McCarthy, Weisz, Stone, Nighy, Kingsley, Grant, Redford....

For some years now I have “nominated” (unofficially) a number of films, screenplays, and performances for Screen Actors Guild and Writers Guild awards, Golden Globes, and Oscars. Very few of my selections actually received official nominations; fewer still received the ultimate official accolades.

Undeterred, here I go again, offering brief notes regarding films (released “generally” in 2018, in the USA) that I found appealing and worth recalling. But first –

Full Disclosure and Disclaimer: To be very clear, I have not seen all of the many films that have received award-buzz and which have begun to receive actual award nominations. And so, I do not presume to contend that my “nominees” are, definitively and unassailably, the very best of The Best. I do, however, contend that my particular selections are – in my own movie-fan estimation – the best of the films I have seen. Thus, to my way of thinking, they are worthy of friendly note, and might be a treat for certain moviegoers.

Further Full Disclosure and Disclaimer: To be very clear, I am not a member of any of the awards organizations. Perhaps more significantly, I do not have any connection to a motion picture studio, production or distribution company, public-relations firm, or talent agency. Darn.

Modus Operandi, Methodology: As a most-happily-engaged grandfather, my focus on a toddler precludes seeing 2 to 4 films every week; precludes making the rounds to all the film festivals, from continent to continent (envy, envy). As a fulfilled stay-close-to-home granpa, I have to be very selective – adhering to my own temperament, dispositions, personal preferences, and instincts.

My thus-limited agenda is set by viewing trailers, and by sifting through the production notes and PR materials I am favored with. Furthermore, unlike full-time critics, I have the luxury of seeing only what I think I’d like to see. There’s no obligation to report on each new week’s new releases. And, most favorably to me, I am not obliged to report on films whose trailers and promos don’t grab me; nor do I have to allocate time to genres that I dislike (horror movies, for example).

Most certainly, there are notable films that are absent from the listings I have put together. Those films are not being slighted or snubbed out of any malice or ill will. The resulting listings, ordered alphabetically not hierarchically, are a product of a winnowing down from those I had opportunity to see, and found entertaining, memorable – enjoyable, admirable.

Categories: Using my interpretation of Oscar and Golden Globe categories, along with a few of my own classifications, here are my “nominees,” which, in movie-land argot, are “offered for your consideration.”

Adapted Screenplay (“screenplay adapted from another source – usually a novel, play, short story….”)

· The Bookshop (novel by Penelope Fitzgerald)

The Bookshop: A Sort of, Kind of, Love Story. The film’s voiceovers tell a fully-framed, explained and satisfying story.

· Can You Ever Forgive Me? (confessonal memoir by Lee Israel)

“Can You Ever Forgive Me?” Is An Authentic Tale of Fakery. Pluck is what happens when desperation and temptation meet opportunity.

· Damascus Cover (espionage novel by Howard Kaplan)

· The Mule (magazine article by Sam Dolnick)

· Operation Finale (memoirs by Isser Harel and Peter Malkin)

If you liked “Argo” – you’ll like “Operation Finale” – Mission Improbable, with a moving message; a movie must.

Original Screenplay (“screenplay not based upon previously published material”)

· The Favourite

· Vice

Foreign Language Film ("a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States of America with a predominantly non-English dialogue track”)

· Becoming Astrid (Swedish and Danish)

· Never Look Away (German and Russian)

· Shoplifters (Japanese)

Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

· Amy Adams in Vice

· Emma Stone in The Favourite

· Rachel Weisz in The Favourite

Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

· Richard E. Grant in Can You Ever Forgive Me?

· Ben Kingsley in Operation Finale

· Bill Nighy in The Bookshop

· Sam Rockwell in Vice

Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

· Christian Bale in Vice

· Clint Eastwood in The Mule

· Robert Redford in The Old Man & the Gun

Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

· Emily Blunt in Mary Poppins Returns

· Olivia Colman in The Favourite

· Melissa McCarthy in Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Admittedly, relatively short lists. But wait, not wanting to give short shrift to the many talents that brought the enjoyable, engaging, and provocative to movie houses, I came up with a few more lists based on what I’ve read and heard. Here are some additional thoughts about films that might appeal:

For those who favor films about political figures

I am probably missing films that could fit in such a listing, but, in the main, these days, I am shying away from political discourse and discord. Still, for those disposed to view such frays, there’s –

· Chappaquiddick

· The Death of Stalin (for its serious zaniness)

· The Front Runner

· Vice (for its sendups)

For those interested in cinematic depictions of race relations and related issues

I am probably missing films that could fit in this category. As to those listed, I haven’t been able to see them so far, but there is considerable awards-buzz to put them on our radar.

· BlacKkKlansman

· Green Book

· If Beale Street Could Talk

For music lovers – some “wow”

I haven’t seen these films, but the trailers and choruses of awards-buzz would probably have already registered with those who enjoy on-screen music performances and the drama of performers’ lives:

· Bohemian Rhapsody

· Cold War (Polish…)

· A Star Is Born

· Vox Lux

For those who would be drawn to films about artists

· At Eternity’s Gate

· Final Portrait

For psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers….

I haven’t seen these films, but from the trailers they would seem to be in the realm of those who provide mental-health counsel and therapy.

