As a film lover, every year I try to see as many movies as I can, especially around awards season. Although winning an Oscar or a Golden Globe isn’t everything and there are many films that made an enormous impact that were not critically recognized, I always find it interesting to see which films are nominated.
Joker
A film that had very high anticipation this year was Joker, directed by Todd Phillips. It received an astounding 11 nominations, the most for this year. I’ve always been a huge fan of the Batman films and I loved Heath Ledger’s performance in The Dark Knight but I was still excited to see how Joaquin Phoenix decided to take on the role. Also, how Phillips decided which path to take when it came to a Joker origin story. The film completely blew away all of my expectations. It took a stance against the political and social climate in today’s society and brought a new light to important issues like mental health, gun violence and class structure. While brutal and sometimes disturbing, this movie’s musical score provided comic relief to some of its harshest moments. I left the theater feeling uneasy about today’s world, which I believe was one of the film’s goals.
Marriage Story
One of my favorite films of the year, Marriage Story, directed by Noah Baumbach and distributed by Netflix, received six nominations at this year’s Oscars. The screenplay is beautifully written, and the dialogue makes their marriage (and its path to dissolution) very relatable and honest. The musical score by Randy Newman, who is most famous for his work in Disney/Pixar movies such as the Toy Story franchise, A Bug’s Life, Cars and many others, is breathtaking and makes the film feel like a nostalgic story from the past.
Little Women
Little Women was a film that completely took me by surprise. Directed by Greta Gerwig, the film follows the story of the March sisters and their journeys into adulthood. This film adds to the laundry list of other remakes in the past few years so I wasn’t initially going to see it. But when I found out that one of my favorite up-and-coming actors, Timothée Chalamet, was also going to be starring in it, I had to see how his natural charisma and energy translated into this role. I felt as if I was one of the March sisters, following them along. Receiving six nominations, this period piece was beautifully shot and the costume design is extremely accurate to the time period, but also put its own original spin on this continuously remade classic.
This year had some extremely well-made and impactful films and it was hard to pick which ones to feature in this article! Netflix has become a huge game-changer in recent years, as they started to produce their own original content. I’ve always been a huge fan of most of their original content, but films like Marriage Story truly set Netflix up as a force to be reckoned with. According to the Hollywood Reporter, “Streaming made Hollywood history again Monday as Netflix picked up a leading 24 Oscar nominations, marking the first time that the company has earned more than any major studio or specialty distributor.” This change will continue to impact the film industry as streaming services gain more traction and eventually push major studios out of the way.