“The truth may be stretched thin, but it never breaks, and it always surfaces above lies, as oil floats on water.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote
Humans have always needed stories. They help us make sense of our lives. There have always been people who felt compelled to tell those stories, whether it was around a fire, passed down from generations, whether it was a quill or a pen, whether it was color or black and white. Whether a book or a poem or a painting or a song – something about the way we think and see and love and laugh and live and die is wrapped up in the stories we tell.
The Oscar race, ideally, is about awarding the stories that resonate. Sometimes they happen to be the best movies, the ones that stand the test of time. Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes people can’t really explain why it is they have an experience with a film that others share. This year, the voters across the board seem to be motivated by the desire to effect cultural change.
But 2020 is a specific time and place. The films that resonated, the films that lasted through months and months of reviews and critics awards and the streaming viewing platforms — they remain for a reason. Here are the films and the moments that resonated with me.
Did we know in the beginning of 2020 what a year it would turn out to be? We didn’t. We had no idea. We thought the worst thing we’d be living through was a contentious presidential election. But then came the fires, the pandemic, the protests and then January 6th. The idea was that the entire system was suddenly a threat – that it was all corrupt and anyone involved in it was corrupt unless they grabbed a hammer and started destroying everything. That is when the high profile firings started. At first it seemed like the people calling out others into the public square to be shamed and humiliated were the ones with the power.
But as Coca Cola started broadcasting how to “be less white” and Oreo Cookie was weighing in about trans rights on Twitter and Disney was firing Gina Carano and the New York Times was dumping Don McNeil — then it all started to come into focus for me. This wasn’t activism. This wasn’t a revolution. This was the very powerful holding onto their power with fall guys. Right and left the hammer came down – it was Jeff Bezos banning books and taking Parler offline to show just how much power he had to meet the demands of the target demo.
Maybe it was just me but I really did see for the first time this year who really controls this country, and how that power is being concentrated into fewer and fewer hands. That is why populism often arises when the needs of the working class aren’t being met. The films that remain in this race, I think, are films that speak to this in one way or another.
When I think about the year we just lived through I think most about Mank. Mank is a film about the great risk in telling the truth but how that truth must be told anyway. This past year so much of the truth was buried. Outright lies were flagrantly told, but there was also deception and delusion in how the press decided to deliver the news and at a time when we can all curate our own reality. Too many big tech giants control too much of what we see, read, learn. It is repeated throughout Mank that Herman J. Mankiewicz is regarded as “just the court jester.” He surely served that role in Hollywood as he wrote and ghostwrote scripts, gambled away any money he might have made, and makes people laugh with his brash wit, especially people like William Randolph Hearst and Marion Davies.
One must never underestimate what it takes to lay bare the truth, as Mank does in this film. It isn’t just that he writes the great script for Citizen Kane that would win him an Oscar, and that it is arguably the greatest screenplay ever written, but it’s also that he risks everything to tell that truth: That Hearst was a hypocrite who sold himself as a populist savior for the working class while he was in bed with the powers that be to screw over the people. One of the best through-lines of the film are Mank’s exchanges with Irving Thalberg. First to mock him for running a movie studio but being stuck on how to use propaganda to sell ideas to the people, and then to confront him for doing just that — except now using xenophobia to drive votes away from the socialist candidate. If you read up on that election, by the way, you’ll see that it was a time of uprisings just like the 1960s and just like now where workers during the Depression were constantly fighting for their rights.
To answer the question of why Citizen Kane is such a great movie is to understand the power of art to deliver hard truths in ways no other medium can. I’ve seen Mank so many times throughout 2020 and every time I watch it I think about something else about this past year, why it feels so relevant to right now. What I keep coming back to is the extremely wealthy using art and artists to manipulate how people think. There’s a line in the film that says if you repeat a lie over and over again sooner or later people believe it’s true. This echoes a line in Citizen Kane which says “You provide the prose poems and I’ll provide the war.”
Hearst was said to have helped start the Spanish American War in order to get good headlines, and again, the Hearst model for journalism has suddenly become the norm. Citizen Kane exposed Hearst — but it wasn’t specifically about him. It was about the American system that builds and supports tycoons. Mank sees the absurdity in all of it, and the two Finchers (Jack the writer and David the director) deliver that absurdity by filling in the blanks of what exchange might have occurred that would inspire Mank to blow the lid off the joint.
In the end it comes down to the truth – why it is worth risking a whole career for then and now. In 2020 we’re all so afraid of it. We self-censor at every turn for fear of being called out or shunned or shamed. Reporters are afraid. Artists are afraid. Filmmakers are afraid. But here is a guy who was not afraid. Who took his one shot, helped create a masterpiece, and won an Oscar for it. That is why it resonates in 2020. And why it will continue to resonate far beyond this year.
Nomadland resonated, I think, because Chloe Zhao is a female writer/director for sure. But it’s more than that. It is about what it’s felt like this past year to be locked inside. Since the film is about people who do not live in traditional homes and aren’t rooted anywhere watching Nomadland takes us to a place of isolation that does reflect how so many of us are feeling right now. She has a love and a reverence for that which is real – she isn’t hunched over a computer furiously tweeting angry hashtags, addicted to the algorithm like a slot machine junkie in Vegas. She’s watching the sun rise and set. She is swimming in fresh water streams and feeling the ocean mist on her face. You know, REAL LIFE? Nomadland is therefore a film you feel and experience. That has connected voters who can get behind a movie that makes them all feel the same way at once.
The Trial of the Chicago 7 – I’ve always been an Aaron Sorkin fan, going back to a Few Good Men, An American President, and of course The Social Network. For me, that he wrote a script this year and made it into a movie is a great pleasure. No one can write dialogue like he does and to have a whole movie with so many characters speaking Sorkin, I think that is what has driven love for this film throughout the year. We are all so familiar with that rat-a-tat-tat and how deep down his passion for activism and morality bleeds through his work, lending an anchor to hold us all in one place and have our perspective aimed in the same direction.
Promising Young Woman – Somehow, for a film that is a tragedy, this is still a fun movie to watch. As many times as I’ve seen it I still enjoy Cassie’s journey through the film every step of the way. I think because writer/director Emerald Fennell never loses her sense of humor and satire. Though it has made me cry every time, there is something beautiful about the ending, no doubt because of the song she chooses. It’s the heart necklace, the text messages, the painful goodbye – it just plants itself deeply and doesn’t let go. It is a Me Too movie without a doubt – and for that, it likely speaks to and for a generation. But it is also just a great movie top to bottom and one I never seem to get tired of watching.
Minari – Lee Isaac Chung decided to take us to the wilds of Arkansas in a manufactured home where his Korean-American family planted roots to become fruit and vegetable farmers. It is a coming of age story about a grandson learning how to love and appreciate his grandmother. It is a story of an impatient and frustrated wife learning to be patient and wait out her husband’s dream of farm life. It is about a husband wrestling with the land and keeping a dream alive even when the money starts to run out. And finally, it is about the American dream we all still believe. We have to. That is what this country is. It is about anyone coming from anywhere to make their lives anything they want them to be.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom – I probably haven’t seen a performance like Chadwick Boseman’s ever in my life. With an equally transformative performance by Viola Davis, this is a film that has earned its ensemble nomination with great performances across the board. But with the beloved and talented Boseman we are treated to one last moment watching an actor give the performance of his life. Many have tried to get there but most can’t fathom it. I think this is a country in love with him and his memory and I think that is much of why the film continues to stick with us.
News of the World – there is no doubt that this, the only big studio film in the race, needed a big screen, an audience and the shock and awe of box office. But if you watch it closely you’ll see so much of what we just lived through in a country torn apart by Civil War. The “news” in this film must be brought on horseback from town to town, and the responsibility could not be higher. We’re living through a time where our own news is a matter of choice. We can believe any reality we want and find stories to back it up. But here is a character whose job is to care about bringing the news that is real and that matters. It’s also just a beautifully filmed movie with an uplifting ending that I found a relief after such a hard year.
