No matter how many old veterans leave the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and how many new recruits arrive, the nature of the choices the membership makes rarely varies: The voters like what they\u2019ve always liked.
They may want it in different packages, they may try to mix and match, but certain kinds of satisfactions are bred in the bone and will not be denied.
This dynamic was visible all across the 2017 Oscar nominations, starting with a record-tying 14 nominations for Damien Chazelle\u2019s \u201cLa La Land.\u201d
That film hit the jackpot by combining the traditional form of the musical with modern plotting and charismatic, up-to-the-minute stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. And the fact that the whole thing was set on Hollywood\u2019s home turf certainly didn\u2019t hurt.
Also benefiting from this dynamic was \u201cHell or High Water,\u201d a modern version of yet another venerable genre, the western. Set in today\u2019s West and touching on contemporary economic problems but peopled with familiar law-and-order characters, \u201cHell\u201d took home four nominations, including best picture, best original screenplay, best supporting actor for the much loved Jeff Bridges , and best editing into the bargain.
Yet another case of well-worn genres rewarded for being brilliantly reimagined was science fiction standout \u201cArrival,\u201d which took the old-school \u201cThey\u2019re here\u201d alien visitation trope to exceptional places and ended up with eight nominations, tied with \u201cMoonlight\u201d and second only to \u201cLa La Land.\u201d
Yet, in a perfect example of Oscar perverseness, though \u201cArrival\u2019s\u201d success is impossible to imagine without star Amy Adams, she was not nominated in the best actress category. Go figure.
Also completely traditional in almost every way, except possibly in the inescapable tragedy of its plot, was Kenneth Lonergan\u2019s magisterial \u201cManchester By The Sea,\u201d which was rewarded with six top-of-the-line nominations: its three stars, picture, director and screenplay.
\u201cMoonlight\u201d would seem to be an exception to this tradition rule. After all, stories about growing up poor and gay and black with a crack-addicted mother are hardly standard Hollywood fare.
But, in a way that still seems almost miraculous, director Barry Jenkins and his collaborators gave this story the kind of emotional transcendence that the best Hollywood films have always aspired to, and even in unfamiliar surroundings the academy saw and recognized that.
Going with what\u2019s familiar also extends to the acting nominations. It\u2019s hard to make a case that Meryl Streep gave a stronger performance in \u201cFlorence Foster Jenkins\u201d than Adams, or Annette Benning in \u201cTwentieth Century Women\u201d for that matter. But the acting branch really likes Streep, and, doubtless energized by her fiery Golden Globes speech, dutifully gave her 20th nomination.
Another familiar face who did well was Mel Gibson, who climbed out of the Hollywood doghouse by, yes, updating a familiar genre, this time, the war picture. Adding the kind of violence that Gary Cooper\u2019s pacifist \u201cSergeant York\u201d couldn\u2019t have imagined led to six nominations, including picture, actor for Andrew Garfield and director for Gibson himself.
Being admired by the academy helped actors other than Streep get unlikely nominations, for instance Michael Shannon as a beleaguered sheriff in the otherwise avoidable \u201cNocturnal Animals.\u201d
And though \u201cElle\u201d did not get a foreign-language-film nod, it\u2019s presence on the scene allowed the actors to remember that they\u2019d always respected France\u2019s Isabelle Huppert but somehow had neglected to nominate her until now.
Perhaps the most fascinating example of Hollywood recognizing its own is in the perennially interesting foreign-language-film category.
With the exception of Germany\u2019s one-of-a-kind genre-bending \u201cToni Erdmann,\u201d all of the other nominees \u2014 Denmark\u2019s \u201cLand of Mine,\u201d Sweden\u2019s \u201cA Man Called Ove,\u201d Iran\u2019s \u201cThe Salesman\u201d and Australia\u2019s \u201cTanna\u201d \u2014 are overseas versions of the kinds of once-familiar adult entertainments that the studios have largely abandoned but voters still admire.
The documentary branch also went down a two-pronged path that very much echoes what it has done in the past. Though feel-good films such as \u201cTwenty Feet From Stardom\u201d have triumphed in the final vote, the nominators tend to have a lot of admiration for socially conscious films, and that is what happened this year as well.
Only one feel-good film (\u201cLife, Animated\u201d) made the final five, with the other four slots not surprisingly going to serious issue films: \u201cFire At Sea,\u201d \u201cI Am Not Your Negro,\u201d \u201cO. J.: Made In America\u201d and \u201c13th.\u201d
Given all this love for films that voters feel comfortable with, it\u2019s predictable that things did not go especially well for films that either did not conform or did not reimagine themselves in acceptable ways.
Pablo Larrain\u2019s thrilling \u201cJackie\u201d received only three nominations, for star Natalie Portman, costume design and score. And despite being one of the most acclaimed of modern directors, Martin Scorcese came away with only one nomination, again for score, for his austere \u201cSilence.\u201d If you\u2019re not with us, the voters said, you\u2019re definitely without us.
Kristen Stewart enjoyed the free-form aspect of making her short film, «Come Swim» which is showing at the Sundance Film Festival. She doesn’t see that as a directorial stepping-stone to full-length features.
The young women in «Step» demonstrate a routine at the L. A. Times photo studio during the Sundance Film Festival. The documentary is about senior girls in a Baltimore high school step team as they prepare to be the first in their families to attend college.
Casey Affleck talks about the way Kenneth Lonergan uses everyday language to convey deep emotion in «Manchester by the Sea. »
For her role as Jackie Kennedy, Natalie Portman says, «It’s not a fashion story,» but the clothes do tell a story.
Joel Edgerton talks about staying truthful to the real-life story of «Loving. »
Joel Edgerton talks about staying truthful to the real-life story of «Loving. «<\/p>\n