Holding off the nail in the Oscar coffin; Documentary Feature

Last night I watched the beautifully shot “Never Look Away” Oscar nominated for Cinematography  and Foreign Language Film, directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. Germany had quite the run in the 00's, with 6 nominations for Foreign Language Film and 2 wins -for "Nowhere in Africa" and "The Lives of Others" also directed by von Donnersmarck. The German submission was nominated again in 2016 with critically acclaimed "Toni Erdmann," but ended up losing to "The Salesman."

Watching "Never Look Away" took me back to last year around this time watching "The Square," a nice, last minute discovery I had discounted after Eric Kohn's lukewarm response after it won the Palme d'Or.

After watching "The Square" I interviewed the film's director, Ruben Östlund, who even gave me his phone number in case I had any follow up questions. It was such a fun few weeks leading up to Oscar night.

What a difference a year makes.

Had you told me a year ago that I would feel about the Oscars what I feel today, I would've told you that it was impossible. Since my first Oscars back in 1988 I have been in love with the show. Better than Christmas...my birthday even. That's how I would have described Academy Awards night.

Each new "clarification" about the latest change, relegating 4 categories to commercial breaks shown in real time only via a live stream on the internet, edited later into the television broadcast, out of order without the walk to the stage...each response is worse than the one before.

The latest from Producer Donna Gigliotti is so ridiculous, I won't even summarize it here. The momentum for the entire show will be diminished with these wins announced to the world on Twitter. Or streamed on a separate device during the commercial breaks...it's just complete nonsense. They are trying to get an audience that doesn't care about the Oscars while alienating those of us who do.

My biggest takeaway from 2019 is that the Oscars are finally and officially not about the movies.  They are about money.

Maybe they always have been, but in my little world, watching the show....each year took me back to the first time when I was 12.

The most ironic thing about all of this. The Oscar story should have been about the fact that studios and the Academy finally did it. The studios made popular films that were not only good but landed nominations. "A Star is Born," "Black Panther,"  "BlacKkKlansman," "Green Book," "ROMA." THAT should have been the story heading into Oscar night, but instead, we have this complete, utter mess.  

They Academy and ABC have wanted this since "The Dark Knight" was snubbed for Best Picture, and they totally blew it.

So, I have 9 days to finish watching the nominated films and pull some pieces out of hat, and call it a day. I'm trying really hard to hold off putting the final nail in the Oscar coffin, but it hasn't been easy.

So...let's talk about Documentary Feature.

My journey with Doc Feature started back in July with "Whitney" and "Won't You Be My Neighbor." What a different time July was. At that point I had already seen two films that ended up on my Top 10 list, "Final Portrait" and "Lean on Pete." 2018 was certainly shaping up to be a great year for Indie Cinema.

Who knew the studios would come along and match the indies with quality!?

I was quite indifferent to "Whitney" although there were certainly interesting parts to it, but "Won't You Be My Neighbor" was a complete delight. It managed to be entertaining, say something about our society today and let us know more about its subject than we knew going in.

However, this year's documentary branch was much less interested in entertainment than level of difficulty, whether that was with Alex's climb in "Free Solo" or a descent into the homes and lives of the Taliban in "Of Fathers and Sons." Or beautifully lensed observation in "Hale County This Morning, This Evening."

When I first tried to watch "Hale County This Morning, This Evening" I couldn't get past the first 30 minutes, but after the Oscar nominations came out, I decided to try again. For a film like this to work you really need to fall under its spell. I see what RaMell Ross was going for, but it wasn't really for me.

Interestingly, if you take away the interviews from "Minding the Gap" you are left with something like "Hale County This Morning, This Evening.  In "Minding the Gap" you have multiple revelations through the interview process that tell you so much about the people we are watching, but completely without judgement. In "Hale County" it is the visuals alone that paint the picture.

"Of Fathers and Sons," was a film I found almost impossible to watch. Was I supposed to feel some sort of awe that we are allowed into the lives of these people? I certainly didn't feel empathy for them, or even sympathy for the children. The Documentary branch failed nominating this film over "Won't You Be My Neighbor" and "Three Identical Strangers." With "Hale County," a film I didn't really love, I can at least see what the branch was rewarding with the nomination.

That leaves us with the one not like the others - "RBG" It is not only an entertaining film, but also manages to speak to the Academy's liberal leanings.

For me, the best of the bunch is "Minding the Gap" followed closely by "Free Solo." Both films manage to say so much about humanity with completely differing approaches.

Last year I very incorrectly predicted "Faces Places" over "Icarus," because I believe that great filmmaking would prevail over subject. Most people are saying that "Free Solo" has this one in the bag, and I am tempted to predict it. But I have a feeling "RBG" might sneak in for the win.