YNMS: "Hostiles"
Friday, November 10, 2017 at 8:00AM Chris here. The dry desert of the arid Best Actor race is about to get a bit of a transplant into the actual desert. Scott Cooper's Hostiles had one of the quieter debuts on the festival season, landing quiet praise and a tribute for Christian Bale when it went to Telluride. It got even quieter as it waited for a distributor while majors were already fully booked - but now it will be a last-minute arrival from a new mini-distrib with hopes for recognition for Bale. The film will open in limited release on December 22.
The director hasn't had Oscar success since winning Jeff Bridges a long-awaiting prize for Crazy Heart, but the film might just benefit from starring a beloved player in a less competitive year. Does it also help that the film will stand out from the pack by genre alone? Hold onto your spurs, we've got a western in the Oscar race! Take a look at the trailer before we break down the Yes No Maybe So...
YES
- Rosamund Pike finally gets some post-Gone Girl complexity to work with! Her breathy, death-obsessed monologuing is one of the trailer's more intriguing elements. Like a suicidal Oregon Trail Amazing Amy, she'll be so much happier once she's dead.
- I am far more positive on Scott Cooper's abilities than the majority of the internet. He's a morose and brooding voice, but I'd say a keen visual storyteller as well. My certainty that he'll one day give us something great keeps me curious.
- Those set pieces look massive and intimate all at once. Hurray for no CGI battle on this frontier.
NO
- We already had Wind River this year to give us a thoroughly white lens on the suffering of Native Americans, and once was gross enough. No Native American even speaks in this trailer. Give Wes Studi his moment!
- Stop hiding Ben Foster behind giant mustaches. STOP IT!
- No insult meant to the upstart distributor, but the vagueness of "Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures" makes me chuckle every time. (And their summer shark movie 47 Meters Below remains my worst of the year. Sorry, girl.)
- "We are all hostiles"? "We're all prisoners"? Yeesh.
MAYBE SO
- My least favorite invented subgenre is "But It's Really a Western!". See Hell or High Water or Logan for recent examples. At least this is an actual western.
- Out of the Furnace is one of Bale's most underrated performances, so maybe the collaboration with Cooper will continue to give the goods.
- However, this looks way more morally complex and intense than the standard western. And visually formidable - cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi has done gorgeous work for Cooper for Furnace and Black Mass.
Much as I want to give the film a fair shot, my maybe so is leaning no. Your thoughts?
Reader Comments (21)
I'm a fan of the "neo-western" genre (if that's what this is) and the film certainly looks beautiful, so color me intrigued. I really hope Rosamund has something substantial to do here, though.
Chris, damn I love your writing! I cannot believe how weak Best Actor is. Could Chalamet win?
This looks like it was created in a lab to be exactly the kind of movie I'd avoid--hard no.
Spent most of the trailer being sad that Rosamund Pike, who is stellar, doesn't have a career as big as she deserves.
I, like you, am troubled by the Emma Stoneing of Native Americans that the trailer seems to be hinting at.
But yay at Rosamund getting a role she deserves!
"Look kids, it's a Wes Studi! They don't let the wild Studi out in the open much unless there is a wise or morally complex role for Native Americans. We should treasure this moment."
Unforgiven's legendary dialogue is lifted for this amateur hour western.
Big yes for this, how could I not be based on that? But also the world needs more high quality westerns
I am yes because of Q'ORIANKA KILCHER!!!!!
Do you think Kilcher would be a leading lady today if she managed to get that nomination for The New World?
To this very day, I love that performance.
Pike might shake up Supporting Actress which leans more humorous at the moment Metcalf,Hunter,Janney being the top 3 for now.
"suicidal Oregon Trail Amazing Amy"
LOL
I'll watch Godless on Netflix, instead
if the academy REALLY want the 90th cerimony be monumental, please nominated:
oldman
day-lewis
chalamet
bale
hammer
streep
mcdormand
ronan
hawkis
winslet
stuhlbarg
rockwell
jenkins
plummer
dafoe
janney
metcalf
pike
spencer
leo
Your point on Native American suffering is my biggest pause with this movie. I probably will only force myself to watch it if it actually gets nods, which it very well might.
Festival reception was very positive, and especially glowing for Pike and Bale. It's also getting a proper campaign and Wind River is no longer a contender so I can see it.
Looks like Pike's role teeters between lead and supporting,but she'd be better off campaigning supporting. Maybe.
"But ya ARE a Western, Blanche! Ya are!!!"
Only if it gets nominated. Otherwise, didn't my Celebrity Husband Costner do this already?
I’m a no. I’m not seeing much that’s original here. And I fear for Rosamund Pike. Way too many images of her screaming like a tragic victim. Seems to be setting up rape-as-plot-device, which is, just, no. Also in the trailer is there a black character just to make him be the one to put the Native American man in chains? Because, again, just no.
brookesboy - thank you very much! It's all Oldman for the win however
Re: Q'Orianka Kilcher - I've read/seen literally nothing about her in this other than that she is in it, and judging by her one blink and you miss it shot, probably not a sizeable role
I SO agree with Jon on these Best Actress choices.
YAS ROSAMUND PIKE YAS COME THROUGH QUEEN lmao
I saw this already. Rosamund Pike was great. Christian Bale was good. But this film and the way Westerns treat Native American characters and culture felt like it was exotifying them for the purpose of making the main characters seem cooler.