“When I imagine the Oscars 2022 trailer in my head, I visualize a crowd of young people, wrote the review for The Hollywood Reporter. A cherubic-looking young Northern Irish boy trotting through the cobbled streets [Belfast, de Kenneth Branagh] ; a fishing girl in New England and her gift for singing [Coda, un remake par Sian Heder du film français La Famille Bélier] ; two little Compton neighborhood girls crushing competition on the tennis courts [La Méthode Williams de Reinaldo Marcus Green, un biopic sur le père de Venus et Serena Williams] ; a teenage couple and their thwarted love on the streets of New York [West Side Story, de Steven Spielberg].”
For the 94e Oscars ceremony, which will take place on March 27 in Hollywood, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has favored initiatory stories in its selection of the best film category, estimates The Hollywood Reporter, the reference magazine of the sector.
Youth against disaster
We find a relatively close red thread in the reinvented western The Power of the Dog, from Jane Campion, Where Dune, Denis Villeneuve’s epic SF fresco, in which the death of a father drives a young hero to find his place in the chaos. Others do not hesitate to play on the string of nostalgia to evoke the time of youth, whether West Side Storyfrom Belfast or of Licorice Pizza – for this last film, an improbable love story, Paul Thomas Anderson drew on his personal memories of “the San Fernando Valley during the 1970s nebulae”.
What a contrast with previous years, with such dark selections. “After a decade where the chain of international events could have left only room for cynicism in the vision of the future of artists, most of the works selected for the prize for the best film 2022 evoke an idea that has become almost taboo: the ‘hope.” The Hollywood Reporter wants to see it as a sign that the renewal and diversification of profiles within the Academy have borne fruit, and that the young guard like the old “may be tired of dwelling on the current political climate like masochists”.
Overview of some titles selected in the best film category, and beyond.
The Power of the Dog Troubled Masculinities
Directed by Jane Campion. 12 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Direction, Best Actor (Benedict Cumberbatch), Best Supporting Actress (Kirsten Dunst), Best Supporting Actor (Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee) and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Critically acclaimed, The Power of the Dog is running for the top of the nominations. He is applauded by The Guardian like a “psychological and sexually charged western”, a “fantastic movie” where Benedict Cumberbatch’s acting talent shines in a complex role. The aesthetics and dreamlike quality of the whole (a dream specialist even coached the New Zealand filmmaker and the main actor) give it its very special character.
“But it is above all the power of Kodi Smit-McPhee that gives him the dog”, admire the British daily. The young actor “brings an absolutely essential disturbing presence to Campion’s film, which is set in Montana at the start of the 20th century.e century. Smit-McPhee portrays Peter, tall, effeminate figure who spends her days making intricate paper flowers and drawing dead animals.” Peter comes to spend the summer in a house in the middle of nowhere, where his mother, Rose (Kirsten Dunst as an alcoholic widow), settled after her remarriage with George (Jesse Plemons, good-natured and self-effacing), who manages with his brother Phil (Cumberbatch) a large herd. The latter overplays the masculinity of the cowboy, as much as he denigrates, mocks and insults Rose – and her son: “The chochotte […] he will come snooping everywhere, with his big protruding eyes.”
Dune preach in the desert
Directed by Denis Villeneuve. 10 nominations, including best film and best adapted screenplay.
Monument of science fiction literature, the saga Dune by American writer Frank Herbert is considered unsuitable for the big screen. However, Canadian filmmaker Denis