BEFORE: OK, today's the big day, Oscar nominations for calendar year 2023 have been announced, I'm just going through that list now. As expected, "Maestro" is the only nominee for Best Picture that I've seen, and that may be the only one I get to see before the ceremony. Oh, if only I worked at a movie theater - wait, I do, but then I really don't get to watch all the movies there, do I, because I'm always working. There might be some more screenings coming up there for AMPAS members, but really, all of those films should be available in the Academy virtual screening room, so they now can all watch from the comfort of their living room or more likely, their desks and computer screens. Best actor and actress, same deal, I've seen Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan in "Maestro", and that's it. For this year's best director, supporting actor and actress categories I've drawn a complete blank, for best animated feature I've seen one ("Across the Spider-Verse"), visual effects I've seen one ("Guardians of the Galaxy") and original score I've seen one ("Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny"). Cinematography, sound and make-up, I'm all-in on "Maestro" - look, I've been busy, OK?
I'm maybe a year late getting to "The Whale", because Brendan Fraser won an Oscar for this in 2023, so the film came out in December 2022. But considering the lag between theatrical screening and streaming, maybe I'm not that late after all. I'm probably not going to be able to get to any more Best Actor nominees for 2023, but I can work on the 2022 nominations. Fraser beat out Austin Butler for "Elvis" (seen it), Colin Farrell for "The Banshees of Inisherin" (scheduled for this March), Bill Nighy for "Living" (working on it) and Paul Mescal for "Aftersun" (umm, still haven't heard of it, so probably unlikely. My chosen format for organizing the movies I watch kind of means I'm always playing catch-up, and I often feel like I'm a year behind - but I'm betting I'm not the only one.
Samantha Morton carries over from "She Said".
THE PLOT: A reclusive, morbidly obese English teacher attempts to reconnect with his estranged teenage daughter.
AFTER: Of course, last year I finally got around to watching "School Ties" (from 1992!) and then maybe a month later, "The Whale" became available on cable. Yeah, that seems about right. Everybody was talking about this film around this time last year, and they kept on talking about it right up through the Oscars, where Brendan Fraser of course won the Best Actor award. I'm sure there were people who thought, "Wow, how brave of him, to gain like 400 pounds to play this role, to put his whole body and his health at risk for his art, and then to work so hard to lose the weight and get back to normal..." You almost don't have the heart to clue those people in about movie magic and prosthetic fat suits and the fact that not every actor is Christian Bale, who probably WOULD have gained 400 pounds for real if he were cast in this role.
Of course, there is a limit to what actors can or will do to play a part, especially when it comes to fat people. I'm not going to dare to fat-shame anybody, I've certainly got no right, but there are some actresses who were really thin in the 1980's who got there the natural way when they got older, and that's OK. We're humans, and whatever size you want to be, it's OK as long as your doctor isn't too concerned, and you're in a good place, physically and mentally. Some actors and actresses kind of disappear from the public eye at a certain age, and then maybe it's not too hard to figure out why - probably a combination of a lack of roles for people over a certain age, or their mental or physical faculties have declined, plus remember that the camera adds 10 pounds, so if you've already got an extra 100, well then the wide-angle lens just isn't going to be very kind.
Then you've got the other side of the coin, the actors who suddenly lost a lot of weight, either via the Keto diet or by the new drugs like Ozempic - and honestly we don't really know the long-term effects of taking that drug if you're not diabetic, but we all may find out - and then they never really look completely right after that, or they're never quite as jolly anymore, because only fat guys who get to eat whatever they want are truly happy, right? I'm thinking about Billy Gardell and Anthony Anderson and Ethan Suplee, among others, but since I don't know any of those people personally, I really have no right to comment, and I wish Al Roker the best, I really do, but I miss fat Al Roker, he was a fun guy to be around. Also I wish they had come up with better diet drugs years ago, because then maybe we'd still have John Pinette, Ralphie May and John Candy making comedy and we'd all be laughing a bit more.
