The Big Picture - Screw It, We're Giving Out 2021 Oscars Right Now | The Big Picture

Episode Date: March 31, 2020

New movie releases have slowed to a crawl, but we do have a quarter of a year's worth to judge. Sean and Amanda have scanned the results and decided to hand out some premature Academy Awards to spotlight the very best we've seen so far. Then, they do a little guesswork, peruse the year ahead, and make some blind guesses on the 2021 winners for the big six Oscar categories. Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Liz Kelley, and welcome to The Ringer Podcast Network. We hope The Ringer can provide you entertainment and companionship during this time. So as always, feel free to check out TheRinger.com, where we're still covering the latest in sports, pop culture, tech, and media. And The Ringer's YouTube channel can provide endless amounts of entertainment. You can find that at YouTube.com slash TheRinger. I'm Sean Fennessy. I'm Amanda Dobbins. And this is The Big Picture,

a conversation show about the best movies of the year so far, which might just be the year in full. Hopefully not. But normally at this time of year, we'd hand out best of the year at the quarter turn awards, Amanda. So let's just give out some awards in case we don't get a chance to do so down the road. How do you feel about the fact that we've only gotten three months of movies and maybe that's all we're going to get? That's a really dark way of thinking.

I'm not really ready to do that this early in the week. I think this is more an opportunity to appreciate some of the great movies that we have gotten and that maybe we wouldn't have spent as much time talking about as we are going to in this podcast. We're, you know, making lemonade out of lemons, etc. Can we go with that? I'm shocked by your optimism, but I appreciate it. What else are we going to do? It's useful in this time. I don't know. All we're going to do is just keep making podcasts and keep watching movies. It's funny. I'm watching so many movies, maybe more movies than I have ever seen in my life.

I looked at Letterboxd over the weekend and I have watched 150 movies in the year 2020. I haven't watched 150 2020 releases, but I've watched a lot, an unusually high number. And yet, when I started putting together this list that you and I collaborated on for the best movies of the year, and we're going to hand out the six key awards at the Oscars through the first three months, I found a lot of repetition and there was really only about 12 movies that I think I liked, which is not great. How did you feel about the slate that we had in front of us?

Positive in the fact that there are a lot of movies that I really love on this list and a lot of movies that, again, I think would get kind of lost in their early month, you know, dumpuary shuffle. And we wouldn't really get to talk about them at the end of the year. It is true. I have been watching more movies and there's just like a lot of bad movies, you know, and I do feel like watching at home, I just become aware even more quickly. I'm just like, oh, this isn't working for me. And there is something that is transporting about the theater experience or you're just going to go along with the ride. You're willing to buy in. So, but that's always been true. We just always talk about a lot of movies that have

interesting parts or i really liked this or it didn't quite get there so i don't know why i'm a glass half full person today i don't know what that's about i think it's because we're going to talk about portugal on fire like for an hour and i'm just psyched thanks to everyone who watched this weekend and let me know on twitter um so whatever whatever have to do, not whatever we have to do, but I am looking forward to that aspect of this podcast. Yeah, you hit on something that I've been thinking about as well, which is that I'm just more likely to tap out on something that I know isn't working for me now sitting at home.

And it's, I guess, a bit ironic given that all we have is time. We have so much time to power through the bad movies. But if I'm like 47 minutes into something that I know I'm not responding to at all, I'll just turn it off. I'll just turn it off. And I never walk out of movies. You joked last week that I walked out of Last Christmas. That's one of the only movies I've walked out of in the last 10 years. And I don't like to tap out on something even in a streaming environment. But there's also something pitiless about the movie watching experience right now, where it's just sort of like, you know what? Life is in a

very odd and discomforting and weird place right now. And so because of that, I can't bother with bullshit. You know, there are a lot of masterpieces at our fingertips if we want them. So the idea of powering through another mediocre Netflix movie just doesn't seem like a good use of time. I do think that most of the things that we're going to talk about here are a great use of time. Now, Portrait of a Lady on Fire obviously will be a part of these nominations. I think a couple of these nominations are goofy and we're trying to have fun with them, but for the most part, we played it pretty straight. Would you agree? Yes, there are a couple. We had to fill out some categories and that's okay uh once

again well this is actually not totally true there are some categories where they've where we're featuring women very prominently which is really exciting no spoilers but you know once again it's not totally so far been a robust year for movies about women. And I think we're also going to talk a little bit about what's to come in the rest of 2020 or what we think might come in 2020. Gotta tell you, Sean, they're still not making a lot of movies about women. I don't know whether you noticed that. So sometimes we were just, some of these are trying to get to five. How about that in a festive way? It's funny that you say that because I feel like they're not making a lot of mainstream movies

about women, but they are making a lot of independent films about women. And I feel like a lot of the films that we chose here were of the more quote unquote independent variety. And that's been the best stuff. And part of that is because of the Dempio thing that you pointed out. This time of year, this first three months is usually not a banner period for great film releases. Every once in a while, you get a get out in your life and that gets to dominate the movie world for those first three months. But this year, there have only been a couple of genuine hits and those hits have mostly been led by women, which has been nice. We'll talk about at least one of them here in

this episode. But I wouldn't describe it as a good movie year in general, let alone one for an episode like this. Nevertheless, there is some stuff that I'm happy we're going to get a chance to go through here. I agree. Okay. Should we get into the categories? Let's do it. So we're going to start with best supporting actress. Again, six categories here. I wouldn't say this has been a scientific vote. This was literally just what could I think of and what could Amanda think of? We did a little bit of negotiating, a little bit of bartering here, but it was pretty much just like, I think these things were good, right? We're an academy unto ourselves. Yes. It was like, oh, I remembered this

and think that I could talk about it for a few minutes. Again, this is one of the categories where we had three pretty obvious ones. And then we had to where nominations and fake awards giving are an art just like list making is an art. We're here to hold your attention. We're here to present a round picture of the movie going experience. How about that think that's decent so i'm gonna read our five nominees um and we can we can talk about them in loose terms and then we're gonna just have to make a decision on a winner live in real time okay can we actually effectively communicate and agree on something like this in this format well there's only one answer that i'm gonna accept in this category and i like I will actually throw my earbuds across the room and quit this podcast. So sure, we can agree with those conditions.

Okay. I'm going to read the nominees under those circumstances. Sonia Braga for Baku Rao, Kate Del Castillo for Bad Boys for Life, Elle Fanning for All the Bright Places, Adele Hanel for Portrait of a Lady on Fire, and an inspired choice, Eliza Schlesinger for Spencer Confidential. Obviously, the winner here is Eliza Schlesinger for her work with a Boston accent and Spencer Confidential. No, I don't. This is one of the few categories that we probably need to do much debating on. I think that this, you came up with all of the fun ideas in this category. You came up with Kate DelCastillo, who gave just an absolutely incredible performance as a witch in Bad Boys for Life. Love everything she did there. Eliza Schlesinger in an otherwise fairly bad Spencer

Confidential movie provided, I thought, pretty good comic relief as the bad Boston girlfriend of the titular Spencer. But of course, who's the winner here, Amanda? The winner is Adele Hanel for Portrait of a Lady on Fire. I have spoken at great length about what Adele Hanel means to me. But in this performance, she's obviously been a movie star and a very accomplished actor in France and in French cinema for a very long time. So I'm a little late to this party. But I also just found this performance to be a revelation. And an interesting thing about this movie, which

