ASK MICK LASALLE
Dear Mick: I’d been shying away from reading the 2018 Oscar nominations, and I know why: Melissa Leo. How could the Academy have left her out? Her performance was astounding.
Jim Forgione, Oakland Dear Jim: Melissa Leo in “Novitiate” is the performance of the year, but the only people who think so are the people who saw the movie. There weren’t many of us. According to the Box Office Mojo site, it was released to 163 theaters and grossed less than $600,000. There just isn’t much of a market for a movie about nuns, even a great one containing the best ensemble acting of 2017. Meanwhile, “I, Tonya” — also great — has grossed almost $24 million and was released into more than 1,400 theaters. People, including Oscar voters, apparently wanted to see the movie, which is why Allison Janney’s performance as Tonya Harding’s mother was able to break through. Janney’s brilliant, tremendous fun, and I’ll be happy to see her win. But she’s lucky she’s not going up against Leo. Yo Mick: Which version of “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” did you like more — the Euro or the American version — and why?
Robert Freud Bastin, Petaluma Yo Robert: I liked both, but I preferred the American version. It was more cinematic and a little less leisurely. And Rooney Mara was as intense, in her own way, as Noomi Rapace was in the Swedish version. A lot of times, American versions of European movies represent a compromise, but this type of movie Americans do better than everybody. Hey, Mickelodeon: You’re watching a movie when some shocking, almost impossible, scene happens. They cut to the main character jolting awake and breathing heavily in bed. Do you feel irritated by this overused and gimmicky cliche?
Leonard Stegmann, Half Moon Bay Hey, Linoleum: No. Flashbacks are bad. Dreams are fine. Hi Mick: My husband and I saw “Call Me by Your Name,” and I loved the movie until the conversation between the father and Elio. I just kept thinking, “Make him stop, make him stop.” I wouldn’t say that it ruined the movie for me, but it made it “not great.”
Gail Sickler, Petaluma Hi Gail: I wouldn’t revisit this question, except that I’ve been thinking about this for a couple of months, trying to figure out why most people are genuinely moved by that scene, and a minority of others are put off by it. Maybe this is part of it: When I watch that movie, I identify with the kid. I have no trouble remembering what it was like to be 17 — vividly. I remember what I thought, what I felt like, what the world looked like. So I can just imagine how I would feel if I were 17 and came back home after a long summer afternoon with my girlfriend to find my father smoking on the couch, fat as a house, launching into a father-son chat: “Yeah, I remember when I was your age. I could have had sex, but I didn’t have the nerve. And now I’m sitting here like a slob, and no one will touch me. So enjoy yourself.”
I wouldn’t have felt moved by that. Not at all. I would’ve nodded politely, as Timothée Chalamet does in the movie, but then I would’ve excused myself to find a discreet place to throw up. I would’ve felt slimed and thought, “Hey, Methuselah, don’t go for a contact high from my experience. And don’t threaten me, like some witch in a fairy tale, that I’m going to wind up like you.” That’s how I’d have felt, and so that’s how I feel watching the movie. But I think a lot of people — a majority of viewers — identify with the father, not because they’re glued to the sofa, smoking and miserable, because they’re not, but because they just naturally gravitate to an adult’s point of view. Which is fine. However, I will add that if you’re going to be writing about movies for a living, it probably helps to remain, on some level, at an arrested stage of development.
Have a question? Ask Mick LaSalle at mlasalle@sfchronicle.com. Include your name and city for publication, and a phone number for verification. Letters may be edited for clarity and length.