…And the award goes to these page turning nominees!

 I have to admit as much of a fan of the Oscars that I am, my cinematic enthusiasm is decidedly less than zero here.

Given all of the real world anxiety both last year and sadly still with us in this new calendar season, the movie scene wasn’t vibing that much with me.

Don’t get wrong; I did see a few good films in theaters and a couple on streaming(one of which I will be highlighting later in this post) . Nonetheless, my Oscar game is a little disconnected this time around yet I still plan to watch the show and hopefully, find some inspiration for what’s to come.

Okay, enough of the negativity-let’s talk about a few Oscar nominees whose films are book based, starting with The Nickel Boys, adapted from the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by Colson Whitehead. The movie stars Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson as two young men sent off to a “reform school “ in Florida during the 1960s.

The movie is up for Best Adapted Screenplay(RaMell Ross co-wrote the script with Joslyn Barnes) and Best Picture yet you don’t hear much about this film, which is a true shame. Granted, it may not be the most cheerful of subjects but that’s never stopped the Academy from promoting such a story before.

 Given that it’s based on the work of one of our best living authors today, it certainly deserves better attention than this brief notice to be sure:

Next up is a movie that received quite a bit of attention, Conclave, based on the thriller by Robert Harris.

Ralph Finnes plays Cardinal Lawrence, who is leading the title event to select the next papal appointment, which happens to be a setting off point for some major revelations amongst the clergy.

Finnes has one of the eight nominations for this movie as Best Actor while Isabella Rossellini gets her first Best Supporting Actress nom as a rather secretive nun. Its other categories include Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Score, Best Costume Design and Best Picture yet. It did pretty well at the box office and I expect it to take home a few awards on Oscar night.

Frankly, Conclave seems like a rather old fashioned movie with its well known cast(Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow round out the big names) and conspiracy plot points to me. Then again, I have heard good word of mouth about the film and having read one of Harris’  earlier novels (Fatherland), it might be a sleeper surprise indeed:

To top this off, we have the animated movie The Wild Robot based on the first of three children’s books by Peter Brown.

The title mechanical being is accidentally left in a wilderness, where it uses their skills to adapt within the environment and form bonds with the world land residents (voiced by actors such as Pedro Pascal, Catherine O’Hara and Mark Hamil, with Lupita Nyong’o as Roz, the robot). It is not only nominated for Best Animated Feature, it’s up for Best Original Score and Best Sound as well.

This does seem like a charming film that blends the whole nature vs. technology themes quite nicely there. A sequel is being planned as we speak and it is refreshing to see a movie meant for kids and their adults that is more than just cynical marketing these days:

“Hey, you didn’t talk about Wicked or Dune part two!” Yes, because those bookish connections are rather well known at this point and I wanted to highlight a few other book based films this award season.

One of those movies I watched on Hulu a few weeks ago, Nightbitch

based on the novel by Rachel Yoder that stars Amy Adams as a frustrated stay at home mother who mourns her budding art career and grows more and more annoyed with her husband, who clearly takes her for granted.

Her emotional turmoil leads her to believe that she might be turning into a literal creature of the night with some of her mommy group joining in on the canine carousing. I don’t want to spoil the plot but as a caveat, if you are a cat person (like me), there are a couple of scenes you might not like(you have been warned).

While it’s not up for the Oscars, Nightbitch is a nominee at the upcoming Independent Spirit Awards for Best Lead Performance and Best Editing. I’m not surprised at that since it’s a tad offbeat for the Academy yet I find myself thinking about it weeks later.

Adams gives quite the performance as a woman who feels trapped in a situation that she partially feels responsible for yet her resentments run deep and are very much justified. 

Some folks complained that the book took more chances than the film, which I don’t know about yet(just borrowed a copy from the library this week) but something tells me that writer/director Marielle Heller made the choice to not get bogged down in body horror and wanted to focus more on the inner struggles of her lead character instead.

There is some body horror here to be sure but perhaps not as much as the novel’s readers expected (I will know soon enough). However, what strikes me is that despite all of the social changes for women over the years, some things still remain the same as this story shows us. Women having to choose between home and career, conflicting advice on child rearing and feeling guilty about every decision you do or don’t make is still sadly relevant now as it was twenty or thirty years ago.

 I think it would make a good double feature with the original Stepford Wives in some regards and it’s a shame that Nightbitch is not a part of the  current pop culture conversation right now. 

Then again, the movie did get me to seek out the book and hopefully, others will do so as well. Books and movies do go along good together but sometimes, like a favorite yet all too familiar recipe, you need to add a new ingredient or two to shake things up: