SATURDAY NIGHT, JUROR #2, and HARD TRUTHS represent some of 2024’s best.
The weekend of the Oscars always brings about feelings of exhaustion and excitement. There’s exhaustion at having heard the names of the nominated films everywhere you turn, but excitement at the realization that following Sunday’s awards, we will soon start to hear those titles a lot less. Emilia, Perez, Brutalist, Conclave, Substance; these words have been in our brains for months now, and despite the wild, varied feelings this eclectic group of films has stirred among critics and cinephiles, this weekend will be the culmination of their respective journeys.
Unsurprisingly, many of the titles nominated for Oscars were all awards darlings, becoming a presence at awards shows all season and sweeping up honors wherever they went. As always, there’s the debate over how much of their acclaim is due to popularity and how much is actual merit. The ceremonies may have multiplied several times in the last few decades, but that argument remains the same. However, rather than have another editorial on the authenticity of A Complete Unknown, or how Wicked balanced empathy and spectacle, I felt a break was needed to spotlight some equally Oscar-worthy titles that slipped past the Academy’s radar.
In Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night, a young producer named Lorne Michaels (Gabriel Labelle) battles an unpredictable cast, a skeptical network, and other hurdles to bring his unique sketch comedy show to the air. Meanwhile, in Clint Eastwood’s supposed last film, Juror #2, jury member and father-to-be Justin (Nicholas Hoult) finds himself in a heart-pounding dilemma as he suspects he might be the one responsible for the crime the trial he is serving on is centered around. Finally, acclaimed director Mike Leigh brings another compelling character study in Hard Truths with Marianne-Jean Baptiste starring as Pansy, a woman whose depression and past trauma have left her constantly disappointed with the world around her.
Saturday Night
Always the wild card of his generation (at least where his film’s subjects are concerned), Saturday Night feels totally in the director’s wheelhouse, perhaps even hitting close to home as a one-time young creative himself. The bombastic quality that Reitman gives Saturday Night helps to capture the manic energy and exciting frenzied quality that comes with live TV sketch comedy, especially one that was put together with nothing but ambition and scotch tape. The camera moves with a pulsating rhythm, echoing the nervousness and unpredictability of the world in question. But Reitman also knows when to slow things down and let the story, characters, and audiences catch their breath. A good example of this is the wild costume drama with John Belushi’s (Matt Wood) iconic bee outfit that’s immediately followed by a more private moment featuring costume designer Rosie (Rachel Sennott) and Lorne talking about what tonight means to them.
Saturday Night is chock full of scenes featuring its sizable cast soaking up the heat of the moment and what is about to happen the moment that the cameras go on. Garrett Morris (Lamorne Morris) and Jane Curtin (Kim Matula) smoking in the nosebleeds by themselves, talking about how limited their options are as performers show a real bonding moment between the two. Elsewhere, seasoned writer Herb Sargent (Tracy Letts) telling Chevy Chase (Cory Michael Smith) about what his doomed future is going to be like after tonight is wonderfully punctuated when the young actor says: “Jesus, I can’t wait.” Such pockets of small but significant moments between players in front of and behind the camera ensure that Saturday Night remains a poignant cinematic experience as well as a dizzying one.
Seeing an indelible piece of history recreated, especially one that sees Reitman entering Altmanesque territory, was one which many awards groups responded to. There was a Golden Globe nomination for Labelle (fitting, since it’s his performance that anchors the whole film) as well as ensemble wins and nods from various other groups. Other citations went to the masterful editing as well as Reitman and co-writer Gil Kenan’s screenplay which boasts lines like: “The show doesn’t go on because it’s ready. It goes on because it’s 11:30.” Original SNL star Dan Aykroyd praised the film while the actual Chevy Chase reacted in the way everyone expected him to. Even if Saturday Night opts to end on a montage, it’s allowed. Set against some great music from Jon Batiste, it proves to be the best payoff for the last 90+ minutes.
Juror #2
From the beginning of production, Juror #2 was touted as Eastwood’s final film. This surprised no one given not only his age but the fact that the legendary filmmaker had nothing left to prove, showing he was at home helming every kind of movie under the sun. The director’s latest is another mid-level budget entry that proves his undying love of the craft. Juror #2 is a genre film made with care, detail, and artistry that’s so wonderfully paced and executed. There’s a great sense of doubt almost from the beginning due to the way Eastwood lays out the initial flashback sequence where the crime in question takes place, forcing us to replay it back in our heads over and over again. The great pacing and speed of the jury deliberation scenes add to the tension that starts to build up within both Justin and the audience. Likewise, the way the different recollections and vantage points are laid out comes off so effectively, making the mystery more compelling than it already is.
