Best Pictures #70: 2020 (93rd) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: Judas and the Black Messiah

 by A.J.

Best Pictures #70: 2020 (93rd) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

Judas and the Black Messiah

“Anywhere there is people, there is power.”

A title like Judas and the Black Messiah tells you not only the kind of relationship the main characters will have but also how it will end. It also sets up the characters as figures of mythic and grand proportions. Fortunately, the approach by director Shaka King, the Oscar nominated screenplay, and the excellent cast emphasize the human elements of this true story. It seems as though everyone involved in making this film knew there was little that they had to do to convey the importance of the story of Chicago Black Panther chairman Fred Hampton and the events that led to his death. This may sound like a heavy film given the subject matter, and at times it certainly is, but, in addition to the people and events depicted, the craft and skill on display in every aspect of the movie make it well worth watching. I was reminded of a Roger Ebert quote: “No good movie is depressing; all bad movies are depressing.” Judas and the Black Messiah is a good movie. 

The film opens with Bill O’Neal (LaKeith Stanfield) finding himself in an unfortunately ironic predicament. He has been caught by the FBI for impersonating an FBI agent in order to steal cars from unsuspecting bar patrons. Now, real FBI Agent Mitchell (Jesse Plemons) offers O’Neal the choice between going to prison or infiltrating the Black Panthers and becoming an informant. O’Neal takes the deal, eventually working his way to becoming the head of security for the Panthers and the driver for Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya). As he passes information to the FBI, O’Neal also comes to believe in the cause of the Panthers and finds himself greatly conflicted. Stanfield has great emotional scenes with dialogue and quiet moments trying to hold back his conflicted emotions. His character is always under stress, always presenting one persona to Hampton and the Panthers and another to the FBI. His betrayal of Hampton is by no means excused, but Stanfield shows us the emotional and mental state of the man driven to it. 

As good as Stanfield is, the real standout is Daniel Kaluuya as Fred Hampton. He captures the confidence and charisma of the 21-year-old activist, but the screenplay also allows us to see him in private moments like him reciting along to a record of a Malcolm X speech to practice his own oratory skills. Dominique Fishback as Debra Johnson also gives a great performance as Hampton’s fiancé. When she first attends a Black Panther meeting, she is immediately captivated and enchanted by Hampton’s speech. Kaluuya’s performance makes her attraction both to his words and his presence easy to understand. His scenes with her allow for quiet, intimate moments that further show this figure from recent history as a real person. Kaluuya is the frontrunner for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, in part because he is actually a co-lead along with Stanfield, who is also nominated in the Supporting Actor category. 

True stories can make for great films, but great films based on true stories do not necessarily make for great history. I do not doubt the authenticity of the characters or major events depicted or the FBI plot that led to Hampton’s death. I have read and seen enough documentaries to know that J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI was motivated by his serious but mistaken belief that the Civil Rights movement was being controlled by communists and had to be stopped before it destroyed the country (here Hoover is played by Martin Sheen in a performance too small to be especially good or bad, however, his makeup is especially bad). Judas and the Black Messiah is the best kind of based-on-a-true-story film: it engaged me with the story and characters, giving me a real sense of what things were like for them, and it makes me want to learn more about the events and people depicted. The film ends with documentary footage and these short clips actually enhance the emotions of the movie instead of undercutting them. If you already know the story of Fred Hampton and the FBI’s insidious campaign against him and the Black Panthers in the late 1960’s, the reason to watch Judas and the Black Messiah is for the incredible performances from Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield. 

This isn’t just another biopic or a reenactment. At times it plays like a tense thriller in the same vein as Martin Scorsese’s The Departed. At other times it plays like a quiet drama. At every moment we are made aware of the social imbalances and injustices that motivate Hampton and the Panthers and come, too late, to move O’Neal as well. It is unfortunate and frustrating that these social imbalances and injustices are still being dealt with today.  Judas and the Black Messiah comes as close as any movie does to bringing history to life.

