This week we kick off my second annual review of the 10 films nominated for Best Picture Oscars. The films this year seem to connect in pairs. This week we explore a category I call “Grumpy Academics” which consists of the films “The Holdovers” and “American Fiction.” Although you can listen to the podcast, I recommend the YouTube version to see the clips from the trailers that I have included.

Hi, This is Chris Young. Welcome to episode 54 of Contemplating Life – Oscar edition.

It’s time to kick off my second annual review of the 10 films nominated for Best Picture Oscars.

Last year out of the 10 films nominated for Best Picture there were 3 that I didn’t care for at all and one that I could take or leave. One of the films that I disliked was the winner “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” I understood what the movie was trying to do and I understood why some people liked it. In the end, I never cared for the characters as much as I should have. There were some emotional payoffs at the end of the movie but I didn’t think it was worth the wait. After reading my review, one friend of mine who agreed with me described the movie as a “hot mess.” That pretty much sums up my opinion of it.

I also didn’t care for the war movie “All Quiet on the Western Front” or the movie “Triangle of Sadness.” I understood why “The Banshees of Inisherin” was nominated and I thought it had some amazing performances but I was quite neutral on the film itself.

As I’m writing this, I’ve only seen 9 out of the 10 nominated films and I’m pleased to say that I feel 8 of them were very much Oscar-worthy. There was nothing wrong with the other one but I found it only marginally interesting. I’m not sure it’s Oscar-caliber. From what I’ve heard about the remaining film I’ve not yet seen, I have high hopes for it. I’m optimistic that I will get to see it before I finish all of these reviews. So, overall in my opinion it’s already a much better year than last year. I’m looking forward to sharing them with you.

Looking over these 10 films I’ve discovered that they could be grouped in pairs. There are two biopics of famous people. There are two films about grumpy, unlikable, intellectual academics who are trying to break out of their shell. We have two films that give us insights into cultures with which we may have little familiarity. There are two films about women who start as the fantasy ideals of men but who come into their own like a robot emerging into sentience to become fully self-actualized and independent beings.

Although two of the films were huge box office successes, we don’t have the typical popcorn-eating, big-budget, action films like we had last year with Avatar 2 and Top Gun 2. Incidentally, none of these films are sequels and only one has the potential to become part of a franchise which incidentally I hope it doesn’t..

Last year I jammed 10 films into three episodes making several of the episodes quite long. We have a tiny bit more room in the schedule this year so I’m thinking there will be at least four or perhaps five episodes. If I have time, we will include some brief looks at the nominated performances in films that did not earn Best Picture nominations. The Oscars will be awarded on Sunday, March 10, 2024.

Although my reviews tend to include fairly significant plot summaries, trust me, I will not spoil major plot twists. I will include box office numbers that are current as of my writing of the script as reported by IMDb. That website also lists nominations and wins of other awards but most of them are so obscure you never heard of them. I will point out major awards as appropriate.

In this episode, we are going to look at two films in a pairing I call “Grumpy Academics”.

First on our agenda is “The Holdovers”. Paul Giamatti stars as Paul Hunham. He is a history teacher at a boy’s boarding school somewhere in New England in 1970. All but five of the boys will be going home for Christmas break. These five holdovers have to stay behind because their parents are otherwise occupied and the boys cannot go home. Hunham is given the unenviable task of being their guardian for two weeks.

He teaches a class in ancient civilizations at the prestigious Barton Academy where he is equally hated by his students and faculty. That includes the headmaster who was once one of Hunham’s students at Barton. Hunham is also an alum. He is constantly trying to get everyone, his boss included, to live up to the high standards and principles of the Barton Academy as established by its founder his mentor the late Dr. Greene.

Hunham is constantly mocked by students and staff and given the nickname “walleye” because he does indeed have a wandering lazy eye.

He is forced into this babysitting task against his will not only because he is disliked by everyone but also because he recently refused to give an unearned passing grade to the son of a rich donor to the institution.

In addition to Hunham and the five boys, we are introduced to Mary Lamb the cafeteria manager who will stay behind to prepare meals for them. Mary is grieving the loss of her son who was recently killed in Vietnam. The son had attended Barton. Mary couldn’t afford to send him to college which would have earned him a potentially life-saving draft deferment. This dilemma was typical for many young men of modest means, especially African-Americans.

Although we are never told so, it’s easy to assume her son was only able to attend this expensive private school based on some sort of employee discount. We are left to our imagination as to what it was like for a poor African-American student to try to fit in at a prestigious private school which was mostly rich white kids.

Initially, there were only supposed to be four students holding over for the holiday but it was pretty obvious that one of the older students named Angus Tully would be held over as well. He bragged that he had big plans to go to St. Kits in the Caribbean with his mother and her new husband. The film spent too much time focusing on his character early on if he was going to disappear from the story along with hundreds of other students. So, it is no surprise to the audience when his mother calls at the last minute to tell him he will not be joining them. The vacation is going to be a honeymoon for her and his new stepdad.

This was just one of several plot points which come as no surprise. As we get to learn more about the five boys, they all seem to be thinly drawn stereotypes caught in a “Breakfast Club” remake. While there are a few other rather unoriginal tropes throughout the film, it is by far a much better story than it initially appears.

Here is a minor spoiler. After a few days of dealing with the five boys, one of them arranges to have his father’s staff pick him up in a helicopter and take him on a ski trip for the remainder of Christmas break. They obtain permission from the parents of three of the other younger boys to join him. Angus’ mother cannot be reached to obtain permission for him to join them because she is too busy enjoying her honeymoon. This leaves him as the only boy stranded with the old curmudgeon.

So, by about 20 minutes into the story, we realize it’s going to be a character exploration of Hunham, Angus, and Mary. There is a janitor on the premises but he doesn’t show up often or contribute significantly to the story.

These three diverse characters who are essentially castaways trapped in the empty institution are forced to get along with one another and to reveal themselves in ways they didn’t particularly care to. Mary attempts to work through her grief while trying to be a peacemaker between the boy and the crotchety old man.

To escape the drudgery of their existence, they take a trip into the nearby town for dinner where they discover that the headmaster’s secretary Miss Crane has a part-time job as a waitress in the pub. She helps them diffuse a confrontation with a townie who despises the Barton Boys. There are hints of chemistry between the waitress and the teacher yet he is too shy to pursue a relationship. Miss Crane invites all three of them to a Christmas Eve party but it does not go well.

Mary tries to suggest that the teacher do something nice for the boy on Christmas Day but his feeble attempts to do so fall flat. When he asks the boy what he really wants, the boy declares they should take a trip to Boston. Hunham is persuaded to agree on the premise that it falls under his prerogative to do so as an academic field trip. The three of them travel to Boston together where Mary visits her pregnant sister and the guys go on adventures together mostly in museums.

Again, this road trip which reveals deeper secrets held by the characters is not a very original idea for a story. But there are sufficient twists and turns that it is an enjoyable fresh take on an old trope.

This film is one of several this year in which the cinematography and style of the film is a re-creation or perhaps an homage to the time period in which the film is set. The trailer has the style typical of films of the early 1970s. It opens with an MPAA R-rating card identical to what you would have seen in a film of that era. This is followed by logos for Universal Studios, Focus Features, and Miramax which are throwbacks to the ones you would’ve seen in 1970. I viewed the film as a digital download but these opening logos featured film scratches as well as pops and crackles in the soundtrack typical of a well-worn print of a film.

Although the movie was shot using modern digital cameras, director Alexander Payne and cinematographer Elgil Bryld have gone to great pains to make it look as though it was shot on 35mm film in 1970. It even has a mono soundtrack with the high-end frequencies cut off at about 8kHz. Bryld said they were trying to make it look as though someone found some old film cans in a garage. These effects throughout the film are not as blatant as they are in the opening credits, but there is still much about the cinematography that evokes that era. Is a subtle psychological manipulation that helps the audience buy into the setting.

We will see the same phenomenon in another Oscar-nominated film later.

Giamatti gives a magnificent performance under the direction of Alexander Payne who had previously worked together on the film “Sideways.”

Giamatti has already won the Golden Globe for Best Lead Actor in a Musical or Comedy and is nominated for Best Actor Oscar both of which are well deserved. Note that the Golden Globes have separate categories for Drama versus Musical or Comedy so the competition is much tighter in an open Best Actor category at the Oscars. He doesn’t have a chance against stiff dramatic competition. He would be my third choice but don’t take that as a slight because I very much enjoyed the performance.