Eastwood lays out the pieces of information with such refined precision that there’s never a time during the movie when the audience doesn’t have their guard up. At the same time, however, Juror #2 also surprises as a quasi-character piece. The role of Justin is a fantastic one for Hoult, one that allows him a proper acting showcase and which doesn’t (for once) force the actor to compete with the film he’s in. His moments during the court scenes are simply some of his best thanks to the levels of anguish contained within him, all of which are fascinating to witness. There’s also the internal conflict facing prosecutor Faith (a superb Toni Collette) who faces her own moral crisis of either securing a guilty verdict to boost her own political prospects or following her true instincts when it comes to the case she thought she’d had figured out.
Much has been written about the less-than-minimal theatrical release Juror #2 received following its AFI premiere. The rolling out of the film in a mere 50 cinemas with no plans for expansion, and no awards campaign to speak of, was a shameful way to treat both a filmmaker of Eastwood’s stature and a movie whose box-office and awards prospects were plentiful. Watching it, it’s easy to see the film claiming a spot in many top categories. Instead, Juror #2 had to settle for some career achievement awards for both Hoult and Eastwood but did manage to be named one of the top 10 films by the National Board of Review. Juror #2 is very bold and very Eastwood. Under the guise of a legal thriller, the director manages to let the thoughtful, the moral and the suspenseful play out perfectly, while also daring his audience to re-examine their own definition of justice.
Hard Truths
If there was one title from 2024 that lived up to its name, it would have to be Hard Truths. Leigh’s film opens with Pansy; a London housewife who spends her days in a state of perpetual annoyance and disappointment. This might be an understatement. Pansy is a very angry woman who is so unhappy with her life, it’s almost too much to take as an audience member. Dinners are spent in silence as Pansy rants about one topic after another, from charity workers to dogs wearing coats, and everything else in between. It doesn’t take long to realize that Pansy is a woman trapped by a trauma that has consumed her to the point that she doesn’t recognize herself anymore. The one person who does still see the real Pansy, however, is her sister Chantelle (Michele Austin), who finds joy in her own life and is the only one to give Pansy the grace she doesn’t even feel she deserves.
There’s a real musical flow to Leigh’s dialogue, especially in the way people banter back and forth. The film also manages small bits of comedy throughout, which helps make the story not as somber as it otherwise could have been. But Hard Truths is at its most poignant when it’s focused on its damaged main character and her fractured family. A key sequence taking place on Mother’s Day is heartbreaking and a great illustration of seeing people try the hardest that they can. While everyone is sitting around enjoying a celebratory meal, all Pansy can do is sit on the sofa and keep quiet to herself. You get the sense that in this moment she’s trying to escape the hold the past has on her. But for a woman who no longer remembers how to be happy, it’s clear she can only try so much.
Hard Truths should have been an Oscar darling, plain and simple. It’s the kind of British indie that the Academy loves, not to mention it’s also a Secrets & Lies reunion for Leigh, Baptiste (both previously Oscar-nominated for that film), and Austin. The way Secrets & Lies solidified the power of the independent film and its ability to resonate with the Academy was a milestone that’s still being felt today. With Baptiste collecting Best Actress nominations and wins from virtually every critics group, including becoming the first woman of color to win at New York, Los Angeles, and National Society of Film Critics associations, a nomination should have been a shoo-in. The same can be said for Leigh’s directing and screenplay, which also received various forms of hardware. Hard Truths doesn’t offer up any new concepts but is still a stunning portrait of how one person’s trauma and emotional darkness can flow through an entire family.
In watching each film for this piece, the one question that continued to come up was: Why didn’t this make the cut? In the case of Eastwood’s film, the answer was fairly obvious. But even with the odds against it, Juror #2 still generated enough goodwill from the critical world for voters to seek it out. The others had some equally good chances with both Saturday Night and Hard Truths receiving high praise from critics, while all three got buzzy festival debuts. I suppose the logical (albeit easy) answer is that it was just too crowded a landscape this season. Admittedly, voting was tough this year with far too many titles worthy of inclusion on my final ballot. If there’s any consolation, Saturday Night, Juror #2, and Hard Truths all serve as proof that in a heavy TV streaming culture, the kind of involving and telling filmmaking that draws us to cinema in the first place is very much alive.
Saturday Night is now available on Blu-ray and DVD from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
Juror #2 is now available on Blu-ray and DVD from Warner Bros Home Entertainment.
Hard Truths is now available on Blu-ray and DVD from Bleecker Street.
