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The Oscars movies worth watching
00:23:59
If you’re cramming Oscars movies over the next few days, this show is for you. The Post’s film and TV reporter and our arts editor join us to talk about what to watch, and why “The Brutalist” is worth your time even at 3 hours and 35 minutes.
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- [00:01]
Martine Powers
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- [00:33]
Sonia Rao
I always try to see as many Oscar nominees as possible, but this past year was a little busy, so I am currently cramming. I did see Wicked, and I loved it.
- [00:46]
Unknown
Don't be afraid.
- [00:49]
Janice Page
I'm not afraid.
- [00:53]
Unknown
It's the wizard who should be afraid of me.
- [00:58]
Sonia Rao
And then there was Conclave, a movie about the selection of a new pope. It had me on the edge of my seat. They are sequestered, and they must be shielded from all news that may influence their judgment.
- [01:09]
Janice Page
You understand? No sane man would want the papacy.
- [01:17]
Sonia Rao
The men who are dangerous.
- [01:21]
Janice Page
Are the ones who do want it.
- [01:24]
Sonia Rao
And then I also saw Dune 2. But there are a whole bunch of other best picture contenders that I haven't yet gotten to see. That includes Honora the Brutalist, a complete unknown, Emilia Perez, I'm Still Here, Nickel Boys and the Substance. I sat down with film and TV reporter Sonia Rao, along with her editor Janice Page, to ask them about these movies. All right, so if you guys had to describe this year's movies in one word or one phrase, what would it be?
- [02:00]
Unknown
This year's movies. I don't know if I'm using hyphens here. I'm just gonna go with all over the Map. I think in terms of popularity, in terms of scope, in terms of budget, which is really exciting to me. I think we have a pretty full breadth of cinema here.
- [02:14]
Janice Page
And then I would also use the word crapshoot, because when it comes to the Oscars this year in the best picture category, it's really anyone's to win.
- [02:24]
Sonia Rao
What I really wanted to know is how should I prioritize my viewing with the couple of days I have left before the OSC on Sunday night? Especially because some of these movies are long. The brutalist alone is more than three and a half hours.
- [02:39]
Janice Page
As odd as this might be, I thought the brutalist should have been longer, and the reaction should have been, that's.
- [02:45]
Sonia Rao
The hottest take I've ever heard.
- [02:47]
Janice Page
Yeah, it should have been a miniseries.
- [02:51]
Sonia Rao
From the newsroom. Of the Washington Post. This is Post Reports. I'm Martine powers. It's Thursday, February 27th. Today, my conversation with Sonya and Janice about the and movies and what to expect on Sunday night. Let's talk about the state of the Oscars race right now. What do you both see as the biggest contenders for Best Picture?
- [03:20]
Unknown
You know, I think, as Janice said, it is a crapshoot. But if you're looking at the awards leading up to this one, you know, we're talking sag, which is the Screen Actors Guild, the Producers Guild of America, pga, all of these, you know, individual union Guild awards are great predictors for this. And I see Enora being a great contender.
- [03:40]
Sonia Rao
And just before we go further, Enora, can you explain a little bit about this movie?
- [03:44]
Unknown
Yeah. Enora is a film by Sean Baker, and it kind of falls in line with a lot of his other movies. He's known for making movies about marginalized communities, often sex workers. So Enora follows the dancer in Brooklyn who's kind of whisked away on this whirlwind romance with the pretty young, I would say early 20s, son of a Russian oligarch. It's about the American dream. It's about her moving up in the world, whether this guy can help her get there, focuses on her journey, but in his world.
- [04:09]
Sonia Rao
And why do you say it is one of the top contenders for best Picture this year?
- [04:14]
Unknown
It's won a lot of precursor awards. It won at the Critics Choice Award. It won, I believe, the Producers Guild Award. It's winning a lot of these, you know, awards that are voted on by similar people to who votes on the actual Oscars.
- [04:28]
Sonia Rao
Janice, what about you? What do you think is the biggest contender for Best Picture this year?