Mary is portrayed by Da’vine Joy Randolph who has already earned a Supporting Actress Golden Globe and is nominated for Supporting Actress Oscar again very much deserved. I also enjoy her performances as Detective Williams in the Hulu series “Only Murders in the Building” but she was otherwise unknown to me. Her credits include a Tony nomination in 2012 and she is also appearing as Mahalia Jackson in this year’s film “Rustin”. Right now I would list her as my second favorite supporting actress this year but I have not yet seen all of the other nominees. She has stiff competition.

Angus Tully is played by newcomer Dominic Sessa who holds his own against veteran actor Giamatti in his first film. Carrie Preston is quite charming as Miss Crane. You may recognize her from her role as quirky lawyer Elsbeth Tascioni in the TV series “The Good Wife” and its spinoff series “The Good Fight.” She also appeared as waitress Arlene in over 80 episodes of the HBO vampire series “True Blood.”

In addition to the Best Picture Nomination, David Hemingson is nominated for his Original Screenplay and is a close second for me in that category. It might seem strange that this was one of my favorite screenplays of the year given that I have been pointing out all the unoriginal or unsurprising aspects of the story. But it truly is an interesting and fresh take on some old ideas. There were plot points I didn’t see coming and I haven’t spoiled for you here. Giamatti’s dialogue is cleverly written and he is a richly drawn character as is Mary even if some of the minor characters are somewhat stereotypical.

The film is also nominated for Film Editing for which I have no opinion. I would’ve thought it might have gotten a cinematography nomination for creating its retro look from a digital source. But it wasn’t nominated in that category.

It doesn’t have a chance for Best Picture against very stiff competition but I would rank it as my fourth favorite of the 10 nominated films. It is well worth your time.

IMDb lists 195 award nominations and 107 wins so far. Again, they list a lot of obscure awards. Among them are nominations for Alexander Payne from the Directors Guild, SAG Nominations for Giamatti and Randolph as well as 7 BAFTA nominations.

I could not find an estimated budget for the film. Since its opening in late October ‘23, it has earned over $30 million worldwide and nearly 20 million in the US. Is still showing in some theaters and is currently streaming on Peacock as well as available for rent or purchase from Amazon Prime and YouTube.

* * *

Our second film this week is also the story of a somewhat sad intellectual academic who faces struggles and both his work and personal life.

“American Fiction” stars Jeffrey Wright as Thelonious Ellison who has had some success writing novels and is teaching a college literature course in the present day. He is struggling to sell his latest work because publishers claim that as an African-American author, his work isn’t “black enough”.

In the opening scene, he is teaching a course on American literature in the South. A white girl in his class was offended that they were studying a book with the N-word in the title. He declares to the girl, “I got over it. You can too.” She files a complaint against him which is apparently just the latest of many complaints. He is forced to take a sabbatical.

In an early scene in the film, he goes into a bookstore and asks a 20-something-year-old white salesclerk if they have any books by Thelonious Ellison. The young man looks at his tablet and then leads him to a bookshelf labeled “African-American Studies.” Ellison asks,

Ellison: Wait a minute. Why are these books here?

Clerk: Uh… I’m not sure. I would imagine that this author Ellison is – black.

Ellison: That’s me. Ellison… He is me. And he and I are black.

Clerk: Oh Bingo (smiling)

Ellison: No bingo Ned. These books have nothing to do with African-American Studies. They are just literature. The blackest thing about this one is the ink.

Clerk: (nervously) I don’t decide what section the books go in. No one here does. That’s how chain stores work.

Ellison then gathers up the dozen or so copies of his three books and proceeds to march them over to the general fiction section where they belong.

Thelonious, who goes by the nickname Monk, no doubt because of the famed jazz musician Thelonious Monk, is frustrated that his sympathetic agent cannot find a publisher for his latest work. Meanwhile, he is outraged over the success of a book written by an African-American academic woman named Sinatra Golden. Her bestseller titled “We’s Lives in Da Ghetto” is filled with stereotypes of poor black people who talk a kind of jive talk street language that is so exaggerated it is offensive to him.

Golden: (Speaking to a crowd at a book convention) What really struck me was that too few books were about my people. Where are our stories? Where is our representation?