· Beautiful Boy

· Ben is Back

· Boy Erased

· Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot

· Eighth Grade

· Leave No Trace

· On Chesil Beach

· Puzzle

· That Way Madness Lies

· Tully

· You Were Never Really Here

For Fun - Tis the season to be jolly, right?

· Boundaries (Vera Farmiga, Christopher Plummer, Christopher Lloyd, Bobby Cannavale….)

· Crazy Rich Asians (for the dazzle)

· The Death of Stalin (Olga Kurylenko, Jeffrey Tambor, Steve Buscemi, Michael Palin….)

· Mary Poppins Returns (for the song and dance)

· The Old Man & the Gun (Robert Redford, Sissy Spacek….)

Look-backs: Oldies but Goodies

In two previously-published Psychology Today columns, I offered thoughts about a number of films that would be worth a DVD or streaming.

A Few of a Father’s Favorite Films—Leaving a Legacy. He wants his kids to know what he enjoyed, found meaningful, found memorable.

Films for Imprisoned Fathers–Reminders for the Rest of Us? Flicks about aberrant behavior can serve as reminders–should we need them.

Here are two more oldies that might be worth a look-see: one for its highly-relatable humor, and the other for its still-relevant depiction of prejudice and inhumanity.

Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House depicts predicaments and worries well within the grasp and experience of many.

In its March 26, 1948 review, the New York Herald Tribune declared, “The enchanting Eric Hodgins novel [of the same title] about home-building, domestic tribulations, and marital strife has fared well on the screen…. quick with humor, incisive pantomime, and pictorial movement…. extremely amusing…. it has pace, style, and a real fund of laughter.”

Cary Grant portrays the soon-to-be “bedeviled” husband who, in seeking relief from the family’s cramped New York City apartment, “becomes a sucker for Connecticut realtors, builders, well-diggers and the like.” He meant to keep the project simple and spare, uncomplicated. Ahhh, but, along with his wife (played by Myrna Loy) they redraft their architect’s straightforward drawings: adding here, pushing up and out there, rearranging this and that…. The editing scene is a lesson, with levity. The “edited” drawing is a sight to behold: a graphic illustration of what happens when uninformed fancy and whims take over.

Dream House ordeals: recognizable, relatable

The scenes of Cary Grant dealing with well-diggers and carpenters may resonate with those who have undertaken home-building or rehab projects. Think of water flooding the basement instead of the deep-dug well in a backyard; misshapen closets that disgorge all their contents; freshly-varnished floors about to be defiled; sleeping on the floor in Winter coats because furniture hasn’t arrived and the heat hasn’t been turned on. Think of being taken advantage of – bilked, bamboozled. Think of the “jitters” as a firm budget is exceeded, and unanticipated necessaries further deplete a bank account and disposable income. (The film has been referenced in no fewer than eight law-related publications.)

For sheer delight, however, the scene in which Myrna Loy describes the colors she imagines for various walls in various rooms is a gem. Well worth rewind and replay.

The Herald-Tribune review credited Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House with dialogue that “crackles” – storytelling that delivers “the factual with the fantastic” in making the escalating complications, obstacles and expenses of home-building “human and humorous.”

At the other end of the impact spectrum --

The Fixer chronicles an injustice which no one should have to experience.

In his December 6, 1968 Life magazine review, movie critic Richard Schickel informed readers that The Fixer depicts an actual and history-making case of “an apolitical and unreligious Jew who was wrongly imprisoned for a preposterous crime in turn-of-the-century Kiev during one of those waves of anti-Semitism that have periodically swept Russia.”

The film was based on Bernard Malamud’s much-acclaimed 1966 novel of the same title. The novel presents a fictionalized version of the 1911 arrest and imprisonment, followed by the 1913 trial which received some international attention.

Malamud’s novel received the National Book Award for Fiction and the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. A search through HeinOnline’s Law Journal Library brought up 73 articles that mention Malamud’s The Fixer.

Richard Schickel’s Life magazine review explained that during his more than two years of imprisonment, awaiting trial, the accused (Yakov Bok in the novel and the film) “was systematically tormented, betrayed, humiliated, and abused (with slow and endless torture) in an effort to make him confess to the preposterous charges. The film records those years in all their horror.”

Can degrading neurasthenia, and worse, become uplifting? Can unrelieved suffering become redemptive?

The review warned, “that the movie is unrelenting in spelling out the details of that misery cannot be denied. But there is no attempt to exploit them for mere sensational effect. They are dramatically necessary for a story that is an uplifting hymn to the human spirit.”

The Life review praised the depiction of “a man who not merely exhibited grace under pressure but who exhibited the much rarer capacity to grow intellectually and spiritually.”

Readers were alerted to the depictions of the accused’s “descent into despair” with each new and “shattering physical and emotional blow” – “each new flight into hysteria” which would have viewers believe in “the inevitability of his defeat.”

The review concludes with a tribute that should resonate still:

“The Fixer gives us a definitive portrayal of the psychology of an increasingly common figure in our time – the survival of a man who mysteriously, miraculously, finds a way to draw upon his basic human instincts – capacities unknown to himself until he is forced to test them – to defeat those who would oppress him….

“What we have in The Fixer is a splendid humanistic document, worthy of our closest attention.”