Oscar Dash 2021: The Results

And the winner is...Nomadland! Can't wait to see this film when I can.

For a full list of winners, click here.

Ammonite

Ammonite (Francis Lee, 2020)

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Rating: Q=6, P=4 / Average OJ

Scale 1=3, Scale 2=3, Scale 3=2, Scale 4=2

Romance, Complex Relationships, Paleontology, 1800s

This is more than a story about the fossil hunter and scientist Mary Anning--it is a story about intelligent, interesting, and lonely women during a time when women were not valued for their minds or skills. And when their dreams and desires were dismissed. It is a quietly intense romance, a view into how it feels to be trapped or to be forced to suppress your will and desire. Beautiful and poignant film.

--Don't understand the ratings? Click here

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (George C. Wolfe, 2020)

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Rating: Q=7, P=5 / Can't Get Enough

Scale 1=3, Scale 2=4, Scale 3=3, Scale 4=2

Biopic, Based on Play, 1920s, Race, Blues

This adaptation of August Wilson's play is powerful in so many ways. Incredibly moving performances by Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis--wow. Boseman's last performance of his life is haunting and, as Odie Henderson writes in his review, transcendent.

This is a story about a very specific time and place--the summer of 1927 in a Chicago recording studio. It is about Ma Rainey and her band. It is about a young Black composer who wants to lead his own band. It is a tragic tale of struggle, defeat, and the painful realities that faced Black musicians of the day.

--Don't understand the ratings? Click here

The Trial of the Chicago 7--Post 500!

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Aaron Sorkin, 2020)

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Rating: Q=7, P=7 / Obsession

Scale 1=3, Scale 2=4, Scale 3=4, Scale 4=3

Vietnam War, Civil Rights, Protest, Courtroom Drama, 1960s

Such a powerful film about such an unfathomable trial in our nation's history. This is a story about doing what is right and about fighting against corruption. It is particularly apt that this film was released in 2020, a painful reminder of how so much work still must be done. Brilliant performances by Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. Watching this made me angry and sad--I was literally shaking at some moments. Everyone should see this film and think long and hard about how this history can inform our present. 

--Don't understand the ratings? Click here

P.S. This is my 500th post--whew! Feels good to have watched and written about so many fantastic films over the years.