TQC Oscars Ballot 2020

I remember my first personal Best Picture—the 2002 classic, Star Wars: Episode II—Attack of the Clones. Now, in my defense, I was six years old, but man, that last lightsaber duel between Yoda and Count Dooku was the coolest thing I had ever seen! Really, if you ignore the nonsensical plot and the painful dialogue and the wooden acting and the poorly aged CGI, it's almost watchable.

My taste in film has matured since then—though I will still defend Clones as the eighth-best film in the Skywalker saga. This past year, for the first time, I managed to watch all the films nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. From the May release of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood to finally finding a theater in the Salt Lake City area that was still screening Parasite in January, I can say that I thoroughly enjoyed each and every nominee. I cannot say the same thing about past Oscars (I'm looking at you, A Star is Born!). I can also definitively say that each nominee is deserving (look, Black Panther was fine, but it was NOT better than Mission Impossible: Fallout, or even Avengers: Infinity War and should not have been nominated!).

So, without further ado, my ballot. No spoilers. The Oscars use a preferential ballot, so I'm ranking my choices from nine to number one. Here we go!

#9: Ford v. Ferarri 

Despite sitting at number nine, Ford v. Ferrari could very well end up being the most rewatchable of all the nominees. I'm not a cars guy, but I loved being thrown into the world of high-end car racing and learning about the 24 Hours of Le Mans. 

The film is based on the true story of Carroll Shelby and his quest to build a car for Ford to beat Ferrari. The story is compelling enough and the performances are high quality. As with most sports films, the best part comes at the climax—the race at Le Mans. James Mangold knows exactly where to put the camera during the race to make you feel like you're next to Ken Miles as he speeds through France.

Ford v. Ferrari would almost certainly have been a shoo-in for Best Picture forty years ago—it has two massive movie stars in Christian Bale and Matt Damon and exudes coolness. But, because it's 2020, we expect a little more innovation. Still, it's films like this that make you think, "Why don't they make movies like this anymore?" The old-school feel of Mangold's Ford v. Ferrari make this film timeless but follows the familiar sports movie formula too much to make it a serious contender.

#8: The Irishman

The Irishman is a film about growing old and the regrets of a dying man. I know that people say The Irishman is too long—and they're right—but I understand why Scorsese did it. By the end, you feel like you've lived through a lifetime with Robert De Niro's Frank Sheehan. The character's arc is satisfying and somewhat parallels Goodfellas. If you're up for six hours of mob politics and violence, The Irishman and Goodfellas would make an excellent double feature about youth versus old age. 

The de-aging technology works...most of the time. You can only do so much to make De Niro move like a thirty-year-old. By the middle of the film, you forget it's there. I wish Scorsese had cast someone else to play a younger De Niro just as Coppola did by casting De Niro in the role of young Vito Corleone. Instead of anointing a young star as De Niro's heir-apparent, we get an AARP mob movie. Still, I put this in front of Ford v. Ferrari because its theme—dealing with past mistakes as time reveals their painful consequences—is relevant, creative, and powerful.

#7: Little Women

When I was in fourth grade, my class had a reading competition. Each book was assigned a point value and the person with the most points at the end of the year won. I was in second place with a week left and the only book worth enough points to put me ahead was Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. I picked up the book, flipped through it, and decided that winning the competition wasn't worth reading a long, girly book. Matt Tasselmyer won instead.

Greta Gerwig has done the unthinkable—she made me regret not reading Little Women. Gerwig's much-anticipated follow-up to Lady Bird did not disappoint. In a world where adaptations of oft-used IP run rampant, Gerwig brings a fresh look at Alcott's classic novel.  The story follows the March sisters—Jo, Beth, Amy, and Meg—as they navigate womanhood during the Civil War. My main takeaway from the film was that women often encounter trade-offs, forced to choose between a career and the traditional domestic life. That theme is still relevant today as society debates about what it means to be a woman in 2020, which partly explains the film's impressive box office success.

There's one thing I can say for certain—Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet will be with us for a long time. I can only hope they continue to make films together. Chalamet, in particular, has a confidence on-screen that reminds me of a young Leonardo DiCaprio. I am also impressed with Ronan's emotional range—she can be hilarious and then bring you to tears. May they—along with Gerwig—do great things for years to come.

#6: Jojo Rabbit

Comedies about Nazis don't get made much these days. It's understandable—no one wants to be accused of making light of the atrocities committed by the Third Reich. That said, satire is an effective tool when dealing with hard subjects, and Taika Waititi wields it with a deft hand in Jojo Rabbit. Coming off of Thor: Ragnarok, Waititi made it clear that he deserved a big budget with big stars. He did not disappoint.

The film centers around Jojo, a German boy completely indoctrinated by Nazi propaganda. His imaginary friend is Hitler, played comically by Waititi. Early in the film, Jojo discovers a Jewish girl hidden in the walls of his home. Instead of reporting her to the Gestapo, Jojo decides to study her and gather intel on the Jews for the Führer. The comedy is dark, though not so dark that it obscures the light at the film's center. 

Jojo Rabbit has been criticized as lacking sensitivity to the victims of the Nazi regime. I disagree. The film's message resonates the most out of all of this year's nominees. The world is full of people who know no better than to believe what they were taught growing up. If only those people—like Jojo—could be exposed to those they do not understand, there would be less prejudice and more love in the world. This is not a perfect film, but that does not make it any less powerful.

#5: Joker

Joker is not a comic book movie. Sure, the main character is a comic book villain, and there are enough Batman references to satisfy fans of the franchise. But Joker is no more of a comic book movie than The Irishman. It's a statement on isolation and how society deals with mental health.

