Hans’ Oscar Bites

Rather disappointingly, this was one of the categories this year that I think unfortunately fell victim of lazy Best Picture contender box checking by the voters. Sets and art direction are such critical component of the visual language of the film, and yet here we are with five films I’m gonna keep talking about for another several bites.

The nominees are:
-Frankenstein
-Hamnet
-Marty Supreme
-One Battle After Another
-Sinners

In order of preference:

5) MARTY SUPREME (Production Design: Jack Fisk; Set Decoration: Adam Willis)
Marty Supreme doesn’t rely on particularly extravagant sets but what it lacks in frills it makes up in sheer volume and authenticity. Recreating 1950’s lower east side NYC, complete with dilapidating tenements and Jewish ghetto aesthetics makes for a great contrast to the life Marty lives day to day versus the world of table tennis he steps into, with examples including the table tennis club, the Japanese tournament arena, and the high society hotels and clubs he finds himself in.

4) ONE BATTLE AFTER ANOTHER (Production Design: Florencia Martin; Set Decoration: Anthony Carlino)
Although this feels like a name-check nomination, I actually do think this was an inspired choice, considering that contemporary films often get the shaft in these design categories. As I’ve mentioned about this film before, each discrete chapter throughout the film feels like its own short story, and every setting with a distinct background. So the visual language of the film makes it easy to follow the narrative when we’ve transitioned from a migrant detention camp to a karate dojo to an off-the-grid home, finally culminating in perhaps one of the most thrilling sequences of recent cinema on an interminable undulating desert road.

3) SINNERS (Production Design: Hannah Beachler; Set Decoration: Monique Champagne)
The latter half of this film takes place primarily in one locale, the twins’ Juke Joint, but That One Scene does such a good job of establishing the geography of the joint that you really come to appreciate the stakes (heh) that are being laid out. But even before the second half, the fully fledged and racially divided town and the various places the twins visit as they gather up resources for their opening night help lay groundwork for the backgrounds everyone at the joint comes from.

2) FRANKENSTEIN (Production Design: Tamara Deverell; Set Decoration: Shane Vieau)
This is perhaps the most Capital P Production Design nominee of the bunch which means it’s the one that’s most likely to win. It’s very grand and gothic, with the centerpieces being the residences of Victor Frankenstein throughout the course of his life. But I also really came to appreciate the subtle work of the Chapter 2 locations, such as the home The Creature holes up in, and the environs of the Frankenstein manor

1)HAMNET (Production Design: Fiona Crombie; Set Decoration: Alice Felton)
Watching Hamnet, I was most immediately struck by how much this village felt like a real village and not like walking through a Ren Faire, as can often happen with these Shakespeare-era type films. Both the rural dwellings of Agnes and Will as well as the semi bustling time square serve as background for the quiet drama, but the ultimate coup de grâce was the nearly full scale replica of the original Globe Theater, central to the emotional climax of the film. Idk, just kinda felt like this film had the most bread and butter bricks and mortar wood and nails kinda set design and construction that seems to be lost more and more in modern film production design.

-WILL WIN: Frankenstein
-COULD WIN: Sinners
-SHOULD HAVE BEEN HERE: The Fantastic Four: First Steps. The MCU has been having something of an identity crisis lately but this entry had some very fun mid century modern work that served the narrative well.