I hope we can talk more about, is that this movie is interested in the female gaze, but also just how we look at people and how a work of art captures a person and whether that person can be captured entirely in a painting or in a film and what we remember about someone. But it is also just about the fact that some people just really capture your eye. And I literally couldn't look away from this person. Yeah, she's pretty staggering in the movie. There's an incredible introduction to her character, which is, you know, there's much talk about this portrait that her mother wants to be taken of her, which can then be shared with her prospective husband. And we don't meet Adele Hanel's character face to face for a good 20 to 30 minutes. And then

that introduction in which, you know, she's seen storming out of the home and walking directly towards the cliffs in approach to the beach. And we only see her from behind and the camera kind of stalks her from behind from the perspective of Nomi Marlon's character is just like one of the great teases. You know, it reminds me a lot of Harry Lyme and the third man where you hear all this conversation about the Harry Lyme character and we're building and we're building and we're building to this huge important figure even if they're not the star of the movie and such a great reveal when her character turns around and you see that face that face that is so important to the story and then obviously the performance she gives is amazing if people haven't seen it and I think a lot of people probably

haven't I would definitely recommend Water Lilies which is Celine Sciamma's first movie and Adele Haenel's first performance. And, you know, Celine Sciamma and Adele Haenel were in a relationship for many years. There's obviously this like additional layer of intrigue around the Portrait of a Lady on Fire story, which maybe we'll talk about more and the relationship that they had romantically. but in Water Lily she plays again a similarly an object of affection an object object of adulation um there's a young woman who uh a 15 year old girl essentially who sort of falls in love with the idea of looking at Adele Hanel's character in the movie they're both teenagers in high school synchronized swimming plays a pretty significant part in that movie so we could call it a sports movie for for for purposes um but i think if people are interested in in finding some more stuff she's obviously as you noted i think about to be even more of a big deal to american audiences but her the work that she's done over the last 10 12 years is pretty amazing if you're into french cinema and uh congratulations to her on her first academy

award this is very exciting it really is i'm thrilled'm thrilled. We're all really proud of her. Should we go to Best Supporting Actor, which is a slightly more difficult choice to make? Yes, let's do it. Okay, Best Supporting Actor. Here are our nominees. Jim Carrey, Sonic the Hedgehog, Pete Davidson, Big Time Adolescence, Samuel L. Jackson, The Banker, Orion Lee, First Cow, and Ewan McGregor for Birdsor for birds of prey now i wouldn't say this is the most hallowed collection some good actors here some talented people some big names which is what you want out of best supporting actor you want something flashy you want somebody to come in and kind of save a movie with their with their over-the-top work um i'm not sure that this is how sam jackson wants

his oscar career to be remembered uh we should talk about the banker very briefly before we give this award out so this was obviously a movie that was planned to be released last year as apple tv plus's first oscar contender and there was some controversy around the release of the movie and one of the men who produced the movie that i believe the grandson of one of the titular, one of the key figures in the movie. And there were some accusations made against that person. And so Apple, in light of those accusations, decided to sideline the movie for a little while. And then last week, they put the movie out and you could watch it on Apple TV Plus. Anybody could watch it for whatever reason. We've chosen not to discuss the banker, even though I thought the banker was fine. You and I saw the banker together,

and you turned to me during one of Sam Jackson's scenes when he is on a golf course just talking about golf for an extended period of time, and you whispered, I'm so happy. So that, and you were like grinning. You really were just really happy. So if nothing else, this movie gave us like three minutes of Sam Jackson talking about golf and you being happy. And that is worth rewarding. Maybe not with an Academy Award, but that's nice. We can note that it happened.

Who do you think is worthy of this award then, if not Sam? Because Sam Jackson doesn't have an Oscar, which is a crime. Right. And I think when we had to pick who we thought would win an Oscar in the next five years, I think Sam Jackson will, but hopefully for something with a little more meat than the banker. So I don't know. These are different types of performances. I added Ewan McGregor on here for Birds of Prey. I really like this type of performance, which is just someone is just in a completely different movie going for it and having the time of their lives. And you and I were not huge fans of Birds of Prey, but I was basically cackling the entire time that Ewan McGregor was on screen. I don't even

really remember what his character was or what ultimately happened to him, but that doesn't matter because he was having a great time. So that's kind of like the fun award. And to me, even more than, I thoughtim carrey was very good in sonic the hedgehog but there's something about ewan mcgregor just like inventing his own movie whereas jim carrey is a little more in line with the rest of the the mood of sonic the hedgehog if you will um but then i also thought that or Lee in First Cow was was really wonderful. And that's like the actual accomplished pick, in my opinion. I think Orion Lee gives the best and most surprising performance.

You know, I let me ask you this. How old do you think Samuel L. Jackson is? Guess his age. Fifty four. He's 71 years old. Oh, my God. Really? Seventy one. 54 he's 71 years old oh my god really 71 so if we don't give sam this oscar now will he get a chance to win another one i don't i don't know i guess that's true you you think that his only chance right now is in this made-up podcast it's up to me and you amanda if not us then who if that's it then let's give sam Sam Jackson the Academy Award for the banker.

He made you happy and he deserves it. I feel like if you can have Adele, then I can have Sam. Sam the golfer. Yeah. It's not like I don't want this for Sam Jackson. I just also do you. How many people do you think have seen the banker? Is it like 152 in the world i don't know maybe it's maybe it's 400 i don't think that uh sam jackson

does he currently have any movies lined up that are i mean here are the movies that are coming out that sam jackson is a part of spiral which is the new Saw movie, a movie called Blazing Samurai, and The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard, which is the sequel to The Hitman's Bodyguard. Did you see that one starring Ryan Reynolds? I didn't. Somehow I missed that. So I don't think that Sam's going to have another chance with any of those films. The Banker, frankly, is really the last prestige movie he's made he'd made in in a long time i mean he really has been making movies like kong skull island and avengers endgame and the legend of tarzan and

you know sam is just is is uh in the parlance of jaylen rose just just he keeps getting them checks like that's what he's into in his 70s which i respect i appreciate that that is something that he wants to do but i I also think we should give him an Oscar before he dies. Okay, that's great. Congratulations to Samuel L. Jackson, the winner of this Academy Award that we made up. It's very exciting. Should we go to best actor? Yes. I have no idea what I'm going to do in this one, so this will be an interesting live deliberation. Can't say I feel tremendously good about all of our fake nominees here. I'll read them off to us. Ben Affleck, The Way Back.

Pierre Francesco Favino, The Traitor. Will Ferrell, Downhill. John Magaro, First Cow. And Lakeith Stanfield for The Photograph. I'm a little bit... I'm not even torn. I'm not in love with anything we have here I feel the same way

Again we kind of had to get Not creative but it wasn't like Five nominees immediately popped into our heads On this one And I don't You know again John Magaro and First Cow Really lovely performance I honestly, I think

that the chemistry between him and Orion Lee is that it actually makes that movie work. So I don't really think you can give it to any one person. Yep. I agree. Will Ferrell, I just like him. And I do think that he's good in downhill, but it is obviously like a subtler performance. And at the end of the day, now more than ever, I just want Will Ferrell making me laugh. And instead, it was Will Ferrell making me both uncomfortable and also thinking that he was not vicious enough. So let's see.

Lakeith is wonderful in the photograph. But again, that is less of a performance than a presence just because that movie is more of a mood than a movie you so far your cases are strong yeah i have not seen the traitor would you like to speak about the traitor for a bit and then and then you and i can have the way back dialogue yeah i think that's that seems appropriate i i've mentioned The Traitor briefly on the pod before. It's an Italian mob epic written and directed by Marco Bellocchio, who is a longtime Italian filmmaker. It's a much more Italian version of a mob movie in terms of the way that we understand the underworld

and the figures inside of it. The performance that Pierfrancescoco favino gives is really good because it it it sort of transpires over a period of decades and across continents and he's essentially um a mob boss who has been uh apprehended and who turns state's evidence and testifies against um the entire mob world across italy and gives a very kind of textured and layered performance and is a very really captivating screen presence. He's not an actor I really can remember seeing previously. And it's just one of those kind of like mob epics where the person at the center of it, the same way Ray Liotta at the center of Goodfellas just kind of holds your gaze the whole

time and is surrounded by all of these fascinating characters. I think that it's not, you know, it's also based on a true story. And the character that he plays, Tommaso Buscetta, was a real figure who turned state's evidence and testified dozens of times against so many crime figures over the years in Italy. I think it's a very good movie and not a great movie. And it's the kind of movie that is working very hard to be great. And while I really like the performance that he gives, it's the sort of thing that like we just won't no one will be talking about this movie in six weeks. So if they're even talking about it now and it had a very limited run in the States, it played festivals last year. And I think as a January release, it was very savvy

on the part of Sony Pictures Classics because it was like, are you hungry for something that feels like it's good? Because this feels like it's good, even if it ultimately is not. And I wanted to at least give it a little bit more shine on this episode, but I definitely do not think it should win.