One Night in Miami – while there are so many memorable scenes in this movie, awful and painful scenes of blatant racism, there are also moments of conversations between actors that Regina King captures so well. What resonated, I think, with this film – other than the historical importance of it – was King’s own POV evident throughout. It is how she shoots the film, how she communicates with actors to get the right performances – it’s evident in every frame.
Hillbilly Elegy – I am a sucker for lost causes and the way the critics and film twitter went after this movie made me angry enough to quietly wish it gets in for Best Picture. It is about making something of your life out of abuse and drug addiction. But it is also about towns the government has left behind. It is one of the most authentic and revealing stories about the year we just lived through but one would have to open one’s mind to know that. I think Glenn Close should win for her performance in this movie and I hope Amy Adams also gets nominated.
The Father – It is the pure power of the performances, specifically Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman that drives this film, but it resonates because so many of us are going through similar experiences with parents who are fading away from dementia. This movie gets it so right and never gives easy answers. It is terrifying to watch and to experience. But it’s a wonderful film even still because there is still a flicker of a person there, however fast his light is dimming.
Other performances that stood out for me include Ellen Burstyn’s powerful monologue in Pieces of a Woman, Daniel Kaluuya throughout Judas and the Black Messiah, Robin Wright in Land, Mads Mikkelsen in Another Round which, along with The Mauritanian is picking up a wave of enthusiasm from the BAFTA. Riz Ahmed is a genius in Sound of Metal – the performance of his career.
It’s been an incredibly long and exhausting year. The Oscars will always be about capturing a moment in time – not necessarily about awarding the films that will stand the test of it. It will always be about how we revere people, how we turn them into heroes and how that reverence plays into how we watch their movies. The only thing that changes is the criteria for what bestows the halo for a season. The Oscar race usually flies by in a minute, but this year it has almost overstayed its welcome. It’s not over yet. But through all of it we must remember to stop and appreciate those who still have the courage, the desire and the support to keep making movies.
Ballots are due at 5 and that was all she wrote.
The film resonating is Nomadland. Which is why it will win best picture. It is about people pulling together. The is the Joe Biden era where poor, working class and the middle class are all helped by the newly passed Covid relief bill. The real power has been corporations which have always been backed by Republicans. Trump was a hard line corporatist and fascist. He was never a populist. His policies only helped the wealthy. Trump is a fascist which was proven by January 6. Gina Carano and Ben Shapiro are also fascists. Biden has surprised many by passing the most progressive legislation in decades.
Awards Daily Ballot
Deadline Extended till 3/12, Friday 10 PM
https://www.awardsdaily.com/2021/03/11/13th-annual-awards-daily-oscar-ballot/
The films that resonated the most with me from last year are the ones that made my Top 10. Some of them I can’t shake, some of them have resonated more with the passing of time, some resonated because they came from a voice I was unfamiliar with or highlighted a culture I wasn’t familiar with. My number one speaks a lot to the current climate, but has no hope of Oscar nomination as it doesn’t quite fit squarely into any genre boxes.
1 – Blood Nose Empty Pockets (Turner Ross, Bill Ross IV)
2 – Nomadland (Chloe Zhao)
3 – Small Axe: Lovers Rock (Steve McQueen)
4 – Black Bear (Lawrence Michael Levine)
5 – The 40-Year-Old Version (Radha Blank)
6 – Possessor (Brandon Cronenberg)
7 – Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Eliza Hittman)
8 – Promising Young Woman (Emerald Fennell)
9 – The Assistant (Kitty Green)
10 – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (George C. Wolfe)
Runners Up: I’m Thinking of Ending Things (Charlie Kaufman), Time (Garrett Bradley), Sound of Metal (Darius Marder), Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution (Nicole Newnham, James Lebrecht), The Vast of Night (Andrew Patterson), Let Them All Talk (Steven Soderbergh), Kajillionaire (Miranda July)
I haven’t seen a couple of the big ones (Minari, The Father, One Night in Miami, News of the World).
