In this episode, we review the last four films in this year’s survey of the Oscar-nominated Best Pictures. We will recap all of the winners versus my picks.

Hello, this is Chris Young. Welcome to Episode 112 of Contemplating Life – Oscar Edition.

In our final Oscar episode, we cover the remaining four films nominated for Best Picture, and we will recap all of the winners. Three of these four films were my favorite three of the season. The fourth one, while not one of my top picks, was the top choice of many reviewers whom I respect. Let’s begin with that one.

“Train Dreams” is the fictional life story of Robert Grainier, played by Joel Edgerton. The film opens in the early 1900s, with Robert arriving in Idaho by train as a young orphan. It’s unclear how or why he was sent there. He dropped out of school and wandered around until he found work as a lumberjack. His life begins to take purpose when he meets a young woman, Gladys Olding, played by Felicity Jones. They marry, build a log cabin along the Moyie River, and have a daughter, Kate.

Robert must travel throughout the summer months to find work logging, leaving his wife and infant child to fend for themselves. He’s able to earn enough money to support them year-round but is only home for a few months each year.

While working on a construction project, building a wooden railroad trestle, he witnesses a group of white men grab a Chinese worker and throw him off the bridge to his death. Throughout the rest of the film, Robert is haunted by nightmares of the incident and imagines himself being hit by a train. Presumably, these nightmares are the source of the film’s title.

Because it is difficult for Robert to be away so much of the year, they plan for him to work one more season. They plan to use that income to build a sawmill and begin farming, so the family can stay together year-round. A tragedy ruins those plans.

The remainder of the film depicts Robert trying to recover from the tragedy. It continues to tell his life story until his death from old age in the 1960s.

The film gives a brutal and poignant portrait of life in the logging camps.

The story moves slowly, but it is more about character and atmosphere than plot. The cinematography is spectacular, especially the beautifully lit scenes of the men sitting around campfires at night. We encounter several memorable supporting characters along the way.

There are excellent performances throughout. Edgington received Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice nominations for his performance.

In addition to its Best Picture nomination, it was also nominated for Cinematography, Musical Score, and Adapted Screenplay by director Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar based on the novella by Denis Johnson. IMDb lists 175 nominations and 32 wins.

I could not find budget or box office numbers for this Netflix film. It is still available for streaming on that platform.

The film is slow-paced but only runs one hour and 42 minutes. There are quality performances and beautiful cinematography. It is quality filmmaking, and although I didn’t feel it was a waste of my time, it wasn’t exactly my cup of tea. I cannot recommend it, but don’t let that stop you if it sounds interesting.

Next, we have a pair of films about highly competitive sports figures who are driven to be the best in their field.

Let’s begin with Marty Supreme starring Timothée Chalamet as Marty Mauser. He is a hustler and professional table tennis player. The story, set in the 1950s, is inspired by real-life table tennis champion Marty Reisman.

Marty is an egotistical, flamboyant character who believes he is the best in the world. Nothing will stop him from proving it.

He works part-time at his uncle’s shoe store. In an opening scene, a young woman complains that she left her shoes in the store after purchasing new ones. He invites her to the back room to look for them. They obviously know one another as they have passionate sex in the back room. We later learn that she is Rachel Mitzer, a neighbor who is married to an abusive husband. She gets pregnant from the encounter.

Marty persuades a friend, Dion, and Dion’s businessman father to create a line of specialty ping-pong balls branded “Marty Supreme.”

Marty is attempting to raise enough money to travel to England for the British Open championship. When his uncle won’t pay him money he is owed, he raids the company vault for $700 to fund his trip to England.

Using nothing but his wits as collateral, he transfers from the modest accommodations for the tournament players into the Ritz Hotel. He lives a high life while competing in the tournament. At the hotel, he meets and seduces a retired American actress, Kay Stone, played by Gwyneth Paltrow. He also befriends her wealthy husband, Milton Rockwell. Rockwell is played by real-life businessman Kevin O’Leary, known for his appearances on the reality investment TV show Shark Tank.

Marty easily advances through the early rounds of the tournament, defeating last year’s champion, Bela Kletzki. He then faces a new, unknown opponent. A deaf Japanese player, Koto Endo. He has an unusual paddle and a unique way of holding it. Marty loses the championship match against Endo and makes a fool of himself when he has an emotional meltdown. He later learns he has been suspended by the sanctioning authority for his unsportsmanlike conduct.

Marty and his friend Kletzki then tour Europe performing in halftime shows for the Harlem Globetrotters.

