The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, is the famous yearly awards show recognizing the accomplishments of the past years’ films, and 2019 had an onslaught of cinematic offerings to make the academy voters drool. The following is a list of the films that were nominated for this year's coveted Best Picture award, as well as a little bit about each of them.
The Irishman is a project the legendary Martin Scorsece has had on his mind for years now, but as he and his frequent collaborators Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci grew older and older, he wasn’t sure if his idea for a movie based around the life of Frank Sheeran and the suspicious disappearance of famous union-leader Jimmy Hoffa would ever see the light of day. But in recent years, the digital effect commonly referred to as “de-aging” (i.e. using computers to digitally make your actors appear like younger versions of themselves) has become more refined and realistic. Using this emerging technology, he finally got to make his vision a reality, a three and a half hour long epic that spans multiple decades and follows hitman Sheeran from his early days in the mob to his final ones on earth. The film was financed and distributed by Netflix, who in recent years have been consistently supplanting themselves more and more as a legitimate producer and more than just a streaming service. Funnily enough, Scorcese stirred up a small internet controversy while on the road promoting his film when he asserted that movies from Marvel Studios were akin to theme parks and not real “cinema” in the classical sense. These comments started a debate online where people began defending their views on whether or not Marvel’s superhero blockbusters counted more as films or products.
The director of one of these Marvel movies, the colorful and comedic Thor: Ragnarok, (and voice of Korg in said film), has directed another period piece that was nominated for the big prize this year. Taika Waititi is the man behind Jojo Rabbit, a comedy set in Nazi Germany during World War II. Yep, a comedy. The movie stars acting newcomer Roman Griffin Davis as “Jojo Rabbit,” a kid in the Hitler Youth who begins questioning what he believes when he finds his mother, played by Scarlet Johanssen, is hiding a Jewish girl in their attic. But it’s a comedy. The movie is based on a book and adapted for the screen by Waititi, who also plays Jojo’s imaginary friend, a goofy version of Adolf Hitler. Seriously, it’s a comedy. People were on edge at first over Waititi portraying a comedic version of such a notoriously evil historical figure, but he was quick to point out how being portrayed by a Polynesian Jew such as Waititi was probably the biggest insult to Hitler he could give.
While the director of a Marvel movie may be in the race, the only movie based on a comic book in contention for the coveted title of best picture actually comes from Marvel’s biggest rival, DC. Joker stars Joaquin Phoenix as Batman’s most well-known adversary, and tells the origin story of how he became the infamous clown prince of crime. Phoenix lost a considerable amount of weight for the role, eating an apple a day until he was rail-thin. The movie actually takes a lot of inspiration not from the comic page, but from the films of Martin Scorcese, the previously mentioned director of The Irishman. In fact, much of the story and characters are inspired by his films, such as The King of Comedy, about a wannabe stand up comedian who becomes a criminal, and Taxi Driver, about a mentally ill man who grows increasingly violent as the movie continues. Though the film is inspired by Scorcese, it is directed by Todd Phillips, who until now was best known as the director of the Hangover trilogy of comedy films. Though such a shift from his previous movies turned a few heads, and some were weary of an origin film for a character who traditionally doesn’t have one, the movie really began making headlines when people began fearing it would incite real life violence from people taking their cue from the very much not-to-be-imitated lead Arthur Fleck. Though luckily nothing came of it, it did give the movie the attention it needed to become the current highest grossing R-rated movie of all time, raking in more than 1 billion dollars in profits.
Another Netflix-produced nominee this year is Noah Bambauch’s Marriage Story. Netflix was on a roll this year, breaking into the prestigious side of the business that in general views streaming content unfavorably either because it cuts in on theater attendance or because they see it as an end of the traditional group experience that movie-going has been in the past. But as the old guard slowly changes, these newer forms of entertainment are slowly becoming recognized as legitimate by the younger Academy voters who are slowly coming in. The movie stars Scarlet Johanssen and Adam Driver (who nerds will identify as Black Widow and Kylo Ren) as an estranged couple trifling through the pieces of their failed marriage while they go through a divorce. Depressing, right? Well, the Oscars love depressing movies, so here we are. Though I haven’t gotten around to seeing the whole film yet, from the clips I’ve seen and the acting category nominees, it seems to be a movie built around the convincing performances of Johanssen and Driver. The movie is directed by Noah Baumbach, who frequently worked with director Wes Anderson on his earlier projects, and Ben Stiller, who has starred in several of his movies. As much a writer as he is a director, he’s been nominated for best original screenplay before, but this is his first best picture nomination.
A film made to look like it was filmed in one shot (as in, made to look like the camera started filming and didn’t stop until the movie was over), 1917 is set exactly when you think it is, and follows two World War I soldiers as they make their way on foot to warn of an attack before it’s too late; the film’s cinematographer is Roger Deakins, largely considered to be one of if not the best in the business, and the film’s illusion of the one shot draws the audience in, as if they are with the soldiers the whole time, making it a very tense movie to watch, but between the amazing visuals, the excellent score, and the harrowing action sequences, it’s an undeniably impressive accomplishment in technical filmmaking.
And then we have the ninth film by Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. The movie recreates the Hollywood landscape of the late 1960s, the time period Tarantino grew up in, and the attention to detail is beyond impressive. The movie follows Rick Dalton, a once famous TV cowboy struggling to stay relevant as the world around him changes. The film mixes fictional characters with real people of the time period such as Sharon Tate, Steve McQueen, and Bruce Lee. And Rick’s stunt double (now personal assistant) Cliff Booth has a run in with the soon-to-be infamous Manson family cult. Despite being one of the most celebrated and recognizable directors of his generation, Tarantino has yet to win best picture, and with his self-imposed limit of ten films before he retires drawing closer, this is one of the last chances to win (he’s never won best director either, and has been nominated this year for that as well).
Additionally, there are three nominees that I admittedly know very little about: Little Women, Ford v Ferrari, and Parasite. Little Women is the seventh film adaptation of the famous book by Louisa May Alcott, and directed by Greta Gerwig, who’s film Lady Bird was nominated for the same award a few years ago, and who is married to the director of another nominee on this list, Noah Baumbach. Ford v Ferrari is based on the true story behind the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans race that saw Ford designing a car that could challenge the Ferrari. It stars Christain Bale and Matt Damon, two famous actors who’ve oddly enough never appeared in the same film together before, and it’s directed by James Mangold, who also directed Logan, the first R-rated Wolverine movie, and Walk the Line, the Johnny Cash biopic starring Joker lead Joaquin Phoenix. And Parasite is a South Korean thriller directed by Bong Joon-ho, who’s also directed movies like Snowpiercer and Okja. Very rarely is a foreign language film ever nominated for best picture, making it even more impressive than normal. The film is about a struggling family slowly infiltrating a much richer family as employees, and supposedly has a big twist at some point in the movie, so be wary if looking it up.
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