Oscar Nominations 2021: 9 of 9 (with Final Predictions)

1. The Power of the Dog, Dune, Belfast, and West Side Story
2. King Richard, Drive My Car, Don't Look Up, and Nightmare Alley
3. CODA, Licorice Pizza, Being the Ricardos, and The Lost Daughter
4. The Tragedy of Macbeth, Encanto, No Time to Die, and Flee
5. Tick, Tick... Boom!, Parallel Mothers, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and The Worst Person in the World
6. Cruella, Spencer, The Hand of God, and Lunana: a Yak in the Classroom
7. Cyrano, The Mitchells vs the Machines, Luca, and Raya and the Last Dragon
8. Spider-man: No Way Home, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Free Guy

House of Gucci

1 Nomination

• Makeup & Hairsyling

Director: Ridley Scott

Cast: Lady Gaga, Adam Driver, Jared Leto, Al Pacino, Jeremy Irons, Salma Hayek, Jack Huston, Reeve Carney

 

Father, Son, and House of Gucci. I'm not saying that this was the worst movie of the year, but it was the worst movie I saw this year (neck and neck with Being the Ricardos, actually). I've already written about how terrible I thought this was so I don't think I'll belabor the point too much. But I felt really confident that Lady Gaga was going to end up with another undeserved Oscar nomination, and I think her not getting one back in February was a very big surprise to everyone: she campaigned very hard to get it. The Screen Actors Guild had, in addition, nominated Jared Leto for best supporting actor for what is, perhaps, one of the most baffling performances of the year. I am very grateful that the Academy saw fit to do otherwise and give this film one nomination only – for Jared Leto's makeup.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #60 out of 60

Coming 2 America

1 Nomination

• Makeup & Hairstyling
  

Director: Craig Brewer

Cast: Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, Wesley Snipes, Jermaine Fowler, Shari Headley, Leslie Jones, Tracey Morgan, KiKi Layne, James Earl Jones

Another movie I really enjoyed. I have said before how funny I think Eddie Murphy is. This man makes me laugh like no other, honestly. I love him. This movie – like many Eddie Murphy movies – has scored an Oscar nomination for its makeup. Murphy plays several characters in the film, and so the (excellent) prosthetics that differentiate his characters almost always score a nomination. But C2A is really funny! I had a great time. And honestly I think it deserved a second nomination: for Ruth Carter's costumes. They are absolutely incredible. Some of them had my jaw on the floor. Her work in this is astounding. I know she has an Oscar, but her work is just consistently so imaginative and awesome, and she deserves to be getting nominated every damn year. 

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A
My Rating: #38 out of 60

Four Good Days

1 Nomination

• Song: Diane Warren (The Life Ahead, Breakthrough, RBG, Marshall, The Hunting Ground, Beyond the Lights, Pearl Harbor, Music of the Heart, Armageddon, Con Air, Up Close & Personal, Mannequin)
  

Director: Rodrigo García

Cast: Glenn Close, Mila Kunis, Stephen Root, Carla Gallo, Carlos Lacamara, Michael Hyatt

The Diane Warren effect. Every single year I end up watching a movie I never would have watched otherwise because Diane Warren wrote a song for the movie and it ended up with an Oscar nomination. She literally gets nominated every year – she has for the last 5 years straight – and she has never won. She ain't gonna win again this year either because this Reba McEntire song is fine, but the movie is terrible. I usually love Rodrigo García's work, but Four Good Days is literally just two grown women yelling at one another for 90 minutes. It's painful. I am not sure why this is supposed to be pleasurable or insightful for anyone, but for me it was neither. Most of the film is actually absurd – there's an insane sequence where Mila Kunis visits a classroom full of kids to talk about addiction for reasons that make no sense at all. (Or maybe it's just so she can give a "heartwarming" monologue.) I really don't know what is happening with Glenn Close right now. She's in her irascible grandma phase for some reason, and I just don't get it. Why isn't she playing the kinds of parts Emma Thompson is playing? Instead she's saying immortal lines like "no shit, Sherlock" and "kiss my ruby red asshole". Who would have predicted this for her? In any case, this movie goes to the near bottom of the list, just above Cyrano, Being the Ricardos, and Father, Son, and House of Gucci.
Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #56 out of 60

Final Predictions:

Picture: Power of the Dog

Director: Jane Campion, Power of the Dog

Actor: Will Smith, King Richard

Actress: Kristen Stewart, Spencer

Adapted Screenplay: Siân Heder, CODA (this is a change)

Original Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza

Supporting Actor: Troy Kotsur, CODA

Supporting Actress: Ariana DeBose, West Side Story

Film Editing: Joe Walker, Dune: Part One

Cinematography: Greig Fraser, Dune: Part One

Production Design: Patrice Vermette & Zsuzsanna Sipos, Dune: Part One

International Film: Japan, Drive My Car

Costume Design: Jenny Beaven, Cruella (I changed my tune about this, too)

Animated Feature: Encanto

Sound: Dune: Part One

Visual Effects: Dune: Part One

Makeup & Hairstyling: Dune: Part One

Song: Beyoncé & DIXSON, King Richard

Oscar Nominations 2021: 8 of 9

1. The Power of the Dog, Dune, Belfast, and West Side Story
2. King Richard, Drive My Car, Don't Look Up, and Nightmare Alley
3. CODA, Licorice Pizza, Being the Ricardos, and The Lost Daughter
4. The Tragedy of Macbeth, Encanto, No Time to Die, and Flee
5. Tick, Tick... Boom!, Parallel Mothers, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and The Worst Person in the World
6. Cruella, Spencer, The Hand of God, and Lunana: a Yak in the Classroom
7. Cyrano, The Mitchells vs the Machines, Luca, and Raya and the Last Dragon

