{"id":11311,"date":"2025-02-19T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-19T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=11311"},"modified":"2026-01-04T13:19:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T18:19:10","slug":"sympathy-for-academy-awards-voters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=11311","title":{"rendered":"Sympathy for Academy Awards Voters"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"Academy<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I\u2019m sure glad I don\u2019t have to pick the Best Picture winner in this year\u2019s Academy Awards pool of ten. The four nominees we\u2019ve seen are excellent films with brilliant acting, interesting stories, and cinematic flourishes. Assuming votes are cast based on people\u2019s true assessment of excellence, not corporate loyalties, they have their job cut out for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We skipped Anora<\/em> when it was in the local theater because the preview was so off-putting. Now that was a mistake. Several of the others haven\u2019t come to Princeton yet. But here\u2019s what we\u2019ve seen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Brutalist<\/em>\u2014a moving story about mid-twentieth century Jew (Adrian Brody), whose excellence as an architect doesn\u2019t protect him from the Nazis. He survives to create a new life and new work with his wife (Felicity Jones) about twenty miles from where I live in a fictional version of Doylestown, Pa. What happens to him thereafter makes you wonder whether the movie title refers to his architectural style<\/a> or certain characters in the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Complete Unknown<\/em>\u2014Bob Dylan\u2019s career up until the legendary set he did at the Newport Folk Festival about which much has been said and written. The producers made the excellent decision to include lots of music, and Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet sings the songs himself. A wonderful trip into forests of nostalgia\u2014for the music, for the times, for the hope embedded therein.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Conclave<\/em>\u2014based on a novel by the excellent Robert Harris (my review of his Precipice is here<\/a><\/em>), with a can\u2019t-go-wrong cast of Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and Isabella Rossellini. It\u2019s about the election of a new pope (awkward timing) and the ostensibly stodgy proceedings that result in earthquakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dune: Part Two<\/em>\u2014Loved the books; so willing to cut the movie some slack with respect to Austin Butler\u2019s alien makeup. The acting and scenery were fantastic. Ditto the special effects which were so good they were distracting. (How\u2019d they DO that?!) Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet again, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, and Javier Bardem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coming soon: The Nickel Boys<\/em>. Looking forward to it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m sure glad I don\u2019t have to pick the Best Picture winner in this year\u2019s Academy Awards pool of ten. The four nominees we\u2019ve seen are excellent films with brilliant acting, interesting stories, and cinematic flourishes. Assuming votes are cast … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[59,269,56,57,104],"tags":[2255,2254,2256,2253],"class_list":["post-11311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academy-awards","category-actor","category-film","category-movies","category-the-morgue","tag-a-complete-unknown","tag-conclave","tag-dune-part-two","tag-the-brutalist"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-2Wr","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11313,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11311\/revisions\/11313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}