2020's Oscar Nominees

My favorite Oscar-nominated item in any category, so far, is the animated short Opera, which I watched twice consecutively and could've watched another half dozen times to catch all the little things I missed.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CMYNDqMD5aa/

Judas and the Black Messiah ain't great, but it's probably the best in this lineup, after Sound of Metal.

Of the nominees I've only seen Minari and Nomadland, neither of which excite me.

Everything I've heard about Mank suggests it falls into the category of white men celebrating the past achievements of other white men (compare Genius (2016)). Will anyone here defend this genre I find so indefensible?

It's the worst movie in the lineup.

Nah. Nomadland at least has decent shots and well-observed performances.

Mank sucked so it will win

♥

We watched Nomadland last night and Promising Young Woman last week. Both a bit underwhelming imo. Nomadland really hedges its politics, it can never decide if it’s an indictment of the system, a celebration of ingenuity on the open road, or a family melodrama. Promising Young Woman is so over-plotted. But good lead performances in both.

The best parts of Nomadland are all the non-actors who are basically playing themselves.

I really struggled to finish Promising Young Woman, so bad on so many levels, easily one of the worst movies I saw all year. Nomadland is a perfectly unexciting but fine by-the-numbers movie that looks like a masterpiece compared to most of the rest of this lot.

Abysmal.

winning might count as losing this year tbh

Watched Nomadland this weekend. I guess it's not the kind of movie that overwhelms you but I still keep thinking about it two days later which I guess is a sign of a good movie. It also made me nostalgic for road trips.

it can never decide if it’s an indictment of the system, a celebration of ingenuity on the open road, or a family melodrama

I kind of enjoyed that it's not a movie that necessarily tries to make a point (political or otherwise). The main theme seems to mostly be about trying to make the most out of what they've got.

The best parts of Nomadland are all the non-actors who are basically playing themselves.

Agreed.

Thought Sound of Metal was pretty good (went into it knowing absolutely nothing other than it wasn't actually about heavy metal). Liked the ending a lot; at times, though, seemed somewhat conventional. I fully expect Rudimentary Peni to quickly shoot up the Billboard album chart if it wins best picture.

The only one I've seen is Promising Young Woman, a spectacularly awful movie on every level, and does its subject a serious disservice

Sound of Metal was conventional, but I have found it quite a bit of it sticking with me, somewhat unexpectedly. I will be pissed when Sacha Baron Cohen wins Best Supporting Actor over Paul Raci.

Raci was quite good, especially in the big scene where he learns of Rueben's plans. As I said to someone last night, I thought you could completely understand his reasoning while simultaneously hating his reaction.

I could explain that better but don't want to say too much.

Promising Young Woman, a spectacularly awful movie on every level

more and more people are saying this!

Thank God

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

xp I wouldn't go as far as that, but it came across like one of those "edgy" post-Pulp Fiction dark comedies like Very Bad Things or 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag. It felt like she wrote it in the late 90s and only now managed to get it made. Uninspired. The way Carey Mulligan and Bo Burnham interacted exemplified this, trying way too hard to be clever

"I will be pissed when Sacha Baron Cohen wins Best Supporting Actor over Paul Raci." Neither of them is going to win

Daniel Kaluuya is a lock

voted for Nomadland, thought it was beautiful

So Menari is good? My mother-in-law recommended it, which is usually not an endorsement.

It's cute, and Youn Yuh-jung deserves her award, but way too facile.

It is somewhat facile, but I dunno if I would call it cute.

It does have some third act problems but overall I’ll take it. I did like that it was never clear whether one particular supporting character was to be feared or trusted.

and it has Steven Yeun

everything I've heard about Minari makes it sound like the least worst one of these, maybe The Father as well

The Father struck me as labored and in places cruel. Olivia Colman and Olivia Williams humanize it.

Of the ones I've seen: Trial of The Chicago 7 (I'm a complete sucker for a courtroom drama) nudges fractionally ahead of Sound Of Metal (gripped throughout, but I thought it got weaker towards the end). Promising Young Woman is some distance behind (entertaining but over-rated and ultimately a bit trashy), while Mank was so unbearable that we switched off after about 30 minutes (Hollywood just loves a film about Hollywood).

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

hmm no

Do you not like rock

I've seen all of these but Mank, Chicago 7, The Father and Promising Young Woman. I'll likely never see the first three, but Sound of Metal is the best of the other three that I have seen (Minari, Nomadland, Judas).

Mank was as someone said like the 4th episode of a 6-episode miniseries, starting and ending in the middle. I thought it was charming and the cinematography was great. I liked it a lot.

The Trial of the Chicago 7 was a made-for-tv movie with punchy Aaron Sorkin dialogue, not at all great but very enjoyable.

Viola Davis was only in 35 minutes or so of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom but she was fantastic and completely owned that film.

I really liked Riz Ahmed and Sound of Metal, it was good but I don't think of it as the best of these. Looking forward to Exit West

One thing I'm sure of is that I would rather have seen I'm Thinking of Ending Things up instead of the other two Netflix films. It still lingers in my mind; the other two define the kind of thing I forget an hour later.