- [04:32]
Janice Page
Well, just to sonja's point, in 14 of the last 17 years, the winner of the Producer's Guild Award has won the Oscar. And. Or is that movie. So that's part of the reason everybody lays odds on. But I think the interesting part of that is this is one. Where is the Academy progressive enough to bestow its best Picture on a pretty graphic movie about a sex worker? And so I do think that leaves room for the Brutalist or Conclave, which are both typical Oscar bait. And so I think it's a race between those three. But anytime you have a race where there's no definitive front runner, you leave it open for dark horse candidates. And that would possibly be a complete unknown or even wicked, although I think that's the most outside of the possibilities. A complete unknown could sneak in there A complete unknown.
- [05:25]
Sonia Rao
This is the Bob Dylan movie, right?
- [05:27]
Janice Page
That's the Bob Dylan movie, which, among hardcore Bob Dylan fans, there are a lot of haters. It skims over a lot of history and takes a lot of liberties with history. And it is a by the numbers.
- [05:38]
Sonia Rao
Biopic with Timothee Chalamet playing Bob Dylan. And obviously Timothee Chalamet, it's very popular right now. And say he's having a moment. And maybe that has to do with some of the popularity of the movie.
- [05:49]
Janice Page
Sure. And again, who doesn't like sitting in a theater listening to Bob Dylan songs? And again, there's a lot of goodwill for Timothy, and I think it has a chance.
- [05:58]
Sonia Rao
Mm. I wanna come back to what you just said about how there are two movies that seem like they are Oscar bait, and that is the Brutalist and Conclave. So Conclave I actually did see in theaters, and I remember being halfway through the movie in one of those, like, quiet, tense moments in this relatively packed theater, and just looking around, being like, I'm so glad I'm seeing this movie here in this theater, because this just feels so tense and exciting. And I can tell everyone's on the edge of their seat. And it's funny to call this movie exciting when it's really about the process of choosing a new pope, and it's about a bunch of mostly old men who are sitting around in various somewhat opulent rooms and talking about things. But it's a movie that I really enjoyed. And I can see why you would call that Oscar bait in terms of, you know, there are so many heavy hitters and actors who we're very familiar with who are starring in that movie. The Brutalist is one that I think a lot of people might have heard the name of or seen, like, bits from the trailer, but don't really know what this movie is about. Also don't know why it's three and a half hours long. Can you explain a little bit about the Brutalist and why this is kind of a made for the Oscars kind of film?
- [07:15]
Janice Page
Yeah. Well, so a lot of it is about the actors and the sort of the weight. And it's kind of an epic story, too. It's about an architect. It's filmed really well. It's photographed really well. Same with Conclave. Cinematography is terrific. It has themes that are, again, sweeping. Immigration and individuality and craftsmanship. And its script is. While it leaves a lot of things unresolved, its script, many would argue, is quite meaty. All these things that it just has the look and feel and gravitas of an Oscar contender. And even in its length, also substantial. The Oscar voters tend to like something that signals, hey, we really work hard and we really take our craft seriously.
- [08:03]
Sonia Rao
Interesting. I wanna talk about another movie that it seemed like for a while was the front runner for best picture, a movie that I was very curious about seeing. And then it seems like something flipped suddenly and it is no longer a movie that people are excited about. And that is Emilia Perez.
- [08:24]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [08:24]
Sonia Rao
And this is a movie that is about a woman going through a gender transition while also being like the kingpin of a drug trafficking organization in Mexico, but also happens to be a musical. There are just a lot of elements there kind of mixed into one. And I've heard so many things about how innovative it is, how well acted it is, how just unusual and interesting and surprising it is, but also how controversial it's become.
- [08:56]
Unknown
I mean, it's fascinating because this movie won an acting award at Cannes for its main trio. Carlos Sofia Gascon, who's nominated for best actress at the Oscars. Selena Gomez, who is not nominated, but Zoe Saldana is. Right. So two out of three are nominated at the Oscars. They won an acting award at Cannes. It had a beautiful start, I think for a movie. They were very lucky to have that launch. As time went on, the Internet, as people on the Internet are wont to do, uncovered some old tweets by Carlos Sofia Gascon, who is again the best actress nominee. Her own personal narrative has kind of taken a turn. You know, there was kind of this progressive message of, you know, this could be the first trans to win an Oscar. Then people online uncovered these, I say old tweets, some of them were relatively recent, within the past five years. Pretty bigoted opinions, I would say. There's some Islamophobic tweets in there, some pretty intense stuff online. She did apologize for them. So they have not gone uncommented on. But Netflix kind of scrubbed her from their four year consideration campaigns, which is crazy because she is the best actress nominee still, I do believe she's attending the ceremony as well. Jacques Odillard, who is the French director of this film, has kind of distanced himself from his star as well. The other actors in this film have been asked about it and they've been pretty diplomatic about how they respond, but there hasn't been any wholehearted support. So I think that kind of just crumbled before Netflix's eyes. I'm sure they're really upset by that because, you know, Zoe Saldana is still winning awards. So I don't think, you know, this movie will go empty handed, but I do think it definitely hurt its chances at Best Picture and probably Best Actress as well.
