This one was Nomadland the entire way through awards season and it made for a pretty boring season. All of the other films on this list are varying degrees of interesting and I'm intrigued to see what stands out. Keeping up with the race meant reading about a lot of people who had their favorite which wasn't the actual winner and the fact that so many people liked a different number of nominees to win and yet Nomadland swept, well is there something to that? Because every trailer I saw didn't look that great, so I'm hoping I'm wrong on a first, brief impression. But also hopeful that the rest are really good films and could be winners.
2020 Best Picture
There was really no doubt when it came to this film winning Best Picture. This one literally won everything for BP: a Satellite, Golden Globe, Critic's Choice, BAFTA, Independent Spirit Award, and of course the Oscar. One of those clean sweeps and after having finally seen it, I'm kinda left wondering why it resonated with folks so much. It's a well made film by Chloe Zhao who also was nominated for writing, producing and editing the film which was a rare feat in itself and speaks to how much effort she put into this. It's gorgeously shot (but like, how can any competent DP make the open spaces of the West look bad?) and has a really wonderful and simple score. The non-actors add a whole lot of realism to the film and Frances McDormand gives a great performance, as usual. I feel like older folks in the Academy latched onto this because it spoke to them about remembering those we have lost in our journey through life and how healing it can be to just get away for a bit or for a while. Zhao has this very naturalistic style that adds to the overall feeling of the film and McDormand actually working at these places and somewhat sort of living that lifestyle while shooting the film makes it almost feel like a documentary at times. I do think a lot of people will see this minimalist story as boring and I'm not going to deny them that it certainly depends on how emotionally involved you get in the character and the vibe of the film. I just think it's easy to see why such a large amount of people really liked this one and connected to it. And because I haven't even said it yet, it's about McDormand who starts a nomadic, van dwelling lifestyle after her husband dies and the corporate town she lived in was dissolved. Now she is trying to find herself and deal with her traumas. It's a respectful and hopeful film that I'm sure a lot of people can appreciate. Still kinda wild that this simple, short-ish film captured everyone's love to Oscar glory.
The Father
This type of film is always tough to sit through and watch and then root for. It's a film about Anthony Hopkins and his struggle with dementia. A simple plot description but the film itself takes us first hand into the confusion and bewilderment that Hopkins' character experiences and the emotions that he has to deal with and that of his daughter, Olivia Colman has to deal with. Based on a play, it's a rather short film that has a very long lasting impact on the viewer. It's quite visceral in how it shows the effects of dementia to the audience. We are basically Hopkins as we see different characters appear who are supposed to be the same person. For example, Colman is the daughter but we see another woman portray her at times. We see different men come and go who are her husband but have different names or aren't really there to begin with. We experience different locations whether it's Hopkins' flat, the daughter's home, or an assisted living facility. We never quite know where we are, who is real and who isn't, and what exactly is going on in the film. Which is, I'd imagine, what someone going through dementia feels like all the time. And it's a sort of gut punch that Hopkins doesn't know what is real and once he starts believing one reality, it changes up and he's even more confused and frustrated and angry. So it's a rather simple film, but obviously has so much going on in the story and the performance from Hopkins that makes it standout. Hopkins lives up to his Oscar win and Colman does a great job in showing the frustration in losing a loved one to a mind that can't figure out what and who is real. This is one of those films that you watch and realize has great performances, but don't want to watch again because the subject is so heavy and demoralizing like Still Alice and Julianne Moore's Oscar win.
Judas and the Black Messiah
This
would make a great double feature with The Trial of the Chicago 7 or even a triple feature if you add in a showing of the BlacKkKlansman. Crazy how the former was nominated in the same year and had some of the same characters with a similar sentiment. This film was characterized by the director as initially trying to be like The Departed inside the counter intelligence world. I get that idea as LaKeith Stanfield's character is infiltrating the Black Panther party of Illinois headed by Daniel Kaluuya. I love how straightforward the film is. It could easily devolve into some white people are awful, the Black Panther's solved every issue ever type of thing, but the story just let's it all play out. I know that sentence will probably rankle a few feathers, but my point is it stays a quality, consistent film throughout with some really fucking good performances from the two aforementioned fellas. The story feels so familiar because of those other films that it probably hits even harder if you haven't seen those films yet or don't know those stories. I felt like the director had great respect for the material and the setting that everything came off well intentioned. Like this could have been flashy with lots of period appropriate music or even modern music and made into like a Scorsese like film, but it just presents the info in the story as is, with warts and all. It's a highly enjoyable film that doesn't matter what color you are because betrayal is universal. Glad it was nominated here because I'm not sure if this gets nominated in previous years, surely not when it was only five nominees. But now folks get to look back on this year and study this film as an Oscar nominee and that's pretty awesome.