Spider-man: No Way Home

1 Nomination

• Visual Effects

Director: Jon Watts

Cast: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Benedict Cumberbatch, Marisa Tomei, Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, Jamie Foxx, Andrew Garfield, Tobey Maguire, Jon Favreau, Tony Revolori

 

I thought this was pretty fun, despite the fact that the last Spider-man movie I saw was the third Tobey Maguire Spidey. Thankfully, my niece Hannah gave me a play-by-play of the entire plot of this movie, including explanations about why particular moments had emotional weight. I duly felt the emotional weight of these moments, and was grateful for her explanations. It honestly was kinda cool watching the three Spideys together. However, I continue to think Alfred Molina's Doctor Octavius character is of absolutely no interest, and I can't say I care much about the Willem Dafoe guy with his goblin-heads either. But the visual effects were just really fun to watch, and I adore Tom Holland. He's so charismatic and delightful that I kind of think I'll wind up watching his other two Spidey movies. As for Oscars, the studio was hoping this third film might actually pull a Best Picture nomination somehow. Everyone loves this movie, but not enough to call it Best Picture of the year. Could this win for Visual Effects, on the other hand? I think it could. Marvel has not had a great track record with this, but it's possible.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: Visual Effects

My Rating: #24 out of 60

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

1 Nomination

• Visual Effects
  

Director: Destin Daniel Cretton

Cast: Simu Liu, Awkwafina, Tony Leung, Meng'er Zhang, Michelle Yeoh, Ben Kingsley, Fala Chen, Yuen Wah, Florian Munteanu

I enjoyed this Marvel movie, too. For some reason I saw a much larger number of MCU movies this year – I saw Black Widow and Eternals too, and surprisingly liked them both! This one has a really ridiculous final battle. It's a battle (as so many of these movies are) for the fate of the universe or whatever between a pure good and a pure evil. Whatever. This is fun for most of its running time, though, even if it can't stop itself from overplaying its hand in act three. The opening fight sequence in the transit bus is really incredible. I had a good time.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A
My Rating: #31 out of 60

Free Guy

1 Nomination

• Visual Effects
  

Director: Shawn Levy

Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Jodie Comer, Lil Rel Howery, Joe Keery, Utkarsh Ambudkar, Taika Waititi, Channing Tatum, Aaron Reed

I also liked Free Guy. This is a fairly dumb premise, and it is made dumber by Taika Waititi's idiotic antics, but it has some really cool sequences, and I liked its video game aesthetics a lot. I also loved Channing Tatum and most of the really stupid bits that the characters gave us. Utkarsh Ambudkar in a pink rabbit suit playing as a cop inside the game? Very funny stuff. This is an also-ran though. The visual effects team for Free Guy are just happy to be nominated.
Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #34 out of 60

9. House of Gucci, Coming 2 America, and Four Good Days

Oscar Nominations 2021: 7 of 9

1. The Power of the Dog, Dune, Belfast, and West Side Story
2. King Richard, Drive My Car, Don't Look Up, and Nightmare Alley
3. CODA, Licorice Pizza, Being the Ricardos, and The Lost Daughter
4. The Tragedy of Macbeth, Encanto, No Time to Die, and Flee
5. Tick, Tick... Boom!, Parallel Mothers, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and The Worst Person in the World
6. Cruella, Spencer, The Hand of God, and Lunana: a Yak in the Classroom

Cyrano

1 Nomination

• Costume Design: Jacqueline Durran (Little Women, Darkest Hour, Beauty and the Beast, Mr. Turner, Anna Karenina, Atonement, Pride & Prejudice) & Massimo Cantini Parrini (Pinnochio)
  

Director: Joe Wright

Cast: Peter Dinklage, Haley Bennett, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Ben Mendelsohn, Bashir Salahuddin, Monica Dolan, Joshua James

 

Oh shit. This had no right being as bad as it was. I love Joe Wright, and I just can't figure out why he did this. I cannot believe that people were talking about Peter Dinklage possibly getting an Oscar nomination. Sure. If Russell Crowe deserved an Oscar nomination for Les Misérables. This Cyrano exists in some kind of no-man's-land nation that is fighting an unnamed war, and not one moment of it is believable in any way. The entire thing feels artificial. This is made even more absurd by singing and dancing. Like, maybe this could have been something if it did not also ask us to take these characters singing and dancing seriously, but then it does. The characters erupt into song in ways that feel completely unmotivated. Worse still, Peter Dinklage is a terrible singer... I just don't understand what this movie was doing. This movie is laughably, almost hilariously, bad. I want to say something else about this: if you adapt Cyrano de Bergerac into a musical, then you make a transposition: Cyrano must cease to be a poet. Cyrano's poetry exists in this film in addition to the songs, and so the poetry is supposed to be the most beautiful thing in the movie, but of course what needs to be the most beautiful thing in the movie is the music. If you're going to adapt this text into a piece of musical theatre, then you make Cyrano into a singer. He must be a singer with a beautiful voice but an ugly face while Christian, his rival, can't sing a lick but looks beautiful. Or you make Cyrano a lyricist and Christian a singer. Something. But this Cyrano doesn't use the form at all. Instead it tacks tacky songs onto a very old plot for one of the worst movies of the year.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #57 out of 59

The Mitchells vs the Machines

1 Nomination

• Animated Feature
  

Director: Michael Rianda, Jeff Rowe

Cast: Abbi Jacobson, Danny McBride, Maya Rudolph, Michael Rianda, Eric Andre, Olivia Colman, Beck Bennett, Fred Armisen, Chrissy Teigen, John Legend