Rockwell then offers to sponsor Marty in a rematch against his Japanese nemesis, Endo, at the world championships in Japan. However, Rockwell insists Marty must play an exhibition match before the tournament and throw the game to let Endo win. Marty refuses to take a dive.

When he returns to New York, his uncle attempts to have him arrested for stealing money from the safe. He flees the police and connects with Rachel, who reveals to him that she is pregnant with his child. She shows up with a black eye, she says, which came from her abusive husband.

Throughout the rest of the film, they engage in a variety of harebrained schemes to try to raise enough money to get him to Japan.

I really enjoyed the film and Chalamet’s performance as this hard-luck character who is a victim of his own ambition. Odessa A’zion also creates a memorable character as Rachel. I thought the film’s ending was a bit forced, but overall I think it deserves its Best Picture nomination. Its eight other Oscar nominations included Best Actor for Chalamet, Director, Cinematography, Editing, Casting, Original Screenplay, Production Design, and Costume Design.

It was also nominated for 10 BAFTAs, 7 Critics’ Choice Awards, including Best Actor for Chalamet, who also earned the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical. IMDb lists 187 nominations and 44 wins. With an estimated budget of $65 million, it earned $96 million in North America and just under $180 million worldwide. It is currently available for rental or purchase on Amazon and will be available on HBO Max in late April.

Our next Best Picture nomination is also about a highly driven competitor. We are talking about “F1” starring Brad Pitt as a race driver, Sonny Hayes. For the past 30 years, he has been wandering from team to team, competing in a variety of racing series after a horrific crash at the Spanish Grand Prix.

He is approached by his friend and former F1 teammate, Rubén Cervantes, played by Javier Bardem. He is the owner of a struggling F1 team called APXGP. He recruits Sonny to join the team to try to get them at least one podium finish. He’s also tasked with mentoring the other young driver on the team, a hotshot promising rookie named Joshua Pearce, played by Damson Idris.

I have to admit I’m highly biased about raising movies. In episodes 65-69 of this podcast, I chronicled my history as a race fan, including my fandom of racing movies such as the 1967 classic “Winning” starring Paul Newman. This film could properly be called an updated version of that film, or at least is a significant homage. Brad Pitt has the same star quality and sex appeal that Newman had in his day.

As is also typical of this genre, the drivers routinely violate rules that would get them banned from the sport in the real world. But we don’t care. We want a hotshot rogue competitor who will do anything to win.

The real star of the film is the visuals. The filmmakers collaborated with Sony to create specialized onboard digital cameras that can pivot 180°, giving us unprecedented realism. Brad Pitt and the other actors were actually driving race cars at speeds exceeding 180 mph. They used Formula 2 cars that had been modified to look like Formula 1 cars. There were also extensive CGI digital effects used to reskin the cars with different paint schemes.

The production company followed the F1 circuit, with extensive cooperation from series promoters as well as other race teams. F1 driver Lewis Hamilton served as an executive producer and consultant to make the film as realistic as possible.

The story isn’t anything you haven’t seen before. However, it does have an engaging plot and well-drawn, though somewhat clichéd, characters.

For a race fan like me, it reaches a level of satisfaction just short of Avatar. I think it will appeal to general audiences, the kind of which want to see a feel-good story about an underdog who succeeds. Think of it as “Rocky” on wheels at 180 mph.

I highly recommend it. If it ever comes back to the big screen, see it on the biggest screen you can find.

It was nominated for Best Picture, Visual Effects, and Editing. It won for Best Sound. IMDb lists 139 nominations and 31 wins.

It has an estimated budget of $200 million, with $30 million reportedly going to Brad Pitt for his biggest payday ever, earning nearly $190 million in the US and Canada and $630 million worldwide. It is currently available for streaming on Apple TV.

Finally, we come to my pick for Best Picture (Spoiler: the Academy didn’t agree with me.) Hamnet is a fictionalized account of William Shakespeare, his wife, Anne Hathaway, and their son, Hamnet. The story follows the basic facts of their lives but is not intended to be a historically accurate biography. Jesse Buckley earned a much-deserved Best Lead Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Mrs. Shakespeare, who in the film is called Agnes. This is very much her story. By the way, an opening graphic explains that the names Hamlet and Hamnet are used interchangeably.

I don’t believe it’s a spoiler to tell you that their son Hamnet dies of the bubonic plague at age 11. Much of the publicity for the film reveals this fact.