I thought Exit West was a good book, curious how it will translate. Like "Underground Railroad" (which is a new miniseries?), it's got magic realism elements that I fear will work better on the page. Unrealized, as it were.

It's actually an odd slate of Oscar noms, a bunch of movies with diverse and interesting subjects that are undoubtedly worth watching but nothing that necessarily sticks out, let alone as "must see." Like a bunch of palate cleansers.

Can't believe First Cow wasn't nominated.
And the best thing I saw all year was Small Axe. Wish it had been eligible.

As I think I've already said three or four times in various forms and maybe even on this thread, in no way does a Sound of Metal "feel" like a best picture, but in this lineup it pretty much is.

One thing I'm sure of is that I would rather have seen I'm Thinking of Ending Things up instead of the other two Netflix films. It still lingers in my mind; the other two define the kind of thing I forget an hour later.
THIS.

have only seen judas, nomadland, and promising young woman, none of which inspired me enough to vote in this poll.

nomadland and judas were certainly several cuts above promising young woman, which was a mess.

Marisa Tomei deserved a nom for The King of Staten Island.

i liked sound of metal for the same reasons i liked nomadland upthread - just a reasonably well-made adult drama that gave viewers credit for being slightly smarter than a 12y/o, unlike most of the others. picked it narrowly over nomadland bc while you didnt have to be a genius to figure out what plot beats were coming, it still felt slightly less familiar than nomadlands "white movie star grieves in beautiful places" thing. plus it had a cameo from the band surfbort.

all of the other movies would have benefitted from more surfbort imo

the "best picture" category should be replaced with "most surfbort"

*by, not with, prepositions are hard

and your game is soft

;)

I get the feeling Nomadland is gathering steam because many of the people watching it think of it as political when imo one of its biggest flaws is that it's *not* political.

It seems to be bending over backwards not to be political but it’s also empty enough that anyone can fill it with whatever level of political subtext they prefer be present.

It is a pleasant and sometimes affecting drama about grief. Nothing more, nothing less.

I've posted a couple of these monthly Zoomcasts I do with two friends; we talked about Sound of Metal the other night (also Town Bloody Hall, but it's a different clip).

www.youtube.com/watch?v=03Q_Q2U85SU

trying to watch all of these in the last week

Sound of Metal - engaging but dumb. a thinly disguised rehab movie.
Nomadland - pretty but there's nothing there
Mank - i dug the bad audio but otherwise it's very "why am i watching this". gave up halfway through.
The Trial of the Chicago 7 - the most aaron sorkin ever

Greil Marcus on Nomadland: "At least there aren’t any Leonard Cohen songs."

It's a good putdown, but--and I'm not a huge Cohen fan myself--McCabe & Mrs. Miller minus those Cohen songs just wouldn't be the same film or nearly as good.

I like to think that Nomadland being the frontrunner is just overdue recognition for The Rider

Watching Nomadland now and damn if this doesn’t match up a LOT with the conditions depicted in Phil A Neel’s _Hinterland: America’s New Landscape of Class and Conflict_, tho deliberately shedding any political-economic talk

The Rider is the superior film, but Nomadland is great and obviously political. It's just not a treatise, it's a story about people. "But isn't it cowardly to show Amazon and not make a specific point about its awfulness?". Amazon/ billionaires making bank out of low wage jobs and the people who desperately need them are awful, but I think this film does right in observing life as a daily routine, not story beats or spectacular horror, I think it's more powerful because more believable to see these bad places just be a part of the characters' everyday life. Bob in the film: "If society was throwing us away and sending us as the work horse out to the pasture, we work horses have to gather together and take care of each other. And that's what this is all about. The way I see it is that the Titanic is sinking." There's camaraderie and joy in finding together just as there is despair at the system throwing people in the water to care for one another, and acknowledgement of the betrayal.

Mank is like Ready Player One for the TCM set. A tedious, self-congratulatory, and pointless film.

ugh, promising young woman. what a void of a film

If only! It's a Death Star exploding.

my sister loved Promising Young Women, kind of scared to check it out now

i'm so proud of the fake rape revenge film for not depicting the rape directly and yet managing to include a scene of traumatic violence against a woman anyway

even then i feel like i would enjoy it 20 percent more had someone taken the reins of the music supervision

the music was terrible

the last twenty minutes are just so rotten

what does this movie bring to the table that jennifer's body didn't a thousand times better

furious at this fucking movie

Sound of Metal - engaging but dumb. a thinly disguised rehab movie.

I don't know if thinly disguised as much as just misleadingly marketed!

well I was expecting a live film of an Iron Maiden concert so I was particularly disappointed

I thought it was going to be a tour diary of a noise rock duo, so same.

Actually I thought it was pretty good, but because Ahmed and Raci were so good. A good case of the right actors elevating the material.

sound of metal is an incredible film

Otm

the only one of these that i'm interested in rewatching