I know that everyone loved this movie, and I really wanted to like it, but it was not for me. I just absolutely cannot get behind the old narrative that family is everything. Family is not everything. This dad is a dick to his daughter all the while she is growing up, and then the robot overlords come and there is a near apocalypse, and suddenly what this girl learns is that... even though her dad has been kind of a dick and not cared about her interests for the last decade, her family really is the most important thing in the world. Like... ok, but that seems like a rather facile point of view. To be fair, Mitchells has many good jokes, and the animation style is quirky and fun. It deserves its nomination, for sure. I just didn't care for the movie.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A
My Rating: #52 out of 59

Luca

1 Nomination

• Animated Feature
  

Director: Enrico Casarosa

Cast: Jacob Tremblay, Jack Dylan Grazer, Emma Berman, Saverio Raimondo, Maya Rudolph, Marco Barricelli, Jim Gaffigan, Peter Sohn

On the other hand, I really liked Luca. This is really, really cute. I think I enjoyed this more than it really deserved, but it has some awesome moments. Luca is pretty obviously an allegory for sexuality. The kids are really aquatic fish monsters, and they show their true colors when they get wet. But Casarosa's treatment of this is charming. The non-fish-monster girl is hilarious and adorable, and the film really got me a couple of times. There's a true clutch-your-pearls moment at the end of act two that had me shook. I enjoyed this a lot.
Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #27 out of 59

Raya and the Last Dragon

1 Nomination

• Animated Feature
  

Director: Don Hall, Carlos López Estrada

Cast: Kelly Marie Tran, Awkwafina, Gemma Chan, Izaac Wang, Daniel Dae Kim, Benedict Wong, Sandra Oh, Jona Xiao, Lucille Soong

I have to confess to being a little surprised that this film made the final cut for nominations in this category. This was a very strong year for animated features. I saw many more than I usually see because I've been on kind of an animation kick, and I kind of expected Hosoda Mamoru's Belle or Patrick Imbert's Summit of the Gods to appear in this slot. Both were better than Raya, although it is fine, and it has dragons – I love dragons. Instead, the Academy went with a second Disney movie (for the record, this doesn't happen very often – more usually each studio gets one nomination). But Belle and Summit of the Gods are both excellent films, so I guess they just went with the big name. In any case, it's an also-ran here. It can't win a thing. Not against Encanto, dragons or no dragons.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A
My Rating: #43 out of 59

8. Spider-man: No Way Home, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Free Guy

9. House of Gucci, Coming 2 America, and Four Good Days

Turning Red and Seeing Red

There's this very weird moment in Domee Shi's new movie Turning Red. It's early in the film around minute four. The four main girls are all staring at Devon, the 17-year-old convenience store clerk, and Meilin's three friends swoon over Devon, but Meilin says he's gross, makes a barf face, and then says besides he looks like a hobo. And then she does that homophobic broken wrist thing (a gesture that has been reworked and recoded by queer communities on TikTok) that means Is he... you know...? I guess I wouldn't have noticed this except that she says the word hobo, which sounds a hell of a lot like homo. And who calls someone else a hobo anyway? Coupled with the gesture, it sticks out very weirdly.

Now, Meilin does make a limp wrist gesture earlier in the movie, to be fair. When she first gets on the bus (near the two-minute mark) she says I don't mean to brag, but... and makes that broken-wrist gesture. It is, here, designed to indicate a kind of pretentiousness, I guess. Meilin imagines herself a grown up even though she's plainly not, and she's putting on airs.

But what in the world is this hobo thing doing there? It puzzled me the entire film. It feels like a strange, homophobic moment that the filmmakers just let sit there. It's made doubly weird since the entire plot of Turning Red is a kind of large-scale queer allegory. It's about the messiness of puberty, about choosing your friends and your desires over those of your family. And then the film's big lesson is about how we all have messy parts of ourselves that we hide or don't want to admit to – you know, like sexual interests that feel abnormal – but that we need to learn to incorporate them into our subjectivities.

Oscar Nominations 2021: 6 of 9

1. The Power of the Dog, Dune, Belfast, and West Side Story

2. King Richard, Drive My Car, Don't Look Up, and Nightmare Alley

3. CODA, Licorice Pizza, Being the Ricardos, and The Lost Daughter

4. The Tragedy of Macbeth, Encanto, No Time to Die, and Flee

5. Tick, Tick... Boom!, Parallel Mothers, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and The Worst Person in the World

Cruella

2 Nominations

• Costume Design: Jenny Beavan (Mad Max: Fury Road, The King's Speech, Gosford Park, Anna and the King, Sense and Sensibility, The Remains of the Day, Howards End, Maurice, A Room with a View, The Bostonians)
• Makeup & Hairstyling

Director: Craig Gillespie

Cast: Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Joel Fry, Paul Walter Hauser, John McCrea, Mark Strong, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Emily Beecham, Kayvan Novak

I did not really care about this movie, and I waited a very long time to see it. It suffers from the same central problem that plagues The Devil Wears Prada: to wit, it loves its central villain, makes her the most fabulous character in all creation and then expects us to dislike her. Well, I didn't. I guess we're supposed to think she's terrible for committing lots of murders and stealing other people's designs and being a really good editor. But in a world like this where literally everything is fake and the reality is all just surfaces, how can one hate someone who is almost pure surface, who is supremely the best at surfaces? Also this movie is, for some reason, two hours and twenty minutes long. My other real gripe is that it didn't seem like Emma Stone was having very much fun. It felt really earnest for a really long time. Ok but there is something I want you to notice about Jenny Beavan's career. Her earliest nominations are all for Merchant-Ivory films – adaptations of novels by Henry James, E.M Forster, and Kazuo Ishiguro. Then she makes Emma Thompson's Sense and Sensibility, and she continues to dress rich British people, including kings. Then she makes Mad Max: Fury Road and wins. And now she's going to win again. I thought this was a longshot until I saw it. The film is filled with awesome dresses and creative silhouettes. My money is behind Jenny Beavan.

