I find myself having a bit more time this Oscar season, so I’m dusting off an old regular feature I used to write. Every year I break down the Best Picture contenders on the podcast, but I used to complement these pods with blogs writing about films that weren’t nominated for Best Picture, but show up elsewhere. This was something I did for several years back on Live in Limbo, where the podcast originally started at. Twice a week (if my schedule allows it) I will break down the odds that three or so films have to win their categories. Each nomination will be given a Frontrunner, Darkhorse, Longshot or Just Happy To Be There (JHTBT) designation.
Click HERE to read past entries. In this edition I will be talking about Nosferatu, The Six Triple Eight and Black Box Diaries.
Nosferatu dir. Robert Eggers
The film has four nominations.
- Best Cinematography – Jarin Blaschke Longshot
- Best Costume Design – Linda Muir Darkhorse
- Best Production Design – Craig Lathrop JHTBT
- Best Makeup and Hairstyling – David White, Traci Loader, Suzanne Stokes-Munton Longshot
Nosferatu was my most anticipated film of 2024. I’m a massive fan of both the original 1922 F.W. Murnau film and Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu the Vampyre from 1979. I even did a podcast where I discussed those two plus Shadow of the Vampire back on episode 214: A Trilogy of Nosferatu’s (which also features the most unhinged graphic I’ve ever made). I love that beady little rat king. Robert Eggers is also one of the most exciting directors in recent years. While I was slightly let down by the finished product, Nosferatu was still a great time at the movies. The story is a re-telling of Dracula, with Count Orlok (Bill Skarsgård) standing in for the Bram Stoker character. He lures young Thomas Hutter (Nicolas Hoult), a junior real estate agent, to his castle in Transylvania to help the transition of bringing his body and reach to Germany. Meanwhile when she was younger, Thomas’ wife Ellen Hutter (Lily-Rose Depp), was married to Orlok in her nightmares and he intends to be with her again. When Orlok arrives in Germany, he brings with him a plague that will keep going until he is reunited with Ellen.
The film over performed on Oscar nomination day, in terms of a horror movie that was released on Christmas, but it getting four tech nods is a great showing. If it had premiered earlier or did the festival circuit, who knows if it would have snuck in the Best Picture conversation along with Best Actress for Depp. The film is soaked in gothic dread as Jarin Blaschke, who has worked on every Eggers film, put all their skills to the test. An early shot of a blowing curtain with Orlok’s shadow being seen only on the curtain is one that will give you goosebumps. Much of the movie takes place at night and using a cold blue hue allows you to see all the horror as it is drenched in eeriness. There is no arguing that Eggers knows how to compose a shot, and the tableaus created under low candle lit scenes are stunning. The cinematography is easily the most notable aspect of the film, and even critics who were mixed on the movie have been praising the camera work. Sadly at the Oscars you always have stiff competition in the Best Cinematography category with BP front runners The Brutalist and Dune: Part Two solidly in front of Nosferatu, making this film a longshot to win.
Period pieces always do well at the Oscars for Best Costume Design. Amongst this crop of nominees, three are period pieces, one is a unique retro-futuristic design and the other is a contemporary film where men compete to wear the fanciest dress possible. Being a period piece automatically elevates the odds that Nosferatu has, especially since one of the period piece nominees, A Complete Unknown, takes place so recently that it doesn’t have the same gravitas. The Academy likes petticoats, bloomers and corsets. Some recent winners that have a similar style to Nosferatu include Poor Things, Little Women, Phantom Thread and Anna Karenina. You have Orlok’s fur coat that looks like he made it from a werewolf, or Ellen’s corseted dresses with puffy sleeves and barely there slips. The costumes are perfectly designed for this film’s early 1800’s European setting. This is the film’s best chance to walk away with an award as its main competition is Wicked. Nosferatu has a Darkhorse status, but anything can happen with this branch that likes to surprise Oscar watchers.
Along with the period accurate costumes, the production designer had a few tricks up their sleeve too. There are several ornate buildings like the Harding home where Ellen stays when Thomas goes to Transylvania, it is contrasted by the decaying Orlok castle with bare stone walls and the only room with any life in it is the creepy living room with a fireplace. When the Hardings must bury their child, a crypt plays a vital role in the story to set as a trap. All this to say that Georgian era city streets were constructed and add depth to the film. It has incredibly stiff competition from the likes of The Brutalist, Dune: Part Two, Wicked and Conclave, which unfortunately makes it just happy to be there.
