Bring on the speeches! The glitz! The glam! The lobbying for glitz and glam! Oscar season kicks into high gear in September and October. Below are the best choices for the first 2 months of awards season, movies you’ll be hearing about a lot come January. The surprise: Netflix almost has half of the best offerings, though a certain Martin Scorcese film may not be as high as you’d think…
Netflix is really going for an Oscar this year; they’re well represented on my list. This is their period submission. They got Timothee Chalamet to play Henry V of England, surrounded by a stellar British cast and directed by the usually interesting David Michod.
I was one of the few people who didn’t respond to The Witch, though I admire what it was trying to do. I have a feeling that was probably a blip, and that this two hander between Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe in a lighthouse is gonna be moody and very riveting.
Netflix entry #2. Normally I despise movies about making movies because of their self indulgence. However, the story of Rudy Ray Moore and the making of his blaxsploitation films is so different than a normal Hollywood story that also features a killer cast of characters and what could amount to a killer Eddie Murphy Oscar run.
I am usually confused by Pedro Almodovar movies and what they are trying to accomplish. However, there’s no doubt the man is a real talent. His latest feels like at its best, it could get near Frederico Fellini’s 8 1/2, one of the great movies about moviemaking that ever existed.
The 3rd Netflix film. Obviously, Martin Scorcese makes a movie, and you’re going to be interested. Especially when Pesci, De Niro, and Pacino are all involved. AND its a movie about hitmen and Jimmy Hoffa. I’d be more excited if most of these guys weren’t past their primes, and the obsession over the deaging the stars wasn’t the main story, but Scorcese has earned everyone’s trust, including mine.
James Gray’s last movie, the Lost City of Z, was criminally underseen, and stayed with me a long while after it left theatres. I hope he takes the narrative chances he took with Z on this story of travel into the depths of space. It also helps that he’s got Brad Pitt along for the ride.
Much like Pedro Almodovar, I am always slightly confused by Bong Joon Ho’s films, though they’re usually at least pretty fun. Parasite was so good that it won the Palme D’Or, top prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Previous winners, like this film and this one, prove that award means something, which is why my hopes are sky high that Ho finally put it all together.
Netflix #4! It’s amazing how much of a theme exists in this Top 10. Movies about elites in New York are movies I’m really sick of, but Noah Baumbach always finds the correct insight to keep those movies interesting. This one looks much more universal in theme than his previous films, hopefully taking an empathetic look at the dissolution of a marriage, using the amazing Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver to keep us engaged.
Brooklyn was one of the great films of 2015, telling a lovely story about the immigrant experience. Pairing that director with a story that won a Pulitzer because it was so good, seems like it could really lead to something special, in spite of my reservations toward Ansel Elgort.
Yes, a documentary takes the top spot. You couldn’t write a thriller or story as timely as this one: a moviemaker forced to flee his country because he upset the powers that be. Midnight Traveler encapsulates opressive regimes, asylum seekers, espionage, political thrillers, mystery, all at once. Riveting with a point will always take the top spot on my list.