Will Win: Costume

Could Win: Makeup & Hairstyling

My Rating: #48 out of 58

Spencer

1 Nomination

• Actress: Kristen Stewart

Director: Pablo Larraín

Cast: Stewart, Sally Hawkins, Jack Farthing, Sean Harris, Timothy Spall, Jack Nielen, Freddie Spry, Stella Gonet, Laura Benson

I've written about this film here. I think Spencer is a polarizing movie, and the central performance is equally polarizing, although I fall firmly on the side of thinking Stewart is wonderful in it. There has been lots of drama with this nomination. Stewart was long considered the favorite to win the Oscar in this category, and then Nicole Kidman somehow won the Golden Globe award instead. This was followed almost immediately by a snub from the Screen Actors Guild, who thought Lady Gaga and Jennifer Hudson deserved nominations. Insanity. This was all rectified when Stewart scored her first Oscar nomination on February 8, but things were definitely touch and go. Smart money now says the favorite to win Best Actress is Jessica Chastain in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, but I'm sticking stubbornly to Stewart. She's a hard-working actress who has been churning out excellent indie performances for years, and her performance in Spencer is lovely. I think she deserves this, and I think the votes will split in her direction.

Will Win: Actress

Could Win: N/A
My Rating: #15 out of 58

The Hand of God (È Stata la Mano di Dio)

1 Nomination

• International Film: Italy (The Great Beauty, Don't Tell, Life Is Beautiful, The Starmaker, Mediterraneo, Open Doors, Cinema Paradiso, The Family, Three Brothers, Dimenticare Venezia, The New Monsters, A Special Day, Seven Beauties, Scent of a Woman, Amarcord, Investigation of a Citizen above Suspicion, The Garden of the Finzi-Continis, La Ragazza con la Pistola, The Battle of Algiers, Marriage Italian Style, Yesterday Today and Tomorrow, 8 1/2, The Four Days of Naples, La Grande Guerra, Kapò, Big Deal on Madonna Street, Nights of Cabiria, La Strada, The Bicycle Thief, The Walls of Malapaga, Shoeshine)

Director: Paolo Sorrentino

Cast: Filippo Scotti, Marlon Joubert, Toni Servillo, Teresa Saponangelo, Luisa Ranieri, Renato Carpentieri, Massimiliano Gallo, Betti Pedrazzi

I adore Paolo Sorrentino, as you probably know. And The Great Beauty is one of my favorite films of all time, so I fully expected to love The Hand of God... and I did. It's a beautiful, very funny film, even quirky according to Sorrentino standards. The performances are excellent – particularly by Teresa Saponangelo and Luisa Ranieri – and the editing, photography, and design are all impeccable. It's the usual perfect Sorrentino movie, directed with supreme confidence. I loved this. It's on Netflix, and if you haven't seen it yet, I recommend it.
Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #8 out of 58

Lunana: a Yak in the Classroom (লুনানা)

1 Nomination

• International Film: Bhutan

Director: Pawo Choyning Dorji

Cast: Sherab Dorji, Ugyen Norbu Lhendup, Kelden Lhamo Gurung, Pem Zam, Sangay Lham

I've been rooting for Lunana since Bhutan submitted it for the 2020 Oscars but it was disqualified because it was never released because of the global pandemic. Then Bhutan submitted it again for the 2021 Oscars (a couple of countries did this), and it seemed a real longshot. This got a final slot in the five nominees for International Film. Drive My Car, Flee, and The Worst Person in the World all got multiple nominations, and so it's clear that they were shoo-ins for the category. There still remained a large amount of competition, including Finland's Compartment No. 6, which already had a U.S. distributor, Iran's A Hero, directed by multiple winner Asghar Farhadi, and Austria's Great Freedom, which I was also rooting for – since it stars Franz Rogowski and is about a gay prisoner. In any case, Lunana scored a nomination! The film itself, however... is pure Disney. It's a sentimental plot through and through: young man who wants to leave Bhutan is forced to teach small children in the most remote school in the world, high in the mountains. He is resentful and bitter, but then he slowly learns to love their way of life. It's sweet and wholesome, and the vistas are gorgeous. This movie does get better at its end – the last twenty minutes are actually excellent. But, and I hate to say this, you've seen plenty of movies just like this before. Whatever. I'm glad Bhutan got its first nomination, I'm glad Pawo Choyning Dorji made this movie, and I'm glad I saw it.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A
My Rating: Unranked; this is a 2022 release.

7. Cyrano, The Mitchells vs the Machines, Luca, and Raya and the Last Dragon
8. Spider-man: No Way Home, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Free Guy

9. House of Gucci, Coming 2 America, and Four Good Days

Oscar Nominations 2021: 5 of 9

1. The Power of the Dog, Dune, Belfast, and West Side Story

2. King Richard, Drive My Car, Don't Look Up, and Nightmare Alley

3. CODA, Licorice Pizza, Being the Ricardos, and The Lost Daughter

4. The Tragedy of Macbeth, Encanto, No Time to Die, and Flee

 

Tick, Tick... Boom!

