Hamnet

 

Hamnet (Amazon Prime)

Hamnet deserves the awards it has received. It won the Golden Globe for best picture. Chloe Zhao is nominated for an Oscar for best director, and Jessie Buckley is nominated for best actress and is in strong contention to win. 

The film is about love, grief, and surviving both. William and Agnes were passionate, and she became pregnant before marriage. When they married, he was eighteen, and she was twenty-six. Their family grew with a daughter and twins, Hamnet and Judith. Shakespeare’s successful career as an actor and a playwright took him away from his home to London. During this absence, his beloved son Hamlet dies of the plague. Hamlet's death burdens their marriage, and her son's grief consumes Agnes.

Jessie Buckley as Agnes delivers an outstanding performance. Her acting is powerful; her grief feels real. The death of Hamlet strains their marriage, and she scolds William for being away when Hamlet dies. He also feels devastated for not being home when Hamlet passed away. Her performance will greatly boost the film's chances of winning Best Picture.

Besides Buckley, the cast is excellent. Paul Mescal plays William Shakespeare. Besides sorrow, he conveys guilt. His performance is nuanced. As a tribute to his son, he writes Hamlet. The film's highlight occurs when Agnes watches the play and realizes how William feels about Hamnet’s death. Mescal is not nominated for an Oscar and did not win the Golden Globe. This snub contradicts his great performance.

The children were also great. Of note was Jacobi Jupe as Hamnet. The young actor's interpretation of the role was nuanced.

For the Oscars, Hamlet has solid competition, but I give it strong odds.

Marty Supreme

 

Marty Supreme

Marty Mauser is a world-class table tennis player. Despite his relentless ambition for his sport, he is completely reprehensible. He lies, steals, and abandons his pregnant childhood girlfriend. To further his career, he is willing to be humiliated and throw a match.

 All this said, Timothee Chalamet brilliantly plays this character. Chalamet never eases up on Marty’s intensity. His portrayal of Mauser makes him unlikable. He is an apex conniver.

The cast is fantastic. Gwyneth Paltrow came out of retirement to play Kay Stone, a faded, retired actress, a bit past her expiration date. Stone and Mauser have a sexual liaison, but it is devoid of love. He uses Stone as a means to an end. She desires someone other than her husband. Their relationship is transactional.

Her husband, played by Kevin O’Leary, known as Mister Wonderful from the TV show Shark Tank, delivers a fantastic performance. His character as Milton Rockwell is a pen magnet who shifts from being a potential benefactor to Mauser’s tormentor. He takes pleasure in humiliating Mauser. O’Leary is quite comfortable as an actor.

Odessa A’zion, Racheal Mizler, is Marty’s very pregnant girlfriend. Staying in character, Marty denies being the father. She wants to leave her husband, but Marty is not a safe harbor.

Some members of the cast are eclectic. Besides Kevin O’Leary, there are other non-traditional actors. John Catsimatidis, who owns Gristedes and D’Agostino, plays a businessman. There is also Issac Mizrahi, the fashion designer, who plays Stone’s publicist. Penn Jillette, the magician, plays a farmer. As nontraditional actors, they gave great performances. Fran Dresher played Marty’s mother. She is an actress, but her last gig was the national president of the SAG-AFTRA actors' union. Her gravel voice is her hallmark.

The set design was impressive. It depicted New York City in the 1950s. Everything looked authentic, from the cars and police uniforms to the tenements. I can attest to their realism since this was my neighborhood back in the 50s.

Timothee Chalamet won the Golden Globe for Best Actor, so he has strong odds for an Oscar.

 

 

Bugonia (Prime)

If there were an award for weirdest film, Bugonia would win hands down. The narrative is at the intersection of where Looney Tunes meets sci-fi. Teddy and Don are two conspiracy obsessed individuals believing that a pharmaceutical  CEO  is an alien member of the malevolent Andromedan race whose goal is to destroy humanity. Teddy is played by Jesse Plemos, Don is played by Aidon Delbis, and Emma Stone is the pharmaceutical CEO, Michele Fuller. A subplot to the destruction of humanity is that Teddy’s mother participated in a drug experiment for Fuller’s company that rendered her comatose. Which is the root of Teddy’s hatred for Fuller.

Teddy and Don resolve to kidnap Michele and force her to admit that she is an alien. They shave off her hair and apply an antihistamine cream to prevent her from communicating with the mother ship. She is locked up in Teddy’s basement, and  Michele escapes. The question that the film poses is whether Teddy is totally delusional or if Michele is an alien. The film has some chaotic scenes and brief, gruesome ones.

A possible reason the film may be unorthodox for Americans is that it is a remake of the Korean film Save the Green Planet. Bugonia is directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, who directed Poor Things, which was also fantastical.

Despite the storyline, the acting was excellent. The actors' interpretations of their characters were compelling and a positive feature of the film. Jesse Plemos was neurotic and edgy. Emma Stone was the uber female executive and a combative victim.  She was more than a handful for Teddy and Don. Don was autistic and followed Teddy’s instructions.

Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a generous 88% rating, even though it is unprofitable, which explains the $5.99 rental fee. That said, Academy nominations for Stone and Plemos would not be surprising.