**I’m also aware that I need to get back to watching more international cinema. That’s on my to-do list for 2021.
Sorry, Sasha, but I think you’re biased… no film has resonated MORE this year, than “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”, Maybe you don’t like it, or you just can’t stand SBC (understandable, he’s love him or hate him), but it’s objectively speaking, the biggest impact of the year, even more so than Nomadland (and that’s why at this point, it’s no NGNG to guess that it may appear at nomination morning in more than 2 categories, despite being a so polarizing film).
It may end emptyhanded even at nomination morning – even if Bakalova seems at this point quite safe and Adapted Screenplay feels even likely – but Picture, Song and even a lead actor nom aren’t exactly longshots at this point. Before replying I recommend you – it is on Youtube – to check out the Q&A of the Santa Barbara Film Festival on the film, with Sacha Baron Cohen and Maria Bakalova, depicting everything that was involved and all the hurdles and rewritting the film needed to be finished, thanks to Covid. The fact that it made the PGA makes me think that AMPAS may be actually aware of what a challenge it was and how successful it is despite everything that went on. We’ll know in some days. (And for naysayers: check out the frontpage, where AD has it up high at Picture, Adapted Screenplay, Song and Bakalova is in the pole position).
By the way: Meryl Streep sends you her love, for giving her Bakalova’s Golden Globe nomination 😉
Great post! I still can’t believe how many people deny Bakalova’s chance of nomination let alone a win. They are sleeping on this movie for some reason.
it’s simple. They have ZERO idea about acting and filmmaking. Anyone who ever acted or tried to shoot a film, will be aware of the suicidal challenge for anyone involved (literally, risking being shot with firearms, detained by the police or getting covid). The least, even if one doesn’t like the film, is to show respect to everyone involved.
Agreed.
I actually don’t think I agree with this kind of thinking when assessing a movie. The idea that they chose to make the movie they made the way they made it means also that there was an option of not making it or not making it that way. Because of this the conversation eventually becomes about process and thus on some level style, and I don’t think one style should get “points” just because implementing that style is more dangerous than another one. A film viewer’s position is not in my opinion to assess whether the filmmakers were brave but rather whether the product they created is of quality.
so, one literally risks his life fighting against bigotry and doesn’t deserve respect, by default? BRAVO!
It’s impressive that they chose to risk their lives but that doesn’t mean that people have to treat the movie they made with silk gloves or consider it to be great despite its quality
“respect” doesn’t mean you have to like something. I don’t like many things but I respect them and treat them with respect. Is not rocket science, Ferdinand, to undestand it.
Of course they should be treated with respect (everyone should be, I don’t understand why it needs to be underlined particularly here). The problem comes from your argumentation which implies that if one for example considers the movie to be unworthy of awards, they need to reconsider their point of view because of the bravery of the filmmakers or the hurdles they had in making the movie. That should in my opinion never matter when considering the worthiness of a film
just think about it… the fact that people complained about Lyn-Manuel Miranda losing the GG to SBC when one was just repeating a performance that he’s done to the extreme of a play being filmed, and the other one made his character evolve in front of our very eyes, from a misogynist bigot to a loving father, with weeks, and months of staying in character (he admits that he had to stay in character 24 hours a day, when living with the Trump supporters…). People still talk with disdain about his “stunt”, rather than to actually pay attention to the extreme effort and skills required. It really makes my blood boil, to see people using the anonymous aspects of the internet to bash heavy work just because they don’t like it or it is not “their cup of tea”, or even think it is “minor”.
