Inside the Brain of E.C. Henry

Ranking the 2022 Academy Awards, Best Picture Nominations

1. Avatar: the Way of Water; 7.5
2. Top Gun: Maverick; 6.0
3. Everything Everywhere All at Once; (projected) 5.0
4. The Banshees of Inisherin; (projected). 4.5
5. All Quiet on the Western Front; 3.5
6. Women Talking; 3.0
7. Elvis; (projected) 2.5
8. The Fablemans; (projected) 1.5
9. Tár; 1.0
10. Triangle of Sadness; 0.5

I actually posted this earlier over at Scriptshadow.  Thought it was fitting to post my list of how E.C. Henry ranks what the Academy of Motion Pictures decided was the finalists for best movie of the year.  

Other movies of note that I thought the Oscars should have considered include: Redeeming Love at 8.25, Prey; (projected) at 7.0, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent at 6.0, Don't Worry Darling; (projected) at 5.0, and Babylon; (projected) at 4.5.

(Projected) means I haven't seen these movies yet, but I've still rated them anyway based on what I epect them to be based on their trailers, what I've read about them, and word-of-mouth.  I am making a push this week to see all the Academy nominated best movies of 2022 this week.  So far that's been Tár and Triangle of Sadness; both of which where VERY BAD films, imo.  

I'll be updating this list throughout the week up to the 2023 Oscars which is this upcoming Sunday.  Overall it feels more and more like the Oscars are becoming less special, as movies in general are loosing their appeal.  That said, every once in a while you "discover" a film like --

Which would have WON for best picture of 2022 if I was the lone one casting the votes.  And it's these movies that catch you by surprise that are keeping my interest in movies these days.  Sure isn't the main releases.  Sure the Way of Water was good, but it wasn't GREAT, and an unforgettable theater experience.  Been a while since I've been in the theater and been wowed.  Here's to hoping those days come back again. 

Tár (2022); Movies that Move Me: Volume XI

So was  this   --

My reaction to seeing the Cate Blanchette headlined movie Tár (2022)?  

Hardly. 

Though I did go into watching it last night with fairly high expectations.  One of the scripts on my "docket" to write was actually a story about a downcast composer who was suicidal and in need of a life jump.  It would have been a low budget drama.  Not that I went into my viewing of Cate Blanchette and Todd Field's dark drama thinking it would mirror what I'd been toying with mentally, but it did deal with the same kind of atmosphere: the practicing and composing of classical music.

Next Sunday Tár is up for Six Oscars.  The funny thing is I think it should only be given ONE:

Winner in 2014 for lead actress in Blue Jasmine

After viewing this movie --

In its entirety, I must admit Cate Blanchette didn't disappoint, this 2 1/2 hour MOVIE did.  

I don't think I've had such a disconnect where I thought the lead was so strong in a movie, yet was unable to carry to movie in the 53 year history of me watching movies.  

For my $$ it was OBVIOUS that Scott Field's Tár was trying to be the 2022 version of Black Swan (2010: staring Natalie Portman) or Whiplash (2014: Miles Teller vs. J.K. Simmons).  Both of which deal artists having issues in the performing arts.  Now, I adored Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan, and LIKED Damien Chazelle's Whiplash movie, but my reaction was decided the Titanic-has-sunk for Todd Field's Tár,  as I would rate it a 1 out of 10!  Yeah, I was pretty pissed by what I was watching -- and it wasn't Cate Blanchette's fault!  It was the screenwriter's!  That and the director who should have known better.

Story-wise this is the story of Lydia Tár's fall from grace from being a conductor and instructor to college conductor trainees, after she kicks a female trainee out of her mentorship, and trainee takes it hard and begins to spiral downward until at last the trainee commit's suicide and Lydia's role in her fall merit's court case and further inspection of Lydia's treatment of other people by a governing body of her classical music peers.

On the surface this sounds like the PERFECT VEHICLE for an actress to show off her acting chops in a low-budget, dark drama.  The seeds are there for a compelling plot that builds to good cinematic creshendo and ending.  Scott Field, however, made some huge mistakes at the screenwriting decision making level that doom this story.  Doom it to the point that not even Cate Blanchette in all of her acting prowess can bail out. 

The dynamic duo of the movie Tár: Todd Field & Cate Blancehtte

Okay, so what did E.C. Henry find so offensive about this movie?  Let me site the reason.  They are few, BUT they mean everything.