2 Nominations

• Actor: Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge)
• Film Editing

Director: Lin-Manuel Miranda

Cast: Garfield, Alexandra Shipp, Robin de Jesus, Vanessa Hudgens, Joshua Henry, Jonathan Marc Sherman, MJ Rodriguez, Judith Light, Bradley Whitford, Ben Levi Ross

I was stunned that I liked this as much as I did, but, listen: Tick, Tick... Boom! was the best musical of the year, followed closely by Belle and Encanto. What's amazing about this is that Belle and Encanto are animated films and Tick, Tick... Boom! isn't, although it does have some cool fantasy sequences – that work well and lean into the theatricality of the piece. It's a pretty stunning achievement, honestly, and I'm glad Garfield has shown up here. He's just great in this. The film editing nod from the editors branch means that they thought it was the best musical of the year, too. Musical films win in this category every once in a while – Bohemian Rhapsody, Whiplash, Slumdog Millionaire – but this movie is just happy to be at the ceremony, I think. It's a small scale movie of a minor musical theatre piece, but Miranda, Garfield, and company knocked it out of the park.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #11 out of 58

Parallel Mothers (Madres Paralelas)

2 Nominations

• Actress: Penélope Cruz (Nine, Vicky Christina Barcelona, Volver)
• Score: Alberto Iglesias (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, The Kite Runner, The Constant Gardener)

Director: Pedro Almodóvar

Cast: Cruz, Milena Smit, Israel Elejalde, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Rossy de Palma

I loved this movie, but I didn't write about it when it came out. It seemed to demand a little too academic of an analysis from me, and I was really busy that month. But here goes: I know a lot of people have had trouble making sense of the first section and last section, which are very seriously about genocide in Spain, and the long middle section, which is sexy and pulpy and brazenly melodramatic. But here's the thing. Melodrama is about the dividedness we experience in side the self. The very purpose of melodrama is to speak about how none of us is single. We are simply not one. Coupling is impossible in melodrama because we are already not one and so we can never be two. We are divided. Our loyalties are split – as Janis's loyalties are split between love for Spain and love for her father, between love for her lover and love for motherhood as such, between her love for Ana and her love for Arturo. But also the question of the pulpy melodrama at the center of Parallel Mothers is a question of paternity/maternity. What does it mean to build a legacy? To have a child? To love it? To want it to last longer? And then to want also to draw back on those in the past. The parallel mothers are, in many ways, all those mothers in the village, raising their children on their own in the fatherless town. The final, gorgeous, heartbreaking shot of Parallel Mothers brings these two plots together flawlessly. This could be your father. This could be your lover. Fascism in Spain broke up the family line. It took babies out of the hands of their fathers. So, I think that what seems like tonal dissonance in this film is actually a perfect parallel.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A
My Rating: #7 out of 58

The Eyes of Tammy Faye

2 Nominations

• Actress: Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty, The Help)
• Makeup & Hairstyling

Director: Michael Showalter

Cast: Chastain, Andrew Garfield, Cherry Jones, Vincent D'Onofrio, Sam Jaeger, Gabriel Olds, Mark Wystrach, Louis Cancelmi

This is a good enough movie, and I enjoyed myself quite a bit. It's also a rather gay movie, even though there are almost no gay characters. The whole thing just has a very gay sensibility. Jessica Chastain is excellent as Tammy Faye, and she manages to be nuanced and sensitive and give us a portrayal of Tammy Faye's depth as a human even when Tammy Faye herself is the shallow caricature we are seeing on television. It's pretty amazing actually, and she is the favorite to win best actress (although I am betting against her). Obviously, also, the Tammy Faye makeup is iconic, and so this film just had to be nominated in that category. It could potentially win that one too.
Will Win: N/A

Could Win: Actress, Makeup & Hairstyling

My Rating: #38 out of 58

The Worst Person in the World (Verdens Verste Menneske)

2 Nominations

• Original Screenplay: Joachim Trier & Eskil Vogt
• International Feature: Norway (Kon-Tiki, Elling, The Other Side of Sunday, Ofelaš (Pathfinder), Nine Lives: the Story of Jan Baalsrud)

Director: Joachim Trier

Cast: Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, Herbert Nordrum, Hans Olav Brenner, Helene Bjørnebye, Vidar Sandem

This is another one of the best movies of the year. I'm telling you: the Academy got a lot right this year. This deserves both of its nominations and actually a bunch more. The three main acting performances are extraordinary, with Renate Reinsve leading the pack. I defy you not to fall in love with her. She's incredible. I love Joachim Trier's movies; I think he has deep insights into human behavior, and this film is no exception. There are just extraordinarily wise sections of this film that ask you to think deeply about your own choices and what you're willing to risk. It's so good. I recommend that you see this movie, and I am not one to recommend movies, usually. But The Worst Person in the World is sexy and funny and wise and dynamic and heartbreaking all at once.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A
My Rating: #2 out of 58

6. Cruella, Spencer, The Hand of God, and Lunana: a Yak in the Classroom
7. Cyrano, The Mitchells vs the Machines, Luca, and Raya and the Last Dragon
8. Spider-man: No Way Home, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Free Guy

9. House of Gucci, Coming 2 America, and Four Good Days

Oscar Nominations 2021: 4 of 9

1. The Power of the Dog, Dune, Belfast, and West Side Story

2. King Richard, Drive My Car, Don't Look Up, and Nightmare Alley

3. CODA, Licorice Pizza, Being the Ricardos, and The Lost Daughter

 

The Tragedy of Macbeth

3 Nominations

• Actor: Denzel Washington (Roman J. Israel, Esq., Fences, Flight, Training Day, The Hurricane, Malcolm X, Glory, Cry Freedom)
• Cinematography: Bruno Delbonnel (Darkest Hour, Inside Llewyn Davis, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, A Very Long Engagement, Amélie)
• Production Design: Nancy Haigh (Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, Hail, Caesar!, True Grit, Dreamgirls, Road to Perdition, Forrest Gump, Bugsy, Barton Fink) & Stefan Dechant

Director: Joel Coen

Cast: Washington, Frances McDormand, Kathryn Hunter, Alex Hassell, Bertie Carvel, Corey Hawkins, Brendan Gleeson, Harry Melling, Moses Ingram, Miles Anderson, Matt Helm

I'm really glad this was recognized for its outstanding production design and gorgeous cinematography. This is Bruno Delbonnel's 6th nomination, and he won't win for this, so he is coming due. Hopefully he wins something soon! I recommend The Tragedy of Macbeth; I really liked it, and although it has a few problems, it's the best Shakespeare adaptation I've seen in a long time. Denzel Washington is so good that I think the production design and cinematography had to be that good just to compete with him for screentime. I don't think this movie will win anything, though.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #14 out of 57

