I’m writing this from the airport at 7am ON Thanksgiving because I got positively railed (raw, no lube) by a certain budget-friendly airline which may or may not share its name with the preeminent horse movie of my childhood. Life’s so fun or whatever MUNA said.
My plan for the airport—back when I was traveling last night, that is—was to sit in an airport bar, drink a martini (gin, dirty, I’m not taking criticism at this time), and read some Didion. How brilliantly esoteric that might have been! Of course, that remains an option; airports are nothing if not an exceedingly-liminal breeding ground for alcoholism. Time does not exist when you are at LAX! However, it is, I cannot stress this enough, criminally early in the morning on Thanksgiving Day. I slept about four hours last night, to which you might say: Taylor! Why didn’t you go to bed earlier for an 8:30 flight? And the answer, of course, is that I couldn’t go to bed earlier because I was at the goddamn airport offering my conscious self up as an offering for the Stallion of the Cimarron. [Ed. note: I did get to read Didion with a martini at the airport when flying back.]
Naturally, I’m writing. I don’t have the bandwidth to read Didion, but I have just enough to put shit out into the ether. You are all thankful for me.
Let’s get right into it:
If you were in the Ticketmaster trenches, it was easy to miss the looming threat of the Grammys announcing their 2023 nominees, a peculiar alignment that in hindsight should have been an omen for how both the awards and the presale would shake out.
Briefly before I get really into the weeds, we have to address the Best Comedy Album category… whew! The list is as follows:
The Closer
Dave ChappelleComedy Monster
Jim GaffiganA Little Brains, A Little Talent
Randy RainbowSorry
Louis CKWe All Scream
Patton Oswalt
While it is far from shocking for the industry to reward bad behavior, especially when it comes to male comedians, Jesus fucking Christ. Chappelle as the first nominee gets us off to a roaring start; I’ve honestly lost track at this point of how many times he’s been horrendously, violently transphobic, but rest assured that The Closer is part of that canon!! On this note, it’s kind of stunning just how synonymous Chappelle’s name has become with transphobia. As Taylor would have it: that’s, um. A real fucking legacy to leave! Gaffigan is fine by design of his shtick. Randy Rainbow is someone I didn’t know actually engaged in ““serious”” comedy, as he’s more famous for the 600,000 racist and transphobic tweets the Internet dug up in 2020. Moreover, his brand seems to be the worst theater gay you’ve ever met engaging in neolib Trump Twitter reply dunks. I can’t say it here, but it begins with F.
Oswalt isn’t inherently that bad (I googled “Patton Oswalt controversy” and just found articles about his friendship with Chappelle because time is a big flat circle), and Louis CK, well… I am choosing to disengage.
ANYWAY! There’s actually a lot of exciting stuff in many other genre categories. The rock categories, which have recently been unspeakably grim, feature some legitimately exciting work from the genuine rockers on the scene rather than the edgeless legacy acts the Academy has historically favored here—Turnstile! IDLES! I am choosing to ignore the MGK nomination.
Wet Leg is, randomly, an Academy favorite, in a rare “how do you do, fellow kids” moment. Huge!
On the general field: a lot of this is, uh. There was certainly music that was nominated, that’s for sure! Record of the Year features ABBA’s “Don’t Shut Me Down” (which I swear falls under last year’s eligibility period???), Adele’s “Easy on Me,” Beyoncé’s “BREAK MY SOUL,” (both expected and deserved), Mary J. Blige’s “Good Morning Gorgeous” (sure!), Brandi Carlile/Lucius’ “You and Me on the Rock” (they love Brandi, so I get it), Doja Cat’s “Woman” (YES), Steve Lacy’s “Bad Habit” (deserved), Kendrick Lamar’s “The Heart Part 5” (obligatory, though I always consider Kendrick more of an album artist than a singles artist), Lizzo’s “About Damn Time” (I don’t love this song, but I get why it was nominated), and Harry Styles’ “As It Was” (dedicated readers will recall I Do not Like this song).
Album is a sadder affair, featuring ABBA’s Voyage, which is simply not good, Adele’s 30, Bad Bunny’s Un Verano Sin Ti, Beyoncé’s RENAISSANCE, Mary J. Blige’s Good Morning Gorgeous, Brandi Carlile’s In These Silent Days, Coldplay’s Music of the Spheres, Kendrick Lamar’s Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers, Lizzo’s Special, and Harry Styles’ Harry’s House. I would consider two of these albums—Bunny’s and Beyoncé’s—to be great, the majority mid/unremarkable, and both ABBA’s and Lizzo’s terrible. The thing that sticks out the most is how uninspired these feel. It’s like a laundry list of who “should” be nominated based on past Grammys trends. Who does the Academy like? Did those people release albums this year?
The big names in Song are ATWTMVTVFTV (known to civilians as “All Too Well (Ten Minute Version)”) and “abcdefu” — for opposing reasons. And Best New Artist… am I old? Who the hell are you people?
In the film world:
Now! I am interested in awards, of course, because of my own interest in the works being awarded. The more neurodivergent parts of my brain love to rank things and categorize them and assign value in that way (it’s end-of-year list season, and I’m feasting). But what’s arguably more compelling is the political component. To be sure, campaigning is a factor when it comes to the Grammys — why else would Brandi Carlile continue to be an awards favorite? (also, H.E.R. worked on the Mary J. Blige record, lol) But nowhere in the industry is the political component of things—hinging on several auxiliary guild awards, press junkets, screening events—more prevalent than in the Oscar race. Anyone can listen to a song; to see a film? A concerted effort must take us there.
