Best International Feature Film – Peter Horan
Dolor y Gloria / Pain and Glory (Pedro Almodóvar, 2019)
Sensitive and sensuous in equal measure, Pain and Glory is an intensely personal piece for Spanish auteur, Pedro Almodóvar. Although not quite autobiographical, it tells the story of a celebrated director (Antonio Banderas), afflicted by physical and mental ill-health, who reflects upon his career as a filmmaker and his childhood in 1960s Spain, all while coping with a newfound heroin addiction. In particular, he considers his fractious relationship with his mother (Penelope Cruz) while trying to repair relations with the actor (Asier Etxeandia) who starred in one of his first films, which is set to be re-released. It is a moving, contemplative work, with Banderas giving a performance of real vulnerability and pathos which has rightly brought about his first Oscar nomination.
Unsurprisingly for an Almodóvar film, it is an impossibly handsome piece of cinema. His trademark primary colours boldly imbue the screen with character and expression, creating the kind of compositions which dare your eyes to explore every corner of the frame while you still have the chance. Alberto Iglesias’ string-heavy score also deserves recognition, elegantly reflecting the sense of regret and longing which permeate the film.
Although it lost out on this award to Parasite (Bong Joon Ho, 2019) (as it did in the Palme d’Or race at Cannes), Pain and Glory still ought to be remembered as one of the very best films of 2019.
Toy Story 4 V Klaus: Dawn of the Complacent Academy Voters – James McCleary
Toy Story 4 (Josh Cooley, 2019) and Klaus (Sergio Pablos, 2019)
The Oscars have come and gone, with some wonderfully shocking upsets in the major categories, and predictably dull victories in the secondary fields, particularly in regard to the Best Animated Film competition. When Toy Story 4 was released in June of 2019, it was received by most critical circles with thunderous acclaim for its stunning technical achievements and for its emotional storylines, while the public reaction was decidedly more mixed. I was unfortunately not amongst those who were charmed by the film despite being a lifelong obsessive of the Toy Story franchise. I found the emotional drama to be exploitative, particularly in terms of how the writers chose to recycle previous beats from its two lead characters Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz (Tim Allen) to wring a nostalgic tear or two from the adult audience, and I was frankly frustrated by the decision to cheat the overarching narrative by undoing the rich and timeless triumph that was the final scene of Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich, 2010) for what felt to me like a billion dollar cash grab.
Needless to say, the prospect of Toy Story 4 winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature was one to which I had resigned myself months before the actual ceremony, so to say that I was surprised to see Klaus steal the award from Disney at the BAFTAs would be a considerable understatement. The film, which was produced by Netflix, is a sweet, witty and crucially bizarre version of the Santa Claus story brought to life by Pablos using a modern reimagining of the classical Disney animation style long-thought to have been retired.
Pablos spent a sizeable portion of his career working for Disney on such films as The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise, 1996). Hercules (Ron Clements and John Musker, 1997), Treasure Planet (Clements and Musker, 2002), before creating the Despicable Me franchise in 2010. After this string of gargantuan successes, Pablos proceeded to use his accrued goodwill to create his own film studio with the mission statement of exploring how the medium of animation would have developed if not for the switch to CGI-oriented projects in the 1990s. The result, as it turns out, is a mesmerising visual treat, not because of the weight of its budget but because of the thought and energy poured into each hand-crafted frame.
The narrative of the film is built around the question of how the plus sized ‘Klaus’ (JK Simmons) manages to fit down all of those chimneys every Christmas Eve, and the answer, as it transpires, is that he has his postman Jesper (Jason Schwartzman) do it all for him. Jesper, the film’s protagonist, has been assigned the role of town postman in Santa’s hideous and violent hometown of Smeerensburg by his wealthy father, in the hope that the job might prove to be a maturing experience for his spoilt and lazy son. During his time in this cartoonishly nightmarish new world, Jesper grows close to the monosyllabic teddy bear Klaus, and is ultimately faced with the decision of whether or not he will return to his life of wealth and luxury once his assignment is complete.
It’s a simple and extremely cute premise, but it is told with an infinite amount of crackling, energetic glee and brought to life by the committed and heartwarming performances from Schwartzman and Simmons. All of this is complemented by the film’s truly enchanting two-dimensional atmosphere, which has the rare effect of feeling both traditional and brand new. Compared to the comfortable familiarity of Toy Story 4, Klaus is an immensely refreshing experience.
I had hoped then, perhaps naively, that Klaus would be recognised as the more impressive feat in animation at the Academy Awards, if only because it doesn’t have the number ‘4’ in the title, and was crushingly disappointed on the night to see a decades old critical darling get a gold medal for its victory lap instead. Klaus is a film I would recommend to pretty much anyone, being one of the few creations to actually fit the description of ‘fun for all the family.’ There is something about its pleasant and creatively dynamic world that engaged me in such a way that few contemporary animated films have been able to accomplish. Toy Story 4 is the factory product which was recognised by the Academy, but Klaus is the film that deserves your attention as 2019’s most joyous achievement in animation.