It certainly shouldn't win over John Magaro or Lakeith. But maybe we should talk about Ben, our pal Ben. Our best bud Ben. Ben is crushing it right now. First of all, he's in public a lot. We mentioned Ana de Armas last week on the show. I mean, man, he is just making his presence felt to the world. I went on a drive this weekend. We didn't get out of the car because the beaches and everything in Los Angeles were closed and we're trying to obey social distancing orders. But I did want to like lay eyes on the ocean. So I looked at the ocean and then we drove past the Ben Affleck and Artaday Amaris Brentwood Starbucks that has been featured prominently in basically

all of the photographs. I did not get to see Ben Affleck, but I thought there was like a 30% chance that he would be there. You're talking about it as if it's the Great Wall of China or Machu Picchu, you know, the Brentwood Starbucks. Well, it is a very recognizable Starbucks. Juliette Lippman pointed this out on Jam Session. It's like bright pink and it's on sunset. And if you have ever driven through, I guess, I'm sorry, it's not Brentwood, it's the Palisades Starbucks, but it's very clearly where they have been. So yeah, he's out there and he has definitely been out there throughout this year. I mean, if we're giving the award for just kind of personality performance for the last three months in terms of campaigning, if we're giving the award for just kind of a personality performance for the

last three months in terms of campaigning, in terms of like the various narratives around Ben Affleck, extraordinary stuff, just, and I'm grateful for it every day in terms of what he's doing in the way back. We never really actually talked that much about the way back. I think that you were quite moved by it. Yeah. I have talked and written in the past about my appreciation for Gavin O'Connor's man cry epics, his interrogations of felt masculinity and its relationship to sports. Let me just say that that's a sweet spot for me as a human being who works at The Ringer. I'm very interested in sensitive portrayals of guys struggling with shit going

on and using sport to help solve some of their feelings. So yeah, this worked on me in a very distinct way. I think I also am very drawn to artists that are trying to reckon in real time with their personal problems in their art. I think that the way back is maybe not the same as Gabriel Garcia Marquez doing something like that. But I do appreciate that Ben Affleck put himself out there and put the idea of his struggles with substance abuse so deeply into this movie to the extent that and i'm sure you'll talk about this but to the extent of discomfort and i don't know if it's like you know courageous seems like a stupid word to use about a movie like this at this point but i don't i don't want to underestimate that um it took some it took some guts to take on a part like this at

this phase of his life and if he felt like this was something that he wanted to kind of reckon with in this way publicly, maybe just in an effort to get out the other side so that he could go into Ana de Armas heaven. I think that that's great.

And while the movie is not like a four star, you know, masculine drama, it's a very well-made movie with a very sincere performance at the center of it that I appreciated. And also doesn't pull punches the one thing that i wanted to say about it was bill simmons our boss um sent me a note about it recently and he was said he was trying to think of a way to end the movie on a slightly more positive note and you know like if this were a movie made in the 1980s you could see a world in which say and this is a spoiler if you

haven't seen the movie so fast forward through the next 30 seconds you could see a world in which, say, and this is a spoiler if you haven't seen the movie, so fast forward through the next 30 seconds. You could see a world in which the students, the kids who play for him, would choose not to play until he was allowed to return as a coach. But the movie doesn't make that choice. It doesn't make an easy choice like that. It doesn't let his character off the hook. It holds him to that. And I don't know, I actually liked that about it.

But I think that you felt a little bit more not not quite as um comfortable with the movie it's a very raw performance and I and I think everything you said about Ben Affleck using his experiences and his struggle both in the movie and then in talking about the movie is definitely courageous and I and I admire it and there is a um there is an honesty and uh an accountability to it that I think again I I just I think speaks well of him and I think really is meaningful I just I found them to be so raw the scenes with him and like there's kind of no distance from what I sort of understood and again I don't know Ben Affleck and I only know what I sort of understood. And again, I don't know Ben Affleck and I only know what I see

in invasive paparazzi photographs and also what he has told me by interviews. So I don't want to presume, but you got a real sense that you were like really there. And I think even some of the interviews and the coverage of the movie itself gives you a sense of how much

he was like really in it. And I don't know, I guess I don't like vulnerability or something. It just, it, it did make me really uncomfortable. And there was something about, and that means it works, right? Like the movie definitely gets a reaction out of me. And I remember being in the screening room and I was kind of covering my eyes at certain points. And I just, because I was concerned about the character and other people were in the theater as well. So I think that that works.

There's something about marrying that with like the extremely predictable, even for a man, a Dobbin sports movie where I just like knew every single beat that was going to happen. And then it's really, it's swinging for all of the sentimental fences at the same time. I don't mean to, there is also like a sick child plot line, which is a very upsetting, but I was just also like, how much are we going to pack into this?

That is really, really uncomfortable and sad. And I guess I was aware that I was being manipulated. And somehow that plus the rawness of the Aflac performance, I just kind of, you know, I keep like pushing my hands away. No one can see me, but I'm just like, I want some distance. I want some distance. And that was kind of my reaction to this. I think that's understandable. And I think most people, maybe not most people, but a lot of people will feel feel that way that it's too much and it's too intense and it's certainly not relaxing and in a period of great personal distress and solitude that many people are going through right now I would say if you had a choice between birds of prey and the way back you probably should choose birds of prey because it's a distraction and the way back is a confrontation with feelings. I just think it's okay to make melodramas. And I feel like male filmmakers are very allergic to melodrama and male movie stars are allergic to melodrama. And there is something, even though the movie is fairly grounded, there is something really over the top, like you're saying about

all of the things that happened to this character, that it feels so punishing to the point of ridiculousness. But like, you know, that's what Douglas Sirk did too. And at the time when those movies were released, they were kind of lampooned and they were kind of a joke. And then as time goes on and you see them in the arc of someone's career and you see the performances

and you see what the story was about, they start to feel like a little bit closer to, um, a little bit closer to art. I don't know if the way back is ever going to get to that reputation. I don't even know if enough people are really going to see it for anybody to think about its reputation at all. But I, I, I like that it happened. Um, I like that a movie like that can still happen. It's the kind of, there's also like to the point that you and I have been talking about a lot lately in terms of movies going straight to streaming or movies going into movie theaters it does have that like this is a polished studio drama feeling to it which you know that's kind of ephemeral but i just i do like feeling like i'm in the hands of a movie that has been buffed

in a way into professionalism do Do you know what I mean? I do. I mean, I said, you know, that it was predictable even to me who doesn't watch a lot of sports movies, but like, I liked that it hit the beats and I, you know, it did land the specific, you know, the, the mid season game or like the game where they make the playoffs and you know that they're going to at the last minute and then something's going to go wrong. You know, there is that sense of you're in um safe hands like we know what we're doing and we're not gonna screw it up too much there's something familiar about it and i really respond to that should we give ben the award or should we give it to somebody else what do you think

i mean i was just thinking as like we just kept talking and talking and talking about ben affleck that we would be so hypocritical to just then be like, and now to Will Ferrell, like, of course we should give it to, we should give it to Ben Affleck. And I, you know, with, with, um, the promise that we'll talk more about first cow and those two performances later on in the podcast. Yeah. And I also think for first cow, not a lot of people at all have had a chance to see that movie yet. So I don't want to spoil too much. And I think a 24 is going to put that movie back in theaters when theaters reopen around the country so you know i did interview kelly reichert on this show and you can listen to that if you want to if you were in new york and la and got a chance to see it or saw it at a film festival but in

general hopefully a24 will let more people see that because it's a wonderful movie that we'll mention later best actress a significantly more stacked category um if if there's any justice at least one or two of these people will be recognized later in the year if these awards actually do happen i'm not so sure that'll be the case nevertheless i feel like we have a nice nice bounty of nominees for best actress shall i read them please do okay sydney flanagan never rarely sometimes always julia garner the assistant betty gilpin the hunt uh nomi merlon portrait of a lady on fire and elizabeth moss for the invisible man now i think i know where your heart is but let's let's let's talk a little bit about um

elizabeth moss to start so you watch the invisible man you're usually a wimp you don't like to watch the horror movies but you're you're you're you're sucking it up and you're participating so that we can give out the the proper awards through three months this year would you make of the elizabeth uh the invisible man and more specifically elizabeth moss i'll save the invisible man stuff for a different category love elizabeth moss i think she's great in this movie. I have also, as I mentioned, been rewatching West Wing. And I just made it to season five of the West Wing. So I watched the end of season four and season five of West Wing. Sean, have you seen the West Wing? Do you remember what happens? I have, but I have no idea what happens in what season.

