We'll be doing our final round up of all the Best Picture nominees for this year's Academy Awards. This week: Le Mans '66, Parasite and Joker.
Le Mans '66
Plot
The car manufacturer Ford are struggling financially, so they set about winning the prestigious 24-hour car race, Le Mans. But perennial winners Ferrari are tough to beat.
Neither great, nor terrible, this is a pretty conventional sports-underdog film. What stops it from rising above the level of most other films in this genre, is that the whole thing is carried by Christian Bale, who has the most interesting and vibrant character, and gives the only performance that doesn’t seem to be on autopilot (or, in this case, cruise control). He’s characterised very well as a maverick, but one with a strong sense of family and duty to make him genuinely likeable. While Bale is driving in the fast lane, all other characters and plot strands are stuck in mediocre gridlock.
The film also spends too much time building up towards the race itself. I didn’t feel like a needed to know the ins and outs of how they re-adapted cars, and most of the obstacles they face don’t feel particularly dramatic. The film stops stalling when it reaches the Le Mans race itself, which is excitingly shot and has a few other plot strands going on within it that put the pace into 5th gear. But there are also events after the race I felt were rushed through because too much time was spent on the set-up.
If you like cars, car races, and men doing triumphant things against jobs-worths, idiots, and people who don’t speak much English (in this case, the Italians, mostly characterised as hot-tempered, stupid and nationalistic), then you’ll like this. If you’ve seen and enjoyed Cool Runnings, The Blind Side, Dodgeball, or The Karate Kid, you won’t get anything new here.
Mark: 4/10
Doug says
I pretty much agree with Paul. It’s not a very exciting film and while it’s entertaining enough to pass a couple of hours, the Oscar nomination is a bit out of the blue. It’s a ‘man’s film’, full of cars, stern-jawed heroes being silent and brave, and a climactic car race with a crucial decision for Christian Bale’s hero to make at the eleventh hour. It’s fun, but not anything new.
I did enjoy how the film doesn’t ever let you forget that the Ford company, despite all their talk about being ready to embrace innovation, will brush all that aside if it means they get good PR. There’s a fun villain in the Marketing Director, and Ford’s ultimate betrayal of Bale’s character is matched nicely by a small moment of recognition by Ferrari’s loud Italian boss. You leave thinking perhaps he would have had a better time if he’d worked for the ‘enemy’.
Mark: 4/10
Parasite
Plot
An impoverished family con their way into the service of a much wealthier family. But an unexpected discovery sends their con wildly out of control.
This film has taken the world by storm, and it’s easy to see why. It’s received an unprecedented nomination for both Best Picture and Best International Feature Film and for me it’s evidence that the Academy should be expanding the Best Picture category to include non-English language films more often.
This movie will absolutely surprise you- I beg you not to read spoilers. What starts as an amusing con-artist tale evolves suddenly into an intense thriller, and then a cutting social commentary on the relationship between the wealthy and the poor, all the while remaining convincing and coherent. Bong Joon-Ho directs very carefully, with every shot containing lighting, movement and symbolism that is subtle but obvious enough to captivate and move the audience, from the way in which the poor family scuttle about the house on all fours like insects (the parasites of the title) to the way in which the stairs to the basement are so ominously framed by objects denoting wealth and status.
The acting also deserved more note. I especially enjoyed Cho Yeo-jeong as the stressed rich housewife, and Lee Jung-eun as the housekeeper who manages to ooze kindness, menace and tragedy all within the space of two hours.
This is an extremely strong contender and while it may be up against the current titan, 1917, the 2010s trend is for underdogs to win through. Could this be the first non-English language winner of Best Picture?
Mark: 10/10
Doug says
Don’t read about this film, just go see it. It’s a startling dichotomy of class and while I’m certain that the Oscars won’t celebrate it purely because they can’t bear to think a non-English speaking film would be better than anything of theirs, it should easily be this year’s winner.
Parasite stylishly and powerfully shows the differences in class, and seeing the poorer family’s semi-underground flat and restricted lifestyles makes you understand, if not approve of, their decisions. Director Boon Joon-Ho has produced a clever, beautiful film where every shot is stunning and often loaded with meaning.
It’s also brimming with fabulous performances - particularly both sets of parents. Characters shift and change as you learn more about them - just as in real life. And ultimately the question is raised - can you ever really escape the class that life has put you in?
Mark: 10/10
Joker
Plot
A wannabe stand-up comedian in crime-stricken Gotham City has some issues.
Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy establishes Gotham City as riddled with crime and desperately in need of a sexy, black-clad vigilante to help the police catch the criminals and either arrest or kill them. And with that, social order is restored. What Joker sets out to do, is point out that crime does not just grow organically out of some obscure “evil”, but is rather a result of bad government causing poverty, disenfranchisement and oppression, and the solution is far more complex. Arthur Fleck, or the Joker of the title, is very much a victim, not a super-villain, while the Waynes are not wealthy do-gooders, but the causes of all Gotham’s woes. The movie has obviously been written with American gun crime and London-based knife crime in mind.
Is it effective? Sometimes, yes. Joaquin Phoenix is incredibly intense, especially in the climactic scene between him and Robert De Niro. I can see why he’s the hot favourite for Best Actor. Atmospherically, director Todd Phillips, better known for comedies such as The Hangover and Borat, does a great job.
But the problem is that we know exactly what’s going to happen- it’s a bygone conclusion that the Joker will turn out bad. So really we’re put through two hours of relentless misery, humiliation and tragedy only to reach the very character conclusion we expect. Not my particular choice of entertainment but hey, it’s proven to be pretty popular.
Mark: 7/10
Doug says
I enjoyed this and as a film it’s an easy watch, gripping and unsettling. Joaquin Phoenix does a sterling job, with a manic mechanical laugh that is pretty terrifying. He deserves the nomination for the glassy-eyed close ups alone. It’s making some valid points about people being pushed to the limit - the riot scenes at the climax of the film made me think of Brexit - how some people turned violent in the hope of change - any change.
It’s very well shot, and this is a glossy thing, but it doesn’t deserve to win. It’s not doing anything particularly new and compared to its fellow competitors, this is just a bit unrelentingly grim in a way that almost feels gratuitous. I think sometimes film-makers tend towards this, the embracing of total misery. It’s not actually artful though, and I think a film that works out moments of light and shade is a far more difficult and interesting thing.
Mark: 6/10
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