Mank
This
is the kind of film that is right up my cinephile alley. David Fincher directs a script from his late father about Herman J. Mankiewicz, who co-wrote the film Citizen Kane with Orson Welles. This film is as much about Mank as it is Old Hollywood. We have a lot of the old famous players from the time like Louis B. Mayer, Irving Thalberg, William Randolph Hearst, John Houseman, David O. Selznick, Upton Sinclair, and Marion Davies to name a few. The film goes back and forth between Mank maneuvering through the Hollywood system and actually writing the film. To me, the film can be a bit dense and a little tough to keep track of what's going on and when it's happening. I also think that having an understanding of who all those people are above helps with deciphering what all is going on and why this seems like an important film subject. Having none of that knowledge probably makes this film a bit more intimidating and hard to understand. But in saying that, I feel it's a great film to watch if you have the patience and want to see some great acting from Gary Oldman and Amanda Seyfried. The film is in black and white and shot to look like the old style films and it really does a lot to enhance the feel of the film. The cinematography is amazing, the sound is great, the direction from Fincher is top notch, and the acting is overall superb. It's a great film for old film nerds like myself to enjoy and I feel like it could be a good film to spark an interest in someone about Old Hollywood. Worth checking out either way!
Minari
I feel like this was the most exciting film I wanted to watch going into the Oscar race, maybe along with Sound of Metal. My history is one of living in Arkansas while very young and having grandparents that had a farm there. This film is about Korean immigrants who, after other stays in the US, move to Arkansas to start a farm. I think I was irrationally excited to see a farm in Arkansas from the 80's and to see if it resonated with me. The film did indeed, even if it had nothing to do with my experience. Steven Yeun, in a brilliant performance, moves his family to Arkansas from California to start a farm. Family drama ensues with his wife, and his mother-in-law arrives to help out. Youn Yuh-jung is the mother-in-law and infuses the film with some life as she leaves her mark on the story. The wife doesn't like the trailer they live in and is just overall pretty negative about the whole thing while Yeun and Yuh-jung try to make her feel at home. The film is beautifully shot and I love that racism is not a factor in the story. That sounds weird, but I love that it focuses on their struggle with the farm and personally and not because Billy Bob wants to kill them or something. I love, too, that this is based off director Lee Isaac Chung's personal experiences with his family in Arkansas. It being true to life lends it some airs of being legit. Love this film a lot and I am grateful to see it do well with the Academy.
Promising Young Woman
While watching this film, I totally forgot it was nominated for Best Picture. I was thinking to myself I can't believe this landed a Best Director and Best Actress nomination and Best Original Screenplay win and didn't get a BP nod. Well it did, and I am honestly glad it did because this is such an interesting and subversive film. It starts off having you think that this is going to be some female serial killer horror type film and then opens up into this revenge story of sorts for a woman traumatized by her best friend getting raped, dropping out of med school, and killing herself. Carey Mulligan's character searches out men who take advantage of her in bars when she pretends to be drunk to expose their nice guy hypocrisy and eventually is able to get revenge on those responsible for the rape and trauma. It's a really dark comedy slash tragedy. Mulligan balances on that fine line masterfully as she has moments of comedic greatness, romantic sweetness, and tragic hopelessness. This was Emerald Fennell's directorial debut and she got a BP nod and a rare female director nom and won a writing Oscar. Pretty great for the actress who played young Camilla Parker-Bowles on The Crown (she was/is an actress in lots of British things). The film does look great and I like how the focus is always on Mulligan and how she looks and feels. This is probably a film that wouldn't have gotten into this category in previous years without the Academy getting more diverse and younger. Because what old, or not old, white guy wants to be confronted with his own toxic behavior? And in a revenge fantasy sort of way to boot? It's absolutely worth a watch because I feel Mulligan should have won the Oscar for this performance and because it's highly entertaining.
