Nominated for Nothing: The Northman was way too weird to be the next Oscar epic
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They're destined to score zero Academy Awards, but they won our attention throughout a year (and awards season) like no other. Ahead of the 95th Oscars ceremony on March 12, EW is breaking down the year's best movies, performances, and directorial achievements that were nominated for nothing.
The film: "HEAR ME, ODIN," says the voice like thunder, "HEAR OF A PRINCE'S VENGEANCE QUENCHED AT THE FIERY GATES OF HELL." Robert Eggers' adventure begins with that narration rumbling over a stark shot of an active volcano spewing smoke into a thunderstorm. Is the volcano talking, or the lightning? That's just the first wild eruption in a two-hour-plus ultraviolent horror odyssey. A kind of un-telling of Hamlet based on Viking myth, The Northman stars Alexander Skarsgård as Amleth, orphaned prince gone berserk. He seeks vengeance on his uncle Fjölnir (Claes Bang) for the murder of his kingly father Aurvandil (Ethan Hawke). His quest will involve a surprising reunion with his mother Gudrún (Nicole Kidman) and an unexpected alliance with an enslaved woman named [checks notes] Olga of the Birch Forest (Anya Taylor-Joy).
Aidan Monaghan/Focus Features Alexander Skarsgård as Amleth and Anya Taylor-Joy as Olga in 'The Northman'
These things I've written certainly sound like the plot of a movie. But the first (and second, and fifth) viewing of Northman is more pure sensual assault. Eggers risks incoherence for mythic cacophony, sending Amleth into magical-realist subplots about a seer (Bjork!), a talking skull (Willem Dafoe), and a mystical sword obtained via undead combat, not to mention the climactic nudes lava showdown. The script by Eggers and Sjón aims for the hymnal straightforwardness of the original sagas, though Kidman's role also challenges some archetypes. The not-unconstant use of hallucinogens suggests an ancient epic hijacked by a midnight movie.
Why it wasn't nominated: Even non-druggy ancient epics are on the wane with the Academy. It's been 23 years since Gladiator won Best Picture, and the 19 years since The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King's victory have mostly blocked mythic battlefields from major category consideration. Both those comparisons are reaches, frankly. The Northman is willfully uninterested in any obvious good-and-evil signifiers — we meet the adult Amleth mid-massacre — so the movie would always be an Oscar stretch even without its box office struggles.
Aidan Monaghan/Focus Features Nicole Kidman as Queen Gudrun in 'The Northman'
But it's unquestionably a technical achievement, especially given the director's epic fascination with long, complex takes. Robert Eggers' ornate style will get a Best Director nomination someday. Cinematographer Jarin Blaschke already earned a nod for his previous Eggers collaboration, 2019's powers-of-fifty weirder The Lighthouse, so I thought he might squeak out a nomination this go-round, along with Northman's vivid costume and production design. And although Kidman's role is almost too small to qualify as supporting, her one big scene has been justifiably praised for sheer movie-flipping fireworks. I say again, though: Trippy Tragic Gorefest ain't for everyone.
Why history will remember it better than the Academy did: Big-budget weirdness often ages better than normo success, and Northman's sheer extremity has already developed a cult following. The expertly choreographed brutality offers a John Wick-ian good time, but Eggers drinks deep of a wide array of thrills, building Amleth's bloody vengeance around a sincere romance and a perversely twisted family saga. Viking stuff gets more popular every passing year, and The Northman will continue to beckon anyone seeking an unfiltered-madness version of the Thor movies, the God of War games, or the yet-ongoing Vikings TV franchise. Not to mention, the rise and rise of Anya Taylor-Joy will crucialize this film's place in contemporary cinema: Expect heavy streams when Furiosa arrives in 2024.
EW's countdown to the 2023 Oscars has everything you're looking for, from our expert predictions and in-depth Awardist interviews with this year's nominees to nostalgia and our takes on the movies and actors we wish had gotten more Oscars love. You can check it all out at The Awardist.
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