89th Academy Awards – Insider Black and White Edit, Los Angeles, USA – 26 Feb 2017
A record 341 movies were just deemed eligible for Best Picture by the Academy. Here are 38 we’d like to see nominated — even if almost none of them have a chance.
A record 341 movies were just deemed eligible for Best Picture by the Academy. Here are 38 we’d like to see nominated — even if almost none of them have a chance.
“Decency, in its raw, instinctive form, is ultimately what earns ‘The Zookeeper’s Wife‘ a place in the self-conflicted canon of Holocaust cinema. One of those lush, handsomely shot historical dramas where everyone speaks heavily accented English instead of the characters’ native tongue, Caro’s film may come to feel like an unlikely cross between ‘We Bought a Zoo’ and ‘Schindler’s List,’ but it vibes on a wavelength all its own because of how completely it shirks the matter of a moral awakening. -David Ehrlich
“‘The Work‘ chronicles a kind of breakneck psychoanalysis in which the origins of problematic behavior are dramatically expunged in public. The movie frequently takes on a taut, suspenseful quality as men resist pressure to explain their misgivings and eventually crack, sometimes violently lashing out as the group swarms in to control them.” -Eric Kohn
Elisabeth Subrin’s feature directorial debut, “A Woman, A Part,” is a film about now. The film follows Maggie Siff as actress Anna Baskin, star of a seemingly popular and well-regarded network television series, who has grown increasingly disenfranchised with the work afforded to her by her industry. Fresh off a recent battle with an autoimmune disease and frustrated by a career path that doesn’t value her creative input, Anna takes a break from her show and heads back to the familiar environs of New York City, where she got her start in experimental theater. “A Woman, A Part” confronts industry-wide sexism head on, making it clear that Anna’s experiences are not unique and dismantling any romantic notions about how Hollywood operates. -Kate Erbland
For her feature directorial debut, Marti Noxon goes deep. Her Sundance premiere “To the Bone” is based on her own experiences with eating disorders and recovery, framed around the darkly funny journey of a young anorexic named Ellen (Lily Collins) as she attempts a radical treatment that offers her what is likely her last chance at survival. (No, really, it’s funny.) -KE
Adapted by Gabby Chiappe from Lissa Evans’ novel, “Their Finest Hour and a Half,” Lone Scherfig’s latest period piece traces a fictionalized heroine as she changes the face of England’s propaganda-film machine in the waning days of World War II. Catrin Cole (Gemma Arterton) isn’t a big dreamer — in war-torn London, no one is — but when she’s drafted into writing feel-good scripts for the Ministry of Information, she unexpectedly finds her calling. -KE
In her first feature since 2009’s “Motherhood,” Katherine Dieckmann’s film is the kind of showcase that many actresses over 40 would kill to get — but Hunter is made for it. Joined by recent Emmy nominee Carrie Coon as Byrd, her best friend, neighbor, and co-worker, “Strange Weather” is the sort of film that passes the Bechdel Test 20 times over, while also proving why the metric is so important in the first place. Made by and about women, offering space for Hunter and Coon to prove why they’re some of our best working actresses, films like this are rare and worth the fight they require to be made. -KE
With its puzzling look at isolation and repressed sexuality, “Staying Vertical” should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Alain Guiraudie through his last effort, 2013’s “Stranger By the Lake.” Just as that movie focused on a murder mystery set at a remote pond used for gay hookups, “Staying Vertical” uses a vacant landscape to explore characters confronting their deepest fears and desires. -EK
The film, which debuted at Cannes in May, follows a young student (Garance Marillier) who discovers some uncomfortable truths about herself (and the world) when she heads off to vet school (kind of the perfect setting for a body horror film). Marillier’s Justine is a dedicated vegetarian, so when she’s forced to endure a revolting hazing ritual (one that involves lots of blood and raw liver), she’s shocked to discover just how much she endures the taste of flesh. As Justine’s hunger for consuming meat grows, so does her desire to experience the pleasures of the flesh in different ways. -KE
The film eventually settles into a predictable rhythm that doles out some predictable life lessons (“Professor Marston,” like so many other biopics before it, is driven by the idea that living an authentic life is the best option for the world’s luminaries), it’s hard to ignore the power of a story that can package unorthodox concepts in such readymade trappings. That might be the most clever concept of all — turning the unusual and despised into the kind of super-story that could inspire the world’s best hero into being. That’s worth fighting for. -KE