I’d give you another example, re: “Hamilton”. How in the world it was nominated for Picture at the Globes, over “David Byrne’s American Utopia” which is a marvel of planning by Spike Lee, with shots that are instantly iconic? It’s on par with Jonathan Demme’s “Stop Making Sense”, which is regarded as (maybe) the best concert film ever shot… ah, maybe it is jut because the power of the mouse is way bigger than HBO’s? 😉
About Miranda and Cohen: I just don’t think that we should measure the amount of work someone put into a project as part of whether they should be awarded for that project. That implies that instead of the awards being about good acting or good filmmaking, it’s about who did how much. Basically to me it would be the same as giving the award to the showiest achievement instead of the best one. If people thought that Miranda was better in Hamilton than Cohen was in Borat in terms of what is on screen, then I think Miranda is the correct person to vote for because what he did was eventually for that person more effective.
And about Hamilton and David Byrne’s American Utopia, I agree that Hamilton is not a particularly exciting piece of cinema and David Byrne’s American Utopia will pop up in my top 10 when I do my best of the year ballot before the Oscars but I don’t think there is any discussion of amount of work there (if that’s what you’re trying to express with that example), it’s all about having a voice that is interesting and exciting creating something for the screen instead of just capturing something so that people can see it in some form. In other words, good filmmaking against bad filmmaking. But people probably like that Hamilton has a traditional narrative whereas David Byrne’s American Utopia is more abstract. The other reason is an obvious one, Hamilton is Hamilton, people get excited merely about seeing that play.
And while David Byrne’s American Utopia is very good, it’s not as good as Stop Making Sense. One is one of the best films of the year, the other is one of the greatest films ever made. I also feel that while I think Spike Lee is one of the most incredible filmmakers of his generation (and the only person I’ve ever seen where I was starstruck), I just don’t feel like this is a work that I’d think of when thinking of Spike Lee, it’s a brilliant film he made but to me there are many other works I associate with him more. Instead Stop Making Sense is in my opinion an incredible work that distills everything Jonathan Demme was interested in both thematically and cinematically and is in some ways the purest Demme film.
I have a follow-up question to this. Do you think the same applies to documentaries? Are the circumstaces, the difficulty and danger or making the film relevant to its quality? I’m asking because I can’t answer these questions myself, which is why I on principle don’t feel comfortable judging the quality of any documentary.
The basis of my attitude towards this stuff comes from something I believe very strongly and that applies to everything from tv/movie distinctions to stuff like this: nothing matters if you couldn’t observe it in a theoretical situation where you just were just sitting in a movie theatre and were played the entirety of the movie at random without any knowledge of any kind about it before. Thus I would say that it also applies to documentaries because knowledge of process is bringing in outside information that has nothing to do with what the movie you’re watching is as cinema and nothing to do with you. Of course there are many works that are open about their process within the film but it would feel unfair to me to praise those movies and ignore others where the process and situation was just as difficult just because one wants to underline how difficult making the movie was.
So for me there is on some level a separation of material and the film that is made of that material. The former has all the ties to the real world that I don’t feel like I want the latter to have, the material can be incredibly difficult to film and that process can inspire awe in me but it is only filmed material and not a movie. What defines a movie is what is made of that material, and that is an area without any questions about how the raw material was created, it is there and all that really matters is how it works as cinema.
But then if the material itself is so compelling that it automatically works as a film, does that also mean that the film itself is good?
One example here might be Honeyland, which I enjoyed a lot for multiple reasons, but one reason was the proper dramatic storyline that unfolded throughout the film. So are those events they filmed just “material”, which makes them irrelevant to judging the film’s quality, or are they the film itself? Do the filmmakers deserve credit for filming these events that just happened to happen around the woman they started filming with, or were they just lucky that nature provided them with good material?
I don’t think I believe the idea that the narrative presented in a movie like Honeyland is just something that expressed itself in the material purely but that was eventually refined to its exact structure through the editing process. Of course these things happened but the selection of the material is what makes it into that particular narrative with those exact beats. And I feel like the separation of the material and making of a film and the film that is created is to create a line between what’s on screen and the process of making the film so that the latter can be removed from the conversation. Thus the question of whether the narrative existed or was refined is in my opinion irrelevant because if it is the former and the narrative was on some level almost accidental, it doesn’t change that the narrative made it to the screen because happy accidents are as valid a form of good filmmaking as any other way. So basically my approach is to treat a movie as a found object without a creator and thus only the movie matters, not whether the filmmakers achieved something particular.
I’ve always held the same view. What matters is what’s on screen.
I would say Soul resonated with the most people. It’s certainly the one Oscar winner(Best Animated Film) most will have actually seen.
it really resonates because of the deep themes involved, for sure. But those are timeless themes, Borat’s themes had an urgency directly talking to the NOW, forcing us to see reality and take a side, in a time when no one can afford to be neutral. I loved Soul, as well, and it is really surprising, it’s not listed either in this article.
Borat 2, who would’ve thought it would be resonated and nominated for a pga. We’re underestimating this raunchy comedy that entertains and makes us laugh. Jump it to the top 5 movies of the year
it’s not just a raunchy comedy… it’s pure satire as its best. And way more multilayered than the original. I really recommend to check out the Q&A of the Santa Barbara Film Festival, available in YouTube to check out the complexity of the film.
Minari. Soul. Sound Of Metal.
These three films resonated to me personally over everything else I saw in 2020.
Although if you want just pure honesty about films that spoke us personally, the late 20th century nostalgist in me can’t help but cheer the documentary “The Last Blockbuster” which is one of the 366 films eligible for BP.
I believe that films are the same as books or a piece of art. No two people will feel exactly the same way about it, look at it the same way or interpret it the same. We all look through our own prisms and come away from the media(s) with our own personal take on it. And in the end, that’s all that really matters…how it resonates with each of us individually and why it does.
Which films did resonate the most with you this year?
News of the World…because Tom Hanks never disappoints and I loved the story arch…
Haven´t seen it yet but it´s on my list – thanks for the recommendation.
The most? “Historias Lamentables” by Javier Fesser. Not ellegible for this year’s race, maybe next, but it’s another misunderstood film, one of the sharpest (and funniest) disections of Spanish society, a mix between Wild Tales, Crash (2005) and Pulp Fiction but funnier thant them 3 combined and with bigger love for every character that is on screen, no matter how unfortunate or miserable he or she may be. Some jawdropping twists all around. One after another. A continuous surprise. Better to go to this one without any information and letting yourself go. And think about it, afterwards.
“I am a sucker for lost causes”.
Love you. I have the same feeling for Sia’s Music. A film with a lot of heart that tells about the born of an unusual family accompanied by beautiful images and songs. Destroyed months before that someone could watch it and destroyed even now just for a trend. The “internet” didn’t destroyed only the movie, but also Sia itself and attacked even the actors
I just hope that a possible drop in popularity would make Sia start releasing good music again. Pre-Chandelier Sia is such a gem.
I like them both: pre-Chandelier is artistry, after chandelier is good pop
Strangely enough, I think her best work post-Chandelier are the Vox Lux songs. But I agree, some of her newer songs are pretty good for radio-friendly music.
I need to watch Mank again. There was nothing this year that jumped out at me and I considered “great” (There were at least a half dozen movies from 2019 that I’d consider “Best Picture” if they’d come out in 2020), but Mank could improve on a second viewing.
Hillbilly Elegy is only a “lost cause” because it wasn’t a very good movie. That’s it! Nothing nefarious lol!
Sound of Metal is truly the only movie that I have LOVED, without reservations, this year. I hope it has a good day Monday.
To love “without reservations” is a wonderful thing.
I reserve my 10 out of 10 rating for what I think of as “Towering Achievements.” The only 10 ratings I have given since 2013 are Manchester by the Sea, The Favorite, and Green Book. I am going to upgrade my two favorites from 2019, though, and make them each a ten: Parasite and The Farewell.
I agree that Sound if Metal is the only movie that truly moved me this year.
