The 2nd Annual "Shoulda Been A Contender" Awards
The best of what the Oscars didn't nominate this week. Plus, we review 1917.
The Oscar nominations arrived earlier this week, and now we know which movies will be competing for the big prizes on February 9th. The list of nominated films is pretty impressive this year, with The Irishman, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Joker, 1917, Parasite, Little Women, Marriage Story, and Jojo Rabbit garnering the most attention. However, that doesn’t mean the Academy didn’t totally neglect some tremendous work from the year.
Welcome to the second annual Shoulda Been A Contender Awards, where we recognize the best movies currently streaming that were ignored by the Oscars. Just like last year, there were a bunch of very good movies to choose from. These were our favorites that the Academy unfairly looked over. (And then read our takes on 1917 below.)
Billy recommends…
Under the Silver Lake (streaming on Amazon Prime)
Directors like Robert Eggers and Ari Aster have emerged as some of the best mind-bending horror directors of the decade. Their accolades are well deserved, but I hope that David Robert Mitchell, the director of Under the Silver Lake, does not get lost in the shuffle. His first wide release film was the incredibly effective It Follows. A horror movie about a young woman who is haunted by a spirit after a sexual encounter. Weird right? Under the Silver Lake increases the weird and lessens the horror. We have a lead performance by Andrew Garfield (the never aging 36-year-old). He plays a young adult who is the classic LA stoner. Our stoner friend, Sam, is a degenerate. Attractive and charming, but a degenerate.
Mitchell opens up with him on his balcony staring at the neighbors. One being an older topless woman and her annoying parrot (who is potentially saying something of meaning). The other being a defiant woman his own age who is incredibly attractive. A few scenes later they have a brief, but intimate interaction that goes awry quickly. Not in a dramatic way, but a confusing one. One moment she is interested in him and as soon as her roommates get home she becomes skittish and pushes him out the door. Then before we know it she vanishes. From then on there is a clear male narcissism that is driving the story along. My oh my? How can it be? This young woman did not like me and turned me down so there must be a deeper reason as to why. In reality he is just creepy af.
The largest criticism I have seen about Under the Silver Lake is the way it portrays women. In many scenes there is nudity and the camera lingers. That itself is fine, but it seems that David Robert Mitchell is trying to make clear our main character’s inappropriate habits. It is obviously important to show our characters selfishness. Through that there must be the question, is the director being responsible (look at Stanley Kubrick’s career as an example)? A worthy critique of this movie for sure. There are no doubt qualities to these scenes that are enthralling. The characters are attractive, the scene is shot beautifully, and the message (I think) comes through loud and clear. Yet, is there a way to shoot these scenes without being borderline misogynistic? Hopefully my digression was a worthy stop.
When the scenes are not creepy we get an adventure tale like no other. Each discovery by Sam is a nonsensical sign that everything is connected. The main conspiracy being that all advertisements, movies, music, playboy magazines, media outlets, and so much more are pushing us in a direction “they” want. Morphing our minds into different thought processes, but ultimately coming back to the same spot. “The 1% and the wealthy! THE MAN! They are manipulating us!”
All the objectification of women, assumption of conspiracy theories, and the thought that the elite are trying to control us all screams one thing: Narcissism. Which can absolutely lead to a ton of fun while masking the potential destruction around you. Under the Silver Lake uses this to its advantage by showing how fun that narcissistic attitude can be. It shows confidence and people will follow… to a point. And that is how I describe this movie. For the majority of this story I was captivated and then at a certain point I was ready for it to be over because ultimately Sam’s journey means nothing. But nothing can be anything and this time it happens to be a National Treasure-esque adventure that replaces the historical references with pop culture ones and then dipped in acid. If that doesn’t get you to watch this movie, I do not know what will.
Booksmart (streaming on Hulu)
A movie directed by Olivia Wilde? Boring! Yawn! Oh wait… Beanie Feldstein is the lead. Jason Sudeikis plays the principal. Will Forte and Lisa Kudrow play the parents in this coming of age story!? Well, I thought it was time to give this one a shot and I am so glad that I did. Olivia Wilde in her directorial debut shows incredible intuitiveness behind the camera.
Particularly in the classic blow up scene that is in every high school comedy/coming of age story. It is shot in a way that reminded me of Rocky. The verbal blow-for-blow nature of the scene was captured beautifully. Like a well-shot boxing sequence. Each increasingly harsh insult landed harder than the last, leaving wounds that our characters may not come back from. The emotion is carried through because of the two main characters, Amy and Molly, played wonderfully by Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever. Each give two of the best comedic performances of the decade. Which lends itself to the dramatic scenes because after so much laughter the last thing we want to see is them drifting apart. That being said, the conflict is extremely abrupt and sudden. A harmonious relationship all the way through needed to have some conflict and the transition was not as seamless as I hoped. Leading to a final act that was extremely rushed. One of the few times where I hoped a movie had a longer run time. A solid first directorial effort from Wilde who is able to get great performances from everyone involved.
Hollywood needs these movies to keep the lights on. A six million dollar budget and it made 25 million dollars. Not a huge profit, but for any studio that is a win. Plus these movies allow first-time directors like Olivia Wilde to sink their teeth in and hone their storytelling abilities. As cinema begins to move away from the theater it was nice to see Booksmart get even a small wide release. Netflix has already made it clear that these types of stories are going to be part of their business model. Which does not lead to lesser quality necessarily, but could take away niche smaller films from the cinema. A small box office success like this gives me confidence that this trend will hold off for a little bit longer.