1. There is a repeated beat where Lydia Tár wakes up in the middle of the night drawn to an irritating noise in the house.  Suspense builds... it's a ticking clock in a cabinet drawer that upset her and that takes 5 minutes of screen time!  Then Lydia wakes up to an obnoxious refrigerator door.  Opening it to find -- nothing!  Not even an expired jar of mayonniase!  Yet another waste to time, and failure to deliver on an evocative scene in a low-budget movie that desperately needs scenes that deliver.
2. There are scenes of Lydia comforting her lesbian lover's child in the middle of the night.  I guess this is Todd's way of trying to humanize an otherwise cold character in Lydia Tár.  Problem with EVERY SCENE that Petra (the lesbian lover's little daughter) is in is BORING.  AS.  FUCK!  Your supporting characters need to contribute to evocative scenes, and that's never the case with Petra/Tár.  Problem with all that is, these scenes are really dull -- even for a low-budget drama.  In a low-budget drama it's on the screenwriter and director to take these familiar beat and do something FUN with them.  That's never done in Tár, and that's directly to the fault of Todd Fields, with minor assist to the actress who plays Petra, who does NOTHING to command the screen when she's on, thus never elevating the pressure on Blanchette to perform and BE the movie.
3. The set-up and payoff of the mentoree who went of the rails was piss poor.  Honest to God THIS is the central conflict of the movie, and yet I still don't know what this girl did to push Lydia away.  A homosexual relationship is hinted at, but not confirmed nor fully denied.   When your central conflict involves a character that the screenwriter decides to keep outside the movie, you're taking a HUGE RISK.  In the case of this movie, I think some sense of who this girl was by showing her on screen, not just hinted at through 3rd party conversation and innuendo.  Maybe not early, but definitely show who this failed menoreee was the ACT II breakpoint.  For a low-budget drama there were scenes that were not shot that really needed to be there.  Maybe this a call to the need for other writers to contribute to a given project.  Maybe what we're seeing here is blind-spot by Todd Field.  Too late now, the movies shot and been released.  But trust me there are some scene that needed to be in this movie that never made to the script.  Not good.  Not good at the block level, screenwriting, outline form. 
4. This film is built to entertain the narrowest of audiences: those familiar and who have an affinity for the life of those immeshed in classical music.  In banter with her peers the great love of past musicians and composers is gone over, and over, and over.  Having never studied this stuff, I didn't know who most of these people were.  Todd Field should have taken better steps to help his audience through this world.  WAYYY to much assumption for how the classical music world in Berlin functions is ASSUMED to be known by the audience.  After a while I gave up on trying to understand this world.  This was big miss by the screenwriter and director as it is HIS JOB to bring the audience into a foreign world to them, and entertain them.  Black Swan did this.  Whiplash did too... 
5.  The counter-story being felt by Lydia's assistant, Franesca; was a disappointment.  The first 2/3 of Tar features mentorship between Lydia and her assistant Francesca.  At the end it becomes apparent that Franesca has had enough of Lydia's ways and abruptly leaves.  This is totally believable, yet not resolved well at all in the movie.  I think the Lydia/Franesca relationship is the most important of the whole movie.  Yet in the last third off it, Francesca is no more and Lydia is left to fend for herself as her demise snowballs.  Imo you needed 2 to 3 scenes with Franesca in them in ACT III, and the audience ends up getting none.  This is a big failure by Todd Field, imo.  

In the end you have this fascinating character, Lydia Tár, in this movie of a world that most people aren't going to know anything about; that the screenwriter and director ultimately disappointed with because of the scene choices made at the script level.

Tár (2022) is a script-level fail movie.  To read it's up for best original screenplay of the year is a laugher for me, because that's where this movie dies.  Tár should have been this year's Black Swan, or this year's Whiplash.  Alas, it was not.  It needed other writers to put in what Todd Field missed.

Redeeming Love (2022); Movies that Move Me: Volume X

This was a movie that I had NO INTENTION of watching, but at the insisting of my mom I went and saw --

Which turned out to be one of MOST MOVING movies I've ever seen!  Definitely the best movie I've seen since Once Upon a Time in Hollywood... maybe even a better movie than that!  

So what is this marvel about?  Redeeming Love is a movie about a girl sold into prostitution, whose life is given a chance at improvement when a single farmer of comparable age sets his mind on making her his wife.  

Love is hard to find in 2022, wasn't much easier back in the the 1850s either

There are a couple name actors in this movie, but most it is Abagail Cowen's Angel/Sarah character arc that is the heart of this movie.  My mom kept saying this movie was about the biblical book of Hosea, which does start with a prophet being told by the Lord to take a wife whose unfaithful.  That's a very brief accent in the biblical book of Hosea, which is more about God's dissatisfaction with Israel playing the harlot and serving other God, despite the Lord's great love for His people.  I really wan't pulled in or swayed by the use of the bible.  I can't believe my mom's bible study group went to see this movie.

What makes this movie so good is that it really brings out how hard is for some people to love and trust others because of past pains.  You can't help but pull for Angel and want her life to improve.  The movie really isn't about Michael Hosea, the farmer who sets his sights on making her his wife, then sticking with her when she falls back into the world of prostitution a couple times.  Redeeming Love is about how hard to overcome past pains.  It's a great movie that I highly recommend unless you can't stomach violence done to women.     

You can be the apple of the town's eye, and yet still be miserable and unfulfilled inside  

This story was based on a novel by Francine River.  The script was written by Francine Rivers and D.J. Caruso, and D.J. Caruso directed it.  From my way of thinking the real magic of Redeeming Love is at the script level.  Their choice to set-up the gold rush, beginning with --

All that glitters is not gold

by Shakesphere.

was brilliant.  So was the setting the world by showing miners in a creek panning for gold.  Then you're in Angel's world and seeing how she's the apple of a small town's eye, it's most desired prostitute.   There are a lot of heartbreaking flashbacks with show how Angel got where she got.  A life she was thrust into as a child, through a series of tragedies.  I loved a lot of the choices D.J. Caruso made in this movie.  Michael showing Angel the sunrise and slowly making inroads so she can get a better life.  

This movie has the best ending I've ever seen.  I cried at the end of it.  GREAT job of building to that moment by D.J. Caruso and Francine River.  And it's not because I was moved by great performances.  Yeah, Abagail Cowen and Michael Lewis did a solid job in playing their roles; but I didn't think either role was exceptionally done.  Rather it was the story and scene construction that sings in this great movie.  

Redeeming Love is one of my favorite movies of all-time.   I loved it.  Thought it was way better than The Notebook (2004: staring Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling).

Go see it!

P.S. I did finish my 2nd draft of The Beautiful Kingdom.  I sent to Carson Reaves over a Scriptshadow for a paid critique.  Will do a post on that script after I get a review from him.  Not sure if I'll do another draft of the script or not, I'm pretty happy with the story.   In a future post I'll get into "plans" to get discovered.  I've written 27 scripts now.  It's time to get them made into movies, unless the Rapture happens or the economy goes to pot, which could well happen.