Who’s who in the Oscars race
This year’s Academy Awards ceremony has some genuine masterpieces and exceptional performances among its nominations.
The nominations for this year’s Oscars have been out for weeks, but the backlash came quick and has hung around. The Academy has a knack for avoidable controversy, and this year is no exception.
It’s going to be almost all white on the night, with the exception of a nod for British black actress Cynthia Erivo in the best actress category, Antonio Banderas flying the flag for Europe among the best actor nods, and the Korean director Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite contending in several categories for southeast Asia. BAFTA went one better, nominating 20 actors for its awards last Sunday, all of whom were white.
“Those nominations are beyond a joke,” tweeted the writer and director Nadia Latif. “It’s not funny to ignore the creative efforts of PoC artists. It’s another reminder that this industry does not welcome or want us.”
Review looks at the contenders for the Academy Awards. These are best-case Oscar scenarios, not a list of our favourite films of the past 12 months, complemented by extracts of David Stratton’s reviews of the nominated works. Feel free to argue. After all, that seems to be why film awards exist.
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Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood
Quentin Tarantino’s greatest film would be a dead cert for best picture in a year without 1917. It was divisive: some found it moving; others, crass. But LA looked gorgeous, and it was terrifying when Brad Pitt ventured into Spahn Ranch.
Stratton’s verdict
★★★★½
“Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood is the smartest movie Tarantino has made since Jackie Brown. Consummately acted by an unusually fine ensemble cast, the film will provoke and enthral, a sure indication the director has succeeded in making not only a handsome and nostalgic movie but also a challenging and subversive one.”
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Rocket Man
The Elton John film was the biopic many fans hoped Bohemian Rhapsody would be, before the Queen movie opted for vanilla over sex and drugs.
Stratton’s verdict
★★★★
“In the staging of the musical numbers, director Dexter Fletcher comes into his own. Fletcher, a former child actor, really knows how to stage and choreograph the musical sequences. Check the way Saturday Night’s All Right involves intricate activity inside and outside a pub, or how the title song, filmed in a swimming pool, connects the mature Elton with his inner child. For Pinball Wizard, Fletcher has George Richmond’s camera swirl around and around the performer, while the very precise editing shows off Elton in a dazzling array of exotic costume changes. It seems safe to say that audiences unfazed by Elton’s well-known excesses — both sexual and addictive — will have a very good time with this satisfyingly modern musical biography.”
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Marriage Story
Avoid Noah Baumbach’s latest if you are in the midst of a divorce. It’s his best movie yet, and now available on Netflix. He sure knows how to direct a wordy film.
Stratton’s verdict
★★★★½
Noah Baumbach divides the running time of this totally absorbing 2¼-hour drama almost equally between the (separating) protagnists, Nicole and Charlie, and in the process offers insights into the strengths and flaws of both. He doesn’t take sides, but emphasises the toll the proceedings take on both of these attractive people who once loved one another so much and who now find communication awkward and difficult. Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson are extremely charismatic actors and the characters they play, for all their flaws, are attractive human beings. This terrific movie, so honest, open, smart and touching, is a little gem.”
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Pain and Glory
Antonio Banderas plays the director “Pedro Almodovar” in Almodovar’s quietest film. Its focus is old age, so it might resonate with Oscar voters.
Stratton’s verdict
★★★★½
Pain and Glory is the latest film from Spain’s most celebrated director since Luis Bunuel, Pedro Almodovar, and it’s clearly his most personal. It’s a movie about a film director who is going through a late-life crisis, one that triggers memories of the past, of his mother, and of his first love. For all those cinemagoers who have been enthralled by Almodovar’s work over the years this very personal movie, with its superbly pitched central performance by Antonio Banderas, will be immensely rewarding.”
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Little Women
Greta Gerwig has a habit, which is useful for a director, of never wasting a scene. Her second film deserves more credit than it has had so far.
Stratton’s verdict
★★★★
“In another attempt to bring something fresh to the familiar story, Gerwig has played around with the story’s continuity. Normally I’m not averse to time-shifting in movies, but in this case I found the device unhelpful. Individual scenes are superbly staged and the cast is flawless, making the film essential viewing for lovers of the book. But nevertheless it is, at times, a little bit irritating.”
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Parasite
Bong Joon-ho’s biting class satire is the surprise package of the year. The ideas in his film — and, crucially, the guile with which he directs — will break this South Korean movie into the mainstream.
Stratton’s verdict
★★★★½
“Parasite is a subversive delight, and despite its hefty 2¼-hour running time is never dull because director Bong Joon-ho keeps shifting the goalposts so that, just as we think we know where the film is heading, he changes tack and pulls another joker from the pack. It’s a pleasure to be immersed in the work of this consummate artist.
