2021 Academy Award Best Picture
The deed is done, all Best Picture 2021 nominees are checked off. Let me offer that my first impression of the pandemic lot lands somewhere between depressing and disappointing. Period piece docudramas Judas and the Black Messiah and Trial of the Chicago Seven overlaid on today’s Black Lives Matter reinforces that nothing has changed, nothing. Yes, that’s a legitimate message and “dismal” isn’t justification for criticizing—but both films struck me as barely a cut above made-for-tv fare and that is legitimate criticism. Of course, in the Covid era, Hollywood releases by necessity detoured to homebound small screens. I’m definitely grateful for quarantine entertainment but maybe the 2021 Oscar winners need a Roger Maris asterisk. When Hearst Castle giraffes, stately and stunning, steal the Mank liver-dissolving drinking show, a cinematography award is probably a better category than Best Picture. Of course, Hollywood adores Hollywood, so sleazy Mank and glamorous giraffes could stage a sweep. The Father is crazy-making creative, confusing, and complicated, disorienting and distressing. While I’ll never be accused of pining for Pollyanna cinema, harsh reality crossing into psyche brutality is not my idea of celluloid art and The Father left me for dead. Minari enlightened me about chick sexing. Who knew? Minari’s characters were winners, biblical allegory interesting but the storyline pedestrian. Sorry, Parasite spoiled me. Revenge incinerated redemption in Promising Young Woman. Wrath and reprisal draws cheers in Superhero flicks or fires up Nicolas Cage fans but should draw a big no from the Academy. Please. So now I’m down to my two favorites, Nomadland and Sound of Metal. Nomadland invited us to tag along with an intriguing, restless American Bedouin subculture. Sound of Metal did the same for the world of the deaf. Nomadland inched a bit too close to romanticizing the challenges that mercilessly stalk vandwellers, stealth campers and seasonal migrant “workampers.” Happy Trails banners occasionally fly over a tattered RV community circled up for free on public lands but the rest of the story is just as often tinged with misfortune and adversity. That said, I adore Frances McDormand and I’ll follow her anywhere, dreamily lurching along in a vintage VW camper trying to keep up. Sound of Metal truly elevated the deaf into plain sight and we literally were handed a different drummer. This film worked for me. Realty, reconciliation and redemption all there. Sound of Metal, a certain sleeper, gets my vote for 2021 Best Picture. See you Sunday! I’ll bring the popcorn!
