Hortonioni Oscars

Snubs win in my Oscars!

Before we get into the hot hot spicy Hortonioni Oscars, I want to give a big shoutout to ✨KAREN✨ for becoming an esteemed paid subscriber — you’re the best! 🤩

You may have noticed that your inbox was missing a post last week…I got swept up in the freelance juggle! Ryan and I were installing a photo exhibit that we’ve been working on for a few months (I’ll share about it soon, it’s v cool!), as well as working on a new Romance Retrospective. Today I’ve handed off the edit to RyGuy to work his magic and I’m back to writing — phew! I know you were worried.

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Welcome BACK to the 2nd Annual Hortonioni Oscars, where I just tell you about all the movies I liked the best this year. Excited to hear what your favorites were, dear reader!

BEST PICTURE: Hamnet but also non-nominees: Sirât, No Other Choice and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You. Unlike last year in which I simply could not choose my favorite child among the nominees, I thought this year left out the best films that I saw! Hamnet was a gorgeous film, with a transcendent ending and fabulous performances across the board.

Sirât for me was a religious experience — I haven’t felt so overcome and transported by a film like this in a very long time. No Other Choice and If I Had Legs I’d Kick You were so morbidly hilarious and sharp (my fav!), anchored by unmoored lead performances. I laughed out loud many times during both of them while also covering my eyes and being very concerned for their well-beings. NeverWins: F1. Please do not nominate a car commercial for an Oscar, thanks.

BEST ACTOR: Timothée Chalamet absolutely knocked it out of the park. His embodiment of Marty and his electric charm keep you glued to his side even as he’s an immature asshole. And he’s funny. When he wins the final ping pong tournament and breaks down crying…you feel his whole life flashing through this body. The catharsis, the shame of all he’s had to do to get there, the sweet relief. I also thought he totally sold the end beat — it’s not moment of a character vowing to change his ways and be a good person/dad. No, no. It’s a young man overwhelmed by the beautiful possibilities world and everything it can throw at you.

BEST ACTRESS: Rose Byrne and Jessie Buckley but also Amanda Seyfried for The Testament of Ann Lee (major snub say the pundits aka me)! All these actresses portray women stretched to their absolute breaking points — in others’ hands I think these performances could have gone on the sour side, i.e., too intense, too anxious. I was very moved by these roles, their commitment, and how they powerfully carry their respective films.

BEST DIRECTOR: Mona Fastvold for The Testament of Ann Lee - I said it’s MY Oscars, I do what I want! I think the nominated directors did really lovely work, no doubt. But the fact that Mona held together a feminist Shaker MUSICAL seems to me a true feat of directing. She held the tone, the choreography, music, gorgeous cinematography, intense performances, epic storyline, cultural deep-dive all together for the entire film. Yeah it’s a bonkers movie — and I think it really works and damn I don’t know how she did it.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Inga Ibsdotter Lileaas gave a quiet and powerful performance as the sister who “got away” (from depression) in Sentimental Value. She anchors the bigger stars — Stellan Skarsgård and Renate Reinsve — providing the strength and sturdiness that they need. There’s really nothing flashy about this role — she is just so real, you lose yourself in her work.

BEST ANIMATED: K-Pop Demon Hunters.

We're goin' up, up, up, it's our moment
You know together we're glowin'
Gonna be, gonna be golden…

…like a goddamn Oscar statue! This movie is working on all cylinders. It’s a MustWin, says I.

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN: The work in Marty Supreme is just so spot on. The details are out-of-control, the scope is mind-boggling, how many more hyperlatives can I dig up? Every part of the production design feels like it’s working at full-throttle yet is perfectly seamless. It’s a joy to live in these scenes, there’s so much to look and marvel at yet it never distracts from the story.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Sean Penn. He was hilarious. Self-hating and repressed to the point of physical alteration.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG: “I Lied to You” from Sinners. The sound perfectly matches the act of “summoning” that is happening in this scene. The song is so in service of the story here, which is why I think it’s a winner for this category. (I don’t like when the nominated songs are just in the credits! Feels unfair.) The song is gorgeous, powerful, and Miles Caton is so talented with a voice that gets into your bones.

BEST INTERNATIONAL: Sirât is my pick although every single movie in this category is truly stunning! I loved the political exploration of The Secret Agent and thought the performances were fab — from Wagner Moura but also the unique ensemble cast. The film creates a world that you live in for 2.5 hours.

It Was Just an Accident has a brilliantly sharp script that takes massive ideas (torture, forgiveness) and packs them into a small story about a few people in a van over the course of one day. The film at times feels absurdist…with a dash of Hitchcock’s Rope. The film is mysterious, asking you to fill in the story blanks, therefore involving your intellect and then your emotions.

The Voice of Hind Rajab is pretty phenomenal as well — it retells the real murder of Hind Rajab by the Israeli military in a cinematic reenactment that places the audience in the position of the helpless workers doing everything they can to save a 6-year-old. The fury you feel watching this!!

Sentimental Value was another fabulous international feature this year — it envelopes you completely into the story of this artistic Norwegian family, their house, their ancestry. All while feeling very fresh and even funny at times.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: It Was Just an Accident gets my vote here, as discussed above! It’s really f’ing brilliant. And I also give a hearty hoorah for Sentimental Value as well! The way the script fuses the house’s history into the film elevated the story of a feuding family to something deep, historical, societal. Joachim gives a great interview on Scriptnotes that’s worth checking out.

Big snubs in this category! For If I Had Legs I’d Kick You and Sorry, Baby. The NeverWin here goes to Blue Moon: If I have to watch one more film with older men obsessed with young beautiful women, specifically Margaret Qualley…well, I’ll just turn it off. Which I did.

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: WHERE IS MARTY SUPREME ON THIS LIST?

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Hamnet. Films about grief, depression, sadness are sooooo hard to do in my opinion. There is a lot of…nothing…that happens with those emotions. Internal/Stasis/Apathy. That this screenplay took a story about grief and turned it into a film that moved along quite well — that’s a real testament to the writing!

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Marty Supreme simply for the lighting in those amazing giant ping pong scenes! Just kidding — for all of the scenes. It looked insanely good, it created a time and a place. It was textured, the lighting reflected economic class, it drove the energy of the story. Even in the giant chaotic scenes, you always know where you are in the space and how characters are relating to one another. I can’t wait to watch it again just for the visuals (and the score and the performances!).

Big snub here for Testament of Ann Lee — another example of cinematography that created a time and a place, full of texture. The camera was another worshipper in the film, at times weaving like a dancer.

BEST EDITING: When watching Dead Man’s Wire I said aloud — this better get nominated for Best Editing! Alas, it is only being nominated in Hortonioni Oscars, but hey. The editing is electric, complicated. It cuts together different footage formats to recreate the experience of an event that was actually captured on broadcast news cameras. I thought it was very exciting!!

BEST SOUND: Sirât! Sound is EVERYTHING in Sirât. The score is phenomenal and the diegetic music drives the themes and atmosphere. Music and sound is a way to connect to something higher in this film. Setting this film in the desert allows the sound to overwhelm as it does because it’s filling this empty landscape — it pairs like a fine wine.

xoxo!