The Zone of Interest (2023)

To avoid my prior mistake, I watched this at the start of my flight home, when my attention wouldn't be flagging yet. I also had a strong feeling that I would need a palate cleanser afterward.

We might call this a slice of life, but that kind of implies an ordinary setting. The focus is on the large family of Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel), commandant at Auschwitz, living very close to it. The most notable plot developments concern changes in his job, whether he likes them or not. His five kids seem not to know or care what he's up to.

Past Lives (2023)

I recalled almost nothing about this title except that it was nominated for Best Picture. It turns out to have had only one other Oscar nod, for Best Original Screenplay, so no one seriously expected it to win. I would have given priority to Poor Things, but that wasn't an option from United.

Thanks to two time jumps, there is a clear three-act structure. First Na Young (then played by Seung Ah Moon) and Hae Sung (then played by Seung Min Yim) are preteen classmates and fierce academic rivals. Just as they start to grow fond of each other, Na moves to Toronto for a more promising future and changes her name to Nora Moon. They rediscover each other on Facebook 12 years later (now played by Greta Lee and Teo Yoo), having many video calls until Nora takes an indefinite hiatus to focus on work. Another 12 years later, in what I take to be 2023, they finally meet in RL again, specifically in New York City, where Nora lives with husband Arthur (John Magaro). This marriage is stable, but Nora and Hae can't help thinking about what could have been -- and, from a Buddhist perspective, what may have been in previous incarnations.

Nomadland (2020)

Before the next Academy Awards, I thought I'd catch up on previous winners and nominees. I had been putting this Best Picture off because some people made it sound depressing. Then I remembered that the same was true of No Country for Old Men, which I turned out to like just fine. Besides, after Johnny Got His Gun, how painful could it be for me to watch?

In 2011, the closing of a factory spells the emptying of its tiny Nevada town. Sixty-something widow Fern (Frances McDormand) stays as long as she can but then decides to live out of a van, seeing the countryside and taking odd jobs. She meets many other nomads in a mutually supportive community, including Dave (David Strathairn), who clearly has a crush on her, but commitment to anything other than preserving her husband's memory is far from her mind.

Shoeshine (1946)

In its homeland, this is called Sciuscià, a cognate, because that is what the shoeshiners say when trying to get customers. I guess post-WWII Italy had a pretty strong American presence. Regardless, shoeshine has vanishingly little to do with the plot. It's merely how homeless 15-year-old Pascuale (Franco Interlenghi) and younger housed but impoverished pal Giuseppe (Rinaldo Smordoni) make money early on, before things start happening. Perhaps the point is that they occupy a humble place in society. And/or that they soon come to wish they had stuck with their first job, which might have sufficed if they weren't saving up for a horse.

After unwittingly taking part in a scam, Pascuale and Giuseppe go to separate five-boy cells in juvie. Since one of the uncaught deliberate criminals is Giuseppe's older brother, Attilio (uncredited, like most of the cast), the duo agrees not to spill. This gets harder when Pascuale worries about Giuseppe's well-being, but Giuseppe is not apt to be grateful, or even forgiving, for being spared at the expense of Attilio. How well can friendship survive in this environment, even with the prospect of escape?

Licorice Pizza (2021)

Not once does anyone on screen mention licorice or pizza. The title comes from a real-life record store chain that existed in the story's setting of 1973 SoCal. That's the kind of unappealing randomness I sooner expect from the Coen Brothers or Quentin Tarantino than from Paul Thomas Anderson. But Anderson was trying something a little more comedic than he ever directed before, so I'll give him that. And once I read a description, it seemed as good a place as any to start catching up on Best Picture nominees.

The Netflix jacket turns out to be misleading again. Yes, Gary (Cooper Hoffman) is a high-earning Hollywood actor in high school, but the focus is not on his acting career, his schoolwork, or even his classmate interactions. Rather, he aggressively courts Alana (Alana Haim), in her late 20s, as soon as he lays eyes on her, and then he recruits her assistance in business ventures unrelated to his acting, like waterbed sales. Basically, he wants to grow up even faster.