Most of the makeup and hairstyling commentary will obviously come from Orlok’s look. He has a gigantic push broom mustache that is a flavour saver for the blood he sucks from his victims, he also has so many prosthetics on, that once again Skarsgård is unrecognizable (like his characters in It and The Crow). He has long pointy fingers with talons for nails, a deep furrowed brow line and pointy ears. Add on the shocking schizophrenia episodes of Ellen Hutter, where blood pours out of her mouth and eyes creating an undead look that is the stuff of nightmares. While naked Nosferatu does look a little silly (it’s mostly the haircut that does not work at all), there is plenty of great work being done by the MUAH team. In a year where The Substance wasn’t released, maybe Nosferatu would stand a chance, but sadly it is a very distant longshot with no hope of winning.
I expect Nosferatu to go home with 0-1 wins.
The Six Triple Eight dir. Tyler Perry
The film has one nomination.
- Best Original Song – “The Journey” Diane Warren Darkhorse
Hell has almost frozen over. Diane Warren is the bane of Oscar Death Racer’s as she has been nominated for Best Original Song for the last eight years with sixteen total nods, all without a win. We’ve been forced to watch dregs such as Flamin’ Hot, Tell It Like a Woman, Four Good Days, Breakthrough and more. There is a small, but sizable portion of the Academy that votes for Warren every year.
The film itself could have been something truly special. It tells the story of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, an all black and female battalion during WW2, that were given the thankless job of sorting and delivering mail, both to soldiers and to their families back home. They were expected to fail, because others tried and didn’t succeed, but the group lead by Captain Charity Adams (Kerry Washington) managed to boost morale and provide something of benefit during wartime.
Except because the film is directed by Tyler Perry, it is sappy, melodramatic and completely devoid of talent behind the camera. Ebony Obsidian plays Lena, a young woman who enlists after her Jewish beau dies in combat, and despite her struggles manages to earn her spot in the group. Obsidian is basically the only bright spot in the film as Washington turns in a career worst performance as the sappiest commander in military history. The film also features Oprah Winfrey, who plays Mary McLeod Bethune, Eleanor Roosevelt’s close advisor, and Oprah proves she’s just as much of a hack as an actor as she is as a television presenter.
This brings us back to the Diane Warren special, an end credit song. Thankfully this time the song actually starts during a montage of showing the real women of the 6888th battalion, making it seem slightly more integral to the plot. While Warren wrote the mediocre words and music, H.E.R. sings the song to be an average at best RnB track. With all the chaos surrounding Emilia Pérez, this song that currently I have rated as 3rd likeliest to win, might just pull off a dramatic upset. Maybe then, we will stop being forced to watch an awful Diane Warren movie year in and year out.
I expect The Six Triple Eight to go home with 0 wins.
Black Box Diaries dir. Shiori Itô
The film has one nomination.
- Best Documentary Longshot
Everywhere in the world has a rape problem. It doesn’t matter the circumstances, if there are witnesses, the amount of evidence or if the attacker has a history. There will always be people who claim it didn’t happen and the justice system, even when finding guilt, will be far too lenient. This is even more true when the attacker is someone of wealth or notoriety. Sure there have been advancements like with the #MeToo movement, but even someone like Harvey Weinstein had his New York convictions overturned due to a technicality.
In Japan, Shiori Itō was unfortunately sexually assaulted one night. Unfortunately for her attacker, Itō is an investigative journalist. When she was given the run around by the police, decided to investigate her own assault. She started recording phone calls with lawyers and detectives, she tracked down and interviewed the cab driver who drove her and her attacker to a hotel. She got the hotel concierge worker to go on record about how he saw her attacker drag her into an elevator. She met up with the original detective who was assigned to her case but after doing “too good of a job” was reassigned. Itō treated this case like she was trying to find the truth about someone else’s experience. The roadblocks came because her attacker was a man named Noriyuki Yamaguchi, the Washington bureau chief of the Tokyo Broadcasting System and close personal friend of then Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. You don’t get much more powerful than that in Japan. Through her perseverance and dedication, Itō manages to win a lawsuit in civil court after her first trial went nowhere.
This film is a stark reminder of the challenges victims of sexual violence face. Itō is yelled at by women for “disparaging a good man’s name” and the fact that in a press conference her blouse was a little too open, on social media meant she was asking to be assaulted. When Itō edits in the security camera footage of her being dragged out of the cab by Yamaguchi and being held up and pushed forward towards the elevator, it should be enough to convince anyone of her truthfulness. Except we shouldn’t have to see horrific footage of a crime about to be committed to believe victims, that’s just the world we sadly live in.
Best Documentary often goes to the most politically relevant film of the year, with the last two winners tackling the effects that Russia has on the world and the year before the erasure of black history in America as the invasion in Ukraine and the Black Lives Matter movement respectively dominated the news cycles in those years. The inclusion of a Palestinian film makes it the clear front runner this year with Black Box Diaries, a film that likely would have won during the height of the #MeToo era is a longshot to win.
I expect Black Box Diaries to go home with 0 wins.
