Every year, I try to see all the movies nominated for Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, and all the acting categories. This year was strange to say the least. I only saw three movies in the theatre and that was the Nantucket Drive-In. Instead, I watched many, many movies at home under lockdown. I have watched over 200 movies, new and old, since last March. And, because almost all of the new movies were streamed immediately, I have reached my goal of seeing all the nominated movies.
I resisted seeing a few of the movies until the last minute because I just didn't want to see them. These included Borat 2 (nominated for Best Supporting Actress and Adapted Screenplay) and Hillbilly Elegy (nominated for Best Supporting Actress, and Makeup and Hairstyling). My fears about Borat were well founded. It is one of the worst movies ever made. The nominations are a joke since the performances are awful and there is no screenplay. Hillbilly Elegy was not as bad as I feared, and the Makeup and Hairstyling nomination is definitely deserved!
Anyway, here is my list. I have more overlap than usual with the Oscar nominated films this year. This is possibly due to the fact that I can't remember half the movies that I've seen in the last year, but mostly because they are good movies! The only two that didn't make my list are, The Father, and Judas and the Black Messiah which are both pretty good also.
I'd like to say upfront that I am deeply in love with Frances McDormand so picking this film was a no-brainer. But the combination of McDormand's ethereal acting with the direction of Chloe Zhao and the cinematography of Joshua James Richards has produced an amazing film. Nomadland follows a recently widowed woman, who has sold everything and is traveling the country in a camper van. The scenes at campsites around the country include many non-actors who are doing just that. This is a haunting and poignant film. It could have been a downer but instead, it is beautiful and uplifting. Nomadland should sweep the board and win everything but it probably won't.
Carey Mulligan seems to have been around forever, but she is only 35. Her first role was as Kitty Bennet in the Keira Knightley version of Pride and Prejudice, followed by, among others, An Education, Never Let Me Go, Sufragette, and most recently The Dig. The latter is a sweet little movie with Ralph Fiennes about the discovery of Sutton Hoo ship burial. Mulligan is always good, but in Promising Young Woman, she blows you off the screen. It is also deservedly nominated for Best Director and Original Screenplay, both by Emerald Fennell. If Fennell looks familiar to you, it is because she played the young Camilla Parker Bowles in The Crown. This a captivating and very troubling story about a woman seeking revenge for the death of a friend and willing to sacrifice her own life to do it. Mulligan is mesmerizing.
We all know that Aaron Sorkin can write better than almost anyone, but The Trial of the Chicago 7 is his directorial debut. This film is nominated for a bunch of Oscars including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor (Sacha Baron Cohen), and Original Screenplay for Sorkin. The Trial of the Chicago 7 is a very entertaining film which snaps, crackles, and pops off the screen. That cast is really great including Mark Rylance and Eddie Redmayne (as Americans), Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Frank Langella, and Cohen, who proves that despite Borat he can actually act. The story follows the well-known eponymous trial through all of its intense and weird moments. This film and Judas and the Black Messiah are sort of a set piece since Fred Hampton appears as a character in both.
This movie came out of nowhere and it is just so good. It tells the story of a drummer (Riz Ahmed) in a rock band who starts to go deaf. I know you are starting to think about Children of a Lesser God, but stick with me. This movie does an amazing job of creating the environment that Ahmed is experiencing and sharing it with the audience. In addition to being nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actor, Sound of Metal is nominated for Best Sound which sounds weird but they should win! Also nominated, for Best Supporting Actor, is Paul Raci. He is the hearing son of deaf parents in real life and he gives an amazing performance here. The Best Actor category is very competitive and Chadwick Boseman will probably win but Riz Ahmed deserves it.
Mank has lots of nominations, but I feel like it has been lost in the shuffle. This movie is about the writing of the script for Citizen Kane and it centers on the writer, Herman Mankowitz (Gary Oldman). Orson Welles (Tom Burke) is a minor character, but many Hollywood celebs of the 30s and 40s appear including David O. Selznik, Louis B. Mayer, John Houseman, and William Randolph Hearst. Hearst's young starlet girlfriend, Marion Davies is played by Amanda Seyfried. She is very good in Mank and is nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Mank has about ten nominations including Best Picture and Director (David Fincher), but weirdly not Best Original Screenplay. The writing is very good and so is the direction by Fincher. This is a really good, fun movie that might have won Best Picture in another year.
Minari, mostly in Korean with subtitles, seems like it should be in the Best Foreign Film category, but this film by director, Lee Isaac Chung, the son of Korean immigrants, who grew up on a farm in Arkansas, has made a film about Korean immigrants on a farm in Arkansas. Probably since the subject matter is so close to home, this is an emotional and heart-warming story of a family following the American dream. The ups and downs take a toll on the family and make for a compelling story. The cast is great, particularly Yuh-Jung Youn, who plays the grandmother. She is nominated and favored in the Best Supporting Actress category. Will Patton plays his usual slightly crazy character as a very stereotypical Arkansan who helps out on the farm and drags around a cross on Sundays.
This is not a PBS Nova show nor a bad SciFi movie. There is some questionable astronomy in the script, but Supernova is the story of long-term romantic partners, Sam and Tusker, who are also a very handsome couple since they are played by Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci. They are on a road trip to visit Sam's family and it is quickly evident that Tusker is suffering from dementia. There are no Oscar nominations for this small but engaging film which concentrates on the two main characters and their relationship, obviously nearing its end after 20 years. The two actors, who we have seen in so many other roles, show what good actors they are.
This is definitely the most fun movie on my list. It is the story of Sherlock Holmes younger sister, based on a series of books by Nancy Springer. She has been raised at home by her eccentric mother (Helena Bonham Carter) and pines for her famous brother, Sherlock (Henry Cavill). Enola (Millie Bobby Brown) is a chip off the old block and is eager to become a detective, herself. An opportunity presents itself when her mother mysteriously disappears leaving clues along the way. Brown, best known for playing Eleven on Stranger Things, is wonderful here and the lively script keeps things hopping around Victorian England. Brown and her sister also produced the film. She's 17. You should see this one.
Anyone who has seen Ozark, will know how Julie Garner steals scenes as the tough, smart grifter, Ruth Langmore. In The Assistant, Garner shows her range in a completely different role as a production assistant to an entertainment mogul. It is a low-level job, but she aspires to be a producer. Unfortunately, she is subjected to abuse and sees others abused. When she tries to report it, she is warned that this isn't how to get ahead. The tension is relentless in The Assistant, as we watch Garner go through her drudge work feeling more and more trapped by the day. This film probably could only be written and directed by a woman. Kitty Green does both jobs here very well and Garner is great.
10. The Vast of Night
This is the most obscure film on my list, but it is really good. The Vast of Night is written, directed, and acted to remind the viewer of a 1950's episode of The Twilight Zone. And they do a great job. A teen-age switchboard operator and a radio DJ in a small town, working late at night, start experiencing strange events involving UFOs. The tension grows as the two try to figure out the mystery. Sierra McCormick is wonderful as the young switchboard operator and high-school science whiz. The direction, and the art direction really set the mood as the film follows the mysterious events of one long night. It's definitely worth seeing.
