2021 Oscar Nominations (Reaction and Analysis)

This morning's announcement of the 93rd annual Academy Award nominations by Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Nick Jonas saw the culmination of what's understandably been a fairly strange Oscar season that kicked off with confusion as to if or when the ceremony would take place. But it's happening, two months later than usual on April 25th, live from both the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood and L.A's Union Station. The exact form the show will take remains somewhat of a mystery, but isn't it always?  This unprecedented timetable has led to some unpredictability among voters who no longer have a marathon of industry awards and in-person events to rely on before casting their ballots. Now, with only the Golden Globes and a handful of critics awards to go on, what the voters will do is anyone's guess. 

While it remains to be seen whether the theatergoing experience will become altogether extinct or irrelevant as we enter unchartered territory for movies, the availability of on-demand and streaming titles has made catching up on new releases easier than ever. So even if the circumstances causing that couldn't be worse, I'm still in the unique position of having my best shot yet at catching nearly all the contending films before the show. Whether this is of much help come prediction time remains to be seen, but as far as the nominations go, it's almost redundant to declare there were some snubs and suprises, albeit far fewer than usual. But more than ever, the diversity issue is sure to take center stage, though you could argue it never really went away, with the Academy continuously applying band-aids to the problem for the past few years. So, here we are with the full nominations list, along with my takes below. Let's see how they did.  

-With six films earning six nominations, the field's more open than usual, but I'm still in the minority for thinking they should go back to five Best Picture nominees. It just makes those movies mean more. Every year you just know the films without a director nomination don't stand a chance and end up filling participation trophy slots. So, of course, AMPAS makes the decision to go back up to a mandated ten (!) nominees starting next year. It's easy to understand the desire to draw much needed attention to underseen films by giving them a nod, but they've watered down the category in the process.   

-This year there were 8 Best Picture nominees, which has been about the average lately. The only three omissions that could be considered "snubs" are One Night in Miami, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Da 5 Bloods but Miami's really the only one you could make a strong case for that designation applying in a big way. Bloods chances were always slim and Ma Rainey had much more support for Davis and Boseman's performances than the film itself. 

-The Father, Judas and the Black Messiah and Minari are the category underdogs, but none go as far as to be considered "surprises." Same for Sound of Metal, which was continuously picking up steam. My favorite film of the year, Promising Young Woman, gets in. Despite lacking a director nod for Sorkin, Chicago 7 still strangely feels like it has a chance, if only due to its timeliness. 

-David Fincher's Mank leads the pack with 10 nominations, including Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actress and a handful of technical notices. Not bad considering there were worries this wouldn't do as well as expected. I'm glad it did, since it's been somewhat overlooked and underrated after coming out of the gate really strong a few months ago.

-Breathing a sigh of relief that Mank's Amanda Seyfried got in for Supporting Actress, as she recently lost some ground after starting the race a favorite to win. 8-time nominee Glenn Close now has a pair of Razzie and Oscar nods for the same semi-reviled performance in Hillbilly Elegy. Maria Bakalova's momentum continues for Borat while Minari's Yuh-Jung Youn seems like the outlier, as there was some doubt she'd break through. No Jodie Foster for The Mauritanian. Tenet's Elizabeth Debicki deserves to be here.

-Really wanted to see Bo Burnham get a surprise Supporting Actor nod for Promising Young Woman but knew his chances were slim to none. Chadwick Boseman would have joined James Dean in becoming the only other person to receive two posthumous acting nominations, but missed for Da 5 Bloods. Thankfully Paul Raci's in for Sound of Metal after unexpected exclusions at some industry precursors leading into this. 

-Judas and the Black Messiah takes up two supporting slots for Daniel Kaluuya and Lakeith Stanfield (somewhat surprising) as Leslie Odom Jr. enjoys the sole acting nomination for One Night in Miami for his portrayal of Sam Cooke. No one expected Jared Leto to get in for The Little Things and he didn't. That was a Globes thing.     

-I'm as perplexed as you that another Pinocchio film was released over the past year, much less that it was able to earn two nominations.  

-Great to see Christopher Nolan's Tenet in the Sound and Production Design categories.Well-deserved, but you just couldn't be certain given how polarizing it was. If Sound of Metal wasn't recognized for sound that would be concerning. 