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The Irishman
A sombre meditation on a life led badly, Martin Scorsese’s latest is a greatest hits of his previous work. The average series of Love Island is 49 hours. The Irishman is three, yet is apparently too long. Scorsese probably wonders why he bothers.
Stratton’s verdict
★★★★★
“Suffused with black humour and, in the end, a strange sadness, The Irishman is one of Scorsese’s finest achievements. De Niro’s performance is one of his best, while Pesci’s Bufalino is chilling in its placid menace. Scorsese veterans such as Harvey Keitel, Ray Romano and Barry Primus also make key contributions.
Despite its length, The Irishman is riveting. It confirms Scorsese as one of the great American filmmakers.”
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Us
Lupita Nyong’o takes on two sides of the same woman in Jordan Peele’s excellent horror. Get Out may have shoved its way into the cultural hubbub more, but the follow-up, Us, is equally strong, with Nyong’o anchoring a knotty film.
Stratton’s verdict
★★★½
“Even if this screenplay has flaws, Us confirms that Jordan Peele is an accomplished director with a wicked sense of humour. For the most part, it is a suspenseful and frequently terrifying horror film. A lot can be read into the film about the role of the family — “us” — in Donald Trump’s America, and Peele is clearly as much a social commentator as he is a purveyor of nailbiting horror. If only he didn’t feel the need to explain what’s better left inexplicable.”
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1917
After taking the biggest prizes at the Golden Globes, Sam Mendes’s slick war epic is the one to beat. Much is made of the film’s technical feats, which is fair, but the human side, led by George MacKay, is why the film will be remembered.
Stratton’s verdict
★★★★½
“1917 is, in most respects, a cinematic marvel. Leaving aside the dazzling technical skills of the movie-making, Sam Mendes’s film is also a tribute to unsung heroism, to the bravery of ordinary men, whether they are soldiers on the frontline or, in the contemporary context, firemen (and women) risking their lives to save others. I don’t know if 1917 will, over time, become a classic among war movies, but it deserves to be included among the best of them. It’s a cinematic experience that is at the same time exhilarating, nerve-racking and inspirational.”
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Judy
Renée Zellweger has won an Oscar before, for Bridget Jo … No. Chicago? Not that either. She won best supporting actress for Cold Mountain. Anyway, she is dazzling as the sad Judy Garland and is the favourite to win best actress.
Stratton’s verdict
★★★★
“Judy Garland was many things: a larger-than-life entertainer, a gay icon, a tragic figure destroyed by the Hollywood studio system. As Renee Zellweger so convincingly portrays her, she’s an unhappy woman in desperate need of people to love her. When the audience cheers her, she’s on top of the world; when they boo her, the pain on her face tells its own sad story. Garland must have been exasperating to work with, but Zellweger’s performance goes right to the heart of what made her a superstar.”
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Jojo Rabbit
In the smallest shock of the year, Taika Waititi’s comedy about Hitler has split audiences. If you fall for it, though, it belongs on this list.
Stratton’s verdict
★★★★½
“Is fascism a laughing matter? Can you make jokes about the Nazis without giving offence? The answer is certainly yes. New Zealand director Waititi is clearly a fine director and Roman Griffin Davis is simply terrific as the resourceful Jojo, a 10-year-old proud member of the Hitler Youth. At a time when racism is once again rearing its ugly head in many parts of the world, Jojo Rabbit might, with all its faults, be just the film we need right now.”
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Joker
For many, Joker was the worst film of 2019. Yet a major studio movie became a huge talking point, something cinema has lacked of late.
Stratton’s verdict ★★★★
“Director Todd Phillips’s filmography before Joker, including the mildly entertaining 2004 film version of the TV series Starsky and Hutch and The Hangover trilogy, gave little indication he was capable of creating a powerful, ominous depiction of a society descending into madness such as we find in this film. It won the Golden Lion at Venice, confirming that it has to be taken seriously as a stark commentary on the human condition, and it is safe to say there has never been a Joker quite like Joaquin Phoenix.”
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AND THE WINNERS COULD BE …
Best film
Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood, with Parasite a close second. Or — as with the Booker Prize — share the honours.
Best director
Bong Joon-ho. There is no greater sign of how superbly Parasite is made than hordes of subtitle-phobic people clamouring to see it.
Best actress
Get Out may have shoved its way into the cultural hubbub more, but Jordan Peele’s follow-up, Us, is equally strong, with Lupita Nyong’o anchoring a knotty film. She deserves the statuette.
Best actor
Adam Driver is possibly the best actor of his generation, so it seems fair that he becomes the best actor of 2020.
Full coverage of the Academy Awards on Monday in The Australian, from the red carpet to the ceremony and the winners. Live blog by Stephen Romei and Glynis Traill-Nash and full analysis by Philippa Hawker.