- [10:33]
Sonia Rao
Let's talk about another musical that is a Best Picture nominee, and that is the musical that I think a lot of people might have seen, or at least, you know, in my circles have seen, and that is Wicked. I feel like this is a classic movie in the category of, like, that's what the money is for. You know, like, this is a movie that did really well in theaters, made a bunch of money, and, like, that's the prize. Does it really need to win Best Picture if it was kind of a fan favorite and a big holiday movie. But is there any chance, do you guys think that Wicked is going to be the actual best picture choice here?
- [11:09]
Unknown
I don't think there is. I mean, I don't even remember how many years ago at one point.
- [11:13]
Janice Page
I don't know.
- [11:13]
Unknown
I think the Oscars had floated the idea of a popular film category a while back. I do think that Wicked rises above a lot of the movies that kind of fall into that characterization. You know, this isn't like Deadpool or something that made a lot of money, but critics didn't love it.
- [11:27]
Janice Page
Critics did like Wicked as an adaptation of a stage musical. It really ticks all the boxes for a lot of people. It's very creative in the ways that it chooses to flesh that out and bring it to the screen. It kind of does everything you'd want it to do. It's such a spectacle. But I think the Academy, it's not something original, so you can't go that route to give it, you know, tons of props for that. Even though its themes are very weighty and it handles those quite well. It's not something that took that original material and brought it way out of the box. It just hung a lot of fancy, bedazzled things on it that really worked, but it didn't blow anyone's socks off in terms of the artistry of what was happening there on a creative level, like turn the musical on its head or something, which would have been blasphemy anyway. I think it did exactly what it should do and therefore won a lot of points with the movie going public. But that isn't what gets you the Best Picture Oscar.
- [12:30]
Sonia Rao
After the break, we talk about some of the greatest performances of the year. We'll be right back.
- [12:46]
Michelle Singletary
My name is Michelle Singletary, and I'm the personal finance columnist for the Washington Post. When I was growing up. I was raised by my grandmother, who was such a masterful money manager, and I watched her handle her money and talk to me about it. And I like to think that I'm the reader's big mama. There's so much information about your money out there, a lot of it wrong or inappropriate. But when you pay for a subscription to the Post, you're paying for a skilled journalist who has had years of experience, who I hope that you can trust. Your subscription helps pay for my salary. It helps pay for the illustrators, the copy editors, all the people who are involved in putting together the material that you read that could help inform your life. I'm Michelle Singletary and I'm one of the people behind the Post.
- [13:46]
Unknown
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- [14:45]
Martine Powers
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- [15:45]
Sonia Rao
In terms of acting categories and the actors and actresses who are nominated for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, what are the performances that you both were most excited about this year?
- [16:01]
Unknown
I think. I mean, I think the Timothee Chalamet, Adrien Brody showdown, if you will, is really interesting.
- [16:07]
Sonia Rao
And Adrien Brody is nominated for the Brutalist.
- [16:08]
Unknown
Adrien Brody is the lead in the Brutalist. He plays the architect that we talked about. But, yeah, I mean, I think it's just an interesting narrative there. I mean, Adrien Brody won for the Pianist a while back, so it's been many, many years since he's won an Oscar. Timothy Chalamet has been nominated a bunch, but he has not won a Best actor or any acting Oscar. You know, in the lead up, they've both been racking up trophies, so I think it's either one's category to win. They've had really different narratives. I think Brody's been very gracious when he wins. He's kind of done the, you know, I've worked so hard, I'm up here. And it's not that Timothee Chalamet's not doing that, but I think he's kind of positioning himself as, you know, one to watch. We've been watching him. It's nothing new. I see a long career for him, and I think he's very aware of that. He's been talking a lot about how he wants to be great.