Nominee: Shaka King, Charles D. King, Ryan Coogler, producers

Director: Shaka King

Screenplay: Will Berson & Shaka King; story by Will Berson & Shaka King and Kenneth Lucas & Keith Lucas

Cast: Daniel Kaluuya, Lakeith Stanfield, Jesse Plemons, Dominique Fishback

Production Companies: MACRO, Participant, Bron Creative, Proximity

Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures

Release Date: February 12th, 2021

Total Nominations: 6, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Supporting Actor-Daniel Kaluuya; Supporting Actor-LaKeith Stanfield; Original Screenplay-Will Berson, Shaka King, Kenneth Lucas, Keith Lucas; Cinematography-Sean Bobbitt; Original Song- H.E.R., D'Mile, Tiara Thomas for "Fight for You"

Best Pictures #69: 2020 (93rd) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: Sound of Metal

 by A.J.

Best Pictures #69: 2020 (93rd) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

Sound of Metal

“Those moments of stillness, that place, that's the kingdom of God.”

While hanging out with musician friends at shows I noticed that before playing, they all put in earplugs. I wondered why since I thought this would make it difficult for them to hear each other. This was very much not the case. If you’ve ever been to a loud concert, it is way, way louder on stage. So, the premise of Sound of Metal, about a working-class heavy metal drummer whose world is turned upside down by sudden and profound hearing loss, is frighteningly believable. Thankfully, my friends still have their hearing. 

The path that Ruben, played by Riz Ahmed with one of the best performances of the year, finds himself on is abrupt and unexpected to put it mildly. Likewise, the film never quite goes where you expect, but you believe every moment and every emotion. I wasn’t expecting Sound of Metal to receive 6 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, but I am very happy that it did because I cannot think of many movies from 2020 that I enjoyed more. 

Faced with the loss of his hearing, his livelihood, and potentially his relationship, Ruben also fears losing his four years of sobriety from heroin. In need of immediate and special help, his girlfriend and bandmate, Lou (Olivia Cooke), takes him to a sobriety house especially for the deaf. The house is run by Joe (Paul Raci), a deaf Vietnam veteran and recovering alcoholic who gives off the impression that his inner peace only came after a hard struggle. He takes Ruben under his wing but tells him that his program is about finding a solution to the problem in his mind, not his deafness. The scenes of Ruben at the deaf sober house and learning how to live without hearing are interesting and very engaging. Director Darius Marder’s gentle approach to the characters and Ruben’s journey gives us the feeling that we are getting a window into a real community with real people, not participating in a kind of cultural tourism.

As much as I admire the approach taken by Marder’s direction and the screenplay he co-wrote with his brother Abraham, Sound of Metal works so well because of Riz Ahmed’s performance. This is not a case of an actor showing off their talents by playing a character with a disability. Ahmed plays a full range of emotions but the real pathos comes from his facial expressions, especially his expressive eyes. Most important of all to the movie’s success, he is not afraid to show big vulnerability on screen or show just how afraid and anxious someone in this situation would feel, especially if they were a musician.

Though we see Ruben getting on well at the sober house and with the larger deaf community, he still wants to have cochlear implant surgery which he believes will allow him to return to his old life. This is at odds with Joe’s belief that being deaf is not a handicap or something to be fixed and leads to one of the most compelling and affecting scenes of the movie; one that likely earned Ahmed and Raci their Oscar nominations. It is easily one of the best moments in any movie I saw over the last year. 

I will admit that I was hesitant to watch Sound of Metal at first, despite its positive reviews, because a movie about a young musician going deaf seems like a heavy or even depressing movie. However, Sound of Metal ends up being an uplifting film without delving into melodrama or smarmy sentiment. Every aspect of this movie is low-key, allowing every moment to feel genuine. This is not the kind of movie with twists but it does have unexpected narrative turns which are best left to be discovered along with Ruben. All of the unexpected places, both physical and emotional, the story takes us are what make it memorable. The empathy in the performances from Paul Raci, Olivia Cooke, Mathieu Amalric, and, most of all, Riz Ahmed are what make it so moving. Sound of Metal is something special: a film so seemingly simple but deeply affecting. It is a character study so well executed that it transcends its premise and puts us so in tune with the main character that its final moments become spiritual, or philosophical, depending on your inclination. 