Encanto

3 Nominations

• Score: Germaine Franco
• Animated Feature
• Song: Lin-Manuel Miranda (Moana)

Director: Jared Bush, Byron Howard

Cast: Stephanie Beatriz, Maria Cecilia Botero, John Leguizamo, Wilmer Valderrama, Jessica Darrow, Angie Cepeda, Diane Guerrero, Mauro Castillo, Carolina Gaitán, Maluma, Rhenzy Feliz

This is a beautiful movie with really fun songs and some lovely animation. I thought it was really funny and it also works a lot like a stage musical instead of a movie musical, and I think I liked that... at least for an animated movie like this. Now, everyone knows that the real hit of Encanto in terms of the songs is "We Don't Talk about Bruno", but the song "Dos Oruguitas", the eleven o'clock number that had me in tears, is the song that is nominated. I can see this, but of course this means that the Academy missed the boat on the song from the movie that actually matters a great deal to people at this moment. This was a mistake. Shout out, too, to Germaine Franco. This is her first nomination for original score, and the music branch doesn't frequently let composers into this club and still frequently women composers. So good for her! It isn't my favorite animated film of the year, but I don't think Encanto can lose Animated Feature. It's the one of the five with the most nominations, and it's been racking up wins in other places.

Will Win: Animated Feature

Could Win: Song
My Rating: #17 out of 57

No Time to Die

3 Nominations

• Sound
• Visual Effects
• Song: Billie Eilish & Finneas O'Connell

Director: Cary Joji Fukunaga

Cast: Daniel Craig, Lashana Lynch, Léa Seydoux, Christoph Waltz, Rami Malek, Ana de Armas, Ralph Fiennes, Jeffrey Wright, Naomie Harris, Ben Whishaw, Billy Magnussen, Rory Kinnear

Sure, sure, sure. You have to nominated the Bond movie for these things, and the movie is loud and its visual effects are cool, and the song is... a Bond song. So, ok. Bond 25 was not that great, though, and I think everybody knows it. I mean, it has Rami Malek as a villain, and he spends the whole movie trying to get the audience's sympathy instead of being a terrible villain who wants to destroy the world. This movie is looooong and it has way too many feelings that I didn't understand.
Will Win: N/A

Could Win: Song

My Rating: #50 out of 57

Flee (Flugt)

3 Nominations

• Documentary Feature
• International Feature: Denmark (Another Round, Under Sandet, A War, The Hunt, A Royal Affair, In a Better World, After the Wedding, Waltzing Regitze, Pelle the Conqueror, Babette's Feast, Harry and the Butler, Paw, Qivitoq: the Mountain Wanderer)
• Animated Feature

Director: Jonas Poher Rasmussen

Cast: Amin Nawabi, Daniel Karimyar, Fardin Mijdzadeh, Milad Eskandari, Belal Faiz, Elaha Faiz, Zahra Mehrwarz, Sadia Faiz 

This is one of the best movies of the year. I absolutely loved it, and I'd recommend it to anyone. It's an animated documentary film about a man talking about fleeing Afghanistan and trying to live as a refugee in Europe – first in Russia and then in Denmark. This movie documents illegal border crossings and their difficulties and terrors, but it also gets to something else. This is the story of a man who is now safe, who is now living as a refugee in Denmark and doesn't have too much to worry about, but he can't help but feel, always, like he needs to flee. It is ingrained in him to run away, to mistrust others. And Flee tries to tell the story of how this man must try, then, to develop the loving relationships we all need to flourish in this world. It's a great movie.

Will Win: Documentary Feature

Could Win: International Feature
My Rating: #3 out of 57

5. Tick, Tick... Boom!, Parallel Mothers, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and The Worst Person in the World
6. Cruella, Spencer, The Hand of God, and Lunana: a Yak in the Classroom
7. Cyrano, The Mitchells vs the Machines, Luca, and Raya and the Last Dragon
8. Spider-man: No Way Home, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Free Guy

9. House of Gucci, Coming 2 America, and Four Good Days

Faya Dayi (2021)

Jessica Beshir's Faya Dayi is a trancelike documentary film about the khat industry in Ethiopia. Synopses online repeatedly refer to this film as "hallucinogenic" as well as "about religious rituals related to khat". It is neither of these things. This is a film about economics, labor, and ecology and the effect of this particular industry on different generations of people in Ethiopia. It is not about religion, and the film is neither surreal nor hallucinogenic. It's gorgeously filmed in black and white, and it is meditative and trance-like in a way that recalls the work of Terrence Malick. Even calling this a documentary feels restrictive. The people in this film are real people, but, like... actors are also real people. The characters in this film are played by themselves in a way that feels reminiscent of Chloé Zhao's work, even if the filmmaking style is much more Malick.

Oscar Nominations 2021: 3 of 9

1. The Power of the Dog, Dune, Belfast, and West Side Story

2. King Richard, Drive My Car, Don't Look Up, and Nightmare Alley

 

CODA

3 Nominations

• Picture
• Adapted Screenplay: Siân Heder
• Supporting Actor: Troy Kotsur

Director: Heder

Cast: Emilia Jones, Eugenio Derbez, Daniel Durant, Kotsur, Marlee Matlin, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Amy Forsyth

Can CODA win Best Picture? I think this is the question everyone is asking. This is a sweet, heartfelt film with a very good cast (except for Eugenio Derbez, if you ask me. I don't know what he's doing with his performance). And I get why this movie has become a kind of sentimental favorite, but the favor it's being shown is much, much more than I think anyone expected. People love this movie. I think its complete lack of irony and total sincerity and earnestness make it a kind of breath of fresh air in this evil world. It's also about a hatred of bureaucracy and a valorization of entrepreneurship, so maybe that has something to do with it. In any case, Troy Kotsur is going to win Best Supporting Actor, and it might be wise to bet on this film winning Best Adapted Screenplay and maybe even Best Picture.

