Some page turning Oscar nominees

With everything going on right now, finding joy is far from easy yet this year’s Academy Award nominations offered up some wonderful surprises that couldn’t help but to lift my spirits.

I will get into some of my thoughts about the Oscar race by the end here (especially a certain history making 16 nominations for one of my favorites from last year!)but for the purposes of this blog, we’re going to highlight the Best Adapted Screenplay category and the books they’re based on.

I say books because one of the nominees is a remake of an international film (Bugonia) and the other is rather loosely inspired by the works of Thomas Pynchon (One Battle After Another). Therefore, there are just three out of the five available in traditional literary form.

Let’s start with Frankenstein , adapted by writer/director Guillermo Del Toro, based on Mary Shelley’s iconic tale of a monster and his maker. Therefore film received nine nominations, including Best Picture, Best Makeup and Hair Styling (love how that category has expanded!) and Best Supporting Actor for Jacob Elordi as the Creature.

While I haven’t seen the film (don’t have Netflix right now), I did reread the book recently and have no doubt that Del Toro did well here. I know some folks claim that a female director would’ve been a better choice but this was a passion project for Del Toro, who has loved Shelley’s book along with prior movie incarnations, and his sensibility for cinematic storytelling has never been in serious question.

Based on his nuanced approach with similar material with movies such as The Shape of Water and Cronos, his heartfelt take on what both monsters and the meaning of love truly are is what movie making legends are made of:
 

Next up is Hamnet, based upon Maggie O’Farrell’s award winning novel which the writer adapted in partnership with director Chloe Zhao.

The film tells the story of what might have inspired William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) to write Hamlet, mainly the emotional aftermath from the death of his young son. 

This intense grief is shared by his wife Agnes(Jessie Buckley, who is up for Best Actress) and by turning their personal tragedy into an epic play , may have paid the ultimate price for his art.

The film is up for eight nominations, with not only Buckley contending for Actress but Zhao as Best Director and placing in the new Oscar category Best Casting to boot. I have heard great praise for both book and film and have no doubt that this will make a fine showing on Oscar night indeed:

For our final nominee. we have Train Dreams which is based on a novella by Denis Johnson. The screenplay was co-written by Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley. the latter being the movie’s director.

The bare bones of the plot has Robert Grainer(Joel Edgerton) leading a simple yet at times sad life, with more than his fair share of tragedies to deal with as time goes on.

The film received four nominations, including Best Picture and Best Original Song. I’m sure that this is an award worthy film but just sounds too bleak for my taste. Nonetheless, the story does feel to be poignantly relatable so it has a decent chance at winning something here:

While I know all too well that celebrating the arts at the moment seems to be a concern best put aside, the truth is that art in all of it’s forms is one of our best sources of inspiration and hope in terrible times such as these. 

The everyday struggles that we’ve been dealing with(particularly what happened just a few days ago) can be made bearable not only by uniting our voices together in demands for change and support for those being directly affected here but by appreciating the good that is still out there worth fighting for. The arts can give relief from the stress of it all as well as provide us a goal to aim for as we make our way towards a better tomorrow.

That being said, seeing Sinners get that ground breaking number of Oscar nominations was wonderful beyond belief! Long have I waited for Michael B. Jordan to receive a Best Actor nod, along with writer/director Ryan Coogler up for Best Original Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture!!!!

Sinners was the movie I saw for my birthday last spring and it’s definitely the gift that keeps on giving. 

This blend of historical fiction with vampire lore felt like a full fledged novel come to vivid life on screen and while I know that the Academy rarely likes to acknowledge anything horror genre related, it’s not entirely impossible for this film to garner some major wins on Oscar night.

Yes, folks are cautioning Sinners fans to not get their hopes up too high(it wouldn’t be the first time that a multiple movie nominee got disappointed on the big night) but this time, it may be truly movie magic on display that rewards one of it’s actual best that evening.

We shall see. As for me, I do hope that Miles Canton is available to perform “I Lied to You “ on stage in the Best Original Song category there. That scene alone is an amazing movie memorable moment that will inspire future creators on and off screen for decades to come: