In 2021, we had a strong year for film. What a pleasure to see so many curious, energetic, and involving movies.
The Oscar nominations for the year are in. I will talk a little bit about a few categories.
And here I’ll credit the wonderful Brandon Swofford for his always-anticipated end of year supercut
BEST PICTURE:
Belfast, CODA, Don’t Look Up, Drive My Car, Dune, King Richard, Licorice Pizza, Nightmare Alley, The Power of The Dog, West Side Story.
What’s Noteworthy: CODA made it in. Unlike recent Sundance darlings considered crowd-pleasing but perhaps not formally showy enough for Oscar (Palm Springs, Me, Earl and the Dying Girl) this one had legs, it turns out. Drive My Car managed to continue the streak of breaking the non-English-language barrier. Nightmare Alley sneaks in on its strengths, which is surprising, since Del Toro’s direction, high style, and gorgeous mise en scene wasn’t enough for him to be noted in the Best Director category. The Shape of Water’s Best Picture and Director wins were inextricably connected: his vision, heart, and texture were so clearly what was being awarded.
The sure things were West Side Story, Belfast, and Power of the Dog. Each is in a category of film considered venerable and steady in the Oscars overall. We have a handsome, moving musical made by a master whose work is still broad and palatable (Chicago). A poignant portrait of recent history with affirmation and survival at its heart (Roma, The King’s Speech, etc). And a serene, grown-up Western that might even match this year’s Shakespeare adaptation for Shakespearean-ness (Brokeback Mountain, The Unforgiven, True Grit).
King Richard and Dune were both expected to feature, though no real money would favour them to win. Dune here fits into the Inception spot — the expanded number of nominees that has existed since 2009 was put into effect partly to allow for the fact that more people, real viewers, will claim Avatar, Toy Story 3, Inception, or Dune as their favourite of the year than was previously acknowledged. To be clear: these are meticulous, artful, engaging works. The fact that prior to that, your Munichs and your The Readers and your Cider House Rules earned nominations is telling. Strong films. But good luck waiting for the next time one of your friends suggests you spend the evening watching one.
So is Best Picture an acknowledgement of year’s finest piece of art, or of the best movie-going experience your average viewer will likely have?
How often have these overlapped?
Chariots of Fire is a moving and timeless film, but Raiders of The Lost Ark is a singular feat of set pieces, satisfaction, thrills, humour, and adventure. Moonlight and La La Land each offer much to recommend, but one offers a confectionary, golden hour tale of what it means to try to find love, and the other plunges into the private places of desire, identity, and forgiveness with poetry and peace.
Driving Miss Daisy, which won the award the year I was born, is often cited as a lightweight victor. Hardly the equal of My Left Foot, Henry V, or Born on the Fourth of July. But are the Oscars, overall, lesser, because they recognized that small, empathetic, rote, conventional story? It’s one that teachers can show in class, and children can watch. The 90s was full of turmoil and edgy expression. Pulp Fiction, American Beauty, Fight Club, Forest Gump, and other works took moviemaking to its limits. But as a teacher, I’m grateful for Driving Miss Daisy, not to mention Queen of Katwe, and Hidden Figures. As a movie nerd, I’ll always champion your Uncle Boonmees, your Rust and Bones, your Santa Sangres, your Cures, and other things which I love for their visceral impact. They are thrilling, under-represented, and in a perfect world, would make as much profit as Spider Man. But there’s a place for all. And I so very much want intelligent, non-trite, simple, impactful films that children can see. Have we all forgotten that It’s a Wonderful Life is a story centred on suicide, financial ruin, post-war trauma, and more; and yet is balanced, charming, comprehendable for even young viewers, and life-affirming? Where is the grown-up PG film these days? Field of Dreams and The Artist are two outliers from recent decades. Neither is my favourite, but they are there, skillful, with narrative power, offering kids more to chew on than just big bright action.
