Robin Robin (2021)

Nominated for Best Animated Short    

Orphaned as an egg, Robin (Bronte Carmichael) the robin is raised by a family of mice.  The mice are very good at sneaking into houses to steal crumbs of food but Robin has never quite grasped the concept.  Determined to prove herself to her family, Robin decides to sneak into a house on her own, but runs into a recovering magpie (Richard E. Grant) and a self-esteem destroying cat (Gillian Anderson) along the way.  

It's a cute short about embracing differences and what family means.  It's also by Aardman, the studio that puts out the Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep films.  I'm not sure it's super revolutionary but it is nice to see a non-Disney studio putting out regular work.  Animation is expensive to produce and all of it should be celebrated.

Robin Robin is currently streaming on Netflix.

The Windshield Wiper (2021)

Nominated for Best Animated Short    I can't say that I enjoyed watching this but it was an interesting mix of animation styles.

The Windshield Wiper is a series of vignettes that show alienation and loneliness, companionship and joy while it asks the question "What is Love?"

No plot, only vibes.  

It's currently streaming on YouTube but you will get so many videos of how to change your windshield wipers when you search, so make sure you add "animated short" to the name.  Also, there is some animated nudity but the whole thing is only 16 minutes so it's not like a major part or anything.

The Hand of God (2021)

Nominated for Best International Feature    Oh, hey, another coming of age story of a straight, cishet white boy.  

Fabbietto (Filippo Scotti) is an average teenage boy in 1980s Naples.  He is mostly concerned with fantasizing about his hot aunt, Patrizia (Luisa Ranieri), and with whether or not Naples is going to be able to lure soccer superstar Diego Maradona into a contract.  A family tragedy forces Fabbietto to reconsider his priorities and his future.

Honestly, who the fuck cares?  I am so sick of seeing a version of this exact same story get nominated every goddamn year.  Can we please get somebody else's life?  

Also, the incest subplot was completely unnecessary.  Just gross.  I was really hoping that she would at least only be related by marriage but no, IMDb makes it very clear that Patrizia is his mother's sister.  In the immortal words of Cleveland from Family Guy, "That's nasty."

It's streaming on Netflix but I wouldn't bother.

The Mitchells vs the Machines (2021)

Nominated for Best Animated Feature    I hope this wins.

Katie Mitchell (Abbi Jacobson) can't wait to get to college and leave her family behind.  To finally find real acceptance with others just as passionate about creating art.  In one last, desperate bid to connect, her dad (Danny McBride) decides that instead of taking Katie to the airport, the whole family should drive her cross-country to California in a road trip.  This is a disaster, not least because a tech company unwittingly unleashes the robot apocalypse and the Mitchells are suddenly the last people not captured.  They must band together and figure out how to incorporate their differences in order to survive and maybe save the world from evil rogue AI, Pal (Olivia Colman).  

This was insanely cute.  And had a better Olivia Colman performance than The Lost Daughter.  I don't think it's breaking new ground with things to say about generational divides and parents not necessarily understanding their children but wanting to, but it feels like a fresh take.  Sometimes that's all you need.  It's currently streaming on Netflix.

Cruella (2021)

Nominated for Best Costumes and Best Hair and Makeup    This is an objectively awful movie.

As a child, Estella (Emma Stone) dreamed of being a fashion designer, but sudden poverty and the death of her mother (Emily Beechum) put paid to that idea.  Her grifter gangmate, Jasper (Joel Fry), secures her an opportunity to work at a high-end department store and an incident with a front window display brings her to the attention of The Baroness (Emma Thompson), the most premier fashion designer in London.  Estella works as the Baroness's apprentice but soon comes to learn the woman is responsible for all of Estella's troubles, so Estella creates an alter ego named Cruella to directly challenge the Baroness and all of London's fashion society.  

Y'all, it's so dumb.  Like, bad dumb.  And some of the worst CGI you've ever seen.  This was created by a multi-billion dollar corporation that somehow could not find live dogs to be on screen.  There are dog actors!  Specifically trained to perform in movies!  Disney's never heard of them, apparently.

The less said about the script, the better.

Emma Thompson is the only thing worth watching in this.  The costumes are okay but could have gone further.  Hair and makeup are elaborate, sure, but nowhere near the level of the other nominees.

It's streaming on Disney+ but you should avoid it at all cost.

The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021)

Nominated for Best Actress and Best Hair and Makeup    Okay, I know what I said about Spencer, but I was wrong.  Jessica Chastain totally deserves this Oscar.  There's still a chance for Penelope Cruz to pull it out of the bag but right now, it is Chastain's to lose.

Growing up surrounded by religious charismatics, young Tammy Faye (Jessica Chastain) dreamed of being able to spread her own version of the gospel.  She met the young Reverend Jim Bakker (Andrew Garfield) at college, and together, they broke in to the tight-knit world of televangelism.  They went on to become two of the most recognizable faces in America in the 80s, building a huge franchise, their own television network, and even a freaking theme park.  But all of it was based on a lie and in 1994, it all came crashing down.

Jessica Chastain made me care about a con-woman desperate for love and attention with insecurities thicker than her mascara and if that's not talent, I don't know what is.  She also did multiple puppet voices and her own singing.  That's wild.  

The movie itself is kind of basic.  It really depends on how much you care about seeing hypocrites get what was coming to them.  Vincent D'Onofrio is typically excellent as Jerry Falwell, and should probably get an Oscar Lifetime Achievement Award for consistently disappearing into roles.  It's currently streaming on HBO Max.

Spencer (2021)

Nominated for Best Actress    Right now this is my frontrunner and I didn't even like this movie.

Content warning:  bulimia

Diana (Kristen Stewart), Princess of Wales, spends Christmas with the in-laws at Sandringham Castle.  Her every move is scrutinized, criticized, and held against her in that icily polite British way.  Her husband (Jack Farthing) is having a very public affair and she keeps dreaming of Anne Boleyn.  

I am old enough to remember the Diana Years but young enough that I didn't really care.  I'm not really into the fetishization that is happening with her life (there's a musical, for God's sake) and death.  It seems ghoulish.  

Hair, makeup, and wardrobe are the real MVPs here.  From a few feet away, Stewart could have passed for Diana.  She is absolutely game with trying to complete the illusion, though.  There's a "wounded doe" aspect of Diana's that Stewart nails.  It's something in the eyes.  A mute appeal for mercy.  You can see it in some of her official photographs.  Anyway, the Boleyn parallels were a little on the nose for me but otherwise, this could have been an A24 horror movie with a couple of tweaks.  

It's streaming on Hulu.