Which is why the Oscars have long been viewed as out-of-touch, an inaccurate portrait of how the country at large engages with art. And this is true! The politics of it, though, are what makes this so fun. People in the industry love to treat awards as life-or-death, and in a marketing/financial sense they of course are, but ultimately we’re playing pretend with some extremely low stakes, much like the best Housewives fights. At the intersection of heightened emotions and objective frivolity is awards season — really brilliant stuff!
Anyway, this is a better year than last, which you may recall I dubbed pretty shit. Granted, we have not seen nominations yet, and if there’s one thing I’m certain of it’s that some antics will occur, but across the board the work caliber is at least a partial course-correction back in 2018’s direction. My favorite films of the year, as they stand now (BABYLON, EO, AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER, and TOP GUN: MAVERICK are, at this point, the only imaginable disruptors):
CLOSE (dir. Lukas Dhont): a deeply, deeply special film that A24 nabbed out of Cannes and seems content to sabotage (though at least this got some fest placement, unlike fellow A24 Cannes title THE STARS AT NOON).
BARBARIAN (dir. Zach Cregger): a flawed but ambitious and fun-as-hell journey into the absurd. It harkens back to the sort of weird and off-the-wall films that got made and widely distributed back in the 70s and 80s that you watch today and think: who greenlit this? How do I give them a singular kiss?
GLASS ONION: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY (dir. Rian Johnson): if you don’t like this, you hate fun.
THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN (dir. Martin McDonagh): in which McDonagh learns from his mistakes with THREE BILLBOARDS and writes what he knows. If you don’t like this, you have a bad sense of humor.
BONES AND ALL (dir. Luca Guadagnino): sure, it’s very literal, unsubtle as all hell, and doesn’t particularly hide its YA roots. But when it’s as thrillingly daring as this, stomping on genre lines and committing itself to warm earnestness, I’m inclined not to care. Trent & Atticus’ best score post-SOCIAL NETWORK.
THE FABELMANS (dir. Steven Spielberg): beyond cheesy. I cried three times.
EVERYTHING, EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE (dir. Daniels): the fact that a film this bold and endearing isn’t in my top 3 is a striking testament to the fact that cinema came back this year, baby. I wish this didn’t come out when it did—I think a lot of us look back on this with the lens of cringe, in light of its TikTok success—but come the fuck on. The biggest phenomenon since PARASITE?
RRR (dir. S.S. Rajamouli): SSR winning Best Director at the New York Film Critic’s Circle is a huge deal, and frankly no one is more deserving. RRR is the most movie… maybe ever? If I’m defending cinema as an art form—specifically one that centers escapism—RRR is my pick. I never had more fun this year than at RRR.
AFTERSUN (dir. Charlotte Wells): I first watched this when A24 sent it to us for NashFilm, and it drove me nearly to the point of insanity not sharing it with people. This is another one from Cannes that A24 acquired and seemed ready to ignore—until People Like Me started talking about this movie and everyone was like, to evoke Nicki, “woah, what is this?” David Ehrlich, who is so often wrong but who is also sometimes the most-right person speaking, championed this film out of Cannes, and being the stan I am, I’m grateful for that. He was an early advocate for PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE, and now that’s on the Sight & Sound list. One of the most deeply affecting films I’ve seen in ages.
TÁR (dir. Todd Field): …except for TÁR. Not since PHANTOM THREAD has a movie so irreversibly ruined my shit, captivating even though it shouldn’t be on paper, an affront to common patterns of thinking—something so perfectly and tightly unhinged that you can’t help but marvel at it. This is possibly the smartest movie I’ve ever seen. I want to read TÁR ON TÁR. I want to sit across the table from any of these characters and talk about music, unpack the themes of the film, perform musicology. At once, Field’s work feels of-the-moment and timeless, a furious social critique whose only throughline is its mess of contradictions.
And, of course, a brief will/should win:
Supporting Actress: apparently Angela Bassett is favored, but I don’t see Marvel movies. Nina Hoss (TÁR) should win.
Supporting Actor: Judd Hirsch (FABELMANS). Honorable mention to Mark Rylance for BONES AND ALL.
Best Actress: Both Michelle Yeoh (EEAAO) and Cate Blanchett (TÁR) have cases for both will/should.
Best Actor: weird one, since Brendan Fraser is allegedly great in THE WHALE, but if A24 was making the decision to sabotage CLOSE, it’s downright burying THE WHALE — probably because the thesis of the film seems to be: “look at this fat fucking faggot!” Colin Farrell (BANSHEES) is in the lead for me now.
Best Director: SSR (RRR) should win, Spielberg will (and I’m happy with that!).
Original Screenplay: TÁR, but this is a bit open — BANSHEES succeeds on its writing, and FABELMANS is autobiographical Academy catnip.
Adapted Screenplay: a remarkably weak category — WOMEN TALKING has it.
Best Picture: TÁR should win, FABELMANS will win but also should.
And if you’re thinking of seeing WHITE NOISE… don’t!