{"id":3906,"date":"2025-02-21T11:31:25","date_gmt":"2025-02-21T11:31:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/?p=3906"},"modified":"2025-02-21T11:31:25","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T11:31:25","slug":"oscars-2025-im-still-here-sing-sing-memoir-of-a-snail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2025\/02\/21\/oscars-2025-im-still-here-sing-sing-memoir-of-a-snail\/","title":{"rendered":"Oscars 2025: I\u2019m Still Here, Sing Sing, Memoir of a Snail"},"content":{"rendered":"

The last of the Best Picture nominees this year (for me personally) is arguably the one which is dominating the discourse the least. That\u2019s not surprising given that it\u2019s neither a hugely controversial offering likely to split the crowd, but nor does it really have a shot at the big prize. I<\/b>\u2019<\/strong>m Still Here <\/b>is the latest from Walter Salles whose Central Station<\/em> from 1998 I remember thinking was fantastic, and there\u2019s a weird overlap here with Emilia P\u00e9rez<\/em>. Jacques Audiard\u2019s film takes the fate of the disappeared in Mexico and uses it as a lever to open up the morality of a former gangster now living life as a civilian \u2013 and as noted, it rather collapses under the weight of a lot of silly clich\u00e9s at the end, regardless of what you think about the depictions of the Mexican people, trans people and whether or not you liked the songs.<\/p>\n

Salles\u2019s intentions are rather more sober and serious as he tells the true story of the disappearance of politician Rubens Paiva in Brazil in the 1970s \u2013 through the eyes of his wife Eunice, played by Fernanda Torres. And although Selton Mello does great work as the husband, as do the teen\/child actors playing the kids, it\u2019s Torres who carries this absorbing film bodily on her shoulders. From her early caution as friends meet in her home to consider action against the military regime, to her steely management of the armed men in her living room, to the trauma of her imprisonment, to her heroic efforts to rebuild her life, she\u2019s amazing.<\/p>\n

This is a simple, unfussy film which tells its story without flinching and without glorifying, but which never feels like a documentary. From the very beginning, every aspect rings true, and how lovely to see Fernanda Montenegro \u2013 Oscar-nominated star of Central Station<\/em> \u2013 in a cameo at the end. Fernanda Torres is nominated for this film, but I assume Demi Moore has this sewn up. Obviously it has a shot at Best International Feature, particularly given the Emilia P\u00e9rez<\/em> backlash \u2013 although Audiard still won at the BAFTAs, so who knows? I enjoyed this more than any of the other Best Picture nominees, apart from The Substance<\/em> \u2013 but hold on, there\u2019s another film coming.<\/p>\n

I gotta be honest, I put on Sing Sing<\/strong> feeling a bit like I was going to have to eat my greens. I\u2019ve loved Colman Domingo since first seeing him on Fear the Walking Dead<\/em>, but there are so many trite, clich\u00e9d and frustrating ways to tell the story of prison-theatre-programme-leads-to-personal-growth-but-also-brings-up-trauma that I suspected this would rapidly fall over its feet and land in saccharine schmaltz or hysterical melodrama. Boy, was I wrong. This incredible movie dodges every single tired trope the second they appear on the narrative horizon, and every frame of this rings so perfectly and so affectingly true, that I should have guessed earlier that almost the entire cast are graduates of the programme in question and they\u2019re all essentially playing themselves, with Domingo, Paul Raci and Sean San Jos\u00e9 the only ring-ins.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know how I would have experienced the film if I\u2019d known that beforehand \u2013 I don\u2019t think it\u2019s intended to be a big surprise. But now I want to watch it again knowing that because the performances are even more incredible when you consider that for most of the cast it would be their first time on a movie set. So all the credit in the world to them, but also to director and co-screenwriter Greg Kwedar for marshalling these resources with such precision and empathy. Shot on 16mm, the feeling of confinement gradually shades into intimacy and the surroundings feel totally authentic from the very first frame. I\u2019m calling it \u2013 this is my favourite film of 2024.<\/p>\n

I also want to briefly consider\u00a0Memoir of a Snail<\/strong> which continues Adam Elliot’s idiosyncraticly adult adventures in claymation, and which combines terrific voice performances from the likes of Sarah Snook, Jacki Weaver, Magda Szubanski and Kodi Smit-McPhee with tactile plasticine animation to create a grungily charming life-story. While not quite having the impact of Elliot\u2019s earlier triumph Mary & Max<\/em>, this is still very well done, but the Best Animated Feature category is very competitive this year and I don\u2019t think it stands a chance next to The Wild Robot<\/em> and Flow<\/em>, as good as it is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The last of the Best Picture nominees this year (for me personally) is arguably the one which is dominating the discourse the least. That\u2019s not surprising given that it\u2019s neither a hugely controversial offering likely to split the crowd, but nor does it really have a shot at the big prize. I\u2019m Still Here is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[25],"tags":[12,13,19],"class_list":["post-3906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-at-the-cinema","tag-movies","tag-oscars","tag-reviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5JY5l-110","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3906"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3909,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3906\/revisions\/3909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}