Here’s the second Random Weekend selection from Regina Spektor’s 2006 album Begin to Hope.
The last time she showed up, I remarked that the Random iTunes Fairy had a knack for picking the hits, as she surfaced ‘Fidelity,’ the only song from that album — or Spektor, period — to ever chart.
A little more than three years later, Spektor is back with a deep cut.
Wrapping up my week of personal Oscar nominations, today I’ll focus on the Best Director category. Then, over the next two weeks, I’ll count down my personal top ten movies of 2022.
I find this category the trickiest to evaluate. Given the importance of the director, one could argue that my five favorite movies of the year must also be the best directed. That’s definitely one way to go, though not the one I chose.
I’m sheepishly glad I haven’t watched Till at the time I’m writing this because I no doubt would have to find a way to fit Danielle Deadwyler into my five Best Actress nominations. And I had a brutal time compiling this list as it is.
I also have yet to see To Leslie, but I haven’t been lobbied by any A-list stars to vote for Andrea Riseborough either, so I don’t think she’d make my list.
My family holds an annual Oscar nomination pool, predicting the eight major categories, and invariably we all do very well in Best Actor. For some reason, great male lead performances are few and far between in recent years. I’m sure there’s an analysis to be written on that topic but I’ll save it for another day.
For now, I’ll give my own preferred lineup in the 2022 Best Actor category, starting with just a few honorable mentions.
Continuing my rundown of personal Oscar nominations, today I’ll look at the Best Supporting Actress category.
While I had a hard time coming up with a long list of supporting male performances, it was a much different story for the women. I had to cut several names just to keep my list of honorable mentions manageable.
I could have named four different women from the cast of Women Talking alone, but I’ll be judicious and mention Jessie Buckley and Claire Foy, embodying two very different perspectives on the debate at the center of that film.
Meet Me In Montauk 