I originally started these posts to express my tongue-in-cheek disinterest in the Oscars, especially who the winners were (since I’d watched so surprisingly few). However, over the years, I’ve shifted to genuine interest in the nominees (though I still don’t care that much about who wins) and look on them as a checklist of films that I might want to watch (especially the Best Picture category). Now with streaming channels throwing their hats in the ring, so many nominees are in easy reach of our sofas (or laptops) — plus we’ve already paid the ticket price with our subscription fees! As a result, this post is getting longer and longer. So without ado, here’s a bunch of quickie reviews of the Oscar nominees that have seen but not previously reviewed (Sorry, Dune, I’ve already expressed my love for you!). I hope you will find something that piques your interest.

The Power of the Dog

Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor (x2), Best Supporting Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Production Design, Best Sound, Best Adapted Screenplay

With so many nominations, this brooding western drama (are there any other kind these days?) is likely to take home a lot of hardware. I was a big fan of director Jane Campion’s The Piano when it won so long ago (it awakened in me an interest in arthouse films), but I was less captivated by this movie. Acting nominee Benedict Cumberbatch does a great job playing the cruel cowboy who torments his brother (fellow nominee Jesse Plemons), his new wife (nominee Kirsten Dunst), and her son (nominee Kodi Smit-McPhee). Despite what is obviously a character-based movie, I felt that the storytelling was a bit lacking and I wanted to know more about these characters’ backgrounds (especially Cumberbatch’s character, Philip). The story poorly justified the emotion-driven events that took place. I don’t know if there was more texture and detail provided in the original novel that was the basis of this movie (if there was, then I don’t think the Adapted Screenplay nom is deserved). Nevertheless, even with those problems on account, there is still a lot to recommend about this movie, including some amazing cinematography. Like last year’s best picture, Nomadland, this movie makes the American landscape look amazing. Even the close-up shots, the interior shots, everything looks quite artful and interesting. Plus, as I mentioned, the actors really inhabit these characters well.

tick, tick…BOOM!

Best Actor, Best Film Editing

I love a good musical, and Jonathan Larson’s Rent is probably my favourite. However, I was less interested in this musical biopic about Larson’s own life and experiences trying to get to the point of making Rent. I didn’t find any of the musical numbers memorable (though some of them were well-produced) and the story of a struggling theatre composer was not interesting enough to me. Andrew Garfield does a good job expressing Larson’s energy and desperation as he puts everything on the line to produce a musical showcase, but it felt like another insider-insider, starving-artist, making-of story that I had seen or heard before. Most of my high points came in viewing this production as a pre-cursor to Rent (I was pleasantly surprised at the answering machine message bit, and also whenever melodies from Rent crept into the music for this movie). Sadly, what that means is that this movie-musical doesn’t stand up on its own merits.

West Side Story

Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, Best Sound

Steven Spielberg’s remake of the 1961 multi-Oscar-winning movie-musical had similar legacy issues to tick, tick…BOOM!, only even stronger. How could an intentionally-faithful reboot of that classic film be judged or stand on its own merits? I’m super-glad that they didn’t change the time period or switch the context to contemporize the movie 60 years later, but it was impossible not to compare the two (and frankly I’m not even sure how genuinely familiar I am with the original movie or how much my mind is just giving me rose-coloured memories of it — I didn’t get time to watch both versions again to compare). Unfortunately, while I enjoyed this version, I can’t get past the fact that it’s a remake. That being said, kudos for the attempts at cultural authenticity in casting and scripting. The musical numbers are nicely done and the performances aren’t bad. I think that if I watched the two versions head to head, I might even like some of the new numbers a lot better. On the other hand, I would have prefered a more charismatic Tony than Ansel Elgort, and though she’s been nominated for an Oscar, Ariana DeBose’s performance as Anita is a mere candle to the bonfire of Oscar-winner Rita Moreno in the original. So while the new West Side Story is nominated for many of the same Oscars that the original won, I don’t know that wins will also carry from one generation to the next.

