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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 24, 2016)
Page 8 Black History Month My Counterpoint to the Oscars Snub c ontinued froM p age 5 guage Film in 2015; available on DVD] 2. I cannot for the life of me igure out how “Love and Mer- cy” got so totally shut out of the Oscars this year. It contains three of the very best performances of the year -- Paul Dano as the young Brian Wilson, John Cusack as the middle-aged Brian Wilson, and Elizabeth Banks as Wilson’s sec- ond wife, Melinda Ledbetter -- and provides a remarkably insightful window into an inscrutable life. For once Hollywood has given us a biopic that doesn’t merely chron- ically recount events but gets at some deeper and more complex truths about Wilson, pointing you toward his essential mystery. The particularity of Wilson’s inten- tion and his enthusiasm for the act of creation come through in Dano’s scenes with mostly older studio musicians and at the piano assembling the scaffolding of the wondrous “God Only Knows”-- and throughout, the genius of Wil- son’s compositions come through as never before. And Cusack and Banks bring a remarkable sense of authenticity to their depiction of the love that grew between Wil- son and Ledbetter under the most trying of circumstances. This wise and beautiful ilm sparks love and mercy for an unknowable person, and sends you back to his music for more of the secrets hidden there. [Rated PG-13 for thematic ele- ments, drug content, and language; on at least 76 other critics’ top ten lists; deserved Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor (John Cusack and Paul Dano), and Best Actress (Elizabeth Banks); available on DVD.] 3. “The Salt of the Earth” is a cinematic spiritual journey via the photography of Sebastião Sal- gado, as curated by co-directors Juliano Ribeiro Salgado (son of the celebrated artist) and the great Wim Wenders. The photographs themselves are profound and oth- er-worldly, charting the artist’s immersive travels into cultures all around the world, particularly those suffering famine, war, and marginalization. Wenders elicits, among other things, perspective and wisdom from the artist in in- terviews ilmed in dialogue with the photographs themselves, and the artist’s son adds further in- sights from the perspective of his own journeys with his father. The trajectory of the artist’s life, begin- ning with hunger and curiosity and through despair and then hope, is resonant and deeply inspiring. Af- ter three viewings, I still feel like this ilm has more to teach me. [Rated PG-13 for thematic mate- rial involving disturbing images of violence and human suffering, and for nudity; haven’t seen this on any other critics’ top 10 lists for 2015; in French, English, and Por- tuguese; nominated for, and should have won, the Academy Award for Best Documentary in 2015; avail- able on DVD and streaming.] 4. “Son of Saul” got its the- atrical release in Portland just in Saul’s own tight vantage point; he is always moving, moving, moving through unthinkable horrors, never and yet always responding. I expect that this is likely the most realistic depiction of Auschwitz ever assem- bled, and conveys a real sense of the hell that was part of every wak- ing moment for prisoners there. In the ilm’s irst moments, Saul has an encounter that awakens in him a determination to bury a particu- lar body, an essentially impossible task--yet that purpose activates his humanity. The cinematography and sound work is like nothing I have ever seen, and the perspective photo credit 20 th c entury f ox Leonardo DiCaprio and Grace Dove in “The Revenant.” time to make it onto my 2015 list. This Hungarian ilm is not for the faint of heart; it immerses you in a day-and-a-half in the life of Saul, a member of the Sonderkomman- do -- prisoners whose job it was to assist with disposal of the dead--in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Nearly all of the ilm portrays of the ilm is so speciic that it man- ages to communicate things about this aspect of human experience that have never been attempted before. Obviously this is not enter- tainment -- but at times ilms offer an opportunity to bear witness that I believe is extremely important for those of us who have the will to endure it. This is that kind of ilm, and an extraordinary achievement for its director, star, and everyone involved. [Rated R for disturbing violent content, and some graphic nudity; on at least 112 other critics’ top ten lists; in Hungarian, Yiddish, German, Russian, Polish, French, Greek, and Slovak; nominated for the Academy Award for Best For- February 24, 2016 eign Language Film and, of the four I have seen, it should win; still in theaters.] 5. “The Revenant” is the only ilm on my list to have received major awards’ notice--and it de- serves the recognition, though for more than the limited reasons you’ll hear articulated in the media. Yes, the director, cast, and crew challenged themselves by ilming in remote locations under extreme conditions, and the ilm assem- bles scenes of frontier life that are impressive for their harshness, realism, and violence. And yes, Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance deserves an Oscar (though John Cusack and Paul Dano deserved nominations as well for “Love and Mercy”). But the reasons this ilm ended up so high on my list of the year’s best ilms also include that it grounds this story in the indig- enous cultures that peopled this continent long before European settlers and plausibly equips the main character with tools and spir- itual will to survive that he could only really have gained from expo- sure to those cultures. Hollywood may have missed the best of this ilm’s wisdom, but I didn’t -- and I’m glad that its director hasn’t let industry accolades distract him from shooting higher than the in- dustry can appreciate. [Rated R for strong frontier combat and vi- olence including gory images, a sexual assault, language and brief nudity; on at least 130 other critics’ top ten lists; in English, French, and Pawnee; nominated for, and deserves, the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Director, Actor (DiCaprio), Cinematography, Ed- iting, Costume Design, Makeup and Hairstyling, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Visual Effects, and Production Design; also received