Yi Yi (2000)

This title translates literally to "One One," which could imply "One by One" or "One After Another." In English, it has sometimes been marketed as A One and a Two. The only interpretation that makes any sense in context to me is "One After Another," and that's still not very specific. In any case, its consistently high ratings caught my attention.

The story is difficult to summarize, because the Jian family in Taipei has a lot of different things going on. Probably the most central arc involves married NJ meeting married ex-girlfriend Sherry for the first time in ages; she's still sore about his sudden disappearance from her life and wants some form of closure. He also struggles with an ailing company, which assigns him to kiss up to potential client Mr. Ota. NJ's mother-in-law goes into a coma, and the family is advised to talk to her in the hopes of guiding her out, but they tend to feel a lot of stress when they do, not least NJ's wife, Min-Min. NJ's teen daughter, Ting-Ting, feels especially guilty because of the circumstances that may have led to the coma; she copes by making a new friend, Lili, but this also draws her into a messy relationship web. NJ's brother-in-law, A-Di, is newly married and expecting but turns to his ex-girlfriend for support when his financial missteps create a marital rift. Finally, NJ's prepubescent son, Yang-Yang (they sure like repetition), gets picked on by bigger girls, and his unorthodox ways get him on his teacher's bad side.

Killer of Sheep (1977)

I've learned to approach low-budget indies with trepidation. No matter how popular they are, they hang by a thread, most likely appreciated for just one or two reasons; if those reasons aren't enough for you, your viewing may well feel like a loss. This indie was actually an M.F.A. thesis project, costing $10,000 (about $44,400 in today's economy) and not seeing a remotely wide release until 2007, partly because of soundtrack rights issues. Given its bleakness, the filmmakers might have chosen not to use color even if they could afford it.

The title character is L.A. slaughterhouse employee Stan (Henry G. Sanders). He does not consider himself poor, knowing people who have it worse, but others expect him to either do something for more income -- be it legit work or crime -- or live an even more austere life, as by not investing in a car. I'm not sure he makes the best choice; his current situation negatively influences his relationship with his wife (Kaycee Moore) and kids.

Maria Full of Grace (2004)

Once in a while, I tell Netflix I'm not interested in a suggestion but later rent it anyway. In this case, I must have been turned off by the serious subject matter and then mustered the courage, partly because it got an Academy nomination for Best Actress (pretty rare for foreign-language fare) and an AFI Movie of the Year award. And I've enjoyed an unusually large number from 2004.

In a Colombian town, pregnant 17-year-old Maria (Catalina Sandino Moreno) quits her job at a florist sweatshop. Since there's not much else she can do for her family's much-needed funds, she agrees to traffic heroin to the outskirts of New York City, telling her family it's Bogotá office work. She is not pleased to learn that her friend Blanca (Yenny Paola Vega) is coming for the same reason, along with two other "mules," but she'll have much bigger reasons not to be pleased before this is over.

Amour (2012)

I've heard that the latest crop of Academy Best Picture contenders is especially depressing. With that in mind, perhaps I should have given lower priority to this older nominee, which looked too dismal for my dad. Nevertheless, I rather wanted to complete another year's worth, and this was the only one from 2012 I hadn't seen yet.

In modern Paris, Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) are an elderly couple. Their life seems pleasant enough, until Anne has a stroke that leaves her unresponsive for several minutes. She gets surgery to unblock her carotid artery, but it's a rare failure case, so she needs a wheelchair thereafter. She makes Georges promise never to send her back to the hospital or on to a nursing home. Alas, it's hard to find good help elsewhere, so he struggles to support her on his own. Each one, at times, expresses a sentiment that they'd both be better off with her finishing dying.

Monsoon Wedding (2001)

All I recalled learning of this one was that my mom had seen it and reported that people in India apparently know how to put on lavish parties. I didn't need her to tell me that India favors spectacle. Still, it sounded potentially interesting.

