From hidden gems — to Oscar glory
With a glimpse of the future at this year’s film festivals, three Empire writers offer their awards picks
MARRIAGE STORY BEST PICTURE NICK DE SEMLYEN (at Toronto International Film Festival)
Movies about divorce aren’t meant to be this entertaining. 1979 Best Picture Oscar-winner Kramer Vs Kramer, for example, is an intelligent and moving piece of work, but there’s less fun in its entire run-time than in the joke at its expense in The Return Of Spinal Tap, where schlocky filmmaker Marty Dibergi reveals he made a sequel called Kramer Vs Kramer Vs Godzilla. This year’s Marriage Story, on the other hand, is a triumphant blend of comedy and drama, finding the absurdity as well as the melancholy in what occurs when partners consciously uncouple. It even has Adam Driver singing Stephen Sondheim, something very few films this year can claim.
Noah Baumbach has tackled relationships before, and specifically divorce in The Squid And The Whale. But judging by how it’s played at the Venice and Toronto film festivals, Marriage Story looks set to be the his first film to go mainstream. It has two big stars (Driver, Scarlett Johansson) at the peak of their powers, juicy supporting roles for Laura Dern and Ray Liotta as duelling lawyers, tear-jerking scenes, and a hilarious bit involving a Swiss Army knife. In short, don’t be surprised to see this following Kramer Vs Kramer’s lead and nabbing Best Picture. And then, if we’re lucky, a sequel drafting in Godzilla.
BABYTEETH BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS CHRISTINA NEWLAND (at Venice Film Festival)
A devastating and surprisingly fresh take on the teen-with-cancer drama, Shannon Murphy’s Babyteeth features a stunning turn from Essie Davis as Anna, a woman coming apart at the seams after her daughter’s cancer diagnosis.
The film’s primary perspective comes from teenager Milla (Eliza Scanlen) — but Davis proves to be the emotional flashpoint. Her relationship with her teen runs the razor’s edge from intense need to antipathy, and she vacillates between Xanax-induced calm and spells of absolute blind terror in the face of an illness beyond her control. As a woman working hard to maintain the parameters of parental control, Davis is a heartbreakingly real reminder
of the bond between a mother and daughter.
Her performance is so finely tuned, so dramatically ripe, and somehow never milked for sentiment. She is a woman working hard to maintain the parameters of parental control — and still make space for her daughter’s happiness during a precarious time. Davis is the unforgettable lynchpin of the film. She amply deserves a nomination.
FOR BEST SAMA DOCUMENTARY ALEX GODFREY (at Cannes Film Festival)
At film festivals, where the big hitters and the unknown underdogs are all thrown into the melange, only quality matters. It was so inspiring then, at Cannes this year, for a film made by someone who’d never done so before — hadn’t even intended to — to get so much buzz. As presented on festival paraphernalia, For Sama was a documentary with a high-concept angle — a woman (Waad al-kateab) in Aleppo and her doctor husband have a baby whilst her city is ravaged, filming everything, the mother dedicating the footage to her new daughter. It sounded interesting. It was extraordinary.
For Sama is one of those rare films you implore everybody you know to see, not because it’s important, but because it takes hold of you and doesn’t let go. Al-kateab began shooting simply to document life, and as such, For Sama is the purest film: like home video, structured as an endlessly dramatic tragedy. It’s already travelled so far, but you want to see these people on the biggest stage of all. They are genuinely heroic, and what they’ve done, both in Aleppo and with this immense film since, deserves endless accolades.