Best Picture 2021

The time has come for my annual post about the films nominated for the Best Picture award at this year's Oscars. Due to the pandemic the ceremony is happening a few months later this year and the rules have been tweaked so that for this year only films do not have to had a cinema release in order to be eligible. I've managed to watch six of the eight nominees this year which is not bad going considering that most were delayed from their planned cinema releases.

The Father

I don't think a film has ever made me cry before but this one caused literal tears. The Father sees Anthony Hopkins play a man with dementia and the film is told from his confused perspective- different actors occasionally pop up as the same characters, the timeline just around all over the place and some events happen more than once and characters tell him differing things. It's a clever idea which effectively puts you in the shoes of someone with dementia. The moment the character understands that his brain no longer works properly is heart-breaking. This film hasn't been released yet in the UK but I managed to watch it on an online Film Festival.

Judas and the Black Messiah

This is a biopic of sorts focusing on leader of the Black Panthers Fred Hampton, here played by Daniel Kalyua. It takes an unusual approach though and focuses on Bill O'Neal, a reluctant FBI agent who spies on Hampton played by Lakieth Stainfield. It's partly a fascinating character story with it never being clear whether O'Neal sympathizes with Hampton or not but it's also a piece of modern history that I don't think it that widely known, especially here in the UK, where the US government and the FBI saw the Black Panthers as such a threat they made their lives miserable and even murdered them. A powerful film with some great performances. 

Mank

The Oscars always like a film which is about films though I think this is probably the worst of the nominees. Gary Oldman stars as Herman Mankoviez, a Hollywood screenwriter who suffers from alcoholism and is tasked with writing the screenplay for Orson Welles' Citizen Kane. Oldman is excellent in the role and it does a good job of emulating films of the era but it's pacing is all over the place with the first half being really slow before the film gets going around the halfway mark. I think it was the nominee I enjoyed the least and it doesn't match the quality of director David Fincher's previous films.

Minari

It's unusual to have an American made film whose main language is not English but Minari is largely in Korean. Korean immigrant Jacob has been making a decent living in the chick-sexing industry (yes, that's a thing) but wants to do more and attempts to start his own farm. The film focuses on the whole family including young son David who has a heart defect and Jacob's mother-in-law Soon-ja who comes to America for the first time to live with the family. Though it's mostly in Korean the film is actually very American with it's story of immigrants and the American dream. What's fascinating about this film is the fact that it is such a specific story yet manages to feel so relatable at the same time thanks to it's family focus. I didn't come away stunned by what I'd seen but I certainly enjoyed it.

Nomadland

I haven't been able to see Nomadland yet as it's not released here in the UK until the 30th April on Disney+, five days after the ceremony. Typically it's the favourite to win. Frances McDormand plays a woman dealing with grief who puts her life into a camper van and travels across America, picking up temporary jobs to sustain her. It has got criticism from some quarters for not showing the negative side of the gig economy but it's supposed to be a really powerful film and McDormand is always fantastic. It's collected many awards including best film at the BAFTAs so it seems likely the Academy will go the same way.

Promising Young Woman

The other nominee I've yet to see, Promising Young Woman was written and directed by Emerald Fennell (who wrote season 2 of the excellent Killing Eve) and stars Carey Mulligan as a woman who pretends to be drunk and then violently attacks sexual predators who try to take advantage of her. From what I understand this is a film which does an excellent job of discussing an issue, depicting the assaulters as normal blokes who don't even think they are doing anything wrong, but at the same time manages to be stylistic in it's direction and full of comedy. It seems to be the most divisive of this year's nominees with some struggling with it's brand of feminism which perhaps means it is unlikely to win.

Sound of Metal

British actor Riz Ahmed stars as rock drummer Rueben. Within a few minutes of the film starting he faces catastrophic hearing loss and being a former addict is sent to a rehab community for deaf people to deal with his hearing loss. The cast is mostly made up of deaf actors and the film does a great job at portraying the deaf community in a positive light. Ahmed is brilliant, having to rely on body language and later signing to communicate rather than his voice and the sound editing is especially clever as it makes the audience hear what Rueben hears. 

The Trial of the Chicago 7

A courtroom drama focusing on the trial of seven people for charged with inciting riots in 1968 in Chicago. It's based on a true story and actually features Fred Hampton as a minor character but it doesn't deal with the race issues as well as Judas and the Black Messiah. It's ensemble cast is strong led by Eddie Redmayne and Sacha Baron Cohen (it's interesting to note that six of the eight nominees have British stars) but it just doesn't deal with the themes as well as it ought to do and ends in an unnatural place. A film with a similar theme that does it much better is Steve Mcqueen's Mangrove which is on BBC iPlayer.

Nomadland is the favourite and if it's good as everyone suggests it is than it would be a deserved winner. I think Mank and The Trial of the Chicago 7 are very much the lesser films from the list and I personally wouldn't have nominated them. The film I thought was best out of the seven I've seen was The Father, it's an original idea which is well executed and Anthony Hopkins is incredible (he's my pick for Best Actor). Sound of Metal wasn't far behind it either but it will be a surprise if anything other than Nomadland takes the title as it's won everything else going. 

(Where to watch: The Father will be released in cinemas on 11th June, Judas and the Black Messiah and Minari are avaliable as 'home premieres' on all digital film stories, Mank and The Trial of the Chicago 7 are on Netflix, Nomadland will be released on Disney+ on 30th April and Sound of Metal is on Amazon Prime.)