OVP: Best Director (2020)
The Nominees Were...
Thomas Vinterberg, Another Round
David Fincher, Mank
Lee Isaac Chung, Minari
Chloe Zhao, Nomadland
Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman
My Thoughts: We are heading to the close of our 10-year anniversary celebration on the blog (still at least 11 articles remaining, and I might have one last trick up my sleeve to round it to a dozen), and so we are also nearly done with our 2020 Oscar Viewing Project. Today we're going to tackle the Best Director category, which saw an historic first for the category-the first time ever that the majority of the category was not white men, and the first time ever that two women were cited for Best Director. Since I'm always looking for a bridge into the article, let's start with one of those women, the one who ended up victorious: Chloe Zhao.
Zhao's films have an instant, singular vision. In movies as diverse as The Rider, Nomadland, and Eternals, she starