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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