Christopher Nolan took the stage not long ago at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood, clad in his usual uniform — navy blazer, khakis, button-down shirt, vest — to preach the gospel of physical media at an event heralding the release of the 4K UltraHD + Blu-ray multi-disc version of “Oppenheimer.”
You can buy the movie and bring it home and put it on the shelf, “so no evil streaming service can come and steal it from you,” Nolan said, getting a big laugh, which is not necessarily something you expect at a Christopher Nolan event.
But Nolan has every reason to be of good cheer these days, what with “Oppenheimer” grossing nearly $1 billion worldwide and that home video package selling so quickly that it was — for a time, anyway — unavailable from many sellers. So, to recap: a victory for movie theaters, a win for film nerds who still like to collect (hoard) shiny plastic discs and a triumph, of course, for Nolan himself, the rare (let’s not be morbid and use the term “dying breed”) filmmaker who consistently puts people in seats with smart, challenging projects.
Really, there’s just one thing left for him to win — the Oscar. Over the years, Nolan has earned one nomination as a director (“Dunkirk”), two as a writer (“Memento” and “Inception”) and two as a producer (“Inception” and “Dunkirk”).
He has never won.
For “Oppenheimer,” Nolan could win three — as a producer, director and writer. That trifecta seems improbable, almost as unlikely as Nolan coming away empty-handed.
It feels strange to say that Nolan is due to win as a director. After all, he has been nominated just once, whereas contemporaries Paul Thomas Anderson, David Fincher and Quentin Tarantino have earned three nominations without prevailing. But given the sizable footprint Nolan has left on 21st century filmmaking, it sure feels like it’s his time to shine, particularly since “Oppenheimer” stands as, arguably, his masterpiece.
But with the Oscars still three months away, there’s plenty of time to debate the final outcome. For now, let’s simply agree that Nolan is a shoo-in to be nominated. And he’s not the only one certain to be tabbed by the academy’s directors branch voters. In fact, as we’ll see, there might be only one spot up for grabs.
SURE THINGS
In a way, doesn’t it also feel like Martin Scorsese is due? He has been nominated nine times as a director, winning once for the wildly entertaining 2006 crime drama “The Departed.” That single win seems off by an Oscar or two. It’s easy, of course, to appeal the 1990 loss to Kevin Costner, as few would consider “Dances With Wolves” the equal of “Goodfellas.” You could also make a case for “Raging Bull” and “The Wolf of Wall Street.” I’d even take “The Last Temptation of Christ” over “Rain Man,” as the latter feels more like a cultural artifact and the former remains a profound and sincere meditation on faith.
This year, Scorsese will be up for “Killers of the Flower Moon,” an epic exploration of exploitation, injustice and erasure. It ranks with his best, which is another way of saying, it’s excellent. Scorsese is beloved — remember the ovation he received at the 2020 Oscars when Bong Joon Ho saluted him from the podium? — so he could well win, too.
Yorgos Lanthimos earned a nomination five years ago for his last movie, the spiky period farce “The Favourite,” and his latest, “Poor Things,” is funnier, filthier and even more inventive. Its tale of a woman (played by Emma Stone in the performance of the year) embarking on a quest to understand the meaning of her existence while working her way around so many disappointing men echoes the journey taken in Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie.” The way Gerwig turned a toy company’s IP into something so entertaining and subversive still feels like a miracle to me. Tony Kushner called “Barbie” a “masterpiece,” and are you really going to argue with that guy?
ONE LAST SLOT ... OR IS THERE?
A good many brand-name directors made movies this year, fine films that don’t quite reach the first tier of their filmographies. Still, Sofia Coppola (“Priscilla”), Wes Anderson (“Asteroid City”), David Fincher (“The Killer”), Michael Mann (“Ferrari”), Ridley Scott (“Napoleon”) and Todd Haynes (“May December”) all belong in the conversation, as does newcomer Celine Song for the heartrending “Past Lives” and the gifted Andrew Haigh for the poignant ghost story “All of Us Strangers.”
Alexander Payne has earned three nominations as a director — “Sideways,” “The Descendants” and “Nebraska.” That last one came a decade ago, and I’m not sure that the warm nostalgia in “The Holdovers” will convince his colleagues to return him to favor. Bradley Cooper also has a shot for “Maestro” after being overlooked a few years ago for “A Star Is Born.” His marriage story biopic about the relationship between composer Leonard Bernstein and wife Felicia Montealegre has spectacular craft and some knockout moments. Like “The Holdovers,” it feels very much like a movie that will play well with the old guard.
But times have changed, as has the makeup of the academy’s directors branch, which has been infused in recent years with dozens of filmmakers from around the world. For the last several seasons, voters have placed at least one international director among the nominees, including Paweł Pawlikowski (“Cold War”), Bong Joon Ho (“Parasite”), Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”), Thomas Vinterberg (“Another Round”), Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (“Drive My Car”) and, last year, Ruben Östlund (“Triangle of Sadness”).
That’s not a trend. That’s the new reality. This year, we could see Justine Triet make it in for her engrossing, Palme d’Or-winning courtroom drama “The Anatomy of a Fall” or Tran Anh Hung, the Cannes festival’s director winner, for his beautiful work on the sumptuous romance “The Taste of Things.”
But the director most likely to snag that fifth and final spot is English auteur Jonathan Glazer, a critics favorite who had directed four thrillingly original movies in a career that has spanned nearly a quarter of a century. His latest, “The Zone of Interest,” is a chilling meditation on the banality of evil and perhaps the greatest Holocaust film ever made. How do you ignore that? Quite simply, I don’t think you can.
From the Oscars to the Emmys.
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