Will Win: Supporting Actor

Could Win: Picture, Adapted Screenplay

My Rating: #31 out of 56

Licorice Pizza

3 Nominations

• Picture
• Director: Paul Thomas Anderson (Phantom Thread, There Will Be Blood)
• Original Screenplay: Paul Thomas Anderson (Inherent Vice, There Will Be Blood, Magnolia, Boogie Nights)

Director: Anderson

Cast: Alana Haim, Cooper Hoffman, Skyler Gisondo, Bradley Cooper, Sean Penn, Tom Waits, Christine Ebersole, Benny Safdie, Maya Rudolph, John C. Reilly, Will Angarola, Griff Giacchino, James Kelley

This movie is very, very funny and also totally weird and quirky. The Academy loves Paul Thomas Anderson sort of unabashedly now, and I always think it's surprising that they do because his movies all seem so... idiosyncratic. But, I mean, even Inherent Vice got a Best Screenplay nomination! I really enjoyed Licorice Pizza, although I think I never stopped thinking it was weird. This is the portrait of one very eager teenager's childhood, and it's completely charming and very well directed. I really don't have anything negative to say about it except to remark on the overwhelming whiteness of its gaze. Still, it's one of my favorite movies of the year, and it makes sense that Anderson just went full-in on his own memories and his own picture of Los Angeles in the 1970s. It was a very different time in the world, and this film feels like it gets to the truth of that in some fascinating ways. Is this the year for Anderson to win the Original Screenplay Oscar? He doesn't have one yet, and his competition seems thinner than usual. I'm betting on him. 

Will Win: Original Screenplay

Could Win: N/A
My Rating: #10 out of 56

Being the Ricardos

3 Nominations

• Best Actor: Javier Bardem (Biutiful, No Country for Old Men, Before Night Falls)
• Best Actress: Nicole Kidman (Lion, Rabbit Hole, The Hours, Moulin Rouge!)
• Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons (Whiplash)

Director: Aaron Sorkin

Cast: Kidman, Bardem, Simmons, Nina Arianda, Tony Hale, Alia Shawkat, Jake Lacy, Clark Gregg, Brian Howe, Jeff Holman, Ronny Cox, Linda Lavin, John Rubinstein

This is one of the worst movies I saw this year, but I think people must like it? J.K. Simmons' nomination was a big surprise, and the fact that he got nominated means that the Academy actually likes the movie a lot more than anyone thought. Indeed, Nicole Kidman ended up taking home the Golden Globe award for Best Actress, so it definitely has some support behind it. But, like, if you're home and need a movie to watch, don't watch this one. It's absurd. And there are actual good movies nominated this year. Kidman could win a second Oscar here, but I don't think she will. I'm hoping everyone has figured out by now that this movie is a mess.
Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #55 out of 56

The Lost Daughter

3 Nominations

• Actress: Olivia Colman (The Father, The Favorite)
• Adapted Screenplay: Maggie Gyllenhaal
• Supporting Actress: Jessie Buckley

Director: Gyllenhaal

Cast: Colman, Dakota Johnson, Buckley, Ed Harris, Paul Mescal, Jack Farthing, Peter Sarsgaard, Dagmara Dominczyk, Oliver Jackson-Cohen

From the ridiculous to the sublime. The Lost Daughter was a total surprise to me. It's beautifully, terrifyingly directed, and its protagonist is a fascinating, incredible character. This movie is scary all the way through – scarier than The Power of the Dog, if you ask me – and the film is very well acted. This is one of my favorite films of the year, and honestly I can't say enough good things about it. It's on Netflix, and if you haven't watched it yet, you really must. Gyllenhaal's adaptation of the Elena Ferrante novel is excellent, and this is a very good movie, even though I don't think it'll take home any statues on Oscar Sunday.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A
My Rating: #9 out of 56

4. The Tragedy of Macbeth, Encanto, No Time to Die, and Flee
5. Tick, Tick... Boom!, Parallel Mothers, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and The Worst Person in the World
6. Cruella, Spencer, The Hand of God, and Lunana: a Yak in the Classroom
7. Cyrano, The Mitchells vs the Machines, Luca, and Raya and the Last Dragon
8. Spider-man: No Way Home, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Free Guy

9. House of Gucci, Coming 2 America, and Four Good Days

The Journey of Natty Gann (1985)

The Journey of Natty Gann sounds like a sci-fi movie, but it is a sweet tale of a girl and her wolf and an Odyssey across the northwest during the Depression; it has gorgeous scenery, is completely and totally sentimental in a Disney sense, and has an adorable and chaste romance between a very young John Cusack and the fifteen-year-old heroine.

For me, though, the standout (aside from the fucking awesome wolf) was Ray Wise, who is rather wonderful in this film. I've always thought of him as a character actor, and he is, but here he has a giant part and does superb work carrying the movie. I've never seen the lead actress, Meredith Salenger, in anything else, but she's very good in this.

On Disney+, where I watched this, there is a warning before the movie about "tobacco use" – three kids sneak a puff on a cigarette in the men's room before they get in a fight and start punching one another. There is, however, no warning about the punching, or the attempted sexual assault Natty Gann experiences from a guy who picks her up while she's hitching north, or (and this is what I actually found disturbing) the several scenes where real violence is done to animals. The poor wolf is in a dogfight which we actually see, and it's rather shocking for a kids movie.

