Tag: Emma Donoghue

Oscar Predictions: The Wonder

Florence Pugh’s turn in the forthcoming Don’t Worry Darling (which is readying its Venice debut) might be her highest profile autumn project. Yet the actress (a Supporting Actress nominee for Little Women in 2019) is generating kudos for The Wonder, which has premiered at Telluride. A November theatrical release is planned prior to a December Netflix bow.

Sebastian Lelio directs the drama set in 1860s Ireland. He’s known for critically appreciated efforts like Disobedience and Gloria Bell and five years ago, his Chilean pic A Fantastic Woman won the international feature prize from the Academy. Pugh stars as a nurse tasked with monitoring a young girl said to have survived without food for months. Tom Burke, Niamh Algar, Toby Jones, and Ciaran Hinds costar. The screenplay comes from Emma Donoghue and it’s based on her own novel. She is best known for the book and script for Room, which won Brie Larson a Best Actress Oscar.

The smattering of reviews out are mostly positive though they don’t have me thinking The Wonder is a Best Picture contender. I could see Netflix pushing Pugh in lead actress. And with that… get used to this refrain. I believe 60% of the Actress field might be set already. That would be Michelle Yeah in Everything Everywhere All at Once, Cate Blanchett for Tar, and Olivia Colman for Empire of Light (my post for that is about to be published so consider this a spoiler alert). Pugh and anyone else could be competing for two slots and there’s plenty of performances left unseen.

Bottom line: I wouldn’t count Pugh out based on initial reaction for The Wonder but competition is already severe. My Oscar Prediction posts will continue…

Room Movie Review

**There are unavoidable spoilers in order to write a proper review of Room. You’ve been warned.

Emotionally gripping and powered by a pair of magnificent lead performances, Lenny Abrahamson’s Room is structured into two sections. Each is filled with fear and each is filled with love and in circumstances unimaginable.

“Room” is a garden shed where Joy (Brie Larson) has been held captive for seven years. Her kidnapper is called “Old Nick” (Sean Bridgers) and his repeated sexual assaults resulted in child (Jack), who turns 5 years old as we open. The first near half of the pic is set in Room and it’s all Jack has ever known. Joy has done her best to raise a smart young boy and had to be creative about explaining other people on their TV set, among many other things.

Jack’s advancing age allows Joy to begin telling him kernels of the truth and she soon enlists him to participate in a daring escape. The sequence in which this is pulled off is one of the more suspenseful I’ve seen recently as we grow attached to this mother and son. In a conventional thriller, this would be fade out. Yet once free, they must adjust to life outside that tiny shed that Jack believed was the universe. This is Room’s second act.

Joy is reunited with her parents, who bear their own scars from losing their teenage girl. Items like phones and stairs are foreign objects to their grandson. And while Jack eventually begins to conform to his seemingly alien world, it’s Ma (as he calls her) who struggles the most.

Room is told from the perspective of Jack, who’s narration pops up voicing over his views of what’s happening. Obviously he has no clue of the horrific situation he’s been raised in. Based on Emma Donoghue’s novel that she herself adapted here, the pic is often graced with subtle and moving moments. The dynamics of Joy and her family members aren’t over explained upon her return and don’t need to be.

While its screenplay and direction are impressive, it’s unquestionably the work of Larson and Tremblay that put this material on an even higher level. Larson has a challenging role and there’s a lot of subtext involved. Her journey after her escape isn’t an obvious one and the actress has us with her the whole way. Perhaps even more awe inspiring is Tremblay, who gives one of the most natural heart wrenching child actor performances I’ve ever seen.

Both inside and outside that shed, Room grabs us with its visions through the innocent eyes of a boy living in two vastly different worlds with one common bond.

***1/2 (out of four)

Oscar Watch: Room

There have been Oscar years in the recent past where it could be said that the Best Actress category was fairly weak. As the film festival circuit rolls along, it’s becoming increasingly clear this will not be the case in 2015. Already there is strong momentum going for Carey Mulligan in Suffragette, Cate Blanchett in Carol, Saoirse Ronan for Brooklyn, and Lily Tomlin in Grandma. It remains to be seen whether Alicia Vikander will be campaigned for in the Actress or Supporting Actress race, but her work in The Danish Girl looks to be recognized either way. And there’s still Jennifer Lawrence’s work in David O. Russell’s Joy to be seen, among others.

We have another contender brought forth by the Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals with Brie Larson’s performance in the indie pic Room. Based on Emma Donoghue’s bestseller, the film casts Larson as a mom who’s trapped with her 5 year old son in a garden shed for a seven year period. Sounds like heady stuff and reviews coming out of the festivals have highlighted Larson’s work as award worthy. The real question is whether the picture is seen and released widely enough to vault the actress into real contention. It certainly seems possible and some critics have noted that Room could break through to audiences.

While reviews are positive and it sits at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, they’re probably not quite strong enough to put this into the Best Picture race. Some reviewers have taken notice of Joan Allen’s role and she could find herself in the mix for Supporting Actress. There’s even a slight possibility that the young man playing the son, Jacob Tambley, could be a long shot in Supporting Actor (I wouldn’t count on it though).

The real story is Larson. Two years ago, she was the subject of awards buzz for her indie flick Short Term 12, but it never panned out. She’s been highly visible over the years in supporting parts in hits like 21 Jump Street and Trainwreck and Room is beginning to look like her first legit shot at Academy attention.