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2017 Foreign Film Oscar Analysis

2017 wasn’t the best year for foreign films with the American movies being better that year. But still, the Academy mostly chose really strong films for its roster, much stronger than is usual for them. I only disliked one film in this slate with all the others being very good.

My Ranking of the Nominees:

5. The Square

‘Force Majeure’ was a brilliant movie that was utterly snubbed by the Academy. Unfortunately, Ruben Ostlund’s next movie is so inferior. Yes, The Square is a frustratingly mediocre movie. It has some good performances, it is well shot and it has some interesting conversations and themes, but is mostly too ambitious for its own sake, overlong, very messy structurally speaking and annoyingly silly and pointless in some scenes. It is such a disappointing, overrated film and a major misfire in my eyes.

4. The Insult

I watched this one late in the game and it’s pretty strong, though obviously far from my favorites when it comes to this year as evidenced by this placement. The Insult manages to transcend its familiar courtroom drama approach and structure thanks to strong direction, terrific performances across the board and particularly clever, sophisticated dialogue. It is a film that requires some political knowledge on the part of the viewer for better and for worse, but it’s still a pretty important movie that is complex and rich in its themes.

3. On Body and Soul

Endre and Maria are two misfits who work together at a slaughterhouse. They share the same dream every night in which they are two deer who meet in a forest. Eventually, the two realize that, befriend each other and start a relationship. He has given up on love and she doesn’t know what love is and they have to get over that. That is the premise behind this admittedly very odd, but wonderfully romantic and atmospheric Hungarian film that is undeniably authentic throughout.

2. Loveless

When it comes to unlikable, frankly even horrible people and cold storytelling and atmosphere, you can’t go wrong with Loveless. This Russian film proved too dark and depressing for me personally, but otherwise I respected it tremendously, especially its technical aspects. The cinematography is terrific as is its chilly mood, the performances are excellent and the direction from Andrey Zvyagintsev is superb. In particular, the ending is so haunting that it’s bound to stick with you.

1. A Fantastic Woman

A Fantastic Woman is one of the year’s finest dramas and such a difficult, tragic, yet important and necessary watch. It deals with a very difficult subject matter in a very subtle, grounded and layered manner and is almost a quintessential film about transphobia. It has a lot of emotional scenes, it is so well directed by Sebastian Lelio and phenomenally performed by Daniela Vega who delivered one outstanding acting debut here. She was snubbed for an Oscar, but thankfully the movie wasn’t as it ended up winning this award. It’s one of the best choices from the Academy in recent memory.

Films That Should Have Been Nominated:

Kedi – Kedi truly is a fascinating look into Istanbul’s relationship with cats which is fueled by a lot of insightful interviews, observational quotes and some beautiful messages as well. I know that the Academy usually ignores documentaries for this award, but this one most definitely deserved to be included among the year’s best foreign features.

I Am Not a Witch – I Am Not a Witch should hopefully bring Zambia to the world cinematic map as it’s such a well directed, well shot and overall impactful movie that deals with an important subject matter through the lens of both tragedy and comedy. That tonal diversity is easily its biggest selling point.

The Wound – The character development is weaker in The Wound plus the ending is overly dark for me, but I still respected the film for going in a different than usual, unhappy and tragic direction and that made its story more original and effective. It’s an African gay movie, so anyone interested in something different should find plenty of that here.

You can get A Fantastic Woman on Amazon.