-Did anyone expect Ramin Bahrani's script for The White Tiger to be competing for Best Adapted Screenplay?

-Jack Fincher is ironically shut out of a posthumous Original Screenplay nod for Mank, a movie about a screenwriter who wrote the most acclaimed movie of all-time.  

-The two major acting categories went as expected, with Andra Day's Globe win likely cementing her presence, erasing whatever doubt there was she'd make it. Her toughest competition will be Viola Davis and my favorite, Carrie Mulligan, who may not be the frontrunner she was a month ago. Pieces of a Woman's Vanessa Kirby endured starring opposite Shia LeBeouf and that association apparently did little to dimish the merits of her performance in voters' eyes. Of course, two-time winner McDormand was a given for Nomadland, securing her sixth career nod. 

-Both Mank's Gary Oldman and Sound of Metal's Riz Ahmed made it in for Best Actor, as did Anthony Hopkins for The Father (which did better than expected overall). Minari's Steven Yeun is the wildcard, displacing Da 5 Bloods' Delroy Lindo, whose chances dissipated when that movie fizzled out. Category confusion over Miami's Kingley Ben-Adir's placement probably cost him in both lead and supporting. They should have strongly pushed him in the latter. This is Boseman's to lose, and he won't.  

-Aaron Sorkin and Regina King failing to earn Best Director nods is the story of the day, but no one thinks the former's skills as a director surpass that of his writing for Chicago 7 so King's omission is the full-blown snub. Shocking development that Another Round's Thomas Vinterburg was included ahead of her. Very few could have seen that coming. Also no Spike Lee, but many thought he would get shut out. David Fincher thankfully gets in for Mank, making it a career third for him.

-Recognition for Promising Young Woman's Emerald Fennell and Nomadland's Chloe Zhao mark the first time two women are competing in the Best Director category. But more intriguingly, both films collected all the important "check mark" nods for acting, editing, writing and directing that have historically signaled a Best Picture win.

 

                         

One Night in Miami

Director: Regina King
Starring: Kingley Ben-Adir, Eli Goree, Aldis Hodge, Leslie Odom Jr., Lance Reddick, Christian Magby, Joaquina Kalukango, Nicolette Robinson, Michael Imperioli, Lawrence Gilliard Jr, Beau Bridges, Jeremy Pope, Christopher Gorham
Running Time: 114 min.
Rating: R 

★★★ ½ (out of ★★★★)

When an actor commits to playing any well known cultural figure you have to think they're wondering what they've gotten themselves into. There has to be a great deal of nervous excitment that accompanies doing a real person justice while still managing not to engage in mimicry, making them at least somewhat a creation of your own. But if there's one thing we absolutely know for sure it's that no matter how well this is done, it will never make everyone happy. Now imagine four such performances within a single film, all intersecting with each other in a fictionalized scenario you could easily believe took place.

With One Night in Miami, actress and first-time feature director Regina King is not only tasked with overcoming all these challenges in bringing Kemp Powers' stage play of the same name to the screen, but also injecting an exciting cinematic flavor into a plot that revolves around four men talking and arguing in a hotel room. And while that might be the laziest, most superficially inaccurate description of what actually occurs, King will still have to answer to skeptics who feel she's merely transposing a wordy stage play, regardless of the few techniques available to open things up and break free from those constraints. 

There are limitations to be sure, but most of those are invisible since we're just too involved in these characters and what they distinctively stand for to care. The ground it covers feels and is important, with the four exceptional performances carrying it likely to offset any allegations that the material feels too "stagey." Each bring something completely different to the table in what ends up being the most facinating of speculative excercises, with Powers' script capturing how such a historic encounter could have possibly unfolded given what's publicly and privately known about the famous personalities involved. But more importantly, it gives us what sometimes even the best biopics don't by going beyond a character study to give us a snapshot in time.