Drew recommends…
The Last Black Man in San Francisco (streaming on Amazon Prime)
It’s a wonderful feeling when a small movie sneaks up on you by telling its compelling story with unexpected confidence. The Last Black Man in San Francisco was the perfect example of this in 2019. Based on the real-life story of Jimmie Fails (who plays himself in the film), the movie centers on his quest to reclaim the Victorian home his grandfather built in a now-gentrified neighborhood of San Francisco.
Fails and the director Joe Talbot grew up in San Francisco together and dreamed of making this movie for years. In 2015 they launched a successful Kickstarter that raised enough money to get the project started. At the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, they debuted their creation to immediate acclaim.
What surprised me most when I saw The Last Black Man in San Francisco was how unique and distinctive it felt despite its many influences. Talbot is borrowing stylistic moves from directors like Wes Anderson, Spike Lee, and Barry Jenkins, but his film still possesses its own voice. It’s almost unthinkable that this is his first feature.
There are not many familiar faces in this film, but each actor brings a lived-in quality to their character. The standout is Jonathan Majors, who plays Jimmie’s introverted friend Mont with great heart and soul. Various other very memorable characters pop up throughout, but it’s Jimmie and Mont’s relationship that the film builds its identity upon.
I have to mention the transporting and captivating score that carries us through The Last Black Man in San Francisco (watch the trailer if you want a taste of it). This movie is a rare indie gem in that it marries its beautiful music and visuals in an organic and cohesive way. In the end, it makes for a touching and melancholy story about friendship, gentrification, and home that sticks to your bones.
High Flying Bird (streaming on Netflix)
There’s hardly a basketball dribbled in High Flying Bird, director Steven Soderbergh’s iPhone-shot Netflix film. Its entire story takes place in the middle of a lockout, which is not a typical way to present a sports movie, to say the least. There are no montages of teammates coming together to overcome the odds. There’s no big game at the end to send us out on an emotional high. Hoosiers, this is not.
High Flying Bird may not become a classic basketball film, but it has a lot on its mind. Soderbergh and screenwriter Tarell Alvin McCraney are much more interested in labor negotiations than buzzer-beaters. Their story of a basketball agent that tries to upend the system defies sports movie convention in thoughtful and revolutionary ways, leading us to consider how capitalism and sport intersect.
Set during a labor dispute between the owners and players, High Flying Bird follows Ray Burke (Andre Holland), a high-profile sports agent that maneuvers to give the players more control over the game. However, Ray’s rookie client, Erick Scott (Melvin Gregg), just wants to get back on the court. Instead of actual basketball, we witness the off-court negotiations between Ray, players’ association president Myra (Sonja Sohn), and the owners, led by smug, obscenely wealthy New York owner David Seton (Kyle MacLachlan).
If this all sounds a little dry, don’t worry. The execution here is totally compelling, from the brisk, lively dialogue to the engaging performances. McCraney, who won an Oscar for Moonlight, has fashioned a sharp script that is full of ideas. It’s essentially a stagy actor’s showcase, littered with monologues masquerading as conversation. For only a 90-minute film, there’s a lot going on.
Andre Holland is utterly convincing and charismatic as a quick-witted sports agent with big plans. He’s the kind of likable actor that makes you wonder why he hasn’t been the lead in a dozen movies by now. Perhaps best known as Kevin in Moonlight, you never lose interest in what Holland is doing on screen.
This is Soderbergh’s second movie shot on an iPhone, after Unsane, 2018’s psychological thriller starring Claire Foy. In almost real time, you can see him working out how to best use this low-budget technology. A smartphone camera gives you a sense of immediacy because it captures everything in focus. Soderbergh utilizes the iPhone to great effect for High Flying Bird, which takes place mostly during the daytime or under the bright fluorescents of a gym. The shots of New York City look surprisingly vibrant for a smartphone.
High Flying Bird is extremely of the moment -- and not just because it’s shot with an iPhone. The last NBA lockout was in 2011 and wiped out 16 games from the regular season. In the NBA, superstar players have more control than ever about where they play, but discontent reigns among the players’ association as owners get richer but claim to be strapped for cash. There’s growing pessimism across professional sports that more lockouts could be coming in the near future.
High Flying Bird isn’t going into the sports movie canon anytime soon, but it is very relevant to how the business of sport works today. You wouldn’t necessarily expect a Netflix basketball movie shot on a smartphone to be so cerebral and revolutionary, but High Flying Bird is a thought-provoking delight.
Recent Release Mini-Reviews
1917 (in theaters now)
Drew: I found 1917 to be an immersive and exhilarating experience that still had its limitations. This is undeniably a technical masterpiece. Director Sam Mendes and cinematographer Roger Deakins have created an unprecedented marvel that is going to leave filmmakers and moviegoers speechless. I have no idea how they shot 90% of this film. That being said, the story isn’t quite as emotionally resonant as it should be. Maybe this is my own problem, but I was too enthralled (and distracted) by the elite filmmaking tricks to become all the way invested in the characters’ arcs. Still, 1917 needs to be seen in a theater. It’s hard to imagine a TV screen doing it justice.- 4 / 5 Apples
Billy: War movies make me skeptical. A goal of pretty much any movie is to be entertaining, so messing with the facts is totally fine by me. Where this genre fails to inspire a lot of the time is because of the allegiance they have to setting. It does not matter the location, but there is always a sense of propaganda involved. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but loses my trust if it is not hidden well within a good story. 1917 is simply magnificent because the technical mastery, great performances, and butt cheek-clenching intensity. Almost every decision enhances the story and emotion. It is ripe for a theater experience, so seek it out when you get a chance. - 4 / 5 Apples
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