…………………………………………………

Ranking 2021 Best Picture Nominees

2021 was a pretty strong year for movies, certainly better than the previous one due to the pandemic. But the Academy unfortunately failed to recognize the best movies of the year once again with only one of the nominees being truly great. Others range from pretty good to simply passable. This was the first year where they brought back the ten nominations after 2010. The resulting slate should have been much stronger given the number, but it unfortunately simply wasn’t.

10. King Richard

The last place for this year’s slate easily goes to King Richard, a movie that is overall okay in terms of its quality and certainly not bad, but it’s so wrong on so many levels that its inclusion here was quite frustrating to me. Will Smith is pretty good, but not great and the movie should not be celebrated just for one good performance for crying out loud. The dialogue is fine and some sequences are quite effective, but the choice to portray the father of the Williams sisters in such a glowing, celebratory light was both manipulative and odd. And it’s just a tiresome biopic overall that had no business being nominated.

9. Drive My Car

The Academy has changed in these last couple of years. The voting bloc has become much more international. That resulted in ‘Parasite’ not just being nominated, but winning Best Picture two years prior. This time, we got another foreign nominee, Drive My Car from Japan. And while I am glad that other countries are finally being represented at the Oscars, once again I found the movie in question quite weak. The characters are well written and the acting performances are strong, but I failed to emotionally connect with either the story or the characters due to that staggering length. It’s a film that has its memorable sequences, but watching it as a whole product, it’s insufferably boring.

8. The Power of the Dog

I am not a fan of Jane Campion’s work, so The Power of the Dog also did not appeal to me. It was frustrating seeing such a sophisticated script squandered on an inferior execution. Exploring toxic masculinity and repressed sexuality, the film surely is thematically rich, but the glacial pacing made it tough to sit through. Benedict Cumberbatch is excellent as the only interesting character in the movie, but unfortunately the film felt overly novelistic in its lack of focus and the choice to basically have no main characters seriously backfired. This is probably the most critically praised movie on this slate, but for me a film should be engaging to watch first and foremost, and just like the above entry, this one simply isn’t.

7. Belfast

The opening of Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast is so gorgeously shot and striking that the rest of the movie came as a disappointment in comparison. A semi-autobiographical Oscar nominee set in this specific place and time and shot in black-and-white, the movie shares many similarities to ‘Roma’, but is never as strong as that artistic movie is. Yes, it’s well shot and very charming in its central character so well performed by Jude Hill. However, Branagh’s look at the past is one tainted by rose-colored glasses and that extreme nostalgia and romanticizing of the past diminished any genuine emotional impact that this movie might have otherwise had.

6. Licorice Pizza

Of course the Academy can’t resist but to nominate a PTA movie. It seems that every one of his films gets a nomination and it’s getting very annoying by now. Licorice Pizza is a romance set in the seventies that is very much unlike his previous movies in its more romantic, lightweight tone that really appealed to me. I’d expected great things from it and while it was still much more appealing to me than most other PTA films and Alana Haim killed it in the main role, this is still a problematically structured movie where the second half was too meandering and populated by uninteresting side characters. The film also has no plot to speak of. It was a major disappointment for me as the first half was so good, but the second one did not deliver.

5. Don’t Look Up

I am not a fan of Adam McKay. I found his previous movies insufferably fast-paced and political. But Don’t Look Up I actually enjoyed. This was a surprisingly big Netflix hit and an unexpected Oscar success story and I am actually happy that it was recognized here as comedies rarely get much love from the industry. It’s far from great for sure, but its all-star cast mostly did a strong job and the movie is quite a sophisticated take on collective denial, social media and how horrible politicians and tech companies think and act. It’s not really hilarious, but it is fun enough and a rare genuinely entertaining movie on this slate.

4. West Side Story

I agree with most viewers that we simply did not need a new West Side Story, especially when you take into account the greatly regarded original that garnered multiple Oscars. This remake was directed effortlessly by Steven Spielberg in a first musical for him, but he still failed to modernize the screenplay all that much. It’s simply the same old story that remains little changed unfortunately. With that being said, Ariana DeBose was phenomenal in the best role here while the cinematography, dance choreography and costumes all made for an arresting, cinematic viewing experience.

3. CODA

CODA is a familiar movie in its narrative that is somewhat elevated by excellent acting performances, authentic casting and terrific dialogue. The family conversations are outstanding. The entire third act was truly moving in an earned manner. However, the first half was dull in comparison and the music subplot wasn’t well executed at all. It’s a good film, but it could have been so much better. It’s a crowd-pleaser for better and for worse. What does it say about this slate of nominees when just a pretty good, far from great movie like CODA gets the third place on the list?

2. Nightmare Alley

Nightmare Alley is a 2021 version of a story that was done better back in 1947. But this remake is still very strong, in particular for its amazing technicalities. The superb cinematography, gorgeous production design and outstanding directing from Guillermo del Toro all made for a truly beautiful movie. It’s a modern neo-noir picture in all of its glory. Bradley Cooper was also terrific in the main role and the ending was unforgettable. With that being said, this remake was way too long and never as sophisticated as the original was. It gets the second spot here by default given that the slate is quite inferior, but I still expected greater things from this project.

1. Dune

By far the best and only great Best Picture nominee of 2021 is Dennis Villeneuve’s Dune. This is a film that is so epic and so technically brilliant that it should have swept the awards, but unfortunately once again the bias against the genre of science fiction reared its ugly head and the film did not receive nearly enough praise that it wholeheartedly deserved. Yes, the novel was cut in two movies somewhat problematically and it does have its pacing issues, but the sound is incredible, the Hans Zimmer score is brilliant, the cinematography is striking and the VFX are some of the best that we’ve gotten so far. It’s not just a technical achievement, though. It’s also a fully-fledged, superbly told story that was faithfully adapted for the big screen while featuring tremendous characterization and superb acting across the board. It’s just a SF spectacle that I adored to pieces and it’s the third best film of the year in my opinion.

Films That Should Have Been Nominated:

Mass – There were a lot of snubbed movies this year that are great, but none are as amazing as Mass, which is in my book the greatest film of 2021. Incredibly acted and surprisingly emotionally complex, this is a film that deals with a difficult subject matter in such a delicate, thought-provoking manner that it provokes an intense emotional reaction from viewers.

The Last Duel – Ridley Scott continues to not receive nearly as much appreciation as he deserves. The Last Duel is probably his greatest period piece that he’s ever made. This is a drama that isn’t afraid of showcasing the many horrors of the Middle Ages and just how dark it particularly was for women. It’s also superbly acted and made across the board.

Red Rocket – Indie movies also rarely get much love from the Academy and you can never go more indie than the amazing filmmaker Sean Baker. He directs films that depict real problems of impoverished parts in the US and his raw, intimate and honest directorial style is once again on full display in the wonderfully acted, phenomenally crafted Red Rocket.