- [16:55]
Sonia Rao
Cause there was a specific moment at the Screen Actors Guild Award when he was and accepting an award there, where he gave this speech where he talks pretty openly about his ambitions as an actor, which is an interesting choice. And like.
- [17:07]
Unknown
And he even acknowledged in that speech, he was like, you know, in this business, we don't really do this. But the truth is, I'm really in pursuit of greatness. I know people don't usually talk like that, but I want to be one of the greats. I'm inspired by the greats. I'm inspired by the greats here tonight. I'm as inspired by Daniel Day Lewis, Marlon Brando and Viola Davis as I am by Michael Jordan and Michael Phelps. And I want to be up there.
- [17:31]
Sonia Rao
What did you both make of that moment?
- [17:33]
Unknown
I knew that people would hate it right away. Like, they're like, who's this kid? But I don't know. It's massive theater kid energy, right? Like, he went to LaGuardia, the school in New York. It's a performing arts.
- [17:45]
Sonia Rao
The school from Fame, Right.
- [17:47]
Unknown
Oh, my God. And it's just. It's funny, you know, the more famous he gets, the more videos appear from his high school years, you know, of him being a star or, like, kind of embarrassing, too, on stage, you know, I think he just has that energy, and he always has. And it reminds me a lot of people like Anne Hathaway or, you know, Jeremy Strong, who is nominated this year as well. Both of them have, you know, these reputations for being very, very earnest, very serious about the craft and that sort of thing.
- [18:15]
Sonia Rao
In a way that has hurt them.
- [18:17]
Unknown
In a way that has hurt for.
- [18:18]
Sonia Rao
Both of those examples of, like, they're trying too hard and they need to take themselves a little bit less seriously.
- [18:25]
Unknown
Yeah. But, I mean, I don't know, everyone in Hollywood is performing all the time, so for someone to come out there and be like, yeah, I'm ambitious and this is what I actually want, I find it refreshing, personally.
- [18:35]
Sonia Rao
Think about that.
- [18:36]
Janice Page
He's also channeling Dylan there, like, in a major way. Right. I mean, Dylan would have said that, and then, you know, times 10. So I don't know. I think he's interesting. That speech doesn't bother me, and I think he's a really interesting guy. You know, it's all about, can you back it up? Do you, you know, does the rest of his career, you know, is he a young Marlon Brando or is he not? So, let's see.
- [18:59]
Sonia Rao
Mm. In terms of the Best actress nominees, I wanna talk for a bit about one actress in particular, Demi Moore, who stars in the movie the Substance, and I think has had a pretty interesting career trajectory, this movie, for folks who haven't seen it. And to put my cards on the table, I haven't seen it in part because I'm, like, a little too afraid to. It's been described to me as a body horror movie that is fundamentally about the pressures that Hollywood puts on women as they age. And obviously that's something that Demi Moore has personal experience with, the fact that she was this young ingenue actress. And, I mean, I've seen GI Jane more times than I can count, and I kind of think about, like, her and how much her body was the star of that movie. And she's had a very interesting career trajectory since then and is coming at this moment as an older actress kind of reckoning with that in a really public way. Tell me about how you guys feel about that role that she played and about her chances at the Oscars now.
- [20:03]
Janice Page
So first, Martine, no one hates body horror more than me. But you should see it.
- [20:08]
Sonia Rao
Okay.
