Current Events > Ranking the Best Picture nominees.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I finally decided to do my annual quest to watch the nominees. I was tapped out of new releases in 2020, having only seen Mank before the nominees were announced.

First tier, probably all 6-7 on an arbitrary 10 point scale.

Judas and the Black Messiah - Probably the best directed movie of the bunch. Looks great (Sean Bobbitt from 12 Years a Slave, Place Beyond the Pines, etc shot it), sounds great, captures angry/desperate tone. But the characters are a bit half-baked. Doesn't capture LaKeith Stanfield's traitor character's paranoia as well as it could have nor did it really follow Kaluuya as Fred Hampton close enough to make his inevitable murder as heartbreaking. I felt like we saw Hampton too much as a Black Panther leader and not enough as a regular guy who wants to be a good dad/husband. Stanfield also seemed a bit stiff. Disappointing cuz I keep seeing people say he's great.

Sound of Metal - Riz Ahmed does a lot of mugging in this one. TBH the movie may have been better if it went balls to the wall and just made the entire movie sound like his perspective. I really liked Paul Raci as the guy who leads this deaf addict community though. Has three really good scenes near the end which helps the kinda whatever movie before that.

The Father - Sort of gimmicky to the point where I'm not sure it'd be good on multiple viewings but it was effective enough for first viewing. Hopkins gets to go on a lot of wild monologues and the Olivia actresses are good as well. Good use of spatial filmmaking because the camera turn a corner and all of a sudden you're wondering if you're in the same setting, which puts you in same mindset as Hopkins' character.

Middle tier, probably all 4-6 on an arbitrary 10 point scale.

Minari - This was an agreeable enough of a movie. But pretty Sundance-y. Has a precocious kid, whacky grandma, sweeping score that plays as people hold their hands out to touch the grass in a sun-drenched field, has a big melodramatic ending despite otherwise being a low-key movie, etc. Has a few laughs at least. Wonder if A24 marketing made this more popular.

Mank - Hideously ugly movie. They said they wanted to emulate the look of old movies so they go black and white but they shot it digitally. Honestly it almost looks like everything was green screen. As an big fan of old movies you'd think this subject matter would be up my alley but wow no it's really boring. Has a weird framing device flashing back on Mank's life as how he's becoming inspired to write the Citizen Kane screenplay. There's a side plot about making political propaganda to take down the evil socialist, Upton Sinclair, and tbh an entire movie could have been about this and been way more interesting. Oh well.

Promising Young Woman - Really stupid movie about a woman who acts drunk at bars so that men take her home to try and take advantage of her and then... she reveals she's sober and scares the shit out of them. I dunno. It has a very obvious Wes Anderson influence with the quirky sets and center placed camera but has such a clearly sleazy, fucked up premise as you find out more. Would have been better if it leaned more into a thriller direction. Has a very contrived ending with cops being the good guys when they always let young women down in these kinds of situations lol! Really bad ending but the movie is kind of fun if not extremely stupid before that.

Bad tier

The Trial of the Chicago 7 - Don't think Sorkin is suited for this material. He tosses in Sorkinisms when its ostensibly a movie about centrists and the right trying to tear down people fighting for equality and being anti-war. Should have been in the hands of someone angrier and less focused on quips and the screenplay. Of course it ends with the right wing prosecutor clapping for the defendants (this did not happen in real life). Horrific Frank Langella mugging, really everyone (Redmayne also horrible with whatever accent he was doing) was bad except Mark Rylance and Michael Keaton. But it is shot handsomely and has big Oscar baity scenes so it had to be nominated I guess.

Nomadland - Really fucking boring. I see a lot of people railing on it for its handling of Amazon (the lead character does seasonal work in a warehouse) but I more just take umbrage with the movie being a bore. Frances McDormand drives her van around the desert listening to non-actors tell their stories. They'll give a sad monologue and then there's an awkward cut to Frances reacting to it when she is very clearly NOT reacting to this story and it's a take that was made later. Maximum cringe. Also has a weird score that sounds more in place in a Victorian romantic drama instead of a movie where Frances is having diarrhea in a bucket in her van. Lots of golden hour shots to make easily impressionable people swoon. This is the favorite to win Best Picture and would be the worst winner of the last decade, I think.

None of the nominees are as good as the last movie I saw in theaters, Emma, btw.

Probably the worst lineup I've seen since I started following the ceremony in 2009. Can't wait to watch the show tonight. Steven Soderbergh is directing it! WOO!

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I've still only seen Chicago 7 and Nomadland. Been really lagging this year as far as nominated stuff goes.
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Phantom_Nook posted...

I've still only seen Chicago 7 and Nomadland. Been really lagging this year as far as nominated stuff goes.

hard to get excited about watching them tbh

still need to see tenet, first cow, wolfwalkers, soul, another round, some other sorta notable movies from the year

2020 tho seems like a fake and lame year for movies and most everything else probably, ready to move past it

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This is the first year that I can remember where I didn't see any of the best picture nominees. My wife and I are huge cinephiles but our movie watching habits have completely fallen to the wayside without going to theaters.

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Ah I wasn't the only one that didn't like Promising Young Woman. It started out well enough but started getting cliche and silly towards the end.

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K181 posted...

This is the first year that I can remember where I didn't see any of the best picture nominees. My wife and I are huge cinephiles but our movie watching habits have completely fallen to the wayside without going to theaters.

yeah streaming stuff is bad

movies in theaters much better

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bump cuz its showtime baby

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Tough luck, nerd.
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Cinema is dead, deal with it

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Shame Bad Boys 4 Life got snubbed

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They should have given it to Birds of Prey

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great show

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