Sound of Metal
This was one of the films I was most excited to watch because the premise was really intriguing to me. It's about Riz Ahmed's character who is a metal drummer who starts losing his hearing and has to deal with that new reality. I actually thought it might dive a bit more into the music side of the idea, but the music part was really mostly an afterthought or at least not as central to the story. Him being a drummer and musician is important, yes, but not the actual music which was not really very good at all. That was a bit disappointing because I am a fan of all different types of metal. Anyway, the story is more focused on his relationship with his girlfriend/singer (Olivia Cooke, who is amazing and would have been in my Supporting Actress nominees) and him dealing with becoming deaf and what that entails. He goes to a shelter/rehab facility for deaf addicts and meets Paul Raci's character who essentially teaches him how to be deaf and be okay with being deaf. I loved this film because of Ahmed's performance (and Raci and Cooke, too) and with how the film portrayed sound. We experience long moments of utter silence, we hear the loud noises of deaf people "talking" at a dinner table as they sign and have conversations and eat loudly, we hear the warped sound of the cochlear implant once it is activated and how disorienting it feels. The film won the Oscar for Editing and Sound and those moments where the film puts us in the deaf world are incredible and allow us to immerse ourselves in the story and better relate to what Ahmed is going through. It's brilliant and really elevates the film into something better. I also like how the ending isn't absolute and feels more like a beginning as Ahmed accepts being deaf, which is how I took it, because it feels more open to interpretation and to think about what comes next for Ahmed. This is a great look into the deaf community, even just this tiny slice of life peek into what one person experiences. Really wish this film had done better, but two Oscar wins is pretty impressive and I'm glad I got to watch it.
The Trial of the Chicago 7
I was really worried that this film would be such a treacly, polished film that it would be hard to treat it seriously. But I was pleasantly surprised that this was such an earnest film that wasn't just some propaganda type of thing. By that I mean, it's easy to see that this is an Aaron Sorkin film and to maybe assume it exaggerates a left leaning issue. I am happy to say that it actually dials back just how egregious the judge acted and what he did to Bobby Seale in that courtroom. Sorkin felt like I just explained, that people would look at how that judge acted and think this was some over the top leftist propaganda crap. But that judge, played brilliantly by Frank Langella, was worse than we could have imagined. The film is obviously a trial film where eight different people from various groups who protested the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago were arrested for trumped up charges. It became seven after Bobby Seale, a founder of the Black Panther party, was removed from the trial to stand for his own separate trial because of his treatment and the fact that he had nothing to do with anyone else in the group. The film has a great pace to it, which is to be expected of Sorkin flicks, but it flows so well and weaves in flashbacks to great effect to help us understand who everyone is and why they are here. The acting is all around fantastic with Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Sacha Baron Cohen, Daniel Flaherty, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Keaton, Frank Langella, John Carroll Lynch, Eddie Redmayne, Noah Robbins, Mark Rylance, Alex Sharp, and Jeremy Strong. I stole that list from Wikipedia but it shows the insane cast and how great they all are. Cohen was nominated in Supporting Actor, but honestly, almost any of those names could have replaced Cohen or another actor in that category. Rylance is my favorite and I even think Redmayne is good, shocker I know given my hate of his previous win! A good film that highlights a moment in our history that is just completely fucked up. Wish this was the last film to do that.
This is a very solid group of nominees, but I am actually struggling to come up with a winner. Like I said in my opener, a lot of people had different films they considered to be their favorite and I see why that was true. What I do know is that I find Nomadland to be my least favorite. I see why it won and it's a beautiful little film, but it never grabbed me and I never felt invested in the characters or story. Simple as that. The Father has great acting and a hard story to tell, but it also is a film I'll probably never watch again because it's not really fun or exciting in any way in telling it's harsh truth. Promising Young Woman is a film that would never have made it into the BP race in previous years without the expansion to 5-10 films. And this film is mostly about Carey Mulligan who carries it hard. Without her, the film would go nowhere. Minari was great to watch, but that film is also buoyed by Youn Yuh-jung who adds a spark to a film that otherwise could have been depressing and glum all the way through. The four films left are the ones I would enjoy watching again and again through the years. The Trial of the Chicago 7 has great flow, loads of great acting, and was incredibly interesting to watch a historical moment I didn't have much knowledge on. Sound of Metal has great acting and a story that just hits all the right emotional buttons for me and is, at the end, somewhat hopeful. Mank is a great old Hollywood film carried hard by a brilliant Gary Oldman. A great film for us film nerds, it's got a lot of humor to it and I enjoy the overall feel of the film. Judas and the Black Messiah has had the most lasting scene for me where Daniel Kaluuya's character shouts I am...a revolutionary! over and over. It still pops into my head all the time and I have to say it myself. An absolutely solid film with great acting and a very intense story. I guess it is my winner for now, but I could easily switch it out with Mank, as I think those two are the tops from this group. So a really solid group of nominees without an obvious winner, but that's okay for me. I'll take that over a couple stinkers any day. Excited to move on and get closer to the newest Oscar year.
Oscar Winner: Nomadland
My Winner: Judas and the Black Messiah
Mank
Sound of Metal
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Promising Young Woman
The Father
Nomadland
No comments:
Post a Comment