General Thoughts
I’m looking forward to seeing the show at the Academy’s East Coast party in the Rainbow Room, not the West Coast party at the Academy Museum where I hear they’ve finally found a few feet of space to honor the Jews who run this business founded and the academy. Everything is upside down. I mean, as far as the show goes, I’d rather not see the song and dance stuff – this is Broadway – or even those hosts [Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes]who are notorious for their “alertness”. Ricky Gervais would have been better and people would have tuned in.
best picture
I loved The Duke – and even nominated Jim Broadbent and Helen Mirren in their categories – and I hoped it would make it here, but it didn’t. I thought this was one of the weaker years for best picture. I always ask myself, “What movie would I like to see again?” You know, like the classic movies of the past? And this year the answer was no. I didn’t even rank six of them. I hated them [The Power of the] Dog movie, apart from its cinematography. It was so predictable and not subtle – you knew right away that Benedict Cumberbatch was a latent homosexual, the brother was a wimp and the son was a little crazy – unlike Brokeback Mountain, where the characters were so well developed and interesting. In a way, I understood what Sam Elliott meant. I didn’t like West Side Story, which I call “Wake Side Story”. Pieces of the puzzle worked – I don’t think there was a bad performance – but the pieces of the puzzle don’t fit.
I think he made a huge mistake in focusing on the places that should be destroyed instead of the people — and as an immigrant who came to New York himself, I can tell you that new immigrants don’t make a pretty three to have. Bedroom apartments like in the movies, and I’ve never seen a shop like Rita Moreno’s either. And why did they take “There’s a Place for Us” away from the youth? It’s incredible. I thought, “Yeah, there’s a place for you — in the cemetery up the hill.” Aside from Bradley Cooper, who was pretty awesome and who I nominated, Licorice Pizza was a mess. The boy stays 15 forever and is a fantastic entrepreneur? What was the movie about? Don’t Look Up was just a parade by a whole bunch of celebrities; Mark Rylance, one of my favorite actors, looked bored as fuck. The best part of the movie for me was at the end when the raptor eats Meryl Streep.
I’ll admit I’m no Dune-ie – I’ve never read the book – but I saw it in an IMAX and to me it was just plain boring, except when Javier Bardem walked in and didn’t give a damn about anyone at all. Fabulous special effects, though. After Nightmare Alley I just wanted to go out and have a drink – it’s beautifully shot but I mean it’s the most depressing movie and I didn’t care about anyone in that movie either. Drive My Car was wonderful – it could have been a lot shorter, but I still liked it enough to nominate it. No one will watch it, but the writer/director was very clever in how he woven the three stories together and I was deeply touched by it. CODA is like an old Hallmark movie – it’s a beautiful story and it makes you feel good. Belfast was such a human story – beautifully told, with great acting, so touching – and I almost voted for it. But King Richard was the story that stuck in my mind. Really inspiring. It was a real surprise for me.
POLL: (1) King Richard, (2) Belfast, (3) CODA, (4) Drive my car
Best Director
I thought the director of King Richard [Reinaldo Marcus Green] did an excellent job and should have been nominated. I wasn’t a fan of what Steven Spielberg did with West Side Story. Paul Thomas Anderson is a wonderful director but I don’t know what he did with this film [Licorice Pizza]. The Drive My Car director did a wonderful job, although I don’t think the film had to be three hours long – did we really have to see all those rehearsals and stuff? The great fanfare surrounding The Power of the Dog was because a woman made this film; If a man had made this film, it would have been considered just average. I thought Kenneth told the story of Belfast so beautifully. It was a heart story.
POLL: Kenneth Branagh, Belfast
Best actor
Javier Bardem is one of my favorite actors, but not in this one [Being the Ricardos]; I would have preferred to spend the time watching an old episode of I Love Lucy. Denzel Washington is a wonderful actor – I’m a huge fan of his – but I was so incredibly bored with him [The Tragedy of] Macbeth. It was all staged. I like Benedict Cumberbatch as an actor, but not here; I prefer him in the cat movie [The Electrical Life of Louis Wain]. For me, tick, tick… boom! [for which Andrew Garfield is nominated] was too theatrical; it was supposed to be a Broadway musical, not a movie. I voted for it [King Richard’s] Will Smith. I never considered him a “best actor” until this performance, which was a real transformation. I was blown away by him.
POLL: Will Smith, King Richard
Best Actress
Renate Reinsve was wonderful [in The Worst Person in the World] and should have been nominated. The performances of all the nominated women were stunning, but I thought so [Parallel Mothers’] Penelope Cruz delivered the best performance of the year and her film should have been nominated as well.