This hits home for me because of my family's history with battling obesity - or really, battling isn't really the right word because nobody really fought all that hard, so it was probably more like surrendering than fighting. But it's a complex issue because you want those people that you care about to be happy, and then of course they're happiest when they have something good to eat, but then of course if you bring them certain foods then you're part of the problem, you're enabling their addiction. But then if you put that person you care about on a strict diet it's better for their health, but worse for their mood because they're not eating what they enjoy, and now YOU'RE the bad guy for bringing them a salad instead of a burger and fries. Plus it's a reversal of them bringing you food when you were a kid, now it's kind of like you're the parent and you have to set dietary rules and think about what's best for them long-term.
I've developed a number of skills and abilities over the years, just from watching so many films, and one of those skills is being able to tell when a movie is based on a play. It's a stupid skill, really, it has no benefits or practical purpose - but when there's just ONE setting like a room in one house, or a hotel room it's a safe bet that story started as a one-act play. I kind of pity playwrights because before they even begin writing, they're totally hampered by what can be done in one room with a minimal level of props. Come on, dare to dream, playwrights, why are you letting the limitations of the form dictate your story? Jesus, why do we still even HAVE plays, now that we have movies and movie special effects that can take a story anywhere we can imagine? Plays are like horses which got replaced by cars decades ago, but for some reason there are still people who ride horses and the rest of us don't really understand why. We don't even need "Aladdin" or "The Lion King" on Broadway, because there are TWO movie versions of both - who the heck is still going to see these musicals live when they can just pop in a DVD or stream Disney Plus for their kids and then save hundreds of dollars?
But sure, this is about food addiction and being overweight, but it's also about how one person, Charlie, connects with the outside world, or perhaps is failing to connect. There's a caregiver who visits him regularly (we learn what the connection is between them later on) and she's a nurse at the hospital, only Charlie refuses to go to the hospital, despite the fact that he's suffering from chronic heart failure. Liz keeps saying he needs to get treatment, but she's also the person bringing him buckets of fried chicken. Mixed signals there, because she's also enabling him and his downward spiral while also trying to help him. She knows he's going to die within a week if the proper action isn't taken - but it might be better for him if he was admitted somewhere, even if that were against his will.
At the same time, he says his work is important, he's some kind of English teacher who's teaching a class remotely and helping his students write and revise their essays, but eventually he says what we've all thought at some point over the years - ultimately this homework is just not important, because in your life at some point you get to stop talking about "Moby Dick" or "Romeo and Juliet" unless you become an English teacher or a Shakespearean actor yourself. Or you stupidly start a movie blog that gets out of control to the point where you just can't stop it.
I'm also not sure that any high school would allow an English teacher to teach remotely, unless this was set during the pandemic and all the in-person classes were cancelled for safety reasons. But remember this was directed by Darren Aronofsky, so we have to consider "Pi" and "Requiem for a Dream" and "The Wrestler" and that this guy prefers to portray people who are in downward spirals, and then also "The Fountain" and "Mother!" and remember that his films don't always make sense 100% percent of the time.
Set amongst that backdrop, this story about a man trying to reconnect with his teenage daughter after years apart seems fairly simple compared with the rest of Aronofsky's filmography. But really, there's a lot going on here, especially the reason why Charlie left his wife and daughter, which has everything to do with his sexuality and religious beliefs that may be in conflict with each other, and everything's kind of connected here and a bit difficult to unravel, but the religious guy who comes to visit him is part of the equation, and the teenage daughter who hates him comes to visit, and yeah, it's all kind of important to the mix. Charlie desperately wants to re-connect with the world, but to do that he's going to have to confront his past trauma, but isn't all that what caused him to disconnect in the first place?
NITPICK POINT: I don't know why someone would do this, but they managed to create the only movie during which you can't eat snacks. Seriously, you may get to the theater all excited, get your large tub of popcorn with extra non-butter topping, or maybe one of those high-class boutique theaters where you can get a couple of hot dogs or a flatbread pizza, and then when you watch Charlie eating on the screen, you will be forced to think twice about the concessions you bought, and I'm predicting that you won't be interested in finishing them because of how that will make you feel.
Also starring Brendan Fraser (last seen in "School Ties"), Sadie Sink (last seen in "The Glass Castle"), Ty Simpkins (last seen in "The Next Three Days"), Hong Chau (last seen in "Asteroid City"), Sathya Sridharan, Jacey Sink, Allison Altman, Lance Oppenhein, Wilhelm Schalaudek.
RATING: 6 out of 10 pizza deliveries
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