It’s been a long time coming but I can now say I have watched and reviewed the Best Picture nominations for the Oscars 2021. This is the first time I’ve actually watched all of the noms for any year, let alone reviewed them, so it’s just as ground-breaking as some of the films reviewed here. It has taken an embarrassing amount of time to do this project from a personal perspective. Initially, there were dates of when I watched the movie and then when I reviewed it, as a way of tracking the journey and accountability. Well, let’s just say life has a way of getting in the way but at least I have spent time writing those screenplays I mentioned previously. I’ve learnt and re-learnt a lot during this project. The most crucial thing I found out was that I was completely deluded when I said I like writing in the introduction and it’s more of a love/hate relationship: I love telling stories and jokes but hate writing them down so they’re actually coherent. It’s just fortunate that I’m an audacious masochist who’s finally learnt the power of not self-destructing completely that I have even made it this far but I digress.
Let’s talk about these movies as a group. The connecting thread throughout this set of films is loss. From losing who you are in the Sound of Metal & The Father, to losing loved ones in Promising Young Woman & Nomadland, and even losing rights in Judas & The Black Messiah and The Trial of Chicago 7, grief and loss is the recurring theme. Not exactly the happiest of topics, but it seems a very apt representation for the year 2020 where everyone has lost so much. Most try to fight this feeling as it’s so difficult to confront, becoming even harder to do so when it is deemed unjust, but only through acceptance is weight lifted off of their shoulders. It just always seems to be too late. What accompanies loss throughout these movies, however, is resilience and perseverance, something all of the directors have poured into their art. Their characters have been built to face adversity as they’ve come to expect it due to their identity. They don’t conform to society’s ideals and spit in the face of the status quo, be it black panthers or nomads, writers or farmers. This has also been shown with the amount of first time winners at the Oscars. Three directorial debuts and three making their first “big” film outnumbers the two well-known veterans. The first time two women have been nominated for Best Director in the same year, the first time two people of East Asian descent have been nominated for Best Director in the same year, with winner Chloé Zhao the common denominator. The best actor nominations features Riz Ahmed, the first muslim to be nominated in this category, and Steven Yeun, the first person of East Asian descent to be nominated in this category. Daniel Kaluuya the first British Black actor to be nominated multiple times and the first to win an award in the acting category. The list goes on, but my point is that they’ve all overcome barriers due to their identity and the whitewashing track record of The Oscars and the film industry have as a whole.
Now that they’ve been congratulated and identified what brings them together, it’s time to pit them against each other and rank from least favourite to favourite. I have avoided ratings out of ten as my seven will be different to your seven – I know people who don’t go lower than an 8. There’s also too much to convey to whittle it down to a numerical value, and if I were to a lot of these films will rate similarly as these are considered the best of the best. It might be something I consider for individual reviews rather than a season like I’ve done here, but for now it is fairer and more informative to compare them against each other. I would also like to emphasise that it is not best to worst and is not the definitive list. Opinions change, and I am simply one opinion that will certainly be different to yours. Now, with that caveat out of the way:
#8 Mank
If you would have told me that when I started this project a David Fincher film would be bottom of my list for Best Picture, I would have assumed you were either trying to bait me or were just wrong. And yet, expectation is the precursor for disappointment and that’s how I felt after having watched it for the second time. Mank is hard to keep up with and I imagine impossible to watch without subtitles, featuring a somewhat true story of politics in the golden age of cinema. I didn’t feel much sympathy for Gary Oldmam’s Herman Mankiwiesz nor care for the 29 year age gap between him and Tuppence Middleton, who plays Mank’s wife of the same age Poor Sara. A film of a bygone era feels like an Oscar pick of the past too, this one is for film history buffs only.
#7 The Trial of the Chicago 7
Number seven for the Chicago Seven, this important lawroom drama is hampered by lots of cutaways and dialogue that feels too much like a movie, distracting me from the story. The performances are great, but there is certainly less room to manoeuvre when you have to remain accurate to real-life events…
#6 Judas & The Black Messiah
… which is why it feels so brutal to put Judas & The Black Messiah sixth. The characters are complicated and interesting, performed excellently by two of my favourite actors. The way the story is told is ambitious and inspired by one of my favourite films The Departed. The reason why I have placed it sixth is because of the true story elements. It’s clear I have a bias towards narrative and the one told here is just unapologetically brutal with no semblance of redemption. Does that mean it should be changed? No. Does it mean I enjoyed it as much as others on this list? Unfortunately so. A rewatch on the cards at some point.
#5 Sound of Metal
The first film I watched when starting this project was a tone setter for those to come. An original story exploring the idea of losing a sense and coming to terms with it, doing so by creatively mixing sound design encompassing the audience. Discussing themes of self destruction and acceptance, this picture really spoke to me and pips Judas and the Black Messiah to fifth place.
#4 Nomadland
To add to what’s probably a controversial list, the Best Picture winner is fourth. Despite my love for story, the ambitious nature of Nomadland earns the above average place. Part documentary, part journey, Fern’s independence and perseverance to the cause is inspiring to me, someone else trying to make it on their own. Frances McDormand’s and Chloé Zhao’s commitment shows the work ethic required but I appreciate it more than it puts me off.
#3 The Father
This film will mess you up and is like nothing I have ever seen before. Heart-wrenching and impeccably performed, it only comes third because I don’t think I could watch it again.
#2 Minari
Silver medal is the beautiful Minari. What this movie shows is that you cannot underestimate the power of a soundtrack, and Emile Mosseri’s composition is fantastic, with every listen taking me back to the film. To make something of yourself, to prove to your family that you aren’t a failure, strikes my main emotional chord and to be able to tell this story whilst being funny, sad, uplifting, depressing is quite the feat. It teaches you to accept small victories, to persevere through failures, and to be resilient to hardships. This film is life. Minari also manages to fall away from the stereotype that the only Korean films that succeed in the west are revenge thrillers. However…
#1 Promising Young Woman
She certainly is promising. First time feature film director Emerald Fennell knocks it out of the park with a stylish revenge thriller about grief and toxic masculinity. Neon lights and poppy tunes backdrops the dark humour and torrid predators. The genre is a favourite of mine, with this picture reminiscent of Drive (a top 5 of mine) but the violence here isn’t of guns but of accountability. The way Fennell has been able to capture the tone, being able to go from laughs to tension in half a beat whilst remaining respectful of the subject matter, is an incredible feat. It may not have broken the most ground in this year’s Best Picture category, but Promising Young Woman is the new bar for movies, and the one I wanted to watch again instantly.
And that’s a wrap! Season One in the can. Time to send it to the editing department where I can hack it to shreds and erase some of the less kind things I say about myself in order for my critics to come up with their own. I hope you’ve enjoyed what I’ve written and that it encourages you to watch these films. Please share what you think of them with me as I’m dying to talk more about them. If things go to plan, Season Two should be coming soon.