“Personal Shopper” creates a fully realized universe that merges visceral dread with deeper observations about its causes. Audiences unwilling to wrestle with this fascinating gamble demonstrate the worst fear plaguing moviegoing culture: Something different. -EK
As its unwieldy title suggests, “My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea” is much more than your average teen disaster movie. Every image in graphic novelist Dash Shaw’s animated feature delivers a dizzying, evocative reflection of restless youth. At the same time, it remains grounded in a familiar world of geeky teens, smarmy upperclassmen and disgruntled school administrators. As the archetypes swirl around the inane plot, the movie develops an intimate quality that’s not unlike sifting through the scrapbook of an exuberant young mind. -EK
The story of a lower-class father attempting to raise his young son doesn’t sound like groundbreaking material, but “Menashe” puts that bittersweet formula into an exciting new context. Shot exclusively in Brooklyn’s Hasidic community in Borough Park with a script almost entirely spoken in Yiddish, the narrative debut of cinematographer and documentarian Joshua Z. Weinstein has the precision of an ethnographic experiment. The movie exists within the confines of its insular setting, and features a cast of real-life Hasidim riffing on the traditions that govern their everyday lives, but manages to mine a degree of emotional accessibility that extends far beyond the neighborhood’s borders. -EK
“I will remember that now.” Such is the repeated reply from the various “primes” — holograms, and damn fine ones — who populate Michael Almereyda’s “Marjorie Prime,” a big-screen adaptation of Jordan Harrison’s Pulitzer-nominated play about artificial intelligence and the 85-year-old Marjorie, whose handsome companion is programmed to feed the story of her life back to her. Starring acting legend and multiple Tony nominee Lois Smith (reprising the role she originated on stage in 2014) with Jon Hamm, Geena Davis, and Tim Robbins, Almereyda’s feature is rich in acting talent. -KE
A wise and wistful love letter from one remarkable character actor to another, John Carroll Lynch’s “Lucky” returns 90-year-old Harry Dean Stanton to the dusty desert environs he shuffled through in 1984’s “Paris, Texas,” and offers the rawboned legend one of the best roles he’s had since. Beginning as a broad comedy before blossoming into a wry meditation on death and all the things we leave behind (a transition that kicks into gear when one of Stanton’s old friends shows up and steals the show), Lynch’s directorial debut is a wisp of a movie, blowing across the screen like a tumbleweed, but it’s also the rare portrait of mortality that’s both fun and full of life. -DE
While not the same league as “Leviathan,” Zyvagintsev’s latest slow-burn look at anguished people tortured by problems beyond their control displays his mastery of the form. A bleak, disquieting drama sustained by its performances and tone, the movie is such a haunting experience that it remains absorbing even when it doesn’t go anywhere. -EK
Uncommonly sumptuous, patient and textured for a movie with such little emotional heat or staying power, “The Lost City of Z” doesn’t feel like a work of mimicry or homage so much as it does an immaculately crafted throwback — this isn’t just what movies used to look like, it’s also how they used to crackle, move and hum. Oh, what a blessing! Seeing this projected in 35mm is like mana from heaven. -DE
It goes without saying that survivors should decide for themselves when they’re ready for it, but “The Light of the Moon” is a movie for victims and the people who love them, a movie that addresses something awful — something that’s either unimaginable, or all too real — and does so head-on. It’s as nuanced and mottled as scar tissue, full of scenes that feel adapted from personal experience (a testament to Jessica M. Thompson’s skills, and hopefully nothing more). -DE
Ever since her 2011 short film “Eat,” filmmaker Janicza Bravo has presented a baffling vision of absurd circumstances that defy simple categorization. Throughout subsequent shorts such as “Gregory Go Boom” and “Man Rots From the Head” (both of which star Michael Cera, in the former as a suicidal paraplegic), Bravo’s peculiar style maintains an unnerving quality that feels like cringe-comedy but often takes a sharp turn into odd and alarming glimpses of angry, pathetic characters. -EK
William Oldroyd crafts a masterful sense of uncertainty about how far Katherine will go to preserve her dominance. Facing societal pressures that would drive anyone crazy, she acts out within reason, but the specifics of her drive make it hard for anyone to join her revolt. In the horrific finale, a series of harrowing showdowns make it impossible to determine the moral compass of the story as it spins wildly between various characters. -EK