Nominees: Bert Hamelinck, Sacha Ben Harroche, producers

Director: Darius Marder

Screenplay: Darius Marder & Abraham Marder; story by Darius Marder & Derek Cianfrance 

Cast: Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cooke, Paul Raci 

Production Companies: Caviar, Ward Four, Flat 7 Productions

Distributor: Amazon Studios

Release Date: November 20th, 2020

Total Nominations: 6, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Actor-Riz Ahmed; Supporting Actor-Paul Raci; Original Screenplay-Darius Marder, Abraham Marder, story by Derek Cianfrance; Editing- Mikkel E.G. Nielsen; Sound-Nicolas Becker, Jaime Baksht, Michelle Couttolenc, Carlos Cortés Navarrete, Phillip Bladh

Best Pictures #68: 2020 (93rd) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: The Trial of the Chicago 7

 by A.J. 

Best Pictures #68: 2020 (93rd) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

The Trial of the Chicago 7

“This is the Academy Awards of protests and as far as I'm concerned it's an honor just to be nominated.”

The Trial of the Chicago 7 resonates as much as it does because even though it is a dramatization of events from 50 years ago, it feels like it could have been based on current events. I knew next to nothing about the Chicago 7 before watching this movie, but I also know that good movies don’t always make for good history. However, The Trial of the Chicago 7 does the best thing a movie based on an important true story can do: it gives me a strong sense of what things were like for the people involved and it makes me want to learn more. I have never cared much for Aaron Sorkin’s TV projects, but I have really enjoyed his film writing (A Few Good Men, The Social Network) and even his work as a director (Molly’s Game). As with Molly’s Game, Sorkin writes and directs, but it is clear that Sorkin the writer is at the helm. Aaron Sorkin is aware that his forte is writing speeches and debates and that awareness can also be his problem. This based-on-true-events courtroom drama is in many ways what you expect, but it is no less satisfying to watch.

Protests against the Vietnam War at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago turned into riots and 7 people (actually 8) were arrested and charged with crossing state lines to intentionally start a riot, though, of course, this was not true. We see dramatizations of the trial, strategy sessions and arguments the 7 have with each other and their lawyer, and flashbacks of the events leading up to the protests turned riots and why that turn happened (it might be unfortunately no surprise or shock to find out that the police, not the accused 7, escalated the protests into riots).  

This is the epitome of an ensemble cast. Every role, major and minor, is a distinct one and played by recognizable name or face. It is an impressive and slightly distracting cast. When the defense team tracks down an important witness you spend the preceding scene wondering what celebrity will be waiting for them at the end of the hall. The standouts of the ensemble are Sacha Baron Cohen, who has earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his performance in the very showy role of Abbie Hoffman, Mark Rylance as William Kunstler, the determined lawyer for the 7, and Frank Langella as the prejudiced, frustrating, and incompetent Judge Julius Hoffman. Eddie Redmayne gives a good performance as Tom Hayden, the head of Students for a Democratic Society, but his best scenes are his arguments/debates with Cohen as Abbie Hoffman. I really enjoyed their scenes together; both are on the same side and want to achieve the same goal but are on different paths. 

The 8th person on trial is Bobby Seale, the national chairman of the Black Panthers, played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. who was not involved in the planning of any of the DNC protests but was charged nevertheless and lumped into the trial as part of the FBI’s campaign against the Panthers. The scenes with Seale are noteworthy not just for the injustice being dealt to him but for Mateen’s performance as well. Joseph Gordon Levitt plays the federal prosecutor and does a good job in a pretty restrained role. John Carol Lynch and others also turn in solid performances but in a cast this stacked it is difficult to stand out. 

The story of the Chicago 7 is perfect material for Sorkin. It allows for lengthy speeches, wordy arguments, memorable characters, and declarations about political and moral values. The runtime is just over two hours but for a dialogue heavy movie, it is well paced and engaging. I think Sorkin successfully makes this into something more than just another courtroom drama. The Trial of the Chicago 7 feels like a pageant at times but it is one that needs to be performed and is done so very well. This film doesn’t have the at times frenetic feel of Molly’s Game—which really feels like he was trying to recreate Danny Boyle’s lively aesthetic—or an especially distinct visual style. Here Sorkin lets the dialogue and performances shape the movie. 