So you may remember that Elizabeth Moss plays Zoe Bartlett, the youngest daughter of President Bartlett on the West Wing. And I don't want to spoil anything, but she finds herself in some distress. And it's quite harrowing. And so I was watching that. I was watching The Invisible Man. We also actually on The Ringer have a lovely interview with Elizabeth Moss about our TV bracket because she is in the running for Peggy Olsen.

And she talks again, Rob Harvilla, who interviewed her, was interviewing her and just being like, why are you always in distress? Why are bad things always happening to you? And I'm watching this. I was just like, why is Elizabeth Moss always in distress? I would like for her to have like a nice island vacation somewhere. You know, what, what if Elizabeth Moss was just like in a family drama where everyone's just yelling at each other over the Thanksgiving table? Like why is everyone just trying to ruin her life all the time? It's a great question. Um, the, the invisible man is trying to ruin her life

in the movie, the invisible man, trying to ruin her life in the movie the invisible man probably in the most dramatic terms she's ever experienced i don't know i mean she's obviously i assume partially attracted to those roles and also just incredibly well suited to those roles you know she has one of the most expressive faces in movie acting today and in tv acting and you know like she obviously got her start on shows like The West Wing and then moved on to Mad Men and is in The Handmaid's Tale. But I think in the last two years, she's kind of emerged as a pretty great movie actor. You know, she's in Us. She was in Her Smell last year, one of my favorite movies of the year. She's in The Invisible Man. She is kind of, you know, The Invisible Man is really the first time that she has been center stage in a mainstream movie. And it was a big hit. And even though the movie is, it has some flaws.

I'll be the first to admit that it has some flaws. I think that there's, she's pretty much flawless in the movie. Like there's really not a false note. And the movie like this needs a really, really strong performance at the center for it to work at all. Yeah. I mean, she certainly carries it and carries an involved premise for a very long time. I think my response was just kind of like, I have seen a version of this Elizabeth Moss performance before, not in this situation and not at this scale. And you're right to point out that she is carrying a major movie. But it is slightly familiar territory for me. and not at this scale. And you're right to point out that she is carrying a major movie. But it is slightly familiar territory for me in terms of her just being in terrible situations

and making scared faces, which she's probably the best out at. So we've already talked about Betty Gilpin. We know that she's good. She's a good action star. This is a cool, steely performance. Very similar situation to a person you've seen on TV and not that much in the movies who's getting a chance to be a movie star.

What do you want to say about Nomi Merlin? Well, she has the toughest role, I think, in this movie. Not just because she is, as you mentioned, Celine Sciamma and Adele Hanel worked together for a long time. And this movie is certainly has echoes of the director-actor relationship, but also probably their relationship. It would be hard if it didn't at least have some connection.

And so Naomi Merlant is the person stepping in for Celine Sciamma in some very fraught territory and also new to that working collaboration. And she has to carry some of the larger ideas that you know the headier french ideas about art and how we look at people and the female gaze and and then and also bring the emotion and i she makes it look really natural. It's not the showy performance in the movie, but it's very moving. I think she's wonderful too.

Two other performances that we should talk about. Julia Garner and The Assistant, which is a movie that we have not spoken about really much at all on this show. Many people probably will recognize Julia Garner from Ozark, which is a TV show that I don't watch, but apparently many people love it. Season three returned on Friday to Netflix. And, um, I would encourage you to

check out all of the ringers coverage of Ozark cause you won't be finding it here on the big picture. Uh, she's, she's really great and giving a different kind of performance as I understand it. And the assistant, which is a, um, I don't know how to, how would you describe it as sort of like an imagined uh version of a woman working for a harvey weinstein-esque figure it's very close to a replication of what a powerful hollywood producer working in new york uh might do and you know the timing was remarkable given that harvey weinsteinstein was recently convicted and sent to prison. And this movie is unique because it is entirely from the point of view of Julia's character. We don't ever see the Harvey Weinstein character's face. We just hear his voice.

We see the faces of a handful of other people who work in her office. But for the most part, it is this immensely contained sort of a 24-hour style movie and it's a sort of all happens in one day what it's like to be working so closely with such a domineering monster and julie garner's character is very quiet very meek scared fairly new to the job in this incredibly difficult position of having to manage this guy's personal relationships his illicit affairs his business affairs she's at the the crux really of all of these things and she's like so um so powerfully in control of this very quiet performance um in a movie that is as harrowing as any movie that you'll see this year probably

more harrowing than something like the invisible man i really really liked what she did and i feel like the movie got buried just a little bit this year And I wish more people had seen it and it's unfortunately not yet available. I don't believe on vod Hopefully the I think it's bleaker street as the distributor. Hopefully they put that out soon Um, what did you think of julia garner? Yeah, I agree with everything you said it is one of those performances where it's a it's acting by like Not acting by doing doing very little and I think also as she's very in control of the performance but it is just as um upsetting it it's a performance about powerlessness

and kind of and all of the elements of a work life and a regular life that contribute to just someone who just doesn't have any control over their situation or the things that are happening and the kind of the mounting indignities of that. And I think it is definitely reminiscent of certain things that we know about the Weinstein scandal, but it is also just a unupsetting and really accurate movie about being a young woman without any power and in a workplace and i she's tremendous in it and it's really hard to both carry a movie like that and also give that sense of just not having any control over anything and she manages to walk that line yeah it's it's a really great performance. I would encourage people to check that movie out. The last nominee is Sidney Flanagan

for Never Really, Sometimes Always. Let's save our conversation for Never Really, Sometimes Always, except just to say that Sidney Flanagan is absolutely incredible in this movie. I've never seen her before. I think this is her first role. This is a very small movie that debuted

that you and I saw at Sundance made by Eliza Hittman. It's also been on the show talking about the movie. It's going to be released on Friday on VOD. I definitely would encourage people to check this movie out. However, with the caveat that it is not a feel-good romp by

any stretch of the imagination. It's an immensely serious, small human drama. But Sidney Flanagan, very similar to Julia garner's performance i think is pretty much like at the center of the frame the whole time it is completely from her perspective um it is completely almost inside of her head in a very in a fascinating way and um i found her the work to just be just straight up amazing. I think she's just amazing in this movie. Yeah. I mean, it's just, it's a, a heartbreaking and astonishing performance.

It, I mean, and this is the one where it just doesn't, it feels like she's not acting and she definitely is. And she deserves credit for that work, but you just kind of feel like you're with a, a, a teenager and it's,

it's a, it's a, it is a really tough watch, but I couldn't recommend it more. What would you pick here out of these five? This is a tough one. Yeah. I have really no idea.

I think Julia Garner is really good. I obviously think Sydney Flanagan is like, is amazing. I love Betty Gilpin. I think Elizabeth Moss is very good. And that's kind of a showy performance. Are we awarding the awards as ourselves or are we doing the here's what the Academy would do? Amazing question. I can't believe it took us this long to get to this question. I'm doing some sort of combination of both because if I were a member of the Academy,

I, even though I rail about these things all the time, would do shit like give Samuel L. Jackson an It's Time Award, you know? And yeah, I, you know, the mainstream winner of this movie, the like, we've all decided it will be Judy Garland because she deserves it. The winner of this one would probably be Elizabeth Moss. That would be the person that would, there would be the big, the campaign for, and she would work the room and she'd be very charming and she's well known

for her previous work. Someone like Sydney Flanagan has a very tough time in a circumstance like this, even though I think Sydney Flanagan and Julia Garner to me are the, are sort of running one and two and kind of switching places back and forth. I agree. But though, if we're doing like Oscar math,

they probably are canceling each other out of it. Oh, you're right. Both on news, both little scene in movies. Yeah, you're right. It's a good point. And I mean, quiet performances. Right, right. So I mean, in those circumstances, I think Elizabeth Moss is our winner. Probably. Yes. Okay. We have a decision. Let's go to best director. Best director. Tell me what you notice about these nominees autumn de wilde emma kitty green the assistant eliza hitman never rarely sometimes always kelly reichert first cow celine siama portrait of a lady on fire what sticks out there amanda congratulations to us for being open-minded and knowing that women can direct films.