Nightmare Alley

Best Picture, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design

Apart from Dune, I think this was probably my favourite of the Best Picture nominees — though I am not betting on its winning. Another dark story from sadly un-nominated director Guillermo Del Toro, this time there is no trademark supernatural creepiness, but we are presented with a classic tragic-hero story told against the weird-enough backdrop of Depression-era sideshow carnivals, and presented in a Film Noir style (complete with the ever-impressive Cate Blanchett as its femme-fatale). I have not really loved Bradley Cooper in any role since his breakout on the TV series Alias, but his turn as the grifter/drifter with a dark past who learns how to make a carnival mentalist act into a high-society long-con as a psychic medium is pretty decent. The characters here are not so realistic or nuanced as they could be. Nevertheless, a lot of the quality in this film comes from the costume and production design — which is really good — that has created this world and given it the feel both of decrepit wonder and tarnished opulence. In contrast to so many of the other movies on this list whose stories don’t really take us very far, this movie is full of drama and see-what-happens-next tension that makes it fun to watch.

Don’t Look Up

Best Picture, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Original Screenplay

As many others have already commented, I am surprised that this movie was nominated as a Best Picture candidate. While its cast is packed with star-power (including leads Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, and also Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Jonah Hill, Timothee Chalamet, Tyler Perry, and even Ariana Grande) this satirical tale of two scientists who desperately try to warn our current, cynical, media-obsessed society of the impending destruction of the planet from a colliding comet seems a bit like a 2-plus-hour punchline. Most of the characters are caricatures who feel scarily possible, but I was a bit unsure of whether I should laugh or cringe when watching them.

Now onto animation! I am a big fan of animation and I usually catch all the feature nominees. I’ve already posted a review of Luca (which I loved) and Raya and the Last Dragon — which I thought was pretty good, but missed out on having a hit soundtrack that parents would have grown sick of their kids overplaying.

Encanto

Best Animated Feature, Best Original Score, Best Original Song

Encanto had a lot of potential and looked really great (Disney animation almost never dips below its own high standards anymore), but I thought that they spent too much time (ironically) on the songs that set up the background of the Madrigal family, and not enough time having any kind of a real story. Even what story they did have, of a magical Colombian family where un-magical sister Mirabel starts a quest (mostly within the family’s magical house) to figure out why their living house is in danger of ruin, kept most of the action confined. It felt like a game of Clue where the inspector-player goes from room to room interrogating various suspects. Plus, they set up this great idea of having each family member grow up with a different magical power — so cool — but it was barely used in any significant way. Nowadays everyone’s all hopped up on the smash hit song “We Don’t Talk About Bruno”, but I hope that doesn’t lead a mediocre movie like this one to win.

The Mitchells vs. the Machines

Best Animated Feature

It’s been a long time since I watched this movie, but from what I recall, it was a lot of fun and combined family adventure with a bit of light sci-fi (robots are taking over the world and the Mitchell family needs to escape to safety — and save the world in the process). This is a re-spin of a classic (Spielbergian blend of family drama and sci-fi adventure) movie formula, but I think it’s done pretty well. The characters are full of energy and well-animated (from the makers of Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse, which was an innovative animated film in its own right). If this movie wins the prize, I would be surprised, but not disappointed.

Flee

Best Animated Feature, Best Documentary Feature, Best International Feature

This film is completely different than the other animation nominees, and frankly quite unique, period. It’s a documentary about the experiences of a refugee from Afghanistan as he and his family tried to flee Russia to Sweden in the 80s/90s. By using animation, we get to see the events play out as they are being narrated by the subject, Amin. Being able to see Amin’s memories adds an extra dimension of drama and emotional impact to the story (I kept wondering whether he signed off on the visuals as an accurate representation). Plus, there are multiple styles of animation used to deepen the expressiveness of the scenes and their meaning. It’s very difficult to compare this film against the other movies in the animation category because it is so much more stylized, artistic, weighty, and mature than the others. This film is nominated in three categories, so it should definitely win one. I am betting it won’t be animation.

