Hamnet (Oscar Nominees Month)

It’s the most prestigious time of the year! We’re kicking off Mackenzie’s annual Oscars Run here on We Drink & We Watch Things, where we dedicate the entire month to the films leading the pack for the 98th Academy Awards. To start us off, we’re stepping into the sun-dappled forests of Stratford-upon-Avon to discuss Chloé Zhao’s sweeping, heart-wrenching adaptation of Hamnet. Make our cocktail of the week - Sleep No More - to toast this deeply sensory exploration of love, loss, and the birth of a masterpiece.

This week, we celebrate the staggering lead performances of Jessie Buckley as the mystical Agnes Hathaway and Paul Mescal as a young, restless William Shakespeare. We examine how Zhao brings her signature "Nomadland" intimacy to the 16th century, trading wide-open plains for the visceral, muddy reality of domestic life and the crushing weight of the bubonic plague. We unpack the film’s central, moving thesis: that one of the greatest plays in history, Hamlet, was actually a father's desperate, creative attempt to give his deceased son the life he never got to finish. We also marvel at the breathtaking final act at the Globe Theatre, where the boundary between art and reality finally dissolves in a flood of cathartic tears.

If you love lush period dramas, powerful meditations on grief, or are just following along with Mackenzie’s quest to predict the Best Picture winner, this is an essential start to the month. We’re mixing our awe for the film’s technical beauty with our usual banter, ensuring our first stop on the road to the Oscars is a truly memorable one.

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