Should the 2021 Oscars happen? Yes, and here’s why
LOS ANGELES – When the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced in June that it was pushing back the 2021 Oscars two months to April 25 and extending the eligibility window to the end of February, reactions from members generally fell into one of three camps: 1) Awards season is long enough already. Please, in the name of God, don’t do this 2) Seriously? An eight- month awards season? DO NOT DO THIS. 3) Thank you! Now I can binge- watch The Great British Baking Show over the holidays without feeling guilty about that pile of screeners teetering in the corner.
So, yes, the response was mixed. Understandably so. Be honest: In the middle of a global pandemic and the dumpster fire that is 2020, all anyone wants to do right now is watch The Great British Baking Show and not be judged. And by “anyone,” I mean me. If you disagree, let me know, and I’ll send some coconut macaroons your way.
But I digress. The academy’s thinking behind delaying the Oscars was to give filmmakers time to finish and release their movies in theaters. You’d have prestige studio films like Ridley Scott’s medieval thriller The Last Duel, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune adaptation and Steven Spielberg’s version of West Side Story, along with new movies from acclaimed filmmakers like Wes Anderson ( The French Dispatch), Leos Carax ( Annette) and Apichatpong Weerasethakul ( Memoria), bolstering the ranks of contenders.
Those reinforcements aren’t coming. It was optimistic to think they ever were. Spielberg knew, refusing to show West Side Story to anybody because... why bother? And with studios ceding 2020 to the continuing reality of the pandemic ( No Time to Die, pushed to 2021, could have been the first Bond movie to earn a best picture nomination if it had been as good as Skyfall), you might imagine there are a few people at the academy asking that same question right now with regard to the Oscars.
Why bother?
The easy answer is that by the April 25 ceremony date, movie theaters will have been effectively hobbled for more than a year, and people will need a reminder why movies matter. Or, perhaps more accurately, after the public has grown accustomed to watching movies at home, including big- budget titles like Pixar’s Soul ( just shuttled to Disney+ for the holidays) and Robert Zemeckis’ The Witches ( landing on HBO Max on October 22), people will need more than a reminder. They’ll need a reason to roll off the sofa again.
Movie theater chains are on life support. Art- house theaters might not come back. It’s time for the academy to break out the Bat- Signal and enlist the best and brightest members of its directors branch to craft short films about the singularity of cinema. Get a good mix, maybe Spike Lee, Kathryn Bigelow, Paul Thomas Anderson and Pedro Almodovar. Find Michael Bay just in case any teenage boys are watching. Pair Bong Joon Ho with Martin Scorsese. Lulu Wang and Barry Jenkins. Make the ceremony a three- hour public service announcement for the motion picture industry.
And, sure, hand out a few awards too. The diminished fall film festivals are over, with the New York festivities wrapping up Sunday. Plenty of good movies still played, virtually and otherwise, at Venice, Toronto and New York. Even the canceled Telluride made a splash, screening Chloe Zhao’s rapturous road movie, Nomadland, at a Rose Bowl parking lot drive- in event where the audience voiced appreciation by honking horns and flashing headlights.
Sad to say, that insulated response passes as the height of festival buzz these days, the post- screening scrums in theater lobbies replaced with hermetically sealed signals of approval. Given the state of the movie business, it also feels strangely, bleakly appropriate that some of the very best projects to premiere – Spike Lee’s electrifying filmed version of David Byrne’s Broadway show, American Utopia, and Steve McQueen’s Small Axe movie anthology examining black life in Great Britain – are bound for television. ( American Utopia drops on HBO Max on October 17, while the five “Small Axe” movies will begin premiering on Amazon Prime Video on a weekly basis starting November 15.)
But since we’re not returning to movie theaters for a good long while, such distinctions are immaterial. You’ll be watching most, if not all, of the Oscar contenders from the comfort of your home this year, meaning that you’ll be viewing them in precisely the same way that nearly all academy members do annually. What’s on the menu? Here’s just a sampling of the movies you’ll be hearing about from now until ( good God) the end of April.
THE BEST + THE USUAL SUSPECTS/ PROSPECTS
Nomadland: Zhao’s gorgeous, elegiac snapshot of America’s soul moved me to tears when I saw it at the Rose Bowl. Normally when that happens, I might say there was something in my eye, which in this case was true as there was ash falling from the sky. ( Thanks again, 2020.) But this gentle, compassionate movie is truly special, a portrait of a woman finding community while embracing aloneness. We don’t need a reminder that Frances McDormand is a movie star, but it’s nice to have a reason to trumpet that fact again.
One Night in Miami: Regina King’s feature directorial debut comes from a play that imagines what might have gone down the night Cassius Clay, Malcolm X, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown met in a motel room after Clay ( shortly before he took the name Muhammad Ali) beat Sonny Liston for the heavyweight boxing title. The film has a bone- deep understanding of these men, their internal conflicts and the ways their differences reflect the experiences of black men in America. It’s also impeccably crafted on every level, visually assured and meticulous in evoking the era.
The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Mank: Aaron Sorkin and David Fincher, together again... on Netflix. Chicago 7 is exactly what you’d expect from a Sorkin courtroom procedural – pulsing dialogue, sturdy construction, a whiff of self- righteousness. It’s a distant second to McQueen’s Small Axe standout entry, Mangrove, in the race for the year’s best courtroom drama. As for Fincher’s
Mank, a drama about the co- writer of
Citizen Kane, it seems tailor- made for the film academy, or, at least, for those members actually familiar with Orson Welles.
News of the World:
Given that nearly every studio movie has moved out of 2020 following Tenet’s disappointing theatrical run ( so much for Christopher Nolan saving cinema), there’s little reason to believe that Universal will keep this Paul Greengrass western drama on its planned December 25 date. But I’m going to leave the Christmas tree lights on for this one because, judging from the trailer, it looks like it’s Tom Hanks being Tom Hanks, doing the right thing in the face of overwhelming odds. I’m grabbing a blanket from the hallway closet right now in preparation for the kind of cozy comfort that sort of movie would provide.
The Father: Do you remember Michael Haneke’s Amour? That devastating, dread- filled look at the inevitable decay of aging was sunshine, lollipops and rainbows compared to this horribly sad film about a man disappearing into Alzheimer’s. Anthony Hopkins makes the harrowing journey worth it though.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom: Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman star in this adaptation of the August Wilson play exploring tensions between black blues musicians and producers of a whiteowned record company in the 1920s. Boseman’s shocking death in August promises to make this, his final performance, an emotionally charged journey.
Hillbilly Elegy: Ron Howard directs this adaptation of J. D. Vance’s memoir looking at his Appalachian upbringing and the failings of working- class politics. Amy Adams and Glenn Close star. Between them, they own 13 Oscar nominations without a win.
Minari: Lee Isaac Chung’s film took both the grand jury prize and the audience award at Sundance, winning acclaim for its tender look at a young Korean American boy who moves to an Arkansas farm with his family. A24 still hasn’t set a release date for the movie but did unveil an official trailer last week, leading to optimism that the studio will find a way to properly release this low- key gem.
Da 5 Bloods: One of Spike Lee’s best. Which makes it one of the year’s best. Also: Delroy Lindo’s fearsome turn as a black Trump supporter should win an Oscar, be it lead or supporting.
( Los Angeles Times/ TNS)