It's February 25, 1964 when boxer Cassius Clay (Eli Goree), soul singer Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.), NFL player Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) and human rights activist Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir) are  in Miami celebrating what ends up being Clay's upset title win over Sonny Liston. Each of them are at a crossroads, with newly crowned heavyweight champion Clay in the process of converting to Islam, unaware friend and spiritual mentor Malcolm is on the cusp of leaving the Nation of Islam after falling out with leader Elijah Muhammad. Cooke's starting to quietly question his choices on the heels of a disastrous performance in front of an all-white audience at New York's Copacabana, while Brown may be leaving football to pursue an acting career after wrapping a major movie production.  

Thinking that Malcolm gathered them all for a fun night of drinking and debauchery to celebrate Clay's win, the guys are disappointed to discover there's not a woman in sight and it'll be just the three of them. But what initially starts as some joshing and self-congratulatory back-slapping amongst friends turns uglier when Malcolm accuses Cooke of selling out by pandering to white audiences. Soon, a full-on debate breaks out, the fallout of which will leave a lasting impact on all four men when they go back into a world they're still not accepted in, regardless of their succcesses. And now, they're wondering whether they can ever agree what to do about it, or whether they even need to be on the exact same page to help initiate the sweeping societal change they're seeking. 

One of the most chilling scenes occurs early when Jim Brown visits a family friend (played by Beau Bridges) back home in Georgia in what initially appears to be a positive encounter, with this man showering the football star with praise. That is until Brown's harshly reminded that nothing is what it seems and however highly white people may think of what he accomplishes on the field, he'll still always be viewed as less than. It's a particularly stinging moment, earning all its intended shocks from the fact that it shouldn't be all that surprising given what we know. And yet the tossed aside nonchalance of this man's racial slur is a far more damaging blow than any landed in the Clay vs. Liston match. It's also impossible to forget when considering Brown's viewpoints and demeanor during the hotel room conversations to come.

With Hodge proving to be a subtly commanding presence as Brown, it's just as surreal seeing Hamilton's Leslie Odom Jr. capture Sam Cooke's trademark mannerisms and smooth disposition, even in that startling early moment when he's bombing on stage. Ali, of course is the most predictable of the four, if not the most entertaining, with Eli Goree enthusiastically conveying his bombastic, larger than life, catchphrase-spewing personality. But he adds an intriguing extra layer, as the boxer's uncontrollable ego masks genuine apprehension, if not fear, at his possible decision to convert and fully put his trust in Malcolm.

British actor Kingsley Ben-Adir's take on the civil rights leader fully distinguishes itself as seemingly having nothing in common with any that came before, including Denzel Washington's nominated turn in 1992's Malcolm X. If Ben-Adir at first glance appears almost low-key for the role, that might be the point, breaking free from the "angry" stigma that's always followed Malcolm in most other media interpretations. Of course, this isn't to say he isn't mad, but it's still kind of surprising to see just how quiet and contemplative King has Ben-Adir play it, spending much of the picture paralyzed by the thought that the clock's ticking on his life. Unfortunately, he's correct, but it's compelling to see that version of him, constantly looking over his shoulder, realizing the need to insure a future he won't live to see. You can sense it in every scene and his blow-up with Cooke seems as motivated by that as anything else. It's here where he brings the fury, forced to let it all out on his friend, someone whom he genuinly respects, despite their differences in approach.

Cooke and Malcolm's verbal battle leads to two of the more transformative moments, one involving the latter using Bob Dylan to somewhat cruelly, if truthfully, make the boldest of points, and a flashback that shows the breadth of Cooke's gifts as a performer and improvisational abilities. Given his greatest success resulted from a protest song, we're led to believe Malcolm's intentions were sound, pulling something out of the singer that may not have otherwise surfaced. Cooke used monetary success as a measuring stick for equality, but it wasn't until he turned his attention to a cause that the pieces fell into place for him. But by then, it was already too late. 

All of this is because of a hotel meeting you'd be forgiven for forgetting never happened. That it feels like it did is exactly why the film works, bringing authenticity to an event that, despite its intimate scale, feels much bigger, further underlining the tumultuous decade during which it took place. In many ways it's the ideal rebuttal to the many criticized Oscar-nominated films of years past that faced backlash for its whitewashing of history. One Night in Miami represents the complete inverse, using a fictionalized account to tell a truthful story about four men whose success should seem like a complete anomaly given the roadblocks put in their way.