POLL: Penelope Cruz, Parallel Mothers
Best supporting actor
[CODA’s] Troy Kotsur was wonderful – I loved seeing a deaf swearing and swearing like that – but I felt there was more nuance and shade in Ciaran Hinds’ portrayal of the grandfather [in Belfast]. It’s very hard to do what he did.
POLL: Ciaran Hinds, Belfast
The best supporting actress
[Belfast’s] Judi Dench is always great, but she just didn’t have enough to do in this film. I really like Kirsten Dunst’s work, but not in this one [The Power of the Dog] – there was only crying and drinking and crying and drinking. [King Richard’s] Aunjanue Ellis was exceptional – very real and very believable.
POLL: Aunjanue Ellis, King Richard
Best Aadapted script
CODA is just a nice little story that I remembered more than the others.
POLL: KODA
Best Original Screenplay
I don’t like that they stopped sending us hard copies of the scripts. I actually read them before. Now they send them online, but I like holding them in my hands. The Worst Person in the World is wonderful, but I voted for Belfast because there is so much heart in a simple story. It really stuck with me.
POLL: Belfast
Best Animated Feature
I have seen them all and I have loved them all. I just thought The Mitchells vs. the Machines was very relevant in terms of familial dysfunction. I see families going out to eat and every single person is on the phone. I even see it in people who date. It’s such a breakup. So I thought both the theme and the animation were fantastic.
POLL: The Mitchells against the machines
Best Documentary
They were all wonderful. But I voted for Writing with Fire because I remember when I saw it I thought, “Isn’t it amazing how a little voice can make a difference in this world?” It was really inspiring to me.
POLL: Write with fire
Best International Feature
I volunteered to help choose the nominees, which means I’ve seen a lot of international films – all for my group [nominators are assigned specific movies to guarantee that those movies are given proper consideration] and many others – and I will surprise you. The Worst Person in the World is awesome, but I voted for Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom. This movie is so extraordinary. It’s about innocence and purity. You just don’t see movies like that anymore. It was food for the soul.
POLL: Lunana: A yak in the classroom
Best cinematography
I really hated it [The Tragedy of] Macbeth, but it had wonderful cinematography. The same with the dog [The Power of the Dog] – it was just so beautifully shot that even though I didn’t like the film I voted for it.
POLL: The power of the dog
Best Costume Design
That wasn’t difficult. The costumes in Cyrano and the others were wonderful, but the costumes in Cruella were absolutely gorgeous and appropriate to the characters.
POLL: Cruella
Best film editing
I voted for King Richard again. The movie just flowed.
POLL: King Richard
Best make-up and hairstyling
I was tempted to vote for Cruella here too. But Jessica Chastain’s transformation into The Eyes of Tammy Faye was truly amazing. I was very impressed.
POLL: Tammy Faye’s eyes
Best Original Score
I voted for Parallel Mothers because I loved the film so much and I felt the score wasn’t overbearing unlike some other scores that overpowered the scenes.
POLL: parallel mothers
Best Original Song
I found Beyoncé’s song [“Be Alive” from King Richard] be screaming I voted for no time to die [from No Time to Die] just because i felt i had to choose one but there isn’t one of those songs i will ever listen to again unlike the songs that were known years ago that you could actually hum and sing. I think that’s been missing for a few years.
POLL: “No time to die”, No time to die
Best Production Design
I thought Dune looked really great.
POLL: dune
best sound
All sounded great except Dune which was a bit overwhelming. I voted for Belfast because I felt it was done subtly – although I did jump a few times when I should!
POLL: Belfast
Best visual effects
Dune and the James Bond Movie [No Time to Die] had wonderful visual effects. But Spider-Man [No Way Home] had so many effects that I thought, “Oh! Oh! Ah!” It’s just a wow movie – the visual effects are absolutely stunning.
POLL: Spider-Man: No Way Home
Best Animated Short Film
They were all excellent, but The Windshield Wiper was sort of an adult – he asked questions about human relationships – and resonated with me the deepest.
POLL: The windshield wiper
Best Documentary
I loved them all but one that stuck in my mind was When We Were Bullies. It got me thinking about my own life and how one thing can affect different people in such different ways.
POLL: When we were bullies
Best Live Action Short Film
The one where the woman is kidnapped and forced into marriage [Ala Kachuu – Take and Run] really got to me. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the film.
POLL: Ala Kachuu – Take and Run
Read more from THR’s brutally honest Oscar ballots:
Brutally Honest Oscar Vote #1: “Don’t Look Up” is a “One Joke Movie”, “CODA” is “excellent in every way”
Brutally Honest Oscar Vote #2: ‘Worst Human Alive’ ‘Amazing’, ‘Liquorice Pizza’ Blatantly ‘Racist’
Brutally Honest Oscar Vote #3: “Couldn’t Get Through” “Drive My Car,” Spielberg’s “West Side Story” better than the original