Note, please note to the Academy, this is possible. Women, they direct films too. You heard it here first on The Big Picture. Yes. In some circumstances, we are acting like the Academy and giving out awards the way that they might. But in this circumstance, we are not. We are looking at what I think is honestly an absolutely credible list of five women who did amazing jobs on all these films. Now, if you want to be cynical about this, you can say that one of

the reasons that the Academy often does things like this and that the movie industry in general is kind of fucked up is that these five movies were all released in the first three months of the year instead of the last three months of the year, even though they are all incredibly thoughtful, well-made, sometimes beautiful, sometimes harrowing portraits of people in distress. And they're not really going to get the Oscar campaigns that they deserve. I don't think any of these movies really did. Portrait of a Lady on Fire sort of did. Unfortunately, France did not choose it to be its nominee for Best International feature last year and so we've got we've got five really worthy women up for this award uh what do you what do you what do you think i mean where should we go

here so i guess my instinct is to vote split between director and best Picture because I would like to reward several of these films. And so I'm kind of thinking that in mind and I don't want to spoil anything, but I obviously am leaning a certain way for Best Picture. So in that sense, you know, I think here's what we can say. Autumn DeWild, her first feature was Emma. Pretty remarkable first feature. That was just a movie. And it looked like a movie and it had fun performances.

And you and I, you know, I think we had different thoughts about different parts of it, but it's just fully formed. So respect to her. I think that probably she won't win, but great work. Um, Kitty Green and Eliza Hittman, just the assistant never rarely, sometimes always are both tremendous movies. I'm a little nervous that they're kind of, I don't want to say canceling each other out, but vote splitting similarly as they did in, in best actor, though, best actress. I'm sorry, though. You know, I would be willing to talk about Eliza Hittman. But we haven't really talked about First Cow.

And I think this might be the place to talk about Kelly Reichardt and First Cow. I'm down to talk about it. I think that probably gives away our hand on best picture, but that's okay. Well, we haven't decided. We haven't decided. I think Kelly Reichardt is one of the 10 or 12 most important American directors of the last 20 years. I mean, when I revisited her movies ahead of a conversation with her a couple of months ago, I was just blown away by a handful of those movies. I think Meek's Cutoff in particular is truly one of the great modern Westerns ever made.

Truly one of the smartest movies about um the differences between men and women truly one of the greatest movies about western expansion and what it means to get lost like just an outright masterpiece i don't think first cow is like on that level of work i don't think it's even necessarily on the level of like wendy and lucy this movie that she made uh with michelle williams about her relationship with her dog which sounds small but is also similarly like incredibly intense and sad and really deep i mean she makes really really deep films um first cow is kind of like an interesting parable about capitalism like the rise of capitalism in the united states that really is like the core idea at the heart of it.

And it's a, it's also a movie about friendship and she makes really good movies about friendship. And so, you know, you mentioned John McGarrow and Orion Lee and the chemistry that they have in, in this movie, which is functionally the result of great directing,

putting these two people in a room together and making them, making their sparks fly between them. Um, it's a kind of, um, fraternal love story in a way together and making them making their sparks fly between them um it's a kind of fraternal love story in a way and it is uh it's just it's a it's a wonderful movie that it feels like only she could make only she could make a movie that takes place almost entirely outside in the pacific northwest you know that takes place like with these kinds of actors giving these kinds of performances so if you're suggesting that we should choose with these kinds of actors giving these kinds of performances. So if you're suggesting that we should choose Kelly Reichert, I'm on board.

I mean, I wanted to talk about it. The other thing that I really jumped out to me about First Cow, in addition to their friendship, which is like friendship chemistry. We don't talk about it that much, but it is really rare. And it's a very moving part of that movie. But she does also just create the entire world of the 1800s Pacific Northwest. And it's really immersive. And in comparison to something like Emma, which is also technically a period piece,

but it's really stylized. And you're like, we're doing a costume drama. And that's intentional. And that's part of what i really liked about emma but first cow is extremely naturalistic and you're just kind of like suddenly they're outside making what are the cakes called oh i can't even remember like they're not tasty cakes that's a different thing um that's philly but that is just that's entirely her creating an entire world and a mood. And I think that that's like a pretty remarkable accomplishment. I do kind of, can we talk a little bit more about Eliza Hittman? Yeah, we can.

Let me, can I just say one thing about Autumn DeWild? Yeah. I was kind of, I was very mixed on Emma, as I said on the show. I did listen to her conversation with Mike Mills on the DGA podcast, which I would recommend people check out if they liked Emma or saw Emma. And the amount of intentionality that went into what she did, I think it really opened my eyes in terms of the choices that she made and what she was trying to get across. So even though I didn't love that movie, I do think that it was she's right to be here because it was a feat of direction. You know,

she had a real vision for the movie which you pointed out in terms of the production design and the way that it's staged and the colors and i think all that stuff is great so i i think she's really worthy and i don't want her to go um overlooked uh but about eliza hitman i mean yeah what do you what do you think about her i just think you know and, I know that a lot of people, most people have not seen this movie, and so we'll try not to spoil it. But this movie, I mean, you want to talk about a vision. This is a movie about a teenager from Pennsylvania who is trying to get an abortion.

And she has to travel, and it's the various hurdles that she faces in order to get an abortion and we won't go much further than that but there is a way that a story like that is that is typically told um both in terms of how it's shot but also the the themes and the and the morals and even the emotional centers that you're trying to hit like what when you hear that you imagine a certain type of movie that's possibly a little bit closer to like an afterschool special or just like a really wrenching like issue movie. And this is a movie about process.

And this is a movie about, um, bureaucracy as that's the word that Eliza Hittman has been using. Um, and in it, and it's done perfectly, but there's something about just wanting to tell that story that way. And then finding Sydney Flanagan and finding all of the other actors and just it kind of the note, perfect process movie that she makes as I think is like astonishing.

Yeah, I agree. That's really well put. And it is about very much the process of going through this potential procedure that the character is portraying. And that's the whole movie. The whole movie is just about this pursuit. It's almost like a woman on a mission movie, but in very, very intimate and emotionally dynamic terms. Making a choice amongst these five women is kind of silly. This whole endeavor is kind of silly. I would probably go with Kelly Reichert

as a kind of like similar it's time sort of reward, even though with the expectation that Eliza Hittman starts to make slightly bigger and slightly bigger films. You know, just if we're continuing to adhere to the traditional academy hierarchical thinking,

it's probably Kelly Reichert's prize. I think that's probably true. Okay. Kelly Reichert, congratulations. You are now an Oscar winner in the eyes of the big picture. Best picture. I've got nine nominees here. I feel okay about them.

Here they are. There's some good movies on this list there is the assistant baku rao first cow the invisible man never rarely sometimes always onward portrait of a lady on fire the way back and the whistlers you know you noted that the way back on this list might be a a for. Ferrari style masculine edition. I kind of also ran. I'm not going to argue with that. I wanted to just mention The Whistlers very quickly if people haven't seen it.