Todd Phillips was quite brave in deciding to take on this project. Heath Ledger's Joker is so iconic that any attempt to replicate it would be futile. Thankfully, Phillips took the character in another direction without any connection to previous films or the current DC Extended Universe. Arthur Fleck begins the film as a professional clown impersonator who suffers from fits of uncontrollable laughter. As he searches for his identity, he finds a world that has left him behind. He fails to win acceptance from his comedy idol, the person he believes to be his father or society at large. As a result, he inadvertently becomes the face of a movement to bring down the rich and transforms into a symbol of the forgotten man.

What stands out in Joker is Joaquin Phoenix's transformation into Arthur Fleck. Phoenix is a shoo-in for Best Actor this year, and deservedly so. He is one of the most bizarre people working in Hollywood—and that's saying a lot. His quirkiness and commitment to the role take what could have been an insensitive portrayal of mental health and transform the performance into something so captivating that you can't look away. 

#4: 1917

This was the first film I saw this year that made me say, "Wow," as I walked out of the theater. 1917 is impossible not to like at least a little. That's why it's the frontrunner for Best Picture—there's something for everyone. The industry people love the cinematography by the master, Roger Deakins, and regular folks can feel the emotion and power that comes with a well-done war movie. 

Sam Mendes based the plot of 1917 on his grandfather's own experiences in WWI. A British soldier and his comrade are sent on a quest to warn his brother's battalion of an unseen trap set by the Germans. The film is edited to make it look like two long takes as you follow the soldiers through the war-torn French countryside. This choice puts you right there with the soldiers. When they feel pain, you feel pain; when they're frightened, you're frightened; and when they are safe, you feel relieved, giving the film a video game-like quality. 

I tend to dislike films that are clearly made to compete for awards, but I'll make an exception for 1917. The emotions the film evokes are real and sincere as opposed to being contrived like other "Oscar bait" films. WWI was truly terrible and it's been a while since a film so effectively captured the pain and horror of the trenches. 

#3: Marriage Story

I get why there aren't many divorce movies. Divorce is ugly, painful, and difficult to capture well on screen. Sure, there are plenty of movies that feature divorce but, other than Kramer vs. Kramer, there just aren't divorce movies. That's part of what makes Marriage Story so impressive—it's a perfect portrayal of the end of the relationship.

The film begins with a voiceover montage of the happy times in Charlie and Nicole's marriage. Charlie, played by the exceptional Adam Driver, is a theater director in New York. Scarlett Johansson's Nicole is the star of his play, but she moves to Los Angeles with their son to star in her own TV show. Their marriage has been declining for some time but they agreed to separate amicably. However, driven by their divorce attorneys and desire to have custody of their son, their friendliness transforms into vitriol as their marriage comes to a bitter end.

As a child of divorce, I can definitively say that this film is spot on. The director, Noah Baumbach, understands that a relationship ends when a person puts his or her well-being above that of the other. Charlie and Nicole clearly hold places in each other's hearts, but their personal goals keep them from being together. It's up to the viewer to decide if their divorce is good or bad for them. In a divorce, nobody ever truly wins.

#2: Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Nostalgia was king in 2019, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is a nostalgia machine. Quentin Tarantino's latest film is a surprisingly sensitive representation of his longing for Old Hollywood. This is Tarantino's quietest, most thoughtful film yet, and though it lacks some of the flashiness of his previous films, it may very well be his masterpiece. 

Once Upon a Time tells the story of Rick Dalton, a washed-up television actor trying to breathe life back into his floundering career, and his stuntman, the carefree Cliff Booth. Leonardo DiCaprio gives perhaps his best performance ever as Dalton, whose emotions range from frustration to comical rage to drunken sadness as he attempts to find meaning and revive his legacy as an actor. Booth, played by the Oscar-favorite Brad Pitt, is Dalton's only friend and spends much of the film making us wish Brad Pitt was in every movie. He may be the coolest guy who has ever lived. Margot Robbie also stars as the late Sharon Tate, though Tarantino does not stick to reality in his portrayal of Tate. She is delightful and full of joy—not something you'd expect in a Tarantino movie. 

This film is Tarantino's love letter to Hollywood. It blends the right amount of nostalgia with fantasy—a sort of modern fairy tale. As with all Tarantino films, this one has its fair share of violence, though it only shows up toward the end. He brings out some of the best performances of the greatest actors of our time in a beautiful film about a golden age that has come and gone.

#1: Parasite

My Best Picture pick for 2020 is Bong Joon-ho's Parasite. I think Bong put it best in his Golden Globes acceptance speech when he said that if you can get past the one-inch barrier that is subtitles, you'll open yourself up to a whole new world. Parasite is the perfect gateway film to foreign cinema. It may be a perfect film. Parasite is an achievement by itself, but it also changes the game by showing the world just how great international films can be.

It's hard to describe the plot of Parasite without spoiling it. Basically, a poor family of four living in Seoul, South Korea comes to work for a wealthy family. That's really all I can say without giving anything away. The characters are compelling and the storytelling is masterful. There isn't a dull moment in the entire film. I forgot it was in Korean because I was so engaged from start to finish.

Part of what makes Parasite so successful is its powerful message about class that doesn't come off as heavy-handed or cliche. The film doesn't quite fit nicely in a single genre. At times it's a thriller on par with Psycho, but it's also surprisingly hilarious. The ending is mind-blowing and aspirational in a way I've never seen before. It's carefully written, designed, and shot. The mark of a successful film is that you can't stop thinking about it. I know that Parasite is 2020's Best Picture because it has occupied a spot in my brain since the moment I left the theater a month ago.

CJH