Nominee:  Marc Platt, Stuart Besser, producers

Director: Aaron Sorkin    

Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin    

Cast: Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne, Mark Rylance

Production Companies:Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures, Cross Creek Pictures, Marc Platt Productions, ShivHans Pictures 

Distributor: Netflix

Release Date: September 25th, 2020

Total Nominations: 6, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Supporting Actor-Sacha Baron Cohen; Original Screenplay-Aaron Sorkin; Editing-Alan Baumgarten; Cinematography- Phedon Papamichael; Original Song-Celeste, Daniel Pemberton for "Hear My Voice"

Best Pictures #67: 2020 Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: Minari

 by A. J. 

Best Pictures #67: 2020 (93rd) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee
Minari

“Minari can be put in kimchi, put in stew, put in soup. It can be medicine if you are sick. Minari is wonderful, wonderful!”

Minari feels both familiar and unique at the same time. It is certainly a special movie which I very much recommend. It has earned 6 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and I think it is deserving of the recognition and praise it has so far received. Writer-director Lee Isaac Chung based this story of a Korean family settling in rural Arkansas in the 1980’s to start a farm on his own similar childhood experiences. In dramatizing his own story, Chung has made a film that is personal and relatable even if you are not Korean, or a farmer, or an immigrant. If you’ve tried chasing any part of the American dream, you’ll recognize something in Minari.

Stephen Yuen and Yeri Han play Jacob and Monica, a Korean couple who have just moved from California to Arkansas with their two young children, Anne and David, to pursue Jacob’s dream of having a big farm—like the Garden of Eden—that will thrive and allow the family to do the same. Monica is skeptical to say the least, especially when she sees the trailer on the plain plot of land that is to be their new home. Adding to her anxiety is David’s heart murmur and how far away they are from a city and a hospital. The arrival of Monica’s mother, Soonja, complicates some things (like the sleeping arrangement in the small trailer) and livens up others.

Minari’s focus is on the relationship that shy 6-year-old David has with his outspoken grandmother, Soonja. This isn’t a cutesy movie about a little boy and his sassy grandma, though they certainly have that dynamic. David doesn’t like that she doesn’t act like a “real” grandma: she doesn’t bake cookies, she swears, watches wrestling, and drinks Mountain Dew. Yuh-jung Youn as Soonja steals every scene and is far and away the standout performer of the film. She has earned a well-deserved Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination and would be my choice to win if I were allowed to pick the winners. She isn’t just funny—which she is—or the character most out of place in this new home—which she is—but the emotions she stirs and her relationship with David are the heart of the movie. Alan Kim as David is just what you hope for in a child actor. He does not draw attention to himself and his behavior always comes across as natural, not contrived, even when he is playing a gross prank of his grandma. They share a wonderful, quiet scene together at a creek near the farm where she plants minari, a leafy vegetable; it is my favorite scene in the movie.

Steven Yeun, nominated for the Best Actor Oscar, and Yeri Han work very well together as a believable married couple. He is determined but not bullheaded and she is not unsupportive or a nag but is justifiably feeling isolated and concerned. It is clear that they care for each other and even though they are at a place where their future together is uncertain, we do not feel that they have a bad marriage. Will Patton, a familiar face even if you don’t recognize his name, has a small role with a notable performance as the kindhearted but very eccentric local who gladly helps Jacob on the farm. He speaks in tongues randomly and, in a scene late in the movie, performs an exorcism that is simultaneously comical and emotional.

The beautiful Oscar nominated score by Emile Mosseri would be my pick to win that category, again, if I were allowed to pick the winners. It is ethereal and enchanting and brimming with pathos. Chung has a tenderness in his direction and his screenplay—both are Oscar nominated—towards each of the characters and their points of view. My only real complaint is the plot contrivance that leads to the climax, but it is not a major strike against the movie because it drives the drama of the story forward and the final moments won me back easily. From start to finish Minari is filled with the kind of small, intimate and affecting moments that are so rarely done well on screen. Wonderful, wonderful Minari indeed.

