IT’S LOVE AT SECOND SIGHT FOR ME AND MANK
CHARIOTS Of Fire was unveiled 40 years ago this month — and at the following year’s Academy Awards, screenwriter Colin Welland famously declared ‘the British are coming’. Well, the British have been storming the Oscars ever since, but rarely in numbers like this year.
A majority of the Best Actor nominees are British — Riz Ahmed (Sound Of Metal), Anthony Hopkins (The Father) and Gary Oldman (Mank) — and two fifths of the Best Actress contenders: Vanessa Kirby (Pieces Of A Woman) and Carey Mulligan (Promising Young Woman).
Mulligan was directed by another British nominee, Emerald Fennell (recognisable as Camilla Parker Bowles to anyone who has watched The Crown). And this country’s talent also looms large in the supporting categories, through Daniel Kaluuya, Sacha Baron Cohen and Olivia Colman.
This year, we have until April 25 to decide who we would anoint ourselves, if we had the chance. Disappointingly, however, given that the Oscars are much later than usual, not all the Best Picture contenders will have had a UK release by then — including the film I think will win, Nomadland. That’s a very poor show. Of those you are already able to see, I think Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial Of The Chicago 7 (Netflix) is lucky to have been picked. I’ve seen most of the films on the list, and it’s the weakest. But I admired Judas And The Black Messiah (Amazon Prime Video), which is set in the same city at the same time as Sorkin’s effort.
And I loved Mank (Netflix), David Fincher’s fictionalised black-and-white account of the making of Citizen Kane. It has divided audiences, and I confess it took me two screenings to fall for it fully. But it is deliciously intelligent, witty and stylish.
As I say, though, my money is on Chloe Zhao’s superb and poignant Nomadland.