In the grand tradition of horror maestro Val Lewton, Trey Edward Shults plays with his audience’s imagination by using subtle hints rather than big reveals to generate the bulk of the scares. It’s an appropriate new entry in the ever-expanding roster of producer and distributor A24, which also handled horror breakout “The Witch,” another effective dose of minimalist horror told in the confines of an eerie, isolated forest. “It Comes at Night” may as well take place in the same universe of unseen things that go bump in the night — and the wide-eyed people forced to deal with them. -EK
As Vonnegut once wrote: “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.” That guy died three years before Instagram was even invented, but he had more to say about it than Matt Spicer does in his banal but enjoyably brash debut feature, “Ingrid Goes West.” -DE
“The Hero” finds Sam Elliott in a deeply contemplative role, riffing on his own career and delivering a touching meditation on fading stardom. As the perennial cowboy figure, it’s been many years since Elliott’s iconic roles in “Lifeguard” and “Tombstone;” for younger generations, his iconic drawl may be most familiar as the rambling voiceovers in “The Big Lebowski.” That voice leads the way in “The Hero,” which opens with his character Lee Hayden rolling his eyes as he attempts to record a bland commercial for Lone Star BBQ. It’s the perfect scene-setter for a movie with one main storyline: Here is a talented man whom the world has forgotten. -EK
Justin Chon’s “Gook” is about as subtle as a trash can smashing through a pizzeria window, but this isn’t a story for subtle times. Set on April 29, 1992 — the first night of the Los Angeles Riots — it’s not a story about subtle times, either. On the contrary, this messy but lived-in drama is intended for a climate that’s tilted towards hatred and erasure, an environment in which people are forced to scream their voices hoarse just to remind the world of their basic humanity. -DE
There’s simply no other modern American filmmaker capable of generating comedy and deep-seated suspense at the same time. “Good Time” combines anarchic sensibilities with an exacting style, its loopy plot starting in dark places and heads into willfully absurd directions before doubling back to a wakeup call. The essence of this unique directing duo’s appeal is they pin down what it feels like when crazy escapades die down and life gets real. -EK
David Lowery has quickly developed a filmography that mines for awe in solitude, and here delivers a cosmic variation on that theme, exploring the ineffable relationship between people and the meaning they give to the places that have value in their lives. Both formally ambitious and emotionally accessible, “A Ghost Story” transforms its main stunt into a savvy dose of minimalism with existential possibilities that cut deep. -EK
Narrated by Meryl Streep and featuring archival footage from the men’s films, unreleased footage from their time overseas, telling photographs of the war, archival interviews with the men, and new interviews with the five modern directors asked to help tell the story of their predecessors, “Five Came Back” is a carefully choreographed piece of filmmaking. Never overly reliant on any one element, Mark Harris and director Laurent Bouzereau assemble evocative information in a visually engaging and narratively seamless fashion. -Ben Travers
The obnoxious man-child is a common trope in American comedies, but few recent examples can match the hilariously unsettling presence of Donald Treebeck, the obnoxious central figure played by writer-director Kris Avedisian in his effective black comedy “Donald Cried.” Avedisian’s feature-length debut builds on the distinctively off-putting persona first seen in his short film, a bespectacled pariah stuck in perpetual arrested development. While hardly reinventing the wheel, “Donald Cried” spins it faster than usual, taking cues from its memorably irritating protagonist. -EK
Kathryn Bigelow is clearly most comfortable when making us uncomfortable. Even with the erratic camerawork (which finally comes into its own during the Algiers standoff) she’s in full command during the breathless second act, which shrinks the riot down to a few small rooms and dramatizes the unfolding tragedy with the senseless terror of a home invasion. “Detroit” is bookended by historical Cliffsnotes that implore viewers to take a step back and consider the big picture, but the extended set-piece at the center of the movie is solely focused on survival. -DE
There was never any question that when lauded video essayist Kogonada finally turned his attention to a full-length feature, the finished product would be visually stunning and impeccably framed. The real surprise — and a satisfying one at that — is how the newly-minted filmmaker has used his debut effort “Columbus” to layer visual flair with deep emotional nuance, delivered care of two of the year’s best performances. -KE