Nominee: Christina Oh, producer

Director: Lee Isaac Chung

Screenplay: Lee Isaac Chung

Cast: Steven Yeun, Yeri Han, Yuh-jung Youn, Alan Kim

Production Companies: Plan B

Distributor: A24
Release Date: February 12th, 2021

Total Nominations: 6, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Actor-Steven Yeun; Supporting Actress_ Yuh-jung Youn; Director-Lees Isaac Chung; Original Screenplay-Lee Isaac Chung; Original Score-Emile Mosseri

Best Pictures #66: 2020 (93rd) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: The Father

by A.J. 

Best Pictures #66: 2020 (93^rd) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee
The Father
 

"I feel as if I'm losing my all leaves."

An audience will generally accept whatever happens in the first 15 or 20 minutes of a movie to be true to the reality of the story no matter the genre or subject matter. This is when we are being introduced to the characters and their world. Even if a movie begins with a dream or a fantasy, it has told us what is real and what is not. The Father takes full advantage of this to put the audience in the mindset of Anthony, an elderly man with dementia. As you might imagine given the subject matter, this makes for a heavy viewing experience. The Father is that kind of movie that is well made and well-acted but cannot exactly be described as entertainment. 

The film begins with Anne (Olvia Coleman) meeting her father, Anthony (Anthony Hopkins), at his large, posh London apartment to tell him that she has met a man and will be moving to Paris soon, so she will not be able to look after him anymore. In the next scene Anthony finds a man in his apartment who he (and we) has never seen before claiming to be Anne’s husband. Anne returns from the market but Anthony does not recognize her. Neither do we. Now Anne is played by Olivia Williams and says she is not and never was moving to Paris. Director Florian Zeller, who, along with Chistopher Hampton, adapted The Father from his play, has us share in Anthony’s disorientation and confusion with very effective but simple techniques.

Scenes repeat and loop back on themselves. It seems like this movie takes place over the same few days again and again. The Oscar nominated production design makes different apartments look the same but also different. The cinematography finds ways to shoot a room from different angles so we aren’t sure if we are in Anthony’s apartment or his daughter’s apartment. There is a general sense of a timeline (the editing also received an Oscar nomination), but we are never really sure where we are in the timeline. Anthony often points to a painting done by his other daughter, Lucy, but then one time it isn’t there anymore. We see the faint outline that something once hung there. Was the painting removed? Is he in a different apartment that never had the painting and hung something else there?   

 

It will come as no surprise that Anthony Hopkins gives not just a good or very good performance but a great one. His Best Actor Oscar nomination isn’t just a lifetime achievement placeholder. Anthony’s ever-changing mood and perspective requires Hopkins to be agitated, charming, confused, calm, lucid, frightened; often in the same scene. Yet, Hopkins does not use the role just to showcase his talents. Even in the most dramatic scenes his performance is still full of sympathy; we see Anthony the character first and the work of Anthony the actor later. Olivia Coleman is a great scene partner for Hopkins and does a great job conveying her emotions while trying to hold them back. The rest of the small cast is an impressive lineup of great performers: Olivia Williams, Rufus Sewell, Mark Gatiss, and Imogen Poots. 

 

The doubling and repetition of scenes and dialogue are indeed a clever approach to dramatizing the muddled perspective of a dementia sufferer. However, with this effect having been achieved so quickly and completely at the beginning of the film, after a while these techniques lose their power and even become annoying. The movie never gives us an objective reality even in scenes of Anne alone or with her husband. I understand the filmmaker wanting to keep us off kilter to fully convey Anthony’s perspective but there are moments where the film is not from his perspective, including Anne’s dream/nightmare.

The final scene is what we presume it will be and is emotionally powerful. While appreciating The Father from an artistic and technical view, I kept wondering who this movie is for. I cannot imagine people who have really had Anne’s experience wanting to relive such devastating experiences. It is not especially grim or dour or mawkish, but it would still be a difficult watch for a movie night (definitely have something light queued up to watch afterward). There are other works of fiction and non-fiction about the effects of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease and the emotional toll it has on everyone involved, but I suppose this is the only one with an incredible performance from Anthony Hopkins. 

