Have sat through 8 of the 10 Oscar Best Picture noms - all except CODA & Drive My Car.
Belfast is the one that resonated most with me on a personal level, not least of which is the
'there, but for the grace of God, go I' about it for my family and I - not exactly obviously, but there are a number of points and can't help to feel those beats, as we left the troubles in Belfast under similiar circumstances in 1980 to go to Australia (so 10 years after this film is set). However, will it have that same resonance with the Academy voters, I don't know? It's well made but I don't know if I am being completely objective with this, and allowing that sort of personal connection overshadowing being completely objective here.
Don't Look Up I actually enjoyed the most - the writing is the stand out and the cast were clearly having fun with it all, but as neither director Adam McKay or any of the cast were nominated can pretty much rule this out as a contender, as no film has done this in 90 years* - and as much as I enjoyed it, I can't see the Academy voting for it.
* - There have been occasions where the director has been nominated but the cast snubbed - most recently Parasite or Slumdog Millionaire - and some where at least one of the 4 acting catagories nominated but not the director - most recently in Green Book or Argo - but the last time a Best Picture Winner had neither the director or any of the cast being at least nominated was 1932's Grand Hotel.
Dune had a lot of positives, and deservedly was praised because of it, especially on some of the technicals (the sound and soundscaping is a major case in point), and it is also the only one of the 10 films that cracked US$40m (which really is a pretty low benchmark) at the box office (Nth America was about US$107M & global of about US$400M), which kind of underlines where this year has been in terms of quality of nominees v publicly popular. Not that that means much in terms of Oscars, but worth noting none the less. My biggest criticism of this movie is that it is literally only half a movie.
Even each of the LOTR film were a self contained book, not a half of one, but do get the feeling that they are positioning this like how they did with the LOTR trilogy, trickle a couple of tech awards but save the big ones for the next one - fair or unfair, get that sense with Dune.
The Power of the Dog is perhaps the most classical 'Oscarbait' darling of this year's nominees. Strong direction, solid performances, pretty well written, and can only imagine that the set design, costume, cinematography etc are on point also - same as Dune. Can appreciate most of that, but it wasn't really my cup of tea and founf it a bit drag to get to the end. Apparently I am alone in not really rating Benedict Cumberbatch's performance here compared to other things he has done.
West Side Story was fine. I don't have a major problem with the remake - apart from the need for it to exist in the first place - but that they did remake it, and it was done pretty well. Even still it isn't brilliant, revolutionary or truly remarkable. Don't know if anyone in years to come when WSS is brought up, will immediately be thinking of this over the original version though, and with all due respect, I wouldn't even put this in Spielberg's top 10 movies, so it would be perverse for this to be a Oscar Best Picture winner over so many of his classics, and WSS is nowhere near as on par with his other Best Picture winner - Schindler's List.
Nightmare Alley remake is decent, without being special. I had really high hopes and expectations for this movie, but it doesn't need a 2 1/2hr runtime to tell the story, as it was pretty much all telegraphed well ahead of time, so really lacks a pay off and leads to pacing issues. Having sat through it twice on each occasion have had the same feeling of it having so much potential and yet ultimately underwhelming. and in actual fact prefer the original version from the 1940's with Tyrone Power, despite the star power, the original feels more gritty and more of a true noir.
King Richard - This is all Will Smith and his latest Oscarbait effort
- the difference being it may pay off for him personally because that just seems to be the trend with some of the acting nods as it often seems to be as much about paying dues to a career rather than what was actually the best performance of any given year (IMO. Joaquin Phoenix in C'mon C'mon was best, but not even nom'd)... but as a film.... not as much. Think it's pretty clear this movie started life as being focused on the Williams sisters, but as soon as Smith got attached to the project it was completely retrofitted so that it puts him & his character at the centre of everything, and admittedly Smith's performance does carry the movie, apart from that there isn't really anything more than a standard sports biopic and certainly nothing that makes it exceptional piece of film making as a whole that would justify it being the best movie of the year, no matter how weak the year is.
Licorice Pizza - I like Paul Thomas Anderson's movies (esp Boogie Nights, Punch Drunk Love, The Master, Magnolia etc) but this one I just could not get into at all. I get that it is referential to real people (with changed names etc) - nothing Hollywood loves more than being in love with itself - but this one did nothing for me at all. There are far more interesting coming of age drama/romance, with all too few moments of levity, but movies that are self reverential like this that would infinitely prefer to revisit, than this.
The point is, in years to come and people look back on 2021, think the impression is that it has been a pretty lacklustre year if these really are the best of the best to choose from, and even with the ones that I do like, they are probably outsiders in the field.
I really hope that CODA or Drive My Car are better than a lot of these. Have heard good things of both, but neither got a theatrical release at the cinema I frequent and not forking out for any more streaming services so will just have to be pn due course.
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