Today, the Motion Picture Academy nominated nine films for the Best Picture Oscar, and I have reviewed all of them here at Deadline over the past few months.
To say the Academy and I are pretty much on the same page as far as the best movies of 2019 is an understatement. Of the nine nominees, seven also appear on my own Top 10 list for the year. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, 1917, Parasite and Ford v Ferrari were my top four in that order, while Jojo Rabbit, Joker and Marriage Story also were included on my best-of roster. It marks the best correlation I have ever had with Oscar.
It was a very good year for film, and I am happy to say I gave positive reviews to all nine nominees, each one definitely worth checking out. You can do exactly that by clicking the link on each film’s title below. See if you agree.
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1917
Universal/Amblin Partners
Director: Sam Mendes
Writers: Sam Mendes & Krysty Wilson-Cairns
Producers: Sam Mendes, Pippa Harris, Jayne-Ann Tenggren, Callum McDougall
Release date: December 25, 2019
Nutshell: If Sam Mendes’ epic, yet intimate, World War I-set drama existed just for the depth and breadth of its technical achievement, that would be more than enough. But the bottom line is Mendes knows a great movie is in the story, and the astounding 1917 delivers.
FORD V FERRARI
Disney
Director: James Mangold
Writers: Jez Butterworth & John-Henry Butterworth, Jason Keller
Producers: Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, James Mangold
Release Date: November 14, 2019
Nutshell: Put all of Hollywood’s classic racing dramas on the track and they all come up short of the checkered flag against James Mangold’s smashing film, which also never forgets it isn’t as much about as the cars as it is about the humans driving them.
THE IRISHMAN
Netflix
Director: Martin Scorsese
Writer: Steve Zaillian
Producers: Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, Emma Tillinger Koskoff
Release Date: November 1, 2019
Nutshell: This take on crime figure Frank Sheeran is a perfect coda to Martin Scorsese’s crime films. If anyone can pull off this kind of tale, it’s Scorsese — and pull it off he definitely does.
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JOJO RABBIT
Searchlight
Director: Taika Waititi
Writer: Taika Waititi
Producers: Carthew Neal, Taika Waititi
Release Date: October 17, 2019
Nutshell: Director-screenwriter Taika Waititi takes on that risk and challenge and succeeds admirably with a film that will amuse you but, more importantly, remind us of the idiocy and horrors of Hitler and his ilk.
JOKER
Warner Bros
Director: Todd Phillips
Writer: Todd Phillips & Scott Silver
Producer: Todd Phillips, Bradley Cooper and Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Producers
Release date: October 3, 2019
Nutshell: Joker in a bravura piece of filmmaking that speaks to the world we are actually living in today in ways that few movies do. This is a movie unlike any other from the DC universe, and you will find it impossible to shake off.
LITTLE WOMEN
Sony Pictures Releasing
Director: Greta Gerwig
Writer: Greta Gerwig
Producer: Amy Pascal
Release date: December 25, 2019
Nutshell: Is there really a need for yet another stab at Little Women? In the hands of writer-director Greta Gerwig, who clearly has a passion for the book and especially its timeless appeal to young women, the answer is affirmative.
MARRIAGE STORY
Netflix
Director: Noah Baumbach
Writer: Noah Baumbach
Producers: Noah Baumbach, David Heyman
Release Date: November 6, 2019
Nutshell: I have to use the “M-word” to describe his latest, and that would be, simply, masterpiece. But don’t go into it with all those lofty expectations because this is a movie that will sneak up on you, one you can relate to no matter your marital status.
ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD
Sony Pictures Releasing
Director: Quentin Tarantino
Writer: Quentin Tarantino
Producers: David Heyman, Shannon McIntosh, Quentin Tarantino,
Release Date: July 25, 2019
Nutshell: Set in 1969 at the intersection of a changing film industry and social upheaval, Quentin Tarantino’s ninth film is the one it seems that is closest to its director, and it also happens to be his best.
PARASITE
Neon
Director: Bong Joon Ho
Writers: Bong Joon Ho, Han Jin Won (story by Bong Joon Ho)
Producers: Kwak Sin Ae, Bong Joon Ho
Release Date: October 10, 2019
Nutshell: It not only is simply great and inspired, it also happens to be socially conscious filmmaking of the highest order. The tragicomedy focuses on the wide divide in class status in society that is universal in many ways.
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