The story begins when Will and Agnes meet. He is immediately smitten with her, and when she gets pregnant, they are quickly married. She gives birth to a daughter, Suzanne. Agnes reports that early in her life, she had had a vision that she would die with her two children beside her. When she gets pregnant again, she is disturbed to discover she has twins. The first is Hamnet, followed by his twin sister Judith, who was initially believed to be stillborn but suddenly begins to breathe when placed in her mother’s arms.

Having three children breaks her prophecy about herself. With Judith always the weaker of the twins, Agnes presumes Judith is more likely to be lost to the plague. The family does not follow Will to London as he pursues his career as a playwright for fear that the children will contract the fatal disease.

As mentioned earlier, Hamnet succumbs to the plague. The remainder of the film is the fallout of this tragedy. Agnes and Will have vastly different ways of processing the loss. The family eventually moved to Stratford-upon-Avon, where Will built the Globe Theater. Even with the family living in the same city now, Will spends most of his time in a tiny apartment in the attic of the theater while his wife and children occupy the largest home in Stratford.

In the climax of the movie, Agnes attends the premiere of Hamlet in one of the most dramatic sequences I’ve seen in the film, perhaps ever.

It helps if you are familiar with the rough outline of Hamlet’s story, but it might not be essential to seeing the film.

Buckley very much deserves her win as Best Actress. She was my pick from the start. She also won a BAFTA, Critics’ Choice, Golden Globe, and SAG Actor Awards.

I might have given Paul Mescal a supporting actor nomination for his portrayal of Will instead of Delroy Lindo in “Sinners” or Benicio Del Toro in “One Battle After Another.” He received nominations for BAFTA, Critics’ Choice, and Golden Globe awards for the role. Emily Watson is memorable as Will’s mother, Mary. The children also turned in quality performances.

In addition to Jessie Buckley’s Best Lead Actress Oscar win, the film was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Casting, Best Musical Score, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Production Design, and Best Costume Design.

It received 8 BAFTA nominations and won Best British Film. It earned 8 Critics’ Choice nominations and 6 Golden Globe nominations with a win for Best Drama.

IMDb reports 302 nominations and 96 wins. With an estimated budget of $30 million, it earned $24 million in North America and $102 million worldwide. It is available for streaming on Peacock TV and for rental or purchase on other digital platforms.

So, let’s recap, and I’ll give you my picks, and then I will tell you who actually won.

Starting with Supporting Actress, my choice was Amy Madigan as the evil aunt in “Weapons”, and the Academy agrees with me.

For Supporting Actor, I liked Sean Penn in “One Battle After Another”, and the Academy agrees.

For Lead Actress, we also agreed Jessie Buckley was a clear winner.

My choice for Lead Actor was Ethan Hawke in “Blue Moon.” The Academy picked Michael B. Jordan in “Sinners.” That was okay. Actually, I was fine with any of the nominees except for Wagner Moura in “The Secret Agent.”

In the director’s chair, my choice was Chloé Zhao for Hamnet. If I had to bet, I might have picked Ryan Coogler for “Sinners,” but the Academy liked Paul Thomas Anderson for “One Battle After Another.”

For Original Screenplay, I loved “Blue Moon,” but the Academy picked “Sinners.” For Adapted Screenplay, 3 I liked “Hamnet,” but the Academy picked “One Battle After Another.”

“Sentimental Value” won Best Foreign Film. The only other nominated film I saw was “The Secret Agent,” and I definitely liked “Sentimental Value” much better.

I did not see any of the Animated Features. The highly popular “KPop Demon Hunters” took home the statue as well as one for Best Original Song.

In a surprise move, there was a tie for Best Action Short Subject. The presenter announced it was a tie. He then announced the first winner, and they came up to accept the award. Then he announced the second winner, and they were present with their statue. Of course, no one ever heard of either film.

“Sinners” received the Best Score for which I had no opinion.

“F1” earned Best Sound, and I have no complaints. I was very disappointed that “F1” was not nominated for Cinematography. “Sinners” took the prize, and that’s okay.

I don’t care much about Production Design, but I suppose “Frankenstein” deserved its win. It also took home the statue for Costume Design, Makeup, and Hairstyling. Again, no opinion.

Normally, I would be extremely happy that “Avatar: Fire and Ash” was honored for Visual Effects. However, for me, the Avatar franchise is in a category all its own. For more traditional visual-effects movies, I was highly impressed by “F1” and the Netflix film “The Lost Bus,” both of which I highly recommend.

So, that wraps up our third annual look at list-renominated films.

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