Nominees: David Parfitt, Jean-Louis Livi, Philippe Carcassonne, producers

Director: Florian Zeller 

Screenplay: Christopher Hampton, Florian Zeller 

Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Olivia Coleman, Olivia Williams

Production Companies: F comme Film, Trademark Films, Cine@, AG Studios, Film4, Orange Studio, Canal+, Ciné+ 

Distributor: Lionsgate, Sony Pictures Classics

Release Date: February 26th, 2021

Total Nominations: 6, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Actor-Anthony Hopkins; Supporting Actress-Olivia Coleman; Adapted Screenplay-Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller; Editing-Yorgos Lamprinos; Production Design-Peter Francis, Cathy Featherstone

Best Pictures #65: 2020 (93rd) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: Nomadland

 by A. J. 

Best Pictures #65: 2020 (93^rd) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee
Nomadland 

“I’ve met hundreds of people out there and I don’t ever say a final goodbye. Let’s just say, ‘I’ll see you down the road.’ And I do. I see them again.”

Nomadland opens with text explaining that after 80 years the gypsum mine in Empire, Nevada closed and the town quickly ceased to exist. Fern, a 60ish former resident of Empire, now travels the American West living out of her modified van moving from town to town, campsite to campsite, taking odd jobs here and there. Frances McDormand gives a wonderful performance as Fern. She is far more understated than her characters in Fargo, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, or even Almost Famous, but, no matter how broad or intimate the role, her great talent as an actress is to make any character that she plays feel very real. It is no surprise that McDormand has earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her work here. There is a wistful, bittersweetness to Fern and her nomadic lifestyle and also to the movie itself.

As both writer (adapting Jessica Bruder’s nonfiction book of the same name) and director, Chloe Zhao gives her film the look and feel of a documentary. This approach helps Nomadland in some ways and hurts it in others. It will come as no surprise that many of the fellow travelers and nomads Fern encounters and befriends are real life nomads. They do a fine job in their scenes with a two-time Academy Award winner because the movie only requires them to be themselves. A gathering of nomads in Arizona where they trade stories, supplies, and tips and advice for living on the road is the most interesting segment of the film. That scene along with the scenes of the real people sharing their stories and insights made part of me wish that Zhao had made a documentary instead of a dramatization.

Seeing the beautifully photographed landscapes of the American West from the Nevada desert to Arizona to the Dakota badlands is a treat. The Oscar nominated cinematography by Joshua James Richards captures the quiet, enchanting beauty in what seems like a desolate landscape. 

Many scenes in Nomadland are short, giving us only snippets of the lives Fern encounters and her own life as well. David Strathairn has a small but great performance as a fellow wanderer debating if he should settle down again. Their scenes together are touching moments and we want them to last and hope they meet each other again. We get a brief scene of Fern visiting her sister and an argument about the real estate market begins to brew but stops short. She moves from place to place so the film cannot help feeling episodic but it is still well-paced. Nomadland is about a wanderer, but it is never aimless. 

There is not much that feels contrived in Nomadland but at a certain point I knew what would happen in the final scene. We spend a lot of quiet moments with Fern but we also feel kept at a distance from her, not unlike the distance she keeps from those that try to get close to her. We begin the film thinking that her life as a nomad is purely out of necessity but then it seems it is by choice. Perhaps the real answer for Fern and the real life nomads is somewhere in between. Nomadland is worth watching for the glimpse at this quasi-off-the-grid lifestyle but to learn more about it I suppose I will have to read the book.

Nominees: Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey (producer), Chloé Zhao, producers 

Director: Chloe Zhao

Screenplay: Chloe Zhao, based on the book by Jessica Bruder

Cast:Frances McDormand, David Strathairn, Linda May, Swankie

Production Companies: Highwayman Films, Hear/Say Productions, Cor Cordium Productions

Distributor: Searchlight Studios, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Release Date: February 19th, 2021

Total Nominations: 6, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Actress-Frances McDormand; Director-Chloe Zhao; Adapted Screenplay-Chloe Zhao; Editing-Chloe Zhao; Cinematography-Joshua James Richards

Classic Movie Picks: April 2021

by Lani

I used to scour the Turner Classic Movies schedule each month for upcoming films that I couldn’t miss and post the highlights here for your reading and viewing pleasure! It’s been a few...years, but who’s counting? (All listed times are Eastern Standard, check your local listings or TCM.com for actual air times in your area. Each day's schedule begins at 6:00 a.m.; if a film airs between midnight and 6 a.m. it is listed on the previous day's programming schedule.)