Don't read too much into the title: While rain eventually falls, it doesn't affect the plot. Or rather the four or five plots, which might constitute a metaphorical monsoon. The overarching theme is preparation for the New Delhi wedding of Aditi (Vasundhara Das) and Hemant (Parvin Dabas), neither of whom seems to mind that it's an arranged marriage, tho Aditi needs to remind herself why she didn't go another route. That lack of concern may be just as well, because there are enough other concerns flying around, starting with the price of the celebration, which mainly worries Aditi's dad, Lalit (Naseeruddin Shah).

A Woman Under the Influence (1974)

Gena Rowlands has been one of those actors I've heard of repeatedly but couldn't place. It made sense to remedy this by seeing the first role for which she got an Academy Award nomination, in a movie significantly more popular than the one for her second, Gloria. Incidentally, both were directed by her husband, John Cassavetes, who got an Oscar nod only for AWUtI.

In what might be a New York suburb, Mabel (Rowlands) lives with husband Nick (Peter Falk), their three prepubescent kids, and Nick's fairly active mom (Katherine Cassavetes, John's mom). Despite this crowd, she spends more time alone than she's comfortable with, leading her to bad behavior -- not that she's such a winner around others either. In fact, midway through the movie, after some inappropriate child supervision, she gets involuntarily committed. We don't see her at the institution; the third act skips ahead six months to her release, which might just be premature.

The Class (2008)

It's a little strange that I should see this film in 2019. The last time I heard anyone talk about it was a decade ago, when it was nominated for Best Foreign Film at the Academy Awards. Mainly I got intrigued by the preview, but to wait this long, I must have also felt some reluctance.

It certainly doesn't boast an original premise: François Marin (François Bégaudeau) teaches ninth-grade French in a Parisian school with an all-White staff and a mostly non-White, foreign-born student body, about half of whom Marin already knows from a previous year. This is based on Bégaudeau's semi-autobiography. (Most of the cast members use their real first names.)

Eighth Grade (2018)

This is the type of movie I don't normally watch in a theater nowadays, barring group invitations or award nominations. But it seems better for my mind not to associate solo outings with only blockbusters, documentaries, and re-released oldies. Besides, indies could use the financial support.

From the title, you might expect a nine-month timeline; instead, it's only the last week of eighth grade for Kayla. She has reasons to look forward to high school and, of course, vacation, but in the meantime, she still faces plenty of stress. Factors include a scarcity of friends, between the shyness of herself and the snobbishness of some peers; a loving but embarrassing father; and curiosity regarding the "bases," if you get my drift. (She remains a virgin, but there's a reason eighth-graders aren't allowed to see this in theaters without adult supervision.)

Paris, Texas (1984)

The only other picture I'd seen directed by Wim Wenders was Wings of Desire, which is distinctive but seems weak on plot. I decided that if I were to take another chance on him, it would be his most popular English-language effort.

For about four years, thirty-something Travis (Harry Dean Stanton) has been out of contact with everyone who knows him. Then he's found half dead on the edge of the Mojave Desert, and his L.A.-based brother, Walt (Dean Stockwell), picks him up. Walt and wife Anne (Aurore Clément, who sounds like she could have come from another Paris) have been raising Travis's son, Hunter (Hunter Carson), now seven. Travis wants to reestablish a connection to Hunter as well as his own wife, Jane (Natassja Kinski), who had also disappeared around the same time and hasn't returned. Understandably, this desire worries Anne, who doesn't want to lose custody of Hunter, especially to someone who might abruptly abandon him again. It doesn't help that Travis remains tight-lipped about why he left in the first place.

Losing Ground (2005)

Do not confuse this with the first result when you look up the title. It has nothing to do with the 1982 Kathleen Collins pic. Instead, it's an indie based on a play by the director, Bryan Wizemann, who's not known for much else. And it sure feels like an adaptation from a one-act play, taking place almost entirely in one room, in 90 minutes of real time, with a total cast of seven (one gone so quickly he's almost pointless).

That room is a former Irish pub converted into a run-down video poker bar in Vegas. Several machines, gaming or otherwise, don't work properly, and few resources are diverted to atmospheric amenities like lighting. Guess what most of the patrons are like. There's not much of a plot; we primarily watch them hit buttons, drink, and talk.

