#2021 movies
Best Picture
Prediction: CODA
Personal Picks: Dune or CODA
Biggest Snubs: C’mon C’mon, Zola, and The Green Knight
Best Director
Prediction: Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog)
Personal Pick: The Power of the Dog
Biggest Snub: Denis Villeneuve (Dune)
Lead Actor
Prediction: Will Smith (King Richard)
Personal Pick: Denzel Washington (The Tragedy of Macbeth)
Biggest Snubs: Dev Patel (The Green Knight), Mahershala Ali (Swan Song), Nicolas Cage (Pig)
Lead Actress
Prediction: Penélope Cruz (Parallel Mothers)
Personal Pick: Olivia Colman (The Lost Daughter)
Biggest Snubs: Tessa Thompson (Passing) and Taylour Paige (Zola)
Supporting Actor
Prediction: Troy Kotsur (CODA)
Personal Pick: Troy Kotsur (CODA)
Biggest Snubs: Colman Domingo (Zola) and Dan Stevens (I’m Your Man)
Supporting Actress
Prediction: Ariana DeBose (West Side Story)
Personal Pick: Ariana DeBose (West Side Story)
Biggest Snubs: Jayne Houdyshell (The Humans) and Ruth Negga (Passing)
Original Screenplay
Prediction: Belfast
Personal Pick: The Worst Person in the World
Biggest Snub: C’mon C’mon
Adapted Screenplay
Prediction: CODA
Personal Pick: The Lost Daughter
Biggest Snubs: Zola and The Green Knight
International Feature
Prediction: Drive My Car
Personal Pick: Drive My Car
Biggest Snubs: Wheel of Fortune & Fantasy and A Hero
Animated Feature
Prediction: Encanto
Personal Pick: Encanto
Biggest Snub: Demon Slayer The Movie: Mugen Train
Documentary Feature
Prediction: Summer of Soul
Original Score
Prediction: Dune
Personal Pick: Dune
Biggest Snub: The Green Knight
Original Song
Prediction: “No Time to Die” (No Time to Die)
Personal Pick: “Dos Oruguitas” (Encanto)
Biggest Snubs: “So May We Start” (Annette) and “Someone to Say” (Cyrano)
Cinematography
Prediction: The Power of the Dog
Personal Pick: The Tragedy of Macbeth
Biggest Snub: The Green Knight
Costume Design
Prediction: Cruella
Personal Picks: Dune or Cyrano
Biggest Snubs: The Harder They Fall and The Green Knight
Editing
Prediction: Tick, Tick…Boom!
Personal Pick: Tick, Tick…Boom!
Biggest Snub: Zola
Makeup and Hairstyling
Prediction: The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Personal Pick: Dune
Biggest Snub: Last Night in Soho
Production Design
Prediction: Dune
Personal Pick: The Tragedy of Macbeth
Biggest Snub: Last Night in Soho
Sound
Prediction: Dune
Personal Pick: Dune
Biggest Snub: A Quiet Place Part II
Visual Effects
Prediction: Dune
Personal Pick: Dune
Biggest Snub: The Green Knight
Animated Short
Prediction: Robin Robin
Live-Action Short
Prediction: The Long Goodbye
Documentary Short
Prediction: The Queen of Basketball
MHA: Spiderman No Way Home
Hey just watched THE movie of 2021 last week and I KNEW what needed to be DONE!!! So here’s a late/early gift for the Holidays in the My Hero Academia style, the only art style that fits :3
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I have complicated feelings about The Last Duel. There’s no way I can deny the affection I have for Ridley Scott as a director. I love Alien. I love Blade Runner. Legend, fuck yes. Thelma and Louise? I love. G.I. Jane, I’m looking respectfully. Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, Kingdom of Heaven, American Gangster, Prometheus, The Counselor … I enjoyed Alien: Covenant. And I’ve watched with excitement all of his other work. I don’t care if it isn’t “great.” I like what he does.
So I was interested in any new Ridley Scott movie purely on the level of being a Ridley Scott fan. It’s also fair to say I’m not a fan of Ben Affleck or Matt Damon. I don’t find their abilities as actors compelling. If there is a lesson to take from them it is to write your own material and make yourself marketable as a player/coach, so to speak. That’s not something they invented. I think Sylvester Stallone is a great example of write-your-own-great-story and cast yourself. Again, it isn’t to suggest that’s easy, but that writing is a good skill and possibly a way to break through, but writing is also a positive emotional outlet.
The Last Duel is based on a book by the same name. The book very carefully lays out how the law works at the time of the tale’s telling. It explains the custom of trial and the recognition of rape as a crime, although it is a crime of property and EW to that. But the book is the kind of detailed, popular history work, that’s accessible to lay readers, like me. I’m not writing a thesis on medieval rape culture of the 14th century but I can follow the twists and turns of the case thanks to the book’s attention to detail.
The movie doesn’t have that depth. Some of that is due to the limits of nuance that movies can convey, but the script is also at fault. I watch this movie and think, “Ohhhh, Damon and/or Affleck came across this book at a galley and thought ‘Ooooh 14th Century #MeToo.’"
The book is fair and unambiguous is believing Marguerite’s account of her rape. The movie lays out Jean’s, and then Le Gris’s account before her’s. To its credit, the movie actually subtitles her account as the "Truth.” But the clearness of her rape and Le Gris’s guilt is apparent early in the book. Giving the game away does not a good movie make, so we have the movie’s three account structure to keep us hooked.
Regarding the limitations of the script I still can’t help but wonder if it was acted by players other than Damon and Affleck would the movie have been better. Indeed, the moments when Jodie Comer and Adam Driver are on screen together feel like a different movie because they are that much better actors.
Ridley Scott blamed millennials for this movie not performing at the box office. Even as a millennial, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and say that he made those comments during the promotion of House of Gucci and his words were less a millennial slam than a marketing ploy. Ironically I didn’t see House of Gucci at the movies, but my Boomer aunts and uncles did.
Having said all that, it does feel really fucking satisfying to see a rapist beaten in a duel to the death and strung up by his boots.
Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel is good, but the book by Eric Jager is better.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is a more heartfelt, better thought out, better acted, more pleasant version of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
Instead of magical creatures it’s villains from across the multiverse that our hero accidentally unleashes on New York and has to collect. The hero pays the price for what he’s done. Spider-Man might find the memory spell undone in some yet to be determined sequel, and that would be a waste, but right now I like to imagine there are Warner execs getting yelled at (we want a billion dollars and can’t have it because we made an aggressively bad FB sequel, wahhhh).
Jon Watts makes it look easy. He draws a better performance out of Garfield than Marc Webb, and I say that with a lot of respect for Garfield. I think he was really good this year in The Eyes of Tammy Faye (I’ll see Tick, Tick, Boom this week).
MJ is canonized as MJ Watson and actually a character in this movie. The story is less high school centric which works in its favor. We get to spend more meaningful time with Peter, Ned, and MJ and let Willem Dafoe, Jamie Fox, and Alfred Molina show off.
Marisa Tomei broke my heart in a good way. They actually say THE LINE in this movie.
No Way Home is an improvement on its predecessors and a worthy capstone to a trilogy. Love it.
