Dracula Presents: The Sixteenth Annual Golden Stake Awards

The Batman

Directed by: Matt Reeves
Written by: Matt Reeves and Peter Craig
Based on: Characters from DC Comics
Starring: Robert Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright, John Turturro, Peter Sarsgaard, Andy Serkis, and Colin Farrell
Distributor: Warner Brothers
Country: USA
Language: English
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 176 Minutes
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Format: Digital
Date released: 3/4/2022
Date seen: 3/7/2022
Worldwide Box Office Gross: $770 Million
# of Oscar nominations: 3 (Best Makeup, Best Sound, and Best Visual Effects)
# of Golden Stake Nominations: 11 (Best Fight Scene, Chase of the Year, Best Use of Source Music, Best Makeup, Best Score, Best Cinematography, Best Supporting Actor, Best Ensemble, Best Trailer, Best Poster, and Best Action Movie)
# of Golden Stakes Won: 2 (Chase of the Year and Best Cinematography)

I think Matt Reeves The Batman might be a better Batman movie than The Dark Knight. There I said it. That does not, however, mean it’s anything like as groundbreaking as Nolan’s batman movie and it doesn’t even necessarily mean it’s a better movie overall. But it does feel more like it gets to the essence of what I want the character of Batman to be like as a platonic ideal. The movie is “grounded” insomuch as it’s not going crazy with the technology or overtly introducing the supernatural into proceedings, but the film does feel more like a comic book (albeit a modern post Frank Miller comic book) version of the character and world than anything Nolan did or even what Tim Burton did. What’s more, the simple craft of this film is inanely impressive. This and Avatar: The Way of Water are the best looking “blockbusters” of the year by far, that one in more of a CGI kind of way and this one in more of a practical effects kind of way (though I’m sure there are plenty of digital effects mixed in there). The movie puts most of what Marvel has been up to in the last couple of years to shame and is in many ways a new benchmark for superhero movies. That said, the movie’s impact is kind of blunted by fact that superhero movies in general and the Batman character specifically are all kinds of over exposed right now and that does kind of inherently make something like this feel less special as a result, and that’s where The Dark Knight may still have an edge because doing something first still kind of matters.

The Fabelmans

Directed by: Steven Spielberg
Written by: Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner
Starring: Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Gabriel LaBelle, Julia Butters, Sam Rechner, Oakes Fegley, Chloe East, Judd Hirsch, and David Lynch
Distributor: Universal
Country: USA
Language: English
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 151 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Format: 35mm
Date released: 11/11/2022
Date seen: 11/26/2022
Worldwide Box Office Gross: $25 Million
# of Oscar nominations: 7 (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Original Screenplay, Best Score, Best Production Design
# of Golden Stake Nominations: 6 (Best Cameo, Best Supporting Actor, Best Actor, Best Ensemble, Best Line, and Best Original Screenplay)
# of Golden Stakes Won: 2 (Best Cameo and Best Ensemble)
There have been volumes written about how many of Steven Spielberg’s movies are in fact deeply personal works, and I don’t disagree with any of that, but much of that was subtext. With The Fabelmans Steven Spielberg was finally willing to come out with his heart on his sleeve and tell his personal story straightforwardly. That clearly hasn’t been as financially lucrative as hiding personal meaning in action blockbusters but I think there’s value to it just the same as it very well may prove to be something of a Rosetta Stone for his work for people who haven’t dug up all his old interviews about his life. But… just because he’s talking about his life in more direct terms does not mean he’s done hiding some notable messages beneath the surface here. For one thing, the film actually messes with the facts of Spielberg’s youth in some interesting ways that speak to how his life may have actually turned out differently and it’s probably not a coincidence that The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, with its themes of historical revisionism, is the John Ford movie it chooses to highlight. Beyond that the film just has a lot to say about filmmaking itself and kind of highlights the many different things film can do whether its entertain, thrill, frighten, teach you things you may or may not want to know, or distort truth in some potentially insidious ways. It’s slyly a very smart movie disguised as a nostalgic melodrama.