I think it's a film that you can rent via virtual ticket right now. It is. I did that this weekend. Were you able to follow the story? I would say that I understand about 60% to 70% of what was going on. But the kind of twist that I missed didn't affect my enjoyment of the film. So it's an interesting movie. It's a Romanian kind of crime noir film by Corneliu Porambu,

who is a very well-known Romanian international filmmaker who's made a couple of pretty big movies. He made He made on police adjective and he made a movie called Infinite Football, which was one of Adam Neiman's favorite movies of 2018. He's a very clever filmmaker. This movie is like larded with references to Hollywood films. There's so much Hitchcock. There's so many 40s noir dramas. There's some Michael Mann in this movie. If you're interested in that sort of thing, even though this has a slightly, I found slightly confounding linear logic. I struggled a little bit keeping up

with where the movie wanted to go, but it's really stylized and really cool and has some good performances. And I wanted to just give it a little bit of love on the show. You know, who are the big contenders here? The big contenders for me, obviously, never rarely, sometimes always, Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

I think we should probably talk a little bit about Baccaro. But, you know, those are all, I guess those are all parasites, right? And that's great because we live we live in a post-parasite winning the oscars winning the best picture world and so we can put those the three up but you'll notice i didn't pick the invisible man which was like a very nice movie about a rubber suit and portrait and and i didn't you know what i really enjoyed the first hour of invisible man that that was another one where I texted you afterwards and I was like, I have some questions.

But I enjoyed the premise. And I understood why people really liked it. Though I will say I did watch it at home. Number one, I mean, it was like, what was the Game of Thrones episode where it was so dark and everyone just couldn't see anything at all, all the time, and we all got really mad? You remember this?

I do. It was in the final season. It was called The Long Night. Right. So it was a little bit of a long night experience for me, which is my own fault. But then it was also, I don't think that like the the sense of suspense and pacing that people who saw it in a in a theater did and again maybe you know that's on me and my attention span but it was a it was clearly a movie designed to be watched in theaters and yeah it was and and you

do lose a little bit even though i even though they made it possible for me to pay 1999 for it and that was like the easiest new release experience that I had this weekend in terms of technology. So I like The Invisible Man. Are you going to argue for The Invisible Man for the Best Picture Oscar? No, I'm not. I think it's a really, really effective genre movie with a pretty much incredible lead performance. I think everything else around it is a little bit wonky, but I'm a big, big fan of Lee Whannell's sort of action and suspense filmmaking. I think he's got a really great eye and sensibility about pace and how to stage scenes. And I talked to him about it.

And the way that he talked about it made me feel even better about it because there's clearly similarly to Autumn DeWild, so much intention, so much style and film history in his brain, and he's using that to make better movies. So I really appreciate what he does on just on the genre tip. And he gets he gets good performances. There's a lot of stuff like I don't know what's going on with Aldous Hodge's character, her like cop pal who she lives with. That whole plot seems like really half baked to me. I think a lot of the explanation of the kind of final moments of the movie is a little bit hazy to people. You know, Bill talked

about it on the show when he came on. You obviously struggled with it a little bit too. That's not a good sign if people are not totally understanding what happened at the end of your movie. And I do think it's like a pretty big Gone Girl ripoff in some ways, which Lee Wendell copped to. He obviously watched that movie over and over again. But like sort of, but if you want it to be a Gone Girl ripoff, then just go for it.

You know, that's what I have to say. But he only had seven million dollars to make this movie. And David Fincher had like seventy five to make Gone Girl. So given the circumstances like, you know, I think it's really, really hard to make a great movie that has that much style. And is that slick for that amount of money? That's not a reason to give it best picture, but it is, it's an accomplishment. I enjoyed it. I enjoyed it. And it's fun to argue about too, which is good, but I don't think that it should win, you know, our best picture. Let's, let's talk about Baccarat. I'm really happy that you watched this. I can't imagine you like dug it. No, I thought it was cool. Come on. Yeah. Okay, good. I'm glad i'm glad i have a brain you know and it's

also i do think well i do have a brain just fyi um it was the last movie that i watched this weekend and it was after watching some movies i really liked i really enjoyed the whistlers that was like a great saturday night i convinced my husband to watch it with me. Like part of it's set on the Canary Islands. Like, great, let's go. Date night, sort of. But I had also watched some movies that I didn't really dig or some movies that I didn't like totally understand the end of in the case of The Invisible Man. And so I watched Baccarat last and I was like, oh, this is an excellent film. And you can just you can still recognize like the the filmmaking and the ideas and weird things are going on. And there's just someone has created an entire cinematic universe. And even at home, even after, you know, fighting with like the virtual ticket machine or whatever, you can recognize when something is really on another level. And this movie movie clearly is. Yeah, I agree. It's a pretty special movie. It won the jury prize at Cannes last year at what is now becoming a sort of legendary Cannes Film Festival if you look back at all the films that came out of there. It's co-directed by Clybur Mandoka Filho

along with Giuliano Dornellis and it's a Brazilian film and it has aspects of American and European characters, but it's largely set in this very small town in Brazil. You know, the movie has been classified as a weird Western, which is a, you know, a subcategory that I really like. It has elements of like alien invasion movies. It has kind of like exploitation grindhouse horror aspects, but it also has like local drama aspects. You know, there's like a political aspect to the story. There's a moral aspect to the story. It's got Sonia Braga, who we mentioned in Best Supporting Actress, who's really, really one of the best actors of her generation, giving a good performance as this matriarch of this small town. It's really violent, but also really tender. It's a weird mega mashup of a movie.

You don't really see stuff like this come along too often. And you're right. It does have to be made by somebody with a real vision and with a real command over the landscape. It also features Udo Kier, the incredibly weird German actor who routinely shows up in the strangest films for the last 40 years, who's always, always entertaining and over the top and kind of in a different movie, but it's okay. I think that this is like 80% what I wanted it to be and actually came up just a little bit shy. I didn't think it was like the out now masterpiece

that I was hoping for. It is like eight different movies and there is, and it does kind of just turn into a different movie and you kind of have to follow along for the ride there's not a huge amount of exposition there's not a huge amount of you know surrounding information you just are following along but if you're willing to do that it just has enough like vibes and good energy and clearly that they're thinking about some things that give yourself over and it's and it's fun to watch yeah it's got style and if you if you like style and you like ideas then it's a good film we've already talked about the assistant

we've talked about first cow we've talked about never rarely sometimes always you know onward i think is similarly a happy to be there candidate i don't know if we need to dive too deeply into that one so i you know i i feel like we have our winner right is a portrait of a lady on fire i mean it has to be doesn't it i mean it has to be for me it's been really heartening that i i mean it's heartening and also makes me a little not queasy but nervous that Portrait of a Lady on Fire also seems to have become like a meme and a thing it does have that parasite vibe of like people are latching on to it as like the cool movie and but I think that's great because more

people are seeing it I don't know I've I was just wall by this movie. And it has so many ideas about art and about relationships and about memory. And there is also something so special about it just being, I don't get that feeling that often of just you're in fact every single one of these characters is uh dealing with the consequences of living in a world of run by dudes but it is just kind of this a magical escape um for a period of time from all of that and what someone can create and what a group of female filmmakers can create and what a group of women can create is just like it's pretty exhilarating to me and it looks so beautiful. And listen, if you are missing the outside world right now and just want to look at some beautiful things for a while, find the largest screen you can and fire a portrait of a lady on fire.

To me, it's a masterpiece. I think it has very quickly been arrived at a kind of consensus around people who really, really care about movies and film history. Like it didn't take long for this to become one of the more significant internationally received features in the States. And I'm sure that now that it's on Hulu, a lot more people will be watching it just to see what all the hype is about. It's also been advocated for not just by us, but by know justin chang and david erlich and like very popular film critics are very very passionate about this movie and they're working really hard

to get people to see this movie to see celine siama's other films to get a better sense of kind of what this movie is about why it's important and and why everyone should watch it um it's a very uncontroversial best picture pick to me. We are going to look back on Les Miserables being chosen as the French entry to best foreign language film as pretty much insane. And I think Les Miserables is pretty successful as portraits of downtrodden people in a foreign country go. It's an effective crime drama in the same way. It's not a bad movie by any means, but Portrait of a Lady on Fire, when I talked to Celine Sciamma, I compared it to the way that people talk about Carol now, where it kind of took

a year, but everybody just kind of realized that Carol was one of the most significant movies of the decade. And it told the story that was really meaningful. It was by a master filmmaker who had kind of been waiting to be recognized for something like that. And even though the Academy wasn't there for Carol the way they probably should have been, and even though it didn't have a big box office success, you know, there are thousands of people

that are obsessed with that movie. And I feel like this movie is the exact same thing. It has the exact same sort of cultish hive that's probably only going to grow in the streaming era. Yeah. Can we, we don't have to spoil the ending, but I just want to reiterate, I mean, that ending, I have sensed, like, I can put on the Vivaldi, the piece from the Four Seasons,

and just, like, start tearing up. I mean, it just absolutely got me. And it's a pretty simple ending, but again, I feel a particular connection to Adele Hanel. So I guess it really works on me. But man, just beautiful. Tremendous. A plus. Congratulations to Celine Sciamma and Portrait of a Lady on Fire. Congratulations to them for winning Best Picture on the big picture. That's incredible. I'm very happy for them. It's great. Be the change you want to see in the world. So now that we've given out six awards, do you want to try to do some forecasting in these weird and perilous times?