Robin Robin

Best Animated Short Film

I’ve only really watched one of the animated short films, but I hope that Robin Robin wins. It’s only half an hour long, but it feels like a feature-length movie. It’s made by Aardman Studios, but doesn’t quite match the style of previous Wallace and Grommit, Shaun the Sheep, or Chicken Run movies. For starters, the titular robin talks, but is not a humanoid bird. It looks more like a normal bird (albeit wearing false mouse ears because it was hatched/adopted by a family of mice). Robin wants to fit in with its adopted family, which mean helping the other mice to steal food from the human family that they live near. Unfortunately, robins are not as much built for stealth as rodents are, so things don’t quite work out too well. As poor Robin endures an identity crisis, he also runs into a predatory cat (played by Gillian Anderson and her purring British accent) as well as a hapless pigeon with a broken wing who teaches Robin about Christmas tradition — yes, it’s kind of a Christmas movie. Also, it’s a musical, with a few fun numbers (See what I mean about feeling feature-length!) This pleasant little feel-good movie would also be the perfect pick-me-up after the heaviness of Flee.

The Long Goodbye

Best Short Film

I watched this short film on YouTube mainly because of its star, Riz Ahmed. (I haven’t watched a ton of Ahmed’s work, but I thought that if a big name made a short film it should be pretty decent.) What starts out with a British-Pakistani family hanging out, getting ready for one of the sisters’ upcoming wedding, quickly turns into something much more serious and dark as armed officers show up on their street and start rounding people up. It’s a brief but very intense scene that I didn’t expect, and Ahmed caps it off with a rap/poem. I admit I don’t know all the layers of context and background to the politics of this film, but the anti-racist themes are pretty clear.

Free Guy

Best Visual Effects

The visual-effects Oscars typically bring in those blockbusters that wouldn’t be included otherwise, and so I will just throw in a couple of quick comments about these. I know that Free Guy did pretty well at the box office, and I wouldn’t begrudge it a win for its visual effects (especially since the effects, and Ryan Reynolds’s likeable personality are the two things that made this movie). On its own, it was pretty derivative of The Truman Show (and other movies where the protagonists realize that they are living in some kind of virtualized or altered reality). In this case, the protagonist himself is kind of simulated and is a non-player character in a video game. It’s too bad they decided to give him so much self-identity and independent thought, because it kind of made him into a normal protagonist and threw much of the original premise away. On top of that, fun as the movie still managed to be most of the way, as it reached the climax and everyone was coming after our hero, Guy, the plot just seemed to become unhinged.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Best Visual Effects

It’s hard to believe that I have not written a review of Shang-Chi. It’s got all the right notes for something that I would enjoy, but even though I saw it (wearing a mask and all) when it came out in theatres, I had a hard time finding the words to express my disappointment with the mediocrity and cliche-ness that this movie felt like to me. Sure, we all had fun with the fight on the bus, but after that, the rest of the movie felt like something that many Asian martial arts adventure movies have explored over and over (except this one is in English — which itself is kind of problematic). I did not love how many plot elements made no sense (Tony Leung hearing his wife’s fake voice calling him to destroy a magical barrier to another world and release evil soul-sucking monsters is such a lame motive for an MCU villain.) And as much as I enjoy Awkwafina, and Simu Liu wasn’t too bad either, it feels like they were given the MCU “cheap seats”. Nevertheless, this movie is only on this Oscars list because of its visual effects, and I have to say that they weren’t too bad. The production values of almost any MCU are top notch, and combined with the fight sequences, the visuals in this movie were quite good — it was no Dune, but still very good.

In the end (If you have made it all the way to this point with me, thanks!), I have no idea who’s going to win on Sunday (and I’m not going to guess), but I have enjoyed sampling from a pretty diverse set of movies this year (and there are still a few more that I haven’t found the time to watch, but I intend to). It’s amazing how these movies being available to stream has made this whole event so much more exciting. Have fun watching!