THB #408: Oscargasm! - The Season of Intentionality

I’ve been seeing many of the Oscar competitors since the festivals wrapped. (NY is now with us.) And I’m not quite ready to write about it all in a critical way.

But…

What is really striking me is how the films this season seem more directorially intentional than usual. Auteurist, if you like. But “intentional” is what I keep feeling.

The films I like and the films I like less… almost all of them feel like they are a true representation of the very specific intentions of the filmmaker. Not just stories being told by directors of skill.

One expects this from Jonathan Glazer (The Zone of Interest), choosing to make only his 4th feature in 23 years. Or Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things), who challenges the audience to come into his very individual vision. Or Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer), who never makes anything that doesn’t turn out to be more personal than you might expect.

But there is also a group of relatively inexperienced filmmakers who are making their mark in a very personal way. Emerald Fennell is on just her 2nd film (Saltburn), which is wildly dissimilar to her first… but like her first, feels like she has spent a lot of time on every shot in the movie. Bradley Cooper, also on his 2nd feature as director, is clearly in absolute control of every frame of Maestro, telling the part of the story that interests him without conceding to audience expectations.