Jan 29 - Feb 4
Nyad, Killers of the Flower Moon
Just two movies this week, both of which suffer from the same things and offer me the same pieces of confusion.
- Nyad [2023] - 60
Following professional swimmer, Diana Nyad, as she attempts to reclaim her former glory at the age of 64 by swimming from Cuba to Florida without physical assistance; we’re faced with a harrowing, dangerous, and very nearly deadly excursion into the limits of the human body.
While this all sounds interesting and engaging, it’s largely just… “fine”. At 2-hours long, Nyad is a little long in the tooth and a little repetitive. Both Jodie Foster and Annette Bening are nominated for their roles as trainer and swimmer respectively, and I’m mostly confused by one of those things. Foster certainly wasn’t bad by any stretch of the word here, but she also wasn’t put into an Oscar worthy position either. Her role was “coach” and she… coached. It was effective, but felt more akin to the best from Hallmark than Oscar. Very strange nomination for Supporting Actress here. Bening was more impressive and memorable, though still hugely outclassed by her competition in the Leading Role category.
Like Flower Moon’s critiques following, Nyad mostly suffers from not being a documentary and leaving behind lots of interesting information in place of drama and attempted connection.
- Killers of the Flower Moon [2023] - 82
With 10 Oscar noms, this 206-minute Scorsese epic about the manipulation, murder, and usurpation of the Osage in 1920’s Oklahoma has generated a lot of buzz… and a lot of bathroom breaks. It’s quite good, there’s no two ways about that. The score is excellent, the cinematography is incredibly fun and inventive, and the editing is phenomenal to the point that when you pause it two-and-a-half hours in to pee and see that there’s an hour left, you’re shocked, but not dismayed. At 30 minutes longer than Nolan’s bladder-buster, Oppenheimer, I’d certainly say that 3.5 hours is the limit of this kind of thing and that Opp definitely felt shorter, but that doesn’t mean Killers felt long. All that said, I think Killers of the Flower Moon is the perfect example of a movie that deserves to be heavily nominated, but win almost nothing. It’s got strong bids, that’s for sure, but it’s kind of unexceptional in a lot of ways; save for a single directorial choice near the end [and that is only brilliant if it isn’t from the book]. Otherwise, Cinematography and Editing are the only two sections I think this should be truly considered for. I won’t be surprised [but I will be sad] if Lilly Gladstone’s performance of “mostly sad but kind of snarky woman” beats out Emma Stone for Poor Things, but who knows, they already didn’t nominate Greta Gerwig for Barbie so… how much more wrong can they get?
Additionally, similar to Nyad, Killers of the Flower Moon largely suffers for me because I’d have rather had a 4-hour documentary on the subject that doesn’t leave me with nagging question of, “but what parts did you make up”.