Oscar Nominations 2021: 2 of 9

1. The Power of the Dog, Dune, Belfast, and West Side Story

King Richard

6 Nominations

• Picture
• Actor: Will Smith (The Pursuit of Happyness, Ali)
• Original Screenplay: Zach Baylin
• Supporting Actress: Aunjanue Ellis
• Film Editing: Pamela Martin (The Fighter)
• Song: Beyoncé Knowles-Carter & DIXSON

Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green

Cast: Smith, Ellis, Saniyya Sidney, Jon Bernthal, Demi Singleton, Tony Goldwyn, Mikayla Lashae Bartholomew, Daniele Lawson, Layla Crawford, Erika Ringor

I get the sort of heartswell that this movie produces, I think, but I just didn't respond the way most others did. It felt like a movie with very few stakes. Like... will Venus and Serena become the best tennis players in the world? I just don't know! I think I wanted something more complicated and less hagiographic. In any case, most other people I know really liked this film, and Will Smith has been the anointed frontrunner for Best Actor since this movie appeared in theatres. It was nowhere near one of my favorite performances of the year, but Smith is an excellent actor and a big movie star, and he doesn't have an Oscar yet. I am going to be happy to watch him win one. Aunjanue Ellis is a jobbing actor who has been working steadily for about 20 years, and it's great to see her get some recognition. She won't win on March 27, but her nomination is good news. Beyoncé has actually never been nominated for an Oscar, so, as this is their first opportunity to give her one, I think the Academy will choose to do so. While we're talking about Best Actor, I want to say that I am really, really sad that Simon Rex didn't make it into this category. His performance in Red Rocket is astounding; he's wonderful. You can see my other favorite performances here.

Will Win: Actor, Original Song

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #43 out of 56

Drive My Car (ドライブ・マイ・カー)

4 Nominations

• Picture
• Director: Hamaguchi Ryūsuke
• Adapted Screenplay: Hamaguchi Ryūsuke & Oe Takamasa
• International Film: Japan (Shoplifters, Departures, The Twilight Samurai, Muddy River, Kagemusha: the Shadow Warrior, Sandakan No. 8, Dodes'ka-den, Portrait of Chieko, Woman in the Dunes, Kwaidan, Koto, Immortal Love, The Burmese Harp, Samurai 1: Musashi Miyamoto, Gate of Hell, Rashomon)

Director: Ryūsuke

Cast: Nishijima Hidetoshi, Miura Tōko, Okada Masaki, Kirishima Reika, Park Yoo-rim, Jin Dae-yeon, Sonia Yuan, Abe Satoko

I am so surprised that everyone has responded to Drive My Car the way they have. Four nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay is so many nominations! The Academy loves this movie. I thought it was really good, but I don't understand why everyone is over the moon. For example, Shoplifters, which was nominated a few years ago, felt like a much better movie than this one. Oh well. It's weird how some things catch on and others don't. In any case, the performances are very very good, and the theatre sequences are great. This film is a shoo-in for the International Film award; it's Japan's seventeenth nomination in this category, and this will be its fifth win.

Will Win: International Film

Could Win: N/A
My Rating: #21 out of 56

Don't Look Up

4 Nominations

• Picture
• Original Screenplay: Adam McKay (Vice, The Big Short) & David Sirota
• Film Editing: Hank Corwin (Vice, The Big Short) 
• Score: Nicholas Britell (If Beale Street Could Talk, Moonlight)

Director: McKay

Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Rob Morgan, Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Tyler Perry, Timothée Chalamet, Ron Perlman, Himesh Patel, Melanie Lynskey

This is a pretty good movie. I didn't really like it, but it's a solid picture, and I laughed quite a lot. It's a really smug movie, though, and I guess that's Adam McKay in general, so there's no getting around that. Nicholas Britell's nomination was a bit of a surprise, and I'm happy to see him there. I don't think this can win anything, but it could maybe eke out a screenplay win. McKay won the screenplay award for The Big Short, and people do tend to like the kind of milquetoast politics Don't Look Up is peddling. But listen, I'm really not trying to be hard on this movie, and in fact, it deserved an Original Song nomination that it didn't get. I was in love with the Ariana Grande song in this movie, with hilarious lyrics like "Just look up / Turn off that shit-box News / 'Cause you're about to die soon everybody". It was one of the best things in the movie! Ariana Grande was robbed.
Will Win: N/A

Could Win: Original Screenplay

My Rating: #46 out of 56

Nightmare Alley

4 Nominations

• Picture
• Cinematography: Dan Laustsen (The Shape of Water)
• Production Design: Shane Vieau (The Shape of Water) & Tamara Deverell
• Costume Design: Luis Sequeira (The Shape of Water)

Director: Guillermo Del Toro

Cast: Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Toni Collette, Richard Jenkins, David Strathairn, Willem Dafoe, Ron Perlman, Mary Steenburgen

I do not know how this got nominated for Best Picture, but let's just say up front that this movie deserves its below-the-line nominations. This is a gorgeous looking film, and if I thought most of the performances were off, I can't come for the way the film looks. It's impeccable. You may know that this movie is a remake of a 1947 noir starring Tyrone Power, and one understands why Del Toro was so drawn to this original film. His team – Dan Laustsen, Shane Vieau, and Luis Sequeira – didn't win Oscars for their work in The Shape of Water, though, and I don't think they're going to win for this movie either. My take on this film is that I think it's enjoyable if you haven't seen the original, so, by all means check it out.

Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A
My Rating: #45 out of 56

3. CODA, Licorice Pizza, Being the Ricardos, and The Lost Daughter
4. The Tragedy of Macbeth, Encanto, No Time to Die, and Flee
5. Tick, Tick... Boom!, Parallel Mothers, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and The Worst Person in the World
6. Cruella, Spencer, The Hand of God, and Lunana: a Yak in the Classroom
7. Cyrano, The Mitchells vs the Machines, Luca, and Raya and the Last Dragon
8. Spider-man: No Way Home, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Free Guy

9. House of Gucci, Coming 2 America, and Four Good Days