- [20:09]
Janice Page
And you can see those parts through your fingers or something. And the reason isn't. I do think it's a bit overrated, the movie, honestly, because it is kind of just a genre flick that's blown out a bit with some very snarky and contemporary themes in humor. But she's terrific in it, as is Margaret Qualley. Like, they're great. And I remember Demi fondly as a brat packer. And, you know, about Last Night and a lot of other movies. As she was coming up, she was, you know, the kind of Jennifer Aniston of her day and had her place in that whole grouping and then did some other interesting films and then kind of disappeared right. While she had kids and lots of other things. And now is back. And it's the kind of story that Hollywood loves. They love to see someone come back out of that nostalgic haze and remind them of their youth and all that and do something that's substantial. And she's playing kind of into type. She is making fun of or at the very least, highlighting the obsession that Americans have or actually modern society has with appearance. And it's terrific, and people are really responding to it. I do think she's deserving. That said, Fernanda Torres in I'm Still Here is for me the performance of the year. And I very much love I'm Still Here, which is this movie about the military dictatorship in Brazil, late 60s, early 70s, when Rubens Pava, who was a politician and an activist, was disappeared and his wife took up his cause, tried to find out what happened to him, and also held the family together through a lot of turmoil. It is one of the very best memoir films I have ever seen. It is for sure my pick for best picture of the year. Though it won't win it. It probably will win Best International Feature. And she's extraordinary in it. And her mother, who is a very famous actress in Brazil as well, appears as her character late in the movie. I would not be surprised to see the Academy Reward that there have been many, many times when we thought we knew who was gonna win this category or an actress category, and it was some favorite. And it just doesn't happen like Olivia Colman upset Glenn Close and Emma Stone won when everybody thought Lily Gladstone would. You know, it happens a lot. So I would not at all be surprised to see Fernando win, even though Demi is racking up a lot of wins.
- [22:55]
Sonia Rao
So briefly, before we wrap there, I think are gonna be folks who are listening to this who are like, look, I've seen one, maybe two of the movies on this long list of best picture nominees or movies that are nominated in other categories. If folks have time to watch one movie this weekend that's among the Oscar contenders, which one do you guys think it should be?
- [23:20]
Unknown
I think the one to actually watch to know what's going on would be probably Anora or the Brutalist one of those two. I just want to put a plug in here for Nickel Boys as well. It is one of the ten best picture nominees. I don't think, unfortunately, it has much of a chance, but I do think it's a really interesting.
- [23:38]
Sonia Rao
And Nickel Boys is an actual adaptation.
- [23:40]
Unknown
Of Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer winning novel about two boys. Kind of like right after Jim Crow in Florida, they're at a reform school. That's extraordinarily abusive. I think it's a really interesting movie to watch, to see the bounds of independent filmmaking or just any filmmaking really being pushed. This is a point of view film, meaning that it's shot entirely from the perspective of these characters. So you're kind of looking at the world through their eyes. The camera, you know, is positioned where their eyes would be. I just think it's a really interesting movie to watch. Visually, I think it's kind of cool that the Academy awarded something like that. Cause it's pretty. It can be kind of tough to watch if you're not into that sort of thing. But I don't know. I think it's worth watching. I think a lot of people will kind of brush over it in the race. That's maybe the sexier races, so to speak. I would tell people to watch that one.
- [24:29]
Sonia Rao
Janice, what about you?
- [24:31]
Janice Page
So I agree with Sonya. I think if you're looking to be really in the conversation or understand the conversation, you need to see probably whatever of the top four that you haven't seen, meaning the ones that seem to be most in contention. Anora, the Brutalist Conclave, A complete unknown. That said, again, my favorite movie of the year and the one that's probably least seen among these nominees and should be the most seen is I'm Still Here. And you can only see it in theaters right now, unfortunately. So again, although not unfortunately, you should.
- [25:01]
Unknown
See it in a theater.
- [25:03]
Janice Page
You should see it in the theater. So that's another reason to go see it.
- [25:06]
Sonia Rao
Yeah. Janice and Sonia, thank you so much for being here.
- [25:13]
Unknown
Thank you.
- [25:14]
Janice Page
It's great. Thanks so much.
- [25:18]
Sonia Rao
Sonia Rao covers TV and film for the Post. Janice Page is the Post's arts editor One note before we go. You may have seen the news that the owner of the Washington Post, Jeff Bezos, outlined a new vision for the Post's opinion side, and that is focus on the pillars of free markets and personal liberties. It feels important to underline here that Post Reports is produced from our news side, which is different from Opinions. Our newsroom remains dedicated to independent reporting and fact based journalism. For more than a century, the Washington Post has been committed to covering and holding power to account, and that's what you can continue to expect right here. As always, thank you for listening. Today's show is produced by Emma Talkoff with help from Sabi Robinson and Ariel Plotnick. It was mixed by Sam Baer and edited by Maggie Penman. I'm Martine Powers. We'll be back tomorrow with more stories from the Washington Post.