Sure. I found this exercise. We went through the six major categories and each tried to pick one person or film that we thought would actually win. That's a movie that's going to be, so as best we know, released in 2020 that we think will actually win an Oscar. And I found this to be intensely difficult. This is hard. And it's really hard. And we're prefacing this by these are

irresponsible picks. We have not seen almost any. We've seen a couple of these movies, but basically sight unseen, just trying to guess. And, you know, we don't know what's going to happen with this year's Oscars. We don't know which movies are going to be released. We, you know, we don't know what's going to happen with this year's Oscars. We don't know which movies are going to be released. We don't know how the Academy is going to respond to the eligibility window. We don't know anything. And so that made I don't like making decisions or picks without knowing things. And that made this like particularly difficult to me. So these are just these are guesses. I just wrote some names down. No shame. You're not going to be judged on this. I just wrote some names down. No shame.

You're not going to be judged on this. I know you got you got a student anxiety right now. It's all good. Everything's going to be fine. Of course I do. Of course I do. We just took a shot in the dark. We've only seen a couple of these movies, as you said.

Let's just go through them fairly quickly. Now, we're not going to talk about every single perspective Oscar movie. In fact, I discovered the existence of a lot of movies that are going to be oscar movies just in researching this this made-up exercise that we're doing here but i'm i'm just gonna we'll just throw them out quickly best supporting actress i have no idea if this is going to be a halfway decent movie but i'm choosing glenn close for hillbilly elegy uh which is ron howard's adaptation of jd vance's novel which which is a Netflix film that is going to be very noisy in the fall. Glenn Close, obviously, she was the wife. You remember the wife? The wife, a movie I've seen and a book I have read. I can't believe you've read that book. I have seen the film as well. I think that we will see

Glenn Close win an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for Hillbilly Elegy. Who are you choosing? I think that's a smart pick. For the sake of variety i went with an actress named sersha ronan you may have heard from her heard her on our 35 under 35 and she is in a movie called ammonite um written and directed by francis lee uh and it stars kate wenslet and sersha ronan and my understanding of it is this is like a 18th century eng lesbian romance. And you can just kind of see that Saoirse being the younger would be in the supporting category and people being like, what a visionary performance by this young actress. She's so young. I could see it happening. I think that's totally legit. Portrait of a Lady on Fire walked so that Emmamonite could run at the Oscars.

Supporting actress was one where I had a hard time finding some candidates because many of the bigger movies slated for the second half of this year, and particularly the larger ensemble movies, are very male heavy. As is always the case, frankly. Yeah. Speaking of which, I had a little bit of a difficult time choosing best supporting actor. And the pick that I chose is a little bit of a cheat. But I think that there might be some category fraud that's going to come into play with this one. So I went with Steven Yeun for Minari, which is a movie that we talked about a little bit on the show in the aftermath of Sundance, which went on to win the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, which went on to win the grand jury prize at Sundance. Um, this is Isaac Lee Chung's film about a family that, um, a Korean family that moves to the middle of the country and attempts to build a farm of its own, a sustainable farm of its own in the 1980s.

I thought it was incredible. The best narrative movie that I saw at, at Sundance and Steven Yeun has been on this path of pretty much only working with great filmmakers and looking for great projects since leaving The Walking Dead. And I am, uh, I'm very, very excited to see what else he chooses. I think there's a case that he is best actor in this movie that he has the lead role, but I also think that you could see a world in which, you know, cause the movie kind of moves away from him in the second half in a way. And I could see a world in which they position him as a supporting actor. I think that's a good theory. I also have no problem with category fraud if it means that actors I like and performances I like win Oscars.

So go for it, Steven Yeun. Let's do it. I was also just completely moved by this movie and his performances in it. It's wonderful. So it sounds great by me. I, again, just for by, by this movie and, and his performances in it is wonderful. So it sounds great by me. I, I, again,

just for variety, pick someone else. I went with a Bill Murray for on the rocks, which is the upcoming Sophia Coppola movie, which is about a, a young woman played by Rashida Jones, trying to connect with her father who is played by Bill Murray. And I,

I think again, this is probably category fraud because my understanding of this movie is that it, who is played by Bill Murray. And I think, again, this is probably category fraud because my understanding of this movie is that it stars Rashida Jones and Bill Murray. But you can see him doing the, them trying to slide it in because it focuses more on her journey. And I think, were you tweeting this weekend about how Bill Murray didn't win an Oscar? Yeah, I was. He should have won an Oscar for Kingpin, which is an extraordinary 1996 comedy that the Farrelly brothers should have been recognized for as well. Have you noticed that you're tweeting a lot more?

Do you just know? I just wanted to. Of course. As long as you're aware. I'm stuck in my house, Amanda. What else am I going to do? I mean, I just like, you know, the Coldplay rankings on a Saturday night.

I was just kind of like, okay. As long as you're aware. I'm just incredibly drunk and high trying to get through this like everybody else just tweeting through it, Amanda. Coldplay was good, and I don't know why you had to have that realization 20 years later. They were great for two albums, and then everything after that is pretty much terrible.

That's what I landed on. The world seemed to agree. Yeah, the world knew that 20 years ago, but welcome to the party, Sean Fennessey. I was there. I was a fan. Okay. I just think they've taken on a kind of an unfortunate reputation in the last 15 years. They did. They did. But those first two albums are good. Anyway, I picked Bill Murray for On the Rocks. It's a good pick. I'm sorry about all my tweets. What can I say? It's a tough time right now. We're all coping in different ways. I'm also coping with Best Actor. Best Actor is another movie that I

saw at Sundance for my pick. I don't know if this will hold because this guy's already won an Oscar before, but it does feel like the kind of movie that usually wins. It's called The Father and Anthony Hopkins plays the father who is an older man dealing with what is presumably Alzheimer's, though it's not actually explained in the film what he's struggling with. Maybe it's a form of dementia of some kind. And it's a fascinating, very stagey film in which he is in the center of the frame. The entire film takes place all in one place. And he is asked to basically like cope with the

transforming state of his own mind. And it's showy but it's also very simple and very touching. And I think the movie is solid. I think Anthony Hopkins is amazing. So he's the kind of guy who might win too.

He's one of the most legendary actors of the last 50 years. Seems reasonable and I've already seen the movie so I feel one of the most legendary actors of the last 50 years. Seems reasonable. And I've already seen the movie. So I feel comfortable making the prediction. What do you got? Okay. I have a movie that I have not seen.

That's okay. I have Matt Damon for Stillwater, which is the upcoming Tom McCarthy drama. And as I understand it, it is Matt Damon as a dad. It's like, it's like serious crime taken as I understand where, it is Matt Damon as a dad. It's like serious crime taken, as I understand, where it's like Matt Damon working on behalf

to save or exonerate his daughter, who's played by Abigail Breslin. And so like a serious dad in crisis movie for Matt Damon, who's beloved, but has never won an Oscar for acting. It just, it seems like, and who is so well-liked, seems possible. I think that's a great pick.

I think it's plausible. Tom McCarthy obviously wrote and directed Spotlight. You know, he's very well-suited to this kind of material. So seems like it wouldn't be a shocker. Best actress. I like both of our picks here. I went with, again, an old school person. I feel like you and I have split every time with old school or new school.