The Best Picture category has expanded and so have our options. Parasite blew the doors off of the thing a couple of years ago; a movie that proved that something can be high art, searing intellectual material, and also entertaining and not a bummer. Nomadland gave credit to small features, and for my money, was a belated nod to Debra Granick, whose Winter’s Bone and Leave No Trace were, respectively, the best American film of the year, and one of the most mature American dramas, period. There are so many more examples. Do I like Green Book, The Help, or Les Miserables? Not especially. Am I glad that they got people into cinemas, touched them, and tried for grand, satisfying spectacle and the empathy that film of all media is suited to conveying? I certainly am.
My Prediction: Power of The Dog.
My Fantasy Nominee: Memoria. Together, Together.
Undernoticed / Don’t Sleep on It: Pig.
***
BEST DIRECTOR:
Kenneth Branagh (“Belfast”) Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (“Drive My Car”) Paul Thomas Anderson (“Licorice Pizza”) Jane Campion (“The Power of the Dog”) Steven Spielberg (“West Side Story”)
What’s Noteworthy: Jane Campion, who will win, is up again (following The Piano). Hamaguchi crossed the language barrier for a nod. Somehow, recent masterpiece and fellow Murakami adaption Burning didn’t manage this. Have you seen that? It is overwhelmingly involving and haunted. It’s a knockout.
Shocking that Del Toro made it into the Best Pic category but not this, considering that he’s so elemental to his films’ working. And, frankly, for all of its incredible success here, Flee still can’t manage to convince the Oscars that a doc / semi-animated film is just as skilled in the directing as anything else. Honestly, has anything ever been better directed than 1990’s animated Beauty and the Beast? Think about it. The Imitation Game gets a Best Achievement in Direction nomination, but not that? Give me a break.
Anderson, who has always somehow been both America’s favourite modern master and also a bit Too Weird For Proper Oscar Love, features here. Branagh has been in the game longer than you think, and is more nominated and awarded than you think, but it would mighty strange if Belfast and not Roma were the black-and-white, conventionally powerful, real-life-based crowd pleaser to win the award.
I’ve not seen Licorice Pizza, but I can say that the best directed American film of the last year Anderson was nominated was Phantom Thread. Not even close.
Spielberg has now been nominated in this category in 6 decades, so he’s Elton Johnned himself (that man’s first single was Your Song in 1969, and he’s not missed a number one in any decade since).
Spielberg makes difficult, beautiful direction look easy. He can be easy to overlook. Examine Bridge of Spies, War Horse, or Munich, not to mention Jurassic Park or The Adventures of Tintin. He’s a gift. Like Scorsese, we can get immune to just how energetic and talented he is at filling each frame with information, and at drawing out top-notch performances.
Campion’s mastery here is perfect. There’s not a moment or choice that she has made wrong, and you feel it throughout the film. I wish that Oscar had noticed that during Bright Star, one of the loveliest, oddest, and most controlled films ever made — and one whose direction is sublime.
My Prediction: Campion for Power of The Dog.
My Fantasy Choice: Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Memoria). Joanna Hogg (Souvernir 2) Jaymes Samuel (The Harder They Fall)
Undernoticed / Don’t Sleep on It: Together, Together (Nikole Beckwith).
***
BEST ACTOR:
Javier Bardem (“Being the Ricardos”), Benedict Cumberbatch (“The Power of the Dog”), Andrew Garfield (“Tick, Tick … Boom!”), Will Smith (“King Richard”), Denzel Washington (“The Tragedy of Macbeth”)
What’s Noteworthy: As expected. All strong. Good set. I was happiest to discover that Bardem (as with the whole film) turned my skepticism aside — it’s a weird flick, and a compelling one, and he and Kidman are both really good. Garfield is the strongest part of his film — an actor with strengths and flaws put into the correct spot to highlight the former and mitigate the latter. Washington, the great figure of our acting generation in America, is a bit — just a bit — showy for me in a film that is a triumph of design and cinematography. Benedict, who will win, is a showstopper. It’s casting at its best. Find the thing we didn’t know this charismatic person has in them. It’s a performance for the ages. The movie’s whole tension, bound-up wrath, and poetry are located in him. It’s been wrongly — I think — marked as being “about toxic masculinity”. It’s not. It’s about human weakness, the mask of confidence, and how fragility and bombast seem to be one thing in one context, but can grow and shape and breathe into another.
