Of the one’s I’ve seen [eta to add where I saw them]:
Ma Rainey [Netflix]: Respected actors, great story, about a real person, the Chadwick angle. Would be my dark horse.
Chicago 7 [Netflix]: Good performances, academy loves them some boomer politics. I think it’s more likely to get some other awards, but has a shot for best picture.
Never Rarely Sometimes Always [HBOMax]: Great movie, but no way no how is the Best Picture Award going to a film about a teenaged girl who crosses state lines to get an abortion without parental consent…
Soul [Disney+]: I loved it, but don’t think it’s good enough to win, especially because I think there is still a bit of an anti-animated/kids film bias.
-First Cow [I had some Amazon Digital Credits, so I rented VOD]: I think it was overhyped, so this just might be my bias, but I also think it came out too early in the season and is too slow/artsy for a lot of voters.
Mank [Netflix]: it has some great performances, and the whole old Hollywood thing may have some appeal, but shitting on Orson Wells may cost some votes.
-The Assistant [Hulu]: Great movie, Julia Garner deserves a nom, but they’re not giving Best Picture to a movie that is basically about the ways the machine protected Harvey Weinstein after spending years giving out statues to that dude.
Needless to say, my response to Minari is both biased and informed by my affection for Isaac and my knowledge of him as a person—and by that, I don’t mean his upbringing as the son of Korean immigrants, the details of which were as delightful and moving a surprise for me as they were for many other moviegoers.
I’m speaking more of his artistic sensibility, the ways I’ve seen this fellow Terrence Malick–loving, Hou Hsiao-hsien–worshipping cine-nerd evolve over a roughly 15-year filmmaking career. Minari fans will get a sense of just how expansive that sensibility is if they check out his 2007 feature Munyurangabo , a quietly galvanic portrait of life in post-genocide Rwanda that I have zero conflict-of-interest qualms about recommending.
Notably, Munyurangabo does pretty much the opposite of what the semi-autobiographical Minari does: It’s a bracing reminder that, with the right balance of sensitivity and artistry, a person can make indelible, clear-eyed cinema about a community that isn’t, strictly speaking, their own.
Loved the acting and all the technical stuff, but the screenplay was pretty uninspiring. Like it couldn’t really decide what type of movie it was supposed to be. And was Gary Oldman seriously supposed to be like 43 in this movie?
It should be a strong contender for a lot of awards, especially cinematography, supporting actress costume design and score.
But it would be pretty LOL for this to snag Best Picture.
Watched Ma Rainey and pretty easy to see it winning both actor and actress, but hard to see it winning best pic. Weird picture like that. Anthony Hopkins in The Father is supposed to be Bosemans one opposition for best actor. Does seem like Anthony Hopkins should have more than one oscar.
