s have a gander at some of those films, shall we? Rhetorical question - I’ve done all the gandering so you don’t have to.

(For the purposes of these posts, I’m taking in any film nominated in the following categories:- Best Picture, Best Director, Best (Supporting) Actor, Best (Supporting) Actress, Best Original/Adapted Screenplay, Best Animated Film, Best Foreign Language, Best Documentary Feature. That’s about 20-odd films to pick from, some of which I’ve already seen and talked about on here so will gloss over those ones.)

Green Book
In A Nutshell:- Real life odd couple road trip.
Any Good? It’s a film that is very much built on the strength of the two central performances of Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen as jazz pianist Don Shirley and his Italian American driver Tony Vallelonga. The pair of them are never less than entertaining in the roles and build a convincing on-screen chemistry. Narratively, it treads pretty well-worn territory and, while it does touch upon the race issues on the era, feels like it does so in a fairly lightweight way. Enjoyable certainly and a definite departure for Dumb And Dumber director Peter Farrelly but not one that is likely to linger in the memory.

Can You Ever Forgive Me?
In A Nutshell:- Struggling writer to a successful life of forgery.
Any Good? In a similar fashion to Green Book, another film that is carried on the strength of its two lead performances. Melissa McCarthy is on excellent form as struggling writer Lee Israel who finds herself drawn into forging letters from famous people to make ends meet as is Richard E Grant as her down-and-out drug dealing friend Jack Hock. Other than a slightly cheesy feeling monologue towards the end, it’s another enjoyable film, managing to succeed in making a difficult to like character fairly compelling.

The Favourite
In A Nutshell:- The Oddness Of Queen Anne
Any Good? Certainly is. I’m not normally a fan of period dramas but this has enough of a fresh feel to it to win me over. Director Yorgos Lanthimos’ previous films were pleasingly strange and stylised (to me, at least - I can understand why some don’t enjoy his work, it’s got the Marmite factor) but this is probably his most mainstream effort, although still retaining something of a sense of the strange and absurd. The cast are great too with entertaining supporting turns from the likes of James Smith and Mark Gatiss but, even with strong performances from Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone, it’s very much Olivia Colman’s film. As always, she’s on top form. Of the three above. If you’re only gonna watch one of these films, go for this one.