Tár

Directed by: Todd Field
Written by: Todd Field
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Noémie Merlant, Nina Hoss, Sophie Kauer, Julian Glover, Allan Corduner, and Mark Strong
Distributor: Focus Features
Country: USA
Language: English
Rating: R
Running Time: 158 Minutes
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Format: Digital
Date released: 10/21/2022
Date seen: 10/20/2022
Worldwide Box Office Gross: $10 Million
# of Oscar nominations: 6 (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Editing)
# of Golden Stake Nominations: 5 (Best Sound, Best Cameo, Best Actress, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Trailer)
# of Golden Stakes Won: 1 (Best Actress)

Tár is if nothing else probably the most 2022 movie of 2022 in that it’s the movie that most specifically grapples with the social and intellectual trends of our times, specifically #MeToo and the increased scrutiny around artists in the wake of that as well as a sort of questioning around the establishments that allow abuse to happen. The film also boldly doesn’t address these questions in the most obvious of ways either: Making a character study about an abuser rather than or a victim or of someone trying to investigate an abuser is in fact a very fraught approach that easily could have blown up in the faces of Todd Field and his collaborators and yet he somehow managed to really sidestep that issue… in fact the movie he made doesn’t really feel like an “issue” movie at all. Instead the movie plays out almost more as a psychological thriller even though nothing happening in it has life or death stakes exactly and there isn’t even a specific antagonist threatening Lydia Tár but herself. It’s a pretty different movie than what I would have expected from Todd Field’s return to the directorial chair, but then again maybe it shouldn’t be as his first two films also involved a certain sense of dread pervading what are theoretically down to earth milieus. I’m very excited to see how this movie plays as the years move on and we move on from the particular cultural circumstances that birthed it.

Everything, Everywhere, All at Once

Directed by: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
Written by: Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
Starring: Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, Jamie Lee Curtis, and James Hong
Distributor: A24
Country: USA
Language: English/Mandarin
Rating: R
Running Time: 139
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Format: Digital
Date released: 3/25/2023
Date seen: 4/4/2023
Worldwide Box Office Gross: $107 Million
# of Oscar nominations: 12 (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress (x2), Best Score, Best Song, Best Editing, and Best Costume Design)
# of Golden Stake Nominations: 8 (Best Fight Scene, Best Editing, Villain of the Year, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Actress, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Comedy)
# of Golden Stakes Won: 5 (Best Fight Scene, Best Editing, Villain of the Year, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Comedy)

The battle for number one film of the year for me ultimately came down to two movies: Tár and Everything, Everywhere, All at Once. There were good arguments to be made for Tár, which is in many ways the ultimate movie of the present moment but as much of an accomplishment as that is Everything, Everywhere, All at Once felt like the film of the future… and of the present, and of the past for that matter. It’s a movie that, as its title suggests manages to do almost everything a movie can do, it crisscrosses genres, formats, languages, generational sensibilities, and tones with almost reckless disregard and yet the Daniels still manage to hold the whole thing together beautifully. Not only that but it also does this in a package that is accessible to general audiences and which can easily be recommended to people who aren’t dedicated film aficionados but which contains depths that those more dedicated viewers will recognize and appreciate. And at the center of it all is this kind of beautiful story of an immigrant family coming to terms with their current reality and really coming together in the face of a crisis. Now, trying to spot “the movie of the future” is kind of a fraught undertaking. There are certainly element of the film like its absurdist sense of humor that may not age as gracefully as something as classically grounded as Tár and I’m also not really sure if this is something that “The Daniels” are going to be able to follow-up and replicate, which could also affect its legacy. Regardless, I can’t look that far into the future, what I know now in the present is that this was the film-going experience this year that most clearly gave me that feeling of being in the presence of something special and that goes a long way.