The 11th Annual Danny’s

It’s another Oscar Sunday, so it’s time for the Danny’s! In this year’s edition, you’ll hear why my Best Picture winner may not be something you’ll want to see. Once again, I will take the Golden Globes to task. And I’ll let you know what I saw this year that made me rethink the 2017 Danny Award for Best Picture.

Best Picture this year was an easy call for me. That coveted Danny goes to Everything Everywhere All at Once. I knew I would be a sucker for it based on the one-sentence marketing blurb: “…a hilarious, big-hearted sci-fi action adventure about an exhausted Chinese-American woman who just can’t seem to finish her taxes.” I’ve been begging Hollywood for original ideas since I started these awards. And my Best Director winners, the Daniels (the directing duo of Dan Kwan & Daniel Scheinert), brilliantly answered that call. They get bonus points for rescuing the multi-verse concept from the big studios that are using it as a crutch to hold up their flailing superhero franchises (looking at you, Disney).

But that same multi-verse concept means EEAAO may not be for you. I pretty much knew this would be my favorite film of the year when two rocks with googly eyes had a philosophical conversation about the nature of existence. And this was after hot dog fingers, Raccaccoonie, and an everything bagel representing the empty void of the universe. It’s a lot and may not be your cup of tea. But if you go with it, EEAAO says more about what it means to live a fulfilling life than almost any other move you can see.

A few more awards for EEAAO before moving on. The multi-verse concept would not have worked without the Danny award-winning Best Editing by Paul Rogers. The Best Acting Ensemble award goes to the cast, including Michelle Yeoh, Jamie Lee Curtis, Stephanie Hsu, and acting icon James Hong. Ke Huy Quan, who started his career at 13 playing Short Round in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, gets a well-deserved Best Supporting Actor nod for playing multiple versions of the same steadfast man. His fanny-pack fight is a particular highlight.

The Runner-Up award for my second favorite film of the year goes to The Fabelmans, easily Steven Spielberg’s best work in ages. It’s great to see the master back to making something personal after soulless attempts as blockbusters and remakes. What could have been a vanity project about how Spielberg became a great artist is much deeper, delving into the commitment of family, the price of being an artist, and the power of what a movie can be. My Favorite Scene of the year is when young Spielberg Fabelman edits footage of a family camping trip and discovers his mother isn’t who he thinks she is. It’s heartbreaking and hauntingly beautiful.

Best Actress was just as easy a call for me as Best Picture. Cate Blanchett gives one of her best performances in Tár. Director Todd Fields’ searingly original film focuses on a mercurial music conductor. The title character is a genius and a loving mother. She’s also a bully and a predator and is most likely going slowly insane. Blanchett draws all these elements into a fascinating portrait of an artist secure in her convictions but not her reality. In the end, we find out what’s most important to her. Blanchett’s brilliance makes that choice seem inevitable.

Best Actor goes to Austin Butler for Elvis. Director Baz Luhrmann’s take on the King of Rock and Roll is stylistically over the top, but Butler’s performance is grounded by the drive that pushed Elvis to be great. He is a marvel as the young Elvis of the 1950s, who built a career on swagger and achingly poignant as the 1970s Elvis, still giving his best despite the ravages of drugs, time, and Colonel Tom Parker, his shady business partner. (Shout out to Tom Hanks as Col. Parker, going way against type in a performance many hated but I admired as very brave). Butler’s work is a tribute and cautionary tale.

Since I make up the rules, Best Supporting Actress goes to the leads in Women Talking: Rooney Mara, Jessie Buckley, and Claire Foy. I also give the film my Truth in Titling award. You are in for a great deal of talking in this story of a Mennonite colony where the women debate whether to stay or leave after suffering an unthinkable number of sexual assaults from their men. Inspired by actual events in Bolivia, what could have been stagy and boring is made lively and insightful by director Sarah Polley’s excellent work. All three leads go through a wide range of emotions and insights as they make an impossible decision.

Best Screenplay goes to Top Gun: Maverick. It’s a long list, but the screenplay is by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie based on a story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks and characters created by Jim Cash and Jack Epps, Jr. (I feel like this is one of those chapters of the Old Testament with all the begats.) Anyway, it’s a miracle the Top Gun sequel worked out so well. It really should have ended in disaster like so many other sequels. Instead, it was creatively nostalgic in a way that made it both fresh and comforting.

The Golden Globes Got It Wrong Again award goes to The Banshees of Ininsherin. The film won Best Comedy at the Globes this year. There may be a few laughs, but it’s honestly one of the saddest movies you could see. Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson do outstanding work as two men at the end of a friendship. Perhaps the self-mutilation tactics Gleeson’s character uses had the Globes folks laughing in the aisles. Me, not so much.

As faithful readers know, I’m not big on remakes, but I’ll give Best Remake to All Quiet on the Western Front. The 1930 version of this story won the third-ever Best Picture Oscar. It’s a fantastic film from that era. This take on the tragedy of World War I is also potent. The echoes between it and what’s happening in Russia and Ukraine makes this timely as well.  

Best Bollywood Film goes to RRR. This three-hour Indian movie about two friends on different sides of the revolution against the British is a visual feast. It’s a superhero movie disguised as a historical epic. In the best Bollywood tradition it features a full range of styles, from song & dance and soap opera to action and adventure.  

Best Score goes to Michael Giacchino for The Batman. I wasn’t looking forward to yet another film about the Caped Crusader. Matt Reeve’s movie was a bit bloated, but it still provided a much more interesting take on the Dark Knight than I expected. Giacchino won an Oscar for Pixar’s Up. Needless to say, his music here was very different but fitting and memorable.

Best Biopic goes to Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, the true story of the genius behind the wholly original song Eat It who had a notorious affair with Madonna and was gunned down by a drug cartel in the mid-80s. Tragic stuff.

Best Title goes to The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, a very meta take on the career of Nicolas Cage. The enjoyable action-comedy is about how a drug kingpin, played by the always great Pedro Pascal, helps the actor rediscover his purpose. My favorite scene is when Pascal’s character reveals one of his favorite movies is Paddington 2, because it made him want to be a better man. I had never even considered seeing Paddington 2, so I had to give it a watch. The creators of Massive Talent knew what they were doing. Paddington 2 is incredible. And it is a movie that makes you want to be a better person. With all apologies to Phantom Thread, which I had as my Best Picture of 2017, Paddington 2 is better.

Here are a few quick hitters to end the Dannys:

Brendan Fraser did an incredible job in The Whale. Fantastic makeup work in the movie as well.

Bill Nighy was also excellent as a dying man in Living, a loose adaption of the classic film Ikiru by Akira Kurosawa.

The Menu was a bloody hoot and made me want a cheeseburger.

Glass Onion was a worthy follow-up to Knives Out.

John Hamm was born to play Fletch, and I enjoyed Confess, Fletch. I loved the original Chevy Chase movie in the 80s, but Hamm’s Irwin Fletcher is more like the character from the even more outstanding book series by Gregory McDonald. Hollywood doesn’t make many movies like this one anymore. Fletch is not a superhero and solves mysteries through quick wits and not flying fists. I hope enough people watch it, so they keep the series going. If it sounds like something up your alley, please check it out. Right after you watch Paddington 2.

As always, the winners can instant message me to claim their awards. Thanks for reading