CODA, The Power of the Dog & Nightmare Alley - Best Picture Deep Dives
Is there an upset in the works? At last night's Producers Guild of America Awards, CODA beat out The Power of the Dog for the evening's top prize. What does this mean for next week's Oscars? We don't know yet... but we do know that the PGA Awards are voted for by ranked ballot in the same way the Oscars are AND that the PGA Awards have predicted the Best Picture winner 22 times over the past 32 years. In this issue, William and I discuss the two Best Picture frontrunners, CODA and The Power of the Dog, and the most surprising Best Picture nomination, Nightmare Alley.
NOTE: There are some spoilers below!
CODA
William: CODA is great. It's one of those weird things where it's so good, but it's so indie. It’s so low budget. It’s not visually stunning in any way, but it has won everyone over with its charm and its story and with the family. It's a feel good movie. It's incredibly touching. It really shows something we don't see a lot. It's showing a deaf family and a child of deaf adults (a CODA). It's something we don't see represented in a lot of media. I loved it. I loved it so much. I'm happy to see it show up as much as it did [in awards season]. I'm happy to see Troy Kotsur win almost everywhere.
Annie: It feels like the little movie that could. Every time it gets recognized, I feel so happy.
William: You just always want it to win.
Annie: It's a very simple movie. But it's so beautiful. Sometimes a movie makes you cry a little, you get teary, but sometimes a movie makes you cry deep within you, like you can't hold the cry in. You're just almost sobbing. That's how I felt at the end of this movie. It was just so beautiful
William: You almost wish it was made with a bigger budget so it looked better. Because then it really would be in the running for Best Picture. I think it still could win Best Picture but it has to overcome that you're awarding Best Picture to a movie that looks this way and is so simple. Which I think is fine! But for The Academy, some of it is about optics. I'm so glad it got nominated for Best Picture.
Annie: Me too. I didn't know if it would.
William: Anything that premieres at Sundance has an uphill battle of staying in the conversation. It's the first festival of the film season. It happened with Minari and it happened again with CODA. And it could follow a similar path, where they recognize it with a standout actor win. I would love if it won Best Picture. In my mind, it's the number two for The Academy, so it could still happen, especially with the PGA win. Watch CODA!
CODA is nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Troy Kotsur), Best Picture and Adapted Screenplay. CODA is available to stream on Apple TV+.
THE POWER OF THE DOG
William: Look... I don't know. I didn't like it very much. I feel like I’m missing something. I think my movie taste can be more casual than I even realize and because this is not a casual watch at all, which doesn’t limit me, there are plenty of movies that aren’t casual watches that I really like. There's something about this that feels like it's for a very specific moviegoer. I feel like I was watching a very different movie than everyone is talking about. It was a disappointing experience all around for something that is the Best Picture frontrunner. It got the most Oscar nominations, which is shocking, it was over-nominated and got in places people weren’t expecting it to. Every main character got nominated, which is crazy.
Annie: This isn't my type of movie either. I can admire what is great about it. It was well directed for sure. Cinematography was beautiful. I have mixed opinions on some of the acting...
William: Was it well directed if we feel this way?
Annie: That's a good question.
William: Neither of us have read the book.
Annie: I will confess for the newsletter, that I did know some of what happens and the twist in advance. So I knew what to be looking for in the movie. I thought the way they did the twist was good. Did you pick up on it along the way?
William: I thought it was really possible. I was wondering about a few different things and that was certainly one of them. Did I pick up on the little clues here and there to know it was definitely going to happen? No.
Annie: I thought the way the twist was done was great. It was done very carefully. Sometimes in a movie the camera zooms in on something and you know it's important. The way this was done was very subtle. I thought they put clues in shots that matched the rest of the movie so you didn't necessarily pick up on them, which is what I'm crediting to the direction. It wasn't an enjoyable movie to watch. Benedict Cumberbatch's character is just mean throughout the whole movie. I understand the points they were making about toxic masculinity, but it was just stressful to watch.
William: If people want this to win, that's fine. I just really don't get it. I have heard people on a podcast say, if people don't get it, you only like simple movies and you weren't paying attention.
Annie: Oh my god...
William: That's not true. This movie isn't for everyone and it's not because people didn't get it...
Annie: From an acting perspective, I really liked Kirsten Dunst. I thought she was great. She was my favorite performance in it. Benedict Cumberbatch is overrated in this movie. He's not very good. And anytime he's doing an American accent, it's so bad and distracting to me, I cannot get past it. This also goes for anytime he plays Dr. Strange. As much as I love Jesse Plemmons, I don't think he really deserved a Supporting Actor nomination. I'm excited to see him get one, because I love him, but I don't think he did anything that special here.
William: There was a weird part of me that was so happy for him, and I don't know why. I guess it's because we just like him as a person.
Annie: And it's cute he and Kirsten Dunst both got nominated.
The Power of the Dog is nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Benedict Cumberbatch), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Jesse Plemons), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Kodi Smit-McPhee), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Kirsten Dunst), Cinematography, Directing, Film Editing, Original Score, Best Picture, Production Design, Sound and Adapted Screenplay. The Power of the Dog is available to watch on Netflix.
NIGHTMARE ALLEY
Annie: If you care about chickens, don't watch this movie. [Editor's Note: I had to stop watching this movie after 15 minutes because it was too creepy.]
William: I have not seen the original Nightmare Alley; this is a remake of the original. I didn't think it was very good. It was really boring. And I don’t think I’m being too hard on it by saying that. What was going on? I don’t know what it was about. I don’t know what they were going for. It was very all over the place. Actions weren’t justified. In acting school, the number one question is 'what does this character want?' And so often I didn’t know what these characters wanted, especially Bradley Cooper's character.
Annie: That's sad because 15 minutes in when I stopped watching, I was wondering why Bradley Cooper's character was doing things and I guess you never find out.
William: And the end is like, what? It felt like we were waiting on answers we never got. Visually, I thought it looked good. I’m surprised it got into Best Picture, because it didn’t stand out. I already forgot a lot of it. I think it [got nominated] because of love for Guillermo del Toro. This was his first movie since Shape of Water [which won Best Picture]. I don't think [Nightmare Alley] deserved to get nominated. It felt like there were only one or two other movies that were in talks to sneak into Best Picture, so maybe in a bigger year it wouldn't have made it. It's very different from the other movies, so maybe by comparison, it stood out to people.
Annie: The two other most likely other nominations were Being the Ricardos or tick tick... BOOM!, which are essentially biopics, so Nightmare Alley is definitely the different option.
William: [Nightmare Alley] showed up in some tech categories too. At the end of the day, it's still surprising.
Nightmare Alley is nominated for Cinematography, Costume Design, Best Picture and Production Design. It's now available to stream on HBO Max.