Will Smith is one of the most magnetic screen presences of our generation, and is both over and underrated. I’m glad for his nomination. He’s unique among this set as having proven himself across genres : action, comedy, high drama, and more all come to him with relative ease. What a joy to settle into your seat and see his face.
My Prediction: Cumberbatch, as it should be. This is the one that will last, no question.
My Fantasy Nominee: Cage for Pig. Johnathan Majors for The Harder They Fall. Peter Dinklage for Cyrano.
Undernoticed / Don’t Sleep on It: Ed Helms in Together Together.
***
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Ciarán Hinds (“Belfast”), Troy Kotsur (“CODA”), Jesse Plemons (“The Power of the Dog”), J.K. Simmons (“Being the Ricardos”), Kodi Smit-McPhee (“The Power of the Dog”)
What’s Noteworthy: This is where the small, little-seen Belfast becomes a big contender. Not that it will win, but filling up supporting roles marks it as the kind of classic piece that the Academy loves: it’s there consolation and there way of saying that we still want out beloved character actors featured in palatable literary roles.
Troy Kotsur in CODA is just wonderful. The movie itself is very good, and somewhat flawed. It never lifts off to the levels it could have. But it’s a treat, and moving indeed. And aside from the fact that Emilia Jones should have a Lead Actress nomination (and Marlee Matlin should have a supporting), it’s strong stufff, and the performances are roundly touching. Give Kotsur the award. Last year we had Paul Raci in the first supporting actor nomination for a mostly ASL role. Now we have the first capital D Deaf actor nominated. But don’t be mistaken: he’s nominated for his intense, tender performance. It’s great.
Ciaran Hinds has been so good for so long that he can be overlooked sometimes. The man brings gravity and beauty to everything he touches. From The Terror to Munich to Persuasion, he is a unique leading male who has seriousness, delicacy, and intelligence in his every look. Perhaps Ms. Coleman is the closest analog.
Jesse Plemons excels at roles that may be easy to pass over in their seeming smallness (or unlikability), but he’s been a standout in so many things.
I think that J.K. Simmons is the biggest surprise here. He, like the film in general, was a cut above what I expected. It’s a good movie; somewhat shockingly considering how suited it is to pandering to Sorkin’s worst instincts (for the record, I also liked Steve Jobs very well). Simmons is…good in it. To nominate him but not Nina Arianda or, hell, Tony Hale, seems odd. I feel like he has past-nominee / past-winner bump on that one. Had he not stormed the award with Whiplast (well deserved), he’d never be on this list. That said, he’s great. He’s always great.
My Prediction: I think that it’s the year of the dog. I think Smitt-McPhee takes it. And I think he should.
My Fantasy Nominee: Vincent Lindon for Titane. No question. Lambert Wilson in Benedetta. Corey Hawkins in The Tragedy of Macbeth.
Undernoticed / Don’t Sleep on It: Robin De Jesus in Tick Tick…Boom. Bradley Whitford in the same.
BEST ACTRESS:
Jessica Chastain (“The Eyes of Tammy Faye”), Olivia Colman (“The Lost Daughter”), Penélope Cruz (“Parallel Mothers”), Nicole Kidman (“Being the Ricardos”), Kristen Stewart (“Spencer”)
What’s Noteworthy?: Kristen Stewart, who should have been nominated for Personal Shopper in 2017, receives her first nod here. It’s trite and silly to note, but she beat our Robert Pattinson, who deserved nods for Good Times (blistering, showstopping) in the lead role and Lost City of Z in supporting.
