Best Picture thoughts, 2021 edition

Ever since movie theaters opened back up last summer, I've been going to quite a lot of weekday matinees (which are mostly empty, which is great for COVID reasons but also because of the lack of distractions). Over the last few months I've been particularly aiming to see all the movies in the Oscar race, and when the nominations were announced, I had already seen eight of the ten Best Picture nominees, and I watched the other two the following week. Overall I managed to see seven of the ten in the theater; I'm certainly glad that it's become so easy to stream movies at home, but there's still nearly always an appreciable difference when seeing it on the big screen. (Which was confirmed again when I saw The Godfather in a theater for the first time this past week!)

Anyway, I've been procrastinating writing up my Best Picture thoughts since then (I really should just jot down some notes right after I see the movies, but I never seem to get into that habit), and meanwhile, I kept on seeing more and more nominated movies... when finally, as of 2:30 this morning, I've now managed to watch every single nominated film! Now I probably won't have time to comment on the other categories before the ceremonies kick off tonight, but maybe I'll do that in a followup post later. But for now, here's my traditional write-up of just the Best Picture nominees, in the order I saw them:

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So there you have it. Kind of a meh year; my only real favorite was Dune, but with a big asterisk for not having an ending. Which means I guess I'm rooting for Drive My Car? But really, I just want anything but Don't Look Up to win!

(See also last year's thoughts.)

Oscar 2021 picks

As I mentioned in my Best Picture post, I managed to see every single Oscar-nominated movie this year. I won't have time to write up my thoughts on all of them before the ceremonies tonight, but I wanted to make a quick post with how I'd vote in each category before the winners are announced:

Actor in a Leading Role: Andrew Garfield, tick, tick...BOOM!
Actor in a Supporting Role: Troy Kotsur, CODA
Actress in a Leading Role: Penélope Cruz, Parallel Mothers
Actress in a Supporting Role: Jessie Buckley, The Lost Daughter
Animated Feature Film: Flee
Cinematography: Dune, Greig Fraser
Costume Design: Cruella, Jenny Beavan
Directing: Licorice Pizza, Paul Thomas Anderson
Documentary (Feature): Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
Documentary (Short Subject): When We Were Bullies
Film Editing: Dune
International Feature Film: The Hand of God, Italy
Makeup and Hairstyling: Dune, Donald Mowat, Love Larson and Eva von Bahr
Music (Original Score): Dune, Hans Zimmer
Music (Original Song): "No Time To Die" from No Time to Die, Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell
Best Picture: Drive My Car
Production Design: Dune
Short Film (Animated): The Windshield Wiper
Short Film (Live Action): Please Hold
Sound: Dune, Mac Ruth, Mark Mangini, Theo Green, Doug Hemphill and Ron Bartlett
Visual Effects: Dune, Paul Lambert, Tristan Myles, Brian Connor and Gerd Nefzer
Writing (Adapted Screenplay): The Lost Daughter, Maggie Gyllenhaal
Writing (Original Screenplay): The Worst Person in the World, Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier