Although as you read this the ceremony is now several weeks in the past, at the time of writing I've just watched the Academy Awards last night. Though my awards season viewing got off to a strong start last summer with the "Barbenheimer" phenomenon, I didn't catch up with most of the other Oscar nominees - neither seeing nor (obviously therefore) covering the bulk of the list. Killers of the Flower Moon I've been anticipating, but awaiting a forthcoming conversation on Patreon before I dive into that. (Speaking of Patreon conversations, I did see and plan on soon discussing two of the delightful Japanese winners of the night - The Boy and the Heron for animated feature and Godzilla Minus One for visual effects, whose toy-wielding win genre icon John Carpenter himself celebrated on Twitter.) No Poor Things, no The Holdovers, no Anatomy of a Fall, no Zone of Interest (also a contender among March's patron requests, with my interest further piqued after last night's win for International Film and much-praised Sound - as well as Jonathan Glazer's undeservedly controversial acceptance speech). With all that said, I did manage to catch the film that Anatomy of a Fall beat for Best Original Screenplay. A couple months after first requesting it, patron Walker White's suggestion of May December made it to a runoff and then ran away with the follow-up poll to become my March selection.
That the film, directed by veteran Todd Haynes and written by newcomer Samy Burch, didn't garner as much nomination glory as expected (especially for the actors) is both surprising and maybe, some writers have suggested, revealing. Although set in Georgia, the story of Gracie Atherton-Yoo (Julianne Moore), a woman who spent years in prison for having sex with then-thirteen, now-grown (and married to her, with three kids) Joe Yoo (Charles Melton) is filtered through the lens of actress Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman), who has arrived in town to study and perhaps interfere with the family's life as she researches an upcoming role. I was struck by both the film's revelations and its unknowns - the long in-between years, the ambiguous truths and falsehoods characters tell themselves and one another - and I appreciated the opportunity to dig into these and other questions. Alongside this podcast, the second in my every-other-month Films in Focus series exclusive to the top tier, I also shared another advance Twin Peaks character study with all patrons...
What are the March rewards?