Moderator: Would you give us the pleasure of reading an excerpt?

Golden: (Reading from the book as Ellison looks on from the back of the room) “Yo… Sharondan! Girl, you be pregnant again? If I is, Ray Ray gonna be a real father this time around.” (The convention audience cheers and gives a standing ovation.)

To retaliate, he writes a ghetto book about a drug dealer who grew up poor, murdered his father, and is an exaggerated stereotype of a ghetto black man. The working title of the book is “My Pafology” spelled P.A.F.O.L.G.O.Y. He writes under the pseudonym Stagg R. Leigh. He instructs his agent to submit it to publishers as a joke and much to their surprise a publisher snaps it up. His given a massive advance and a lucrative deal for the movie rights. When the publisher wants to meet the author, he has to create a new persona. He refuses to meet in person because he claims to be a wanted criminal. He only speaks to them over da phone.

In an attempt to get out of this farce, he does everything he can to try to ruin the deal including insisting that the title of the book be changed to the single word “Fuck”. Much to his surprise, his white publisher reluctantly agrees.

The satire of white people’s opinion of what black culture is all about makes it hysterically funny and ironic. It also is a stinging indictment of the publishing world which is anxious to prove its commitment to diversity while exploiting stereotypes.

However, that’s not the only story being told. It is a deeply personal and poignant exploration of a troubled soul. Monk struggles in his romantic relationships. He has a difficult relationship with his gay brother. His mother is declining with dementia. He suffers other personal losses I won’t spoil. He is frustrated that his own serious work is rejected but this piece of sellout trash he has created is a huge success. He is becoming everything he hates.

These two storylines are brilliantly woven together by writer-director Cord Jefferson. Jefferson has been nominated by the Directors Guild for an outstanding first film. There is one shot in the film that I thought was one of the most brilliant shot compositions I’ve seen in a long time. It’s a simple shot of someone’s feet that tells an entire story like an excellently crafted piece of flash fiction. You will know it when you see it. Jefferson’s screenplay, based on the novel by Percival Everett, is nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar.

In addition to the Best Picture Oscar nomination, it was also nominated for a Golden Globe in the Best Musical or Comedy. Jeffrey Wright, who is known for his typical supporting roles steps up to the challenge of portraying this complex lead character with a conflicted life. The performance has earned him a Best Actor Oscar nomination as well as a nomination for a Golden Globe Actor in a Musical or Comedy.

He is joined by a talented ensemble cast that includes Sterling K. Brown as his brother earning him a Supporting Actor Oscar Nomination. Also, Tracy Ellis Ross is his sister. Leslie Uggams as his mother, Erika Alexander as his girlfriend, Issa Rae as rival author Sinatra Goldman, and John Ortiz as his agent all turn in memorable performances. Even minor characters such as his mother’s caregiver and her boyfriend a town police officer add charm and wit to the effort.

Wright and Brown as well as the entire ensemble have earned SAG nominations.

IMDb lists 162 nominations and 52 wins. The film opened in December and has earned just over $12 million. It is currently available only in theaters.

Jeffrey Wright could be a long shot for Best Actor but probably will lose to Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer or Bradley Cooper in Maestro.

I would put it in a tie for best screenplay with Anatomy of a Fall and would rank it about fifth place for my favorite movie of the year. I highly recommend it.

Next week, we will take a look at two foreign-language films. One of them I thought was just okay. The other one kept me glued to the screen wondering what was going to happen next. It featured one of my favorite screenplays of the year and some amazing performances. So, be sure to check that out.

If you find this podcast educational, entertaining, enlightening, or even inspiring, consider sponsoring me on Patreon for just $5 per month. You will get early access to the podcast and other exclusive content. Although finances are tight, I don’t do this for the money. Still, every little bit helps.

As always my deepest thanks to my financial supporters. It expresses your support for what I’m doing. I will never be able to express how much that means to me.

Even if you cannot provide financial support, please, please, please post the links and share this podcast on social media so that I can grow my audience. I just want more people to be able to hear my stories.

You can check out any of my back episodes which are all available where you found this episode. If you have any comments, questions, or other feedback please feel free to comment on any of the platforms where you find this podcast. Tell me what you liked or did not like about these films.

I will see you next week as we continue contemplating life. Until then, fly safe everyone.