Tag: Jacob Elordi

Oscar Predictions: Priscilla

One year after Elvis landed 8 Oscar nominations (but no wins), your mind might be suspicious that this year’s Priscilla could also attract awards voters. Based on reaction from its Venice, you might be wrong. Sofia Coppola’s biopic casts Cailee Spaeny as The King’s young bride with Jacob Elordi as the legendary entertainer. The A24 release hits theaters on October 27th.

With a Rotten Tomatoes score of 95%, Priscilla enters what it clearly already a crowded BP and Actress race. The film and Spaeny are certainly not guaranteed to make the cuts (especially the former). Elordi could contend, but Supporting Actor inclusion might be a reach. Based on a 1985 memoir cowritten by the title subject, Coppola’s adapted screenplay could also struggle in a bustling field. Unlike her Lost in Translation from 20 years ago, don’t count on her making the director or writing races.

I suspect A24 will need to mount expert campaigns for anything beyond Spaeney in Actress and she’s already competing with the likes of Emma Stone (Poor Things), Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall), Fantasia Barrino (The Color Purple), Carey Mulligan (Maestro), Greta Lee (Past Lives), and Annette Bening (Nyad) to name a few. My Oscar Prediction posts will continue…

Oscar Predictions: Saltburn

Emerald Fennell’s debut Promising Young Woman landed five high profile nods in 2020: Picture, Director, Actress (Carey Mulligan), Original Screenplay (which it won), and Film Editing. She’s back again with Saltburn and it has debuted at Telluride prior to its November 24th limited release and December 1st wide bow. The psychological thriller stars Barry Keoghan (fresh off a Supporting Actor nod for last year’s The Banshees of Inisherin), Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, Alison Oliver, Archie Madekwe, and Mulligan (in what’s said to be a short appearance).

Initial reaction out of Colorado is divergent. The Rotten Tomatoes rating is 75%, but its detractors are rather loud. So are its ardent admirers. Chances for a Best Picture or Director nod are far less promising than for Young Woman. Voters could choose to honor Fennell once again with a nom in Original Screenplay but that’s iffy as well.

As far as acting mentions, only Keoghan seems to be a possibility. There are plenty of other hopefuls contending in movies that could land in BP and he could face an uphill climb. Techs like Cinematography and Production Design are feasible. Yet Saltburn doesn’t appear poised to follow Fennell’s first feature with its prospects. My Oscar Prediction posts will continue…

Deep Water Review

After giving us well-regarded erotic thrillers in the 1980s (9 1/2 Weeks, Fatal Attraction), 90s (Indecent Proposal), and 00s (Unfaithful), Adrian Lyne is back in genre form after 22 years with Deep Water. Unfortunately it’s often as lifeless as the marriage it portrays and even when its central relationship gathers steam in the third act, I still found myself mostly unsatisfied.

Based on a 1957 by Patricia Highsmith (who wrote the novels that became Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley), Water is certainly a cinematic step-down from those pictures. Vic Van Allen (Ben Affleck) doesn’t have much to do in his sleepy small Louisiana town. He’s an early retiree after inventing a chip that powers drones. The political ramifications of his former occupation are glossed over though it seems like the screenwriters wanted to explore it further. He spends his days tending to his pet snails and his precocious daughter (adorably played by Grace Jenkins who gives the most memorable performance).

Her mom is Melinda (Ana de Armas), who is not content being a soccer mom. Vic and Melinda spend their evenings at endless gatherings of their well to do neighbors that include Lil Rel Howery and his muted comic relief and Don (Tracy Letts), a screenwriter looking for inspiration. He may have found it with the Van Allens. Melinda is not shy about flaunting her flirtations and likely sexual dalliances with a string of hunks like the surfer looking Joel (Brendan C. Miller) and ivory tickling Charlie (Jacob Elordi). A previous hookup turned up dead and the townspeople whisper about Vic’s possible involvement. The chatter intensifies when Melinda’s latest conquests follow similar fates.

There’s perhaps some deeper meaning to glean about the nature of suburban marriages and jealousy and my hunch is that it’s found in Highsmith’s source material. It generally isn’t on the screen (or stream in this case since it’s a Hulu release). Instead we get a film where’s little joy in the repetition. Deep Water never quite finds the balance of being a kooky guilty pleasure and an engrossing sexual nail-biter. Occasionally it comes close with the former as Vic bizarrely explains the nutritional dangers of those snails.

Part of the problem is that the leads aren’t given compelling characters to play. Affleck does portray his general malaise with the desired effect while de Armas is saddled with a one-note femme fatale. If she’s supposed to be sympathetic, the writers failed to accomplish that mission. There is a cute moment when their adorable offspring belts out Leo Sayer’s mid 70s tune “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing”. As for Deep Water, it made me feel wistful of an era when these types of exercises were better. Lyne made some of them and this recent proposal falls short of being a decent one.

** (out of four)