In truth, there’s a better Kristen Stewart sort-of-sees-ghosts film, and that’s Personal Shopper. I rather admire Pablo Larrain whose “No” was on my top of the decade, and whose “The Club” is devastating and important. But somehow he’s now become the go-to director for glum, wit-free pieces about sad notable women. Surely, Jackie did more interesting things on any given day of her like than Jackie, the film, suggested. Surely Diana Spencer is a fascinating figure worth a layered look beyond this. Stewart is a skilled performer, but this is, for my money, an awfully effortful piece. Despite enjoying some things about it much (anytime she and Sean Harris are on screen. Tim Spall, enough said.), I found it without poetry. Compare with Power of the Dog for why darkness is not profundity in and of itself. And why properly tragic, brutal, or cynical work can still have colour, form, decency, and texture.
The rest is fairly rote. Nicole Kidman is one of the last proper stars we have, glamourous, commanding, extraordinary. I love seeing Coleman back, I’ve not seen the film, but she’s one of my favourite people going back to Peep Show and Tyrannosaur. When Penelope Cruz and Jessica Chastain are your minor nominees, you’re in good company.
My Prediction: This is perhaps the closest race. No clear frontrunner, other than…Kidman? It was a movie a lot of people watched, and it was ready to be an enormous miscalculation until…it wasn’t. It was very good. And she is, in it.
I think the spoiler could go to Chastain. The film itself didn’t pick up enough surrounding momentum, but that would be the Judy / Iron Lady scenario. And Chastain is due.
My Fantasy Nominee: Agathe Roussell in Titane. A first timer. You won’t be able to take your eyes off of her. And it’s…not an easy role, to say the least.
Undernoticed / Don’t Sleep on It: Patti Harrison for Together, Together. I’ll keep championing it. Watch her work in it. It’s perfect. Ruth Negga in Passing. Isn’t she just a marvelous screen presence?
***
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Jessie Buckley (“The Lost Daughter”), Ariana DeBose (“West Side Story”), Judi Dench (“Belfast”), Kirsten Dunst (“The Power of the Dog”), Aunjanue Ellis (“King Richard”).
What’s Noteworthy: The evening’s traditional first award is a strong, varied category. Dench, as you’ll have read, is the oldest actor to figure here at age 87, and I can’t imagine anyone who loves film or even just acting in general who wouldn’t happily stand and applaud for her. Mastery of a craft of any sort is always arguable, sometimes debatable, and once in a long while unquestionable. She’s right up there with your F. Scott Fitzgeralds, your Rembrants, and your Alex Dumas’ if you ask me. Born for it, and blazingly good at it.
Ariana DeBose’s nod gives a bit of depth to West Side Story’s total nods, even if for me, it feels like this year’s Mank: the one with a lot of class and traditional appeal that just can’t light much of a fire.
King Richard likewise feels just a tad edgless and underseen to pick up prizes. That’s not a qualitative judgement. Just considering it in line with past nominees that are nice, well done, and not quite juicy or showy (or promoted) enough to grab that momentum. Aunjanue Ellis — so good in everything from True Blood to When They See Us is a deserving name.
Jessie Buckley is in the Zazie Beetz category of Suddenly Everyone Wants To Work With Her (and for good reason in both cases). She’s got that something. It’s nice to see her nod here for Maggie Gyllenhaal's powerful film. But I think there’s a sort of “she’ll have more chances” mindset that often turns voters to someone who’s been putting in the work for longer.
And so…
My Prediction: Toughie. But I think it’s down to Dench v. Ellis. If Belfast shows well overall, Dench might be part of that wave. I feel that…it won’t. But it may.
My money, in betting terms, is on Dunst, and on Power of the Dog as a whole. She’s the pin that that film turns on, and it’s just a cut above its peers in terms of maturity, drama, and art.
My Fantasy Nominee: Marlee Matlin for CODA. She’s exceptional in it. There’s not a frame you’ll take your eyes off of her. And she’ll make you cry.
Undernoticed / Don’t Sleep on It: Daphne Patakia for Benedetta.
