Hard Truths
There was a reassuring predictability about this year’s Oscars, as the Academy has apparently recovered from the collective madness of 2023, when it bestowed seven awards on a barely watchable film made by two video clip virtuosi. Or 2022, when accolades were showered on an American remake of a French film, viewable only on cable. In 2024 the success of Oppenheimer saw things back on track, and this year, Sean Baker’s Anora was a solid choice for Best Picture.
What’s going on in America today is so bizarre and disturbing it exceeds the bounds of Hollywood’s imagination, but it may be that these turbulent times are conducive to quality filmmaking, as it would have been equally satisfactory had The Brutalist or Emilia Peréz taken the top honours. In 2022-23 it felt as if the Academy was over-eager to show its commitment to what Trumpists might call DEI themes. This year many of the same themes are present but handled in a more proficiently.
Having already reviewed the major films, I’m not going to track back over these discussions. Instead, this week’s movie, Hard Truths, is a bite of social realism from Mike Leigh, who has returned to the suburbs after Mr. Turner (2014) and Peterloo (2018) - historical departures for a director who learned his skills with the BBC’s Play for Today in the 1970s.