I love you so much Sasha for giving Mank space in this site. Watching Mank’s journey has been the most heartbreaking part of this season for me. I’m still hoping it gets all the nominations it deserves but the road looks tough.
I also agree with your statement about Chadwick Boseman. He, Delroy Lindo & Maria Bakalova all delivered jaw-droppers this year.
This year is not as weak as people say it is.
Fortunately, even if it doesn’t win much, it looks like Mank will end up the nomination leader.
I could easily seeing it going 1 for 10-11 winning only Production Design.
Indeed, an honor in and of itself…
You know what would be all kinds of awesome? Assessing the merits of a movie on the movie itself and not on external political biases or feelings that *have nothing to do with what’s on the screen*
Nomadland resonated because of what was on the screen. Doesn’t matter a whit that Chloe Zhao is an Asian woman. It DOES matter that the Rider was of such quality it vaulted her into “elite” status in the industry (as shown by getting Eternals after Disney watched The Rider)
Wither Hillbilly Elegy. Honestly, Ron Howard is generally so leaden and obvious he makes Stanley Kramer look like Stan Brakhage by comparison. Wrong director for material that is easy to misread and already was controversial. It is possible to dislike the movie on its own merits, and it is the height of cheap shot artistry to definitively declare that the movie’s dissenters did so specifically because they hated Trump or hated saintly hinterland “Real America”. I think when Ron Howard played that card almost as soon as the movie came out, he doomed its awards chances. Not because of politics, but because people don’t feel like being insulted into voting for a movie for Oscar.
When this all shakes out, I wonder if anti-Netflix bias has been driving some the curious precursor patterns
For me, Wild Australia: After the Fires was the 2020 film that resonated the most. I spend a lot of my free time bushwalking in Australia’s remote rainforests (thankfully away from the fires, but we’ve recently had 3 cyclones make their nearby presence known) and much of the aftermath depicted hit a very raw nerve. It was also among the finest nature documentaries to come out of Australia that I’ve ever seen; posterity content & excellent production values.
I wonder is Sasha still loves phantom thread. I remember loving that like she loved mank.
My top three films are still:
Promising young woman
Sound of metal
The vast of night
There is a big gap for the rest of the top ten. These three dug in and never left my mind.Although nomad land is sticking with me
Keep in mind I haven’t see. Minari, the father, the Mauritanian because I don’t want to pay 20 dollars
Your comments on Hillbilly Elegy make me want to watch it. I tried it and gave up after about 20 minutes. It seemed unrelentingly unpleasant with no likelihood of compensation. If it is, as you suggest, an important and successful reflection of the current state of the country (which, by the way, the election has not changed much), then I want to watch it.
Good story, awful film.
I second Sasha’s cool acknowledgment of the value of Hillbilly Elegy. I wish more people in the industry, as well as more critics, could be as clear-eyed about it. It’s a movie about struggle. You don’t have to label a struggle, only be willing to witness it, in order to understand that it hurts, it costs, but it still can be waged. No heroes, or nobility, required. Seeing that simple premise demonstrated is why I like and respect the movie.
Trump wouldn’t even be able to sit through it. It has nothing directly to do with him. I’ve seen no evidence that Ron Howard and his collaborators were for a single moment confused about that.
It seems people are unable to separate that it’s a bad movie about struggle, and that there might be a better movie to be made about the struggles of people in Appalachia. The simple virtue of HE’s existence seems to be enough to get the folks on this site singing its praises, considering Ron Howard has made many a terrible film about other subjects too. (And a handful of good ones obviously.)
But the movie never claims to be about Appalachia, that would be a different movie. Why can’t people (critics especially) appreciate it for what it is? It is not about Trump, it is about triumph in the face of adversity.
I am not from Appalachia, but I am originally from the rustbelt, where part of this film is set, and I can tell you that the film has captured the spirit of that area to a T.
