So my favorite Oscars tradition, aside from getting hammered and eating Chinese food during the ceremony, is, the day before the ceremony, presenting my favorite moments in each of the Best Picture nominees. I originally started it in 2011, when I felt like there was a lot of anger over certain things that were nominated (The Artist, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, The Help), and I just wanted to take that step back and remind myself and everyone else what it’s all about — this is because we love movies. We’re just giving out awards to the movies we liked best. It’s not about the damn awards. It’s about good movies and love of the art form. And it’s something I think we need to be reminded of, which is why I now do it before every Oscar ceremony. It doesn’t matter what wins and what doesn’t, it’s all about celebrating the great movies that came out this year.
Our next nominee is Marriage Story.
5. Divorce Lawyers
I do appreciate that a movie about divorce is ultimately saying how evil divorce lawyers — and by extension, all lawyers — are. That was kinda nice to see. Because here’s a divorce that starts off pretty amicably, and then it turns into this contentious, cutthroat fight for money and custody and ultimately no one ends up happy and they don’t even end up abiding by what was decided in it. So really all that happened is they spent a shit ton of money and these lawyers got even richer off of it. Kinda fucked up, kinda accurate.
4. Alan Alda
God, I love this man. He’s been so great forever and it’s so nice to see him still acting in spite of his Parkinson’s. He’s such a welcome presence in any movie. Plus, here, his character is so great. The nice, affable but ineffective lawyer. His scenes with Adam Driver in the deposition rooms are actually great. “If I were representing you, I’d tell you to–” “You are representing me!” And how they dump him in a conference room with a box of crumbs instead of pastries, and then he starts eating the crumbs! He’s so good here. He was the best actor in the movie for me.
3. What I Like About Charlie/Nicole
I really liked that as an opener to the film. Starting a movie about divorce with one person saying what they love about the other person, and vice versa. And then we reveal that it’s happening in marriage counseling, and that all the stuff they said are for naught because they’re on their last leg and about to divorce. It’s a nice moment, and pays off very nicely at the end.
2. This moment
It’s not the most unique moment in the world, but it is a nice way to wrap up the movie on a hopeful note. Showing that there is still some semblance of love or at least feeling for one another despite all the stuff that’s happened. I liked it. Also, what is it with Scarlett Johansson and tying people’s shoes this year?
1. This moment
I really liked this moment. I liked when they did it at the beginning, and seeing it come back here at the end was really well done. Some people might have found it forced, but I think it worked. Seeing him finally read the list of things she wrote about him, because even though we heard it at the beginning, she refused to read it during the counseling session, so he never heard it. So now he’s reading this and you see that little lip quiver, and just everything about them and their relationship is in that one moment. It’s really nicely done, both from a writing standpoint and from an acting standpoint.
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