The peculiar genre-twisting set-up for “Colossal” should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the work of Spanish director Nacho Vigalondo, whose brilliant “Timecrimes” delivered one of the best time travel plots of all time, with only a handful of characters orbiting an increasingly convoluted timeline; similarly, Vigalondo’s “Extraterrestrial” turned an alien invasion story into a minimalist romcom between a handful of survivors holed up in their apartment. “Colossal” features a few bigger names and some decent special effects, but it’s otherwise consistent with this inventive director’s anarchic approach, which dares to blur the lines between silliness and genuine behavior. -EK
Structured like a fireworks display, with only a handful of small reprieves throughout, “Brimstone & Glory” naturally builds to a marvelous grand finale. It coheres into some kind of sense towards the end, especially when a young Tultepec boy assures us that “The scars on our skin are from when the saint reaches down and pulls from the fire.” You never feel more alive than when you’re dancing with death, and all that. Maybe there are better ways to achieve that mortal ecstasy, but — watching this utterly transfixing 67-minute film — you’d be hard-pressed to imagine what they might be. -DE
When we first meet James (Kyle Mooney), he’s defined by his adoration for the long-running children’s show “Brigsby Bear,” a mash-up of kiddo TV classics that’s part detective show, part life lesson-delivery service, and just quirky enough to feel like something you’d watch as a kid on a lazy Saturday morning. But this “Brigsby Bear” isn’t actually familiar, because it’s a fake show (the hows and whys? that’s the secret). Eventually, James is forced to confront that reality, and it inspires him to do something kind of crazy: film his own movie version of it. -KE
The beauty of being a high school senior in your second semester is that it can seem like nothing matters for a minute. It’s enough to make someone feel invincible, enough to make them feel like things are going to be this way forever. Ry Russo-Young’s smart and sensitively told “Before I Fall” takes that idea as literally as possible, but it’s for that reason that her film is ultimately able to pry something powerful from its trite premise. The movie might be little more than a “Groundhog Day” remake set in high school (a description that feels both reductive and right), but if you’re going to make a ripoff of “Groundhog Day,” then high school is one hell of a place to set it. -DE
Both eerie and exciting, “Beach Rats” finds its closeted protagonist hiding his gay dalliances from his masculine buddies against a grimy Brooklyn backdrop. His unnerving experiences take place against an uneven series of circumstances and occasional plot holes, but with an energetic set of young actors liberated by Hittman’s jittery naturalism, the movie remains a gripping drama throughout — a combination that speaks to the director’s emerging aesthetic. -EK
Without an iota of hyper-stylized Tarantinoesque pastiche, “The Ballad of Lefty Brown” plays like the kind of sturdy B-movie that might have been shot with the leftover set from a bigger production, and stands as a reminder of just how much Hollywood has retreated from this fertile genre. The Western vista was once a kingdom ruled by John Wayne, and has gone through various other permutations since then, but now it has dwindled into the cinematic equivalent of Lefty himself — written off by most of the world, but rich with potential and hankering for another shot. -EK
“The Bad Batch” turns a completely ridiculous premise — dystopian warfare in a sun-bleached desert filled with cannibals, a raving cult leader, desperate thieves and LSD — into a warm, at times even elegant salute to the transformative power of companionship. This should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with writer-director Ana Lily Amirpour’s sleek debut “A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night,” another creepy premise given fresh life. With “The Bad Batch,” Amirpour pairs elements of “Mad Max” and “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre” with western flavor for another beguiling ride. -EK
Queer cinephiles and others can now enjoy a bevy of films that celebrate, investigate, and make poetry from the LGBTQIA experience. Despite the heavy competition, however, Robin Campillo’s exquisite “BPM (Beats Per Minute)” stands out as the most authentically queer film of the bunch. Campillo writes from his lived experience, turning a painful history into a moving and often joyous work of art that bears witness to the past while offering the current generation a seat at the table. -Jude Dry
A mesmeric, free-floating odyssey that wends its way through a hazy year in the molten lives of two Polish twentysomethings, this unclassifiable wonder obscures the divide between fiction and documentary until the distinction is ultimately irrelevant, using the raw material of real life to create a richer story of drift and becoming than “Song to Song” could ever manufacture from oblivious celebrities trying to find their characters between the notes. -DE