Lady Bird (2017)

No, it's not about Claudia Alta Johnson. We never do learn how the protagonist (Saoirse Ronan) chose her nickname, tho I wouldn't be surprised if she, an apparent leftist, meant to honor the Democratic first lady. The important thing is that she refuses to go by her birth name, Christine, because she wants to assert her own identity.

I'd say Lady Bird is above average for 12th-grade rebelliousness, especially by Catholic school standards (she snacks on unconsecrated communion wafers, for example). Fed up with her hometown of Sacramento and California in general, she wants to go to college in New York City. Alas, her family is low on finances, so getting her mom (Laurie Metcalf) to agree is a challenge. In truth, getting her mom to agree on anything is a challenge.

Like Someone in Love (2012)

The first strange thing about this pic is its nationality. AFI includes it in an Iranian film festival because of late director Abbas Kiarostami, yet it's set in Tokyo with entirely Japanese dialog and was produced in large part by a French company. It gets stranger.

Akiko is a college student whose abusive self-described fiance, Noriaki, does not trust her, but neither does he know about her prostitution on the side. One client, retired prof Takashi, wants her only for platonic company. Noriaki takes him for her grandpa, and Takashi decides to keep up the charade, feeling protective toward Akiko in light of her precarious position.

Manchester by the Sea (2016)

The title alone made me a little reluctant to see this movie. The credit to Kenneth Lonergan didn't help. But it takes a lot to shoo me away from an Academy Best Picture nominee in the long term, and Dad and I wanted to get one more out of the way in time for the ceremony. Lion, Fences, and Hacksaw Ridge were not immediately available.

Middle-aged Lee Chandler (Casey Affleck) lives as a Boston handyman with basically no social life beyond the occasional unprovoked bar brawl. His life gets more miserable still when his older brother Joe (Kyle Chandler, oddly enough) dies of a heart attack -- and to Lee's unpleasant surprise, Joe's will asks that Lee take care of Joe's 16-year-old son, Patrick (Lucas Hedges). Lee and Patrick have trouble seeing eye to eye on arrangements. For example, "Patty" would hate to leave his friends behind, but Lee can't stand to live in Manchester, where people whisper about him for reasons that take a while to become clear....

The Lunchbox (2013)

Finally got around to another movie from India, albeit not the kind that comes to mind when I think of Bollywood. This one caught my interest because it relies on a real-life premise I'd never heard of before: a service that delivers lunches to office workers' desks, whether from a restaurant or their own homes. Not sure how many places outside of India offer this. Also, the "box" consists of five stacked cans held together by a wire mechanism, each can containing a different food, but that's not important.

Homemaker Ila tries a new recipe to rekindle her marital romance. The lunchbox comes home completely empty, which gives her hope; but when husband Rajeev reacts incongruously, she determines that the heretofore stellar modern Mumbai system finally mixed up the deliveries. Rightly anticipating indefinite repetition of the error, she includes a letter of gratitude to the accidental recipient the next day. He is Saajan, a government accountant planning to retire in a month. Thus begins an unusual pen-pal relationship.

Moonlight (2016)

It's unlike me to go to a screening on a whim, but I had walked past the theater in the afternoon and made a note to see something in the evening. I still have a lot of films to catch up on before the Academy Awards. This one had a more convenient timing than Arrival, as well as more esteem in the AFI's book.

The movie is set and authentically filmed mostly in the Miami area. None of my sources say which decades it takes place in, but from the opening song, I suspect the '70s to the late '80s or early '90s. At any rate, it focuses on Chiron (pronounced shy-ROAN) at three stages: around nine, when most people call him "Little" or "Little Man"; in high school, when he's transitioning between nicknames; and as a twenty-something, when he's adopted the alias "Black" from a...sort of friend, Kevin. In the first two stages, he faces verbal and physical bullies, partly for his scrawniness and partly for his mother's earned disrepute. (Naomie Harris had had a policy against playing such a woman, but she caved upon learning that director Barry Jenkins based her on his own mother.) His best support comes from a relatively noble drug dealer and his girlfriend (Mahershala Ali and Janelle Monáe, again), the former of whom has the only line about moonlight. Then Chiron and Kevin come to occupy special places in each other's hearts....