I like your thoughts about Mank, Sasha. They make me want to watch it again even though some aspects of the screenplay were weak. Considering Herman J. Mankiewicz as a court jester, I am reminded of the Fool in King Lear and E. K. Hornbeck from Inherit the Wind. That character is based on famous journalist and satirist H. L. Mencken.
93rd Oscars Predictions:
Best Picture
Borat Subsequent Movie Film
Judas and the Black Messiah
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Mank
Minari
Nomadland
Promising Young Woman
Sound of Metal
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Best Director
Lee Issac Chung for Minari
David Fincher for Mank
Emerald Fennell for Promising Young Woman
Aaron Sorkin for The Trial of the Chicago 7
Chloe Zhao for Nomadland
Best Actor
Riz Ahmed in Sound of Metal
Chadwick Boseman in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Anthony Hopkins in The Father
Gary Oldman in Mank
Steve Yuen in Minari
Best Actress
Viola Davis in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Andre Day in The United States vs. Billy Holiday
Vanessa Kirby in Pieces of a Woman
Frances McDormand in Nomadland
Carey Mulligan in Promising Young Woman
Best Supporting Actor
Sacha Baron Cohen in The Trial of the Chicago 7
Daniel Kaluuya in Judas and the Black Messiah
Bill Murray in On the Rocks
Leslie Odom Jr. in One Night in Miami
Paul Raci in Sound of Metal
Best Supporting Actress
Maria Bakalova in Borat Subsquent Movie Film
Olivia Colman in The Father
Jodie Foster in The Mauntarian
Amanda Seyfried in Mank
Yuh-Jong Yuen in Minari
Screenplay-Adapted
The Father
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
News of the World
Nomadland
One Night in Miami
Screenplay-Original
Mank
Minari
Promising Young Woman
Soul
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Animated Feature
The Croods: A New Age
Onward
Over the Moon
Soul
Wolfwalkers
Documentary Feature
Collective
Crip Camp
Dick Johnson is Dead
Time
Welcome to Chechnya
International Feature Film
Another Round from Denmark
Collective
La Lorna
Minari
Two of Us
Visual Effects
Mank
The Midnight Sky
Mulan
Soul
Tenet
Makeup and Hairstyling
Birds of Prey
Emma
The Hillibilly Elegy
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Mank
Documentary Short Subject
A love song for Latasha
Abortion Helpline, This is Lisa
Collette
Do Not Split
Hunger Ward
Film Editing
The Father
News of the World
Nomadland
Sound of Metal
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Production Design
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Mank
Mulan
News of the World
Tenet
Sound Mixing/Editing
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Mank
Soul
Sound of Metal
Tenet
Costume Design
Emma
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Mank
Mulan
News of the World
Cinematography
Judas and the Black messiah
Mank
News of the World
Nomadland
The Trial of the Chicago 7
Animated Short Film
Burrow
If Anything Happens I love you
Kapaemuhu
Opera
Out
Live Action Short Film
Da Yie
The Human Voice
The Letter Room
The Present
Two Distant Strangers
Original Score
Mank
The Midnight Sky
Minari
Soul
Tenet
Original Song
Fight for you from Judas and the Black Messiah
Speak Now from One Night in Miami
Hear my voice from the trial of the chicago 7
Io Si from The Life Ahead
Turntables from All In: The Fight for Democracy
Sascha I loved what you said about Mank and Chicago 7 . Those movies are at the top o my list I also agree about The Father .Chadwick Bose man will probably win for Ma Rainey. It’s just too bad there can’t be a tie between Boseman and Anthony Hopkins . As for Nomadland . It was good but not that good . I am reminded of years like Kramer v Kramer beating Apocalypse Now , Ordinary People beating Raging Bull , Chariots of Fire beating Reds and Terms of Endearment beating The Right Stuff . By the way has anyone seen an almost forgotten Bette Davis film from 1956 called Storm Center , She plays a librarian who refuses to remove a book from the library which could have been made today . It seems the more things change the more they remain the same .
Excellent write-up. I agree with just about every assessment in this article about the films & performances that touched you.