Someone younger who deserves to shine. Someone a little older who's due. My pick is for Michelle Pfeiffer for a film called French Exit. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to do a top five Michelle Pfeiffer episode? It really would. We should try maybe a Hall of Fame. We'll have to figure out what to do there. French Ex a pretty small film directed by uh zazel jacobs which is coming out later this year about a woman who up and moves to france uh and lee abandons her

life and is it it's based on a book right yeah it's a it's a novel by patrick dewitt which i have read and it is a very black comedy. Well, I don't even know whether you would call it a comedy. It is a dark movie with some humorous elements. I just feel like Michelle Pfeiffer is exactly the kind of person who is always in the air, but we never think about. And she has made an effort to get a little bit more involved in movies in the last few years. I think about. And she has made an effort to get a little bit more involved in movies in the last few years. I'll never forget her performance in Mother,

which is just immensely erotic and very locked in. And obviously, she's somebody who people have loved for many years. And she has only basically done, you know, she was in Murder on the Orient Express. She was in the Ant-Man movie. She was in Avengers Endgame. She was in Maleficent, Mistress of Evil. That was weird know she was in murder on the orient express she was in the ant-man movie she was in avengers endgame she was in maleficent mistress of evil that was weird when she was in that remember that oh my god i forgot about that yeah yeah so she's been doing some mainstream stuff to get back into people's uh into into the center of the frame and this feels like a a very conscious choice to um push herself as an actor so i'm hopeful for

michelle pfeiffer what do you got so i went the complete opposite direction uh i'm going with rachel zegler who will be playing maria in uh west side story directed by steven spielberg i can just see heard of that yeah you've heard of it you've heard of it you know we we're kind of due for uh Ingenue Best Actress win. It's been a couple years of rewarding, of It's Time nominees. And I guess Olivia Colman was an interesting one where she was both, she was new-ish, but not being super young. So I can see them going for someone like new and fresh and exciting. And there were a couple other options here that I thought I could see happening. Like there was apparently an Aretha Franklin biopic

starring Jennifer Hudson that is in the works. Now, because we did like a singing biopic winner for best actress last year, I don't think we would repeat, but Aretha Franklin is Aretha Franklin. And then I was wondering about Ana de Armas in Blonde, but it just doesn't seem like Blonde is going to come out this year. So I guess we don't really know anything. It's a tricky one. Respect, I think, is going to be a very noisy Oscar movie. It was just pushed back to Christmas from its October date a couple of weeks ago, which indicates that they're going to put a lot of energy behind it. Although, as we've stated before, pushing a movie to Christmas can sometimes be perilous for awards chasing. That said, Jennifer Hudson already has an Oscar. So the idea of Jennifer Hudson having

two Oscars is kind of insane to me. I think she's a good actor, but that feels weird. But that is a rich ripe choice I think I would also look out for Amy Adams for Hillbilly Elegy here somebody else who people have been wanting to reward who's been nominated I think four or five times at this point and who's always good even if the movie she's in is not very good so that'll be interesting to watch and blonde the only thing I heard about blonde is just that it's really weird and the weirder a movie like that is, the less likely it is to be recognized. So we'll see what happens. That's from Andrew Dominick.

He's made mostly very strange, deeply artistic films. We'll see. Let's go to Best Director. Again, I like both of our picks. We've done good work here. My pick is very simple. It's David Fincher for Manc. Did you see when David Fincher spoke to hundreds of

English film students by a Zoom a week ago? Did you see that story? No, I didn't. But I forgot to tell you that I did see Fincher walking down Franklin Ave the other day. Yeah. Did you hug him? No, I mean, I was driving by and also, you know, respect social distancing. But I was just like, oh, it's David Fincher. Anyway, hope he had a nice walk. He's the best. Apparently he spoke for 90 minutes to a class of students during social distancing.

And every single student that was in that class tweeted about it and said, this was the greatest day of my life. So that was very exciting. That video is not available anywhere. I'll just say right now, if you have a possession of that video, feel free to slide into my DMs.

I'd like to watch it. I'll pay you American dollars for it. I've talked about Mank like five times already. The movie's not coming out for another six months. It's going to be a big deal. We're going to talk about it a lot on this show. What's your pick for best director? I have Spike Lee for Defy Bloods, which is his Netflix movie that is coming out. It's Spike. I also do think that we both picked directors with Netflix movies, which

in my case was intentional because I just think that the platform and the certainty this year over any other year, people are going to see these movies. People are going to see Spike Lee movies anyway. I think that's so smart. I think you're so right about that. And I think this is going to be a big deal.

I agree with you. When we talked to Paul Walter Hauser on the show, he had just finished shooting the movie and he said it was awesome and he was very excited about it. Seems like a great story. I've also heard some Delroy Lindo Oscar buzz for either best actor

or best supporting actor for this movie. We'll see. It's a war movie. It's a movie about reflection on what you did during the war. So those movies also, as we know, have a lot of look at 1917 and the way that that movie was celebrated. And I look forward to talking more about Spike. I've been slowly going back through the Spike movies

that I'm not as familiar with and rewatching them. I watched Moe Better Blues a couple of weeks ago. Bamboozled was just released by Criterion in a really, really awesome edition. I'm going as familiar with on re-watching them. I watched Moe Better Blues a couple weeks ago. Bamboozled was just released by Criterion in a really, really awesome edition. I'm going to re-watch that. I think it'd be fun for us to do a Spike episode down the road.

I would love to do that. Okay, best picture. I went with something right down the middle in a complicated world coming off of a fraught election. There's only one guy who can guide us through the troubled times.

That guy is Aaron Sorkin, the writer and director of The Trial of the Chicago 7, which just kind of feels like the kind of movie that we're going to want to recognize. A movie about justice, a movie about revolution, a movie about sticking to your guns, so to speak. That's your guy.

I mean, listen, that's my guy. This is one of my most anticipated movies of the year. And I would just love for it to be excellent. I would love for it to be in the best picture conversation. I'm not counting my, I don't know, eggs, chickens, whatever that phrase is before I see it. I do think also there, I mean, there is an interesting like makeup aspect to this. If it's what, 10 years since social network did not win. And so you could see people taking that a little seriously. So that's a, that's a great pick. I went with Mink for this one.

And my reasons were twofold. Number one, the, well, really three, I guess. Because taking Fincher seriously as well, again, talk about social network makeup. Number two, the Netflix of it all. And I just think that Netflix is just going to have an easier time with campaigning. And I do also think that it's going to be a year for comfort at the movies. I have certainly been feeling that and what I have been seeking out, but I think people might gravitate towards things that are familiar. And this is a Hollywood story. And we've had a couple of years of thinking, oh, you know, Hollywood loves movies about Hollywood. And then Once Upon a Time in Hollywood did not win and A Star is Born did not win. But I think that that kind of latent tendency could show itself this year. It would

make sense to me. Once again, I think you and I are being way too optimistic about good movies being rewarded at the Oscars. We've been poisoned by Parasite. All this talk about Mank and The Five Bloods and The Trial of the Chicago 7. I don't know. It's just...

This has been surprisingly sincere and optimistic, this whole conversation. But that's because we don't know what else they're going to release. So I don't know what the Ford versus Ferrari is of this year, which was a very nice movie, by the way, and I don't know why I'm being so mean to it.

But you know what I'm saying. I do. We don't know what's going to happen. I hope that the Oscar stays on track. I hope that the world gets back on track. I hope that movie theaters open by sometime this summer. I hope everything goes back to normal so that we can get back to talking about the things that we care about, like the Oscars.

Amanda, this was fun. If you are interested in world historical cinema, which is a little bit of what we've talked about on this episode, I would encourage you to tune in later this week, where I'll be joined by Chris Ryan to talk about a person who I would argue is the greatest actor of the 20th century. His name is Toshiro Mifune. He is a Japanese icon. He's a star of many samurai films. He worked with Akira Kurosawa many times. And we'll be celebrating his 100th birthday by talking about every great thing he's done in his career. So I hope you'll tune in for that. Amanda, thanks again. Thanks to Bobby Wagner. Hope everybody's

staying safe out there. And thanks for listening to The Big Picture.