After a delayed start, it is finally award season in Hollywood, which means it's time for TCM's "31 Days of Oscar" programming. Each day in April features films which were Academy Award winners or nominees and the films are being shown from A to Z, ending with Best Foreign Language Film winner Z on May 1. Coincidentally this was the gimmick in 2017, which was the last time I blogged about 31 Days of Oscar. By the way, if you don't have cable, you can stream films on the TCM app, but they don't stay available for very long after the air date, or usually find the films to stream or rent through other platforms. Here are my top picks for the month:

4/3, 9:45 PM - Carol (2015) 

I was happy to see that TCM has included several movies from the 2000s in this year’s 31 Days line-up. The canon of classic films is not a fixed list; it should always be re-evaluated and refreshed as new art is made. Carol was nominated for 10 Academy Awards, but notably not Best Picture. Director Todd Haynes combines the lush elegance of a Douglas Sirk melodrama with contemporary storytelling in this romantic drama about a shopgirl and a housewife drawn to each other, but restricted by 1950s conventions. 

4/7, 10:15AM - Gaslight (1944)

“Gaslighting” has become a ubiquitous buzzword in the last few years. But how many people have actually seen the film that gave us that term? Technically, “gaslighting” means when someone lies to you so that you begin to doubt your own sanity and then you can be committed to an asylum and your tormentor can steal your aunt’s jewels. Ingrid Bergman won Best Actress for her performance as a woman driven mad. The film received seven nominations in total, including Best Picture, which it lost to Going My Way. Keep an eye out for a young Angela Lansbury in her first film role as Bergman’s maid, she received a Best Supporting Actress nomination.

4/10, 3PM - Hope and Glory (1987)

The title may sound generic, but this charming and warm story of British civilian life during WWII will stick with you. Told through the eyes of a young boy, the film is based on writer-director John Boorman’s own experiences during the London blitz. The film received five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, but did not win any awards; in fact it lost in almost every category to that year’s big winner, The Last Emperor. 

4/18, 8PM - Nebraska (2013)

Omaha-born Alexander Payne is one of my favorite contemporary filmmakers. His films - including Election, About Schmidt, and Sideways - depict familiar, everyday people with biting dark humor. Nebraska is no exception as the story of a cantankerous elderly man and his adult son on a road trip to collect sweepstakes winnings. While several of Payne’s films have earned Oscar nominations, 2013’s Nebraska received the most with six. Surprisingly, it did not win in any category, though lead actor Bruce Dern and Phedon Papamichael’s black and white cinematography were certainly top contenders that year. 

4/23, 10:30PM - The Red Shoes (1948)

This film about a dancer torn between a devotion to her art and a desire for a conventional life was the 10th collaboration of the celebrated filmmaking team of director Michael Powell and producer Emeric Pressburger. It was nominated in Best picture and four additional categories, winning much-deserved awards for the art direction and the score. It is visually dazzling, particularly the ballet sequences starring real-life ballerina Moira Shearer. Anton Walbrook, a favorite character actor for Powell & Pressburger is also particularly good as Lermontov, the impresario who gives Shearer’s character her big break. 

4/28, 1:15AM - The Third Man (1949)

If you’ve never seen this one, set the DVR, get the app, whatever you need to do - just watch it. This atmospheric post-WWII noir follows an American investigating a friend’s suspicious death in Vienna. Though Orson Welles gets all the memorable lines, this is really a Joseph Cotten film. Cotten came to Hollywood with Welles as a member of Welles’ Mercury Theatre Company and after a large supporting role in 1941’s Citizen Kane, Cotten transitioned into a successful, decades-long movie career (including a role 1944’s Gaslight). The film received nominations for direction and editing, but the striking cinematography garnered the film’s only win.