Nominators in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have anointed the year’s best filmmaking—a tricky task, given all the spectacular work seen on the big screen in 2019.
Announced by John Cho and Issa Rae Jan. 13 in Los Angeles, the nominees for the 92nd Academy Awards spanned intimate family dramas, sweeping epics, bold adaptations of beloved characters, and innovative new stories. If the Oscars offer a snapshot of what the entertainment industry values in a given year, 2019 will likely be remembered as a year when writer-directors, their muses, and many behind-the-scenes artists upped the ante considerably.
Who will win at the Feb. 9 ceremony? Who should win? Backstage has put together a cheat sheet to help you navigate this awards season’s many worthy competitors. Whether you’re a member of AMPAS who needs to jog your memory or a cinephile curious about what to see, we’ve got you covered. Read on for your official guide to the 2020 Oscar contenders and what makes each of the best picture and acting nominees worthy of that coveted little gold man.
“Ford v Ferrari”
Director James Mangold’s rousing, real-life buddy dramedy boasts two of the best performances of the year. Christian Bale stars as Ken Miles, the inimitable racing legend whose hair-trigger temper is only matched by how unbeatable he is in the driver’s seat. That’s the hope, at least, for the Ford Motor Company and Henry Ford II (Tracy Letts), who begrudgingly employs former world champion-turned-salesman Carroll Shelby, played by a never-better Matt Damon, to build a world-class racecar driven by Miles to beat Ferrari on the international stage in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race of 1966.
Bale and Damon’s unfettered chemistry is so natural—Bale’s working-class English brogue balanced by Damon’s twangy Southern all-business gentleman—that it’s a wonder they haven’t worked together before. And that’s to say nothing of the rest of the first-rate cast, including Jon Bernthal, Josh Lucas, Ray McKinnon, and Noah Jupe as Miles’ young son Peter, who has his time to shine, breaking your heart twice over.
Caitriona Balfe imbues Mollie, the wife pining for Miles’ safety from home, with grit and headstrong allure. A particular highlight is when she spots her ne’er-do-well husband and Shelby, tempers rising under pressure from Ford, as they begin sparring on the sidewalk outside their home. She just pulls up a chair on her front lawn and watches, an amused audience—not unlike that of “Ford v Ferrari” itself.
“The Irishman”
Robert De Niro has joked that thanks to the de-aging technology used in “The Irishman,” he could continue to have a viable acting career for the next 20 years. After watching him in nearly every frame of Martin Scorsese’s three-and-a-half-hour character study, you’ll hope he does.
Based on the life of hit man Frank Sheeran (as relayed in Charles Brandt’s book “I Heard You Paint Houses”), this historical epic follows De Niro’s Sheeran from his days as a truck driver in the 1950s to his unlikely involvement with Joe Pesci’s Russell Bufalino of the Bufalino crime family. Climbing the ranks from low-grade mule to become one of the Pennsylvania mobster’s right-hand men, he eventually befriends Al Pacino’s Jimmy Hoffa and becomes his personal guard, only to be caught between divided loyalties when Hoffa refuses to play by the Bufalinos’ rules.
It’s a decades-sprawling tale brought to vivid life by never-before-seen motion-capture technology on a trio of acting veterans—and their masterful director. Scorsese also assembled one of the flashiest ensembles of the year: Harvey Keitel, Ray Romano, and Bobby Cannavale round out a who’s who of acting vets, and with their limited screen time, Jesse Plemons and Anna Paquin could offer college credit for their lessons in how to sell a gesture or a look. But as the aged Frank looks back at his life, suffused with guilt, it’s ultimately De Niro’s show. We’re just lucky enough to witness it.
“Jojo Rabbit”
How do you find levity in Nazism? Is it possible to look for laughs in dark historical events that, these days, don’t seem too far away? The answer would seem to be no, but actor-writer-director Taika Waititi, along with his cast of accomplished names and young acting newcomers, somehow makes it happen.
“Jojo Rabbit” walks a very fine line as it follows a Hitler Youth member, Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis), whose imaginary best friend is a sillier, more personable version of Adolf Hitler (Waititi). When he discovers his mother, Rosie (Oscar nominee Scarlett Johansson), has been hiding a Jewish girl (Thomasin McKenzie) in their house, everything he’s learned about his country, his family, and the “enemy” comes into question.
Davis strikes a balance between funny, sweet, and naive—a skill required for a story inviting us to see war from a child’s perspective. McKenzie plays his friend and foil with perfect calibration, her careful stoicism bringing out both defiance and compassion in Jojo. And serving as comic relief and highlighting the ridiculousness of a humorless regime are Nazi officers and camp counselors Rebel Wilson, Alfie Allen, and Oscar winner Sam Rockwell; their clownish characters provide an increasingly absurdist look at what power and authority might do to people inside a hateful authoritarian government, drawing out humor and genuine emotion in equal measure.
“Joker”
“Joker” might just be an origin story unlike any you’ve seen before—and it’s the awards season juggernaut you never expected. The most profitable comic book film ever made now has the year’s most Oscar nominations, with 11.
That’s thanks to a never-better Joaquin Phoenix, who digs deep in his titanic portrayal of a man who loses his mind in the aftermath of society’s rejection. While we’ve seen spins on the iconic DC Comics villain from the likes of Jack Nicholson, Jared Leto, and Heath Ledger (the latter of whom won a posthumous Oscar for his portrayal in Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight” in 2008), Phoenix captures an outsider’s descent into madness with incredible authenticity, enrapturing mania, and near-poignant self-destruction. It’s fitting, too, that director Todd Phillips should make a departure from his usual comedic fare to pay homage to genre greats like Martin Scorsese; the “King of Comedy” auteur is his fellow best picture and director nominee this year, and Phillips’ film even co-stars De Niro in a meta but typically excellent supporting turn.
It all makes for a blockbuster film that, for better or worse, captures America’s social and political malaise at the end of the decade. That alone is worth recognition.
“Little Women”
One of the biggest questions coming into the latter half of the 2019–20 awards season was Greta Gerwig’s follow-up to “Lady Bird.” Was her remake of Louisa May Alcott’s beloved novel going to measure up to the bar set by her first collaboration with muse Saoirse Ronan? Consider the question answered: “Little Women” is one of the year’s very best.
Ronan strikes gold again as the central Jo March, while each of her sisters, played by Florence Pugh, Emma Watson, and Eliza Scanlen, are also given time to shine. In particular, the Oscar-nominated Pugh as Amy is more than just feisty; she’s a woman who longs for something more, and you’ll feel that she deserves it. And while this may be the sisters’ show, industry vets Laura Dern as their mother, Meryl Streep as the curmudgeonly Aunt March, and Chris Cooper as their wealthy neighbor Mr. Laurence are all in top form here. Plus, Timothée Chalamet’s supporting turn as Theodore “Laurie” Laurence is a showcase of why the heartthrob is one of the most bankable actors of his generation.
Under Gerwig’s steady hand, it all gels together as an effective adaptation should. “Little Women” has been adapted for the screen before, but never with quite so much ambition and depth. We feel we’re experiencing a familiar story for the first time.
“Marriage Story”
Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” indeed tells the story of a marriage: a joyful, messy, intense, imperfect one, but, ultimately, and most importantly, one that has concluded. Yet the writer-director strikes a balance between divorce drama and optimistic, even buoyant character study, inviting us to laugh and cry in equal measure. Doing career-best work as Charlie and Nicole, Academy Award nominees Adam Driver and Johansson are so present in their performances that we instinctively feel we’re in good hands from the film’s opening moments, a montage set to voiceovers describing what each loves about the other.
And regardless of our own relationship to divorce, the ensuing disagreements, compromises, and complications both logistical and legal will surely resonate. The lawyers in their case offer either cold-hearted professionalism (Ray Liotta), good-natured humor (Alan Alda), or, in the case of the Oscar-nominated Dern, a bit of both. There are also, unexpectedly, musical numbers from the Stephen Sondheim musical “Company.” Johansson, Julie Hagerty, and Merritt Wever perform a bubbly “You Could Drive a Person Crazy,” while Driver gives a rendition of “Being Alive” that suggests he’s both revisiting an old tune and discovering its meaning for the first time.
That’s a bit what watching “Marriage Story” is like; it’s an evergreen tale that nonetheless holds up a mirror to ourselves. Thank goodness the film says goodbye to these flawed, frustrated, frustrating people we’ve come to know on a tender note. Otherwise, it would hold us too close, hurt us too deep.
“1917”
In the grueling third year of World War I, Allied forces in northern France made significant inroads against the Germans. While retreating, the Germans planned an unexpected counterattack, hoping to take back momentum. The clock is ticking from the jump in “1917” from director Sam Mendes and co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns, a pulse-pounding, beautifully shot and acted war epic based on Mendes’ grandfather’s stories.
Two baby-faced British soldiers, Schofield (George MacKay) and Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman), are given the unenviable task of alerting Allied forces of the incoming attack and must trek across the war-torn landscape to deliver the news. To make matters more urgent, Blake’s brother is one of the soldiers at risk in the ambush. Deepening the wonderful British ensemble are Andrew Scott and Richard Madden, who play lieutenants along Schofield and Blake’s odyssey, and Colin Firth and Benedict Cumberbatch as commanding officers adding an intriguing layer to the drama. It’s rarely the generals or figureheads who bear the most daunting burdens of war, and “1917” acknowledges that sad fact by keeping the camera’s unflinching eye on MacKay and Chapman.
Most notable of all: That unflinching eye is what appears to be a single, two-hour-long shot, with Mendes’ few cuts woven seamlessly into cinematographer Roger Deakins’ stunning choreography and the film’s dazzling practical effects. It must be seen to be believed.
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
Quentin Tarantino’s ninth feature film is a master class from the idiosyncratic auteur, bolstered by a peerless ensemble. Veteran Western actor Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his trusted stunt double, Cliff Booth (Brad Pitt), are seeing their Hollywood careers come to a booze-soaked final act. Dalton has been relegated to heel roles on the television oater circuit, while Booth is finding work without his longtime partner hard to come by. Our decades-long wait to see DiCaprio and Pitt in the same frame pays off immediately; the Oscar-nominated pair have an unspoken, breezy chemistry in their scenes, with Pitt as straight man to DiCaprio’s neurotic star.
When scuzzy agent Marvin Schwarzs (Pacino) recommends that Dalton head abroad for work, the fading star is reticent to leave the sun-soaked paradise of Tinseltown—especially now that his next-door neighbors are hotshot young director Roman Polanski (Rafał Zawierucha) and his rising star wife, Sharon Tate (Margot Robbie). In one charming moment, the starlet goes to watch a matinee of her performance in “The Wrecking Crew,” peeking around at the crowd to gauge their response. Robbie’s Tate finds herself laughing along, her smile crackling with the boundless promise of her burgeoning career. Meanwhile, the ominous winds of counterculture change are simmering.
Each piece and player in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” finds their way in that meandering, audacious Tarantino style. By the time the flamethrower is warmed up, you’ve already gotten your money’s worth.
“Parasite”
Does Bong Joon-ho make films, or would they be better described as audacious forays into the writer-director’s imagination, surgically removed from his brain and transplanted onto the big screen? Such are the questions that come to mind with his latest cinematic mindfuck, a movie combining witty satire and edge-of-your-seat horror to tell the story of two vastly different but increasingly entwined families, now the first South Korean film to compete for top Academy Awards.
“Parasite” makes several shifts in its second act, the detailing of which would deprive audiences of one of Bong’s greatest achievements: keeping you guessing. When Kim Ki-woo (Choi Woo-shik), the son of a basement apartment-dwelling family, is invited to tutor for the wealthy Park family (Cho Yeo-jeong and Lee Sun-kyun) in their luxurious masterpiece of a home, a plan is formed. His sister (Park So-dam) could pass as an art therapy teacher for their son, his father (Song Kang-ho) could be offered to replace their driver, and his mother (Chang Hyae-jin) could displace their longtime housekeeper (Lee Jeong-eun). The only thing you’ll be sure of is that the parasitic scheme will all come crashing down around them. But how?
In a world of haves and have-nots, there will always be those looking to leech off of others, and people are bound to get hurt. Seeing the film’s gut punch of a final shot, you’ll blame the system over these flawed, funny characters.
This story originally appeared in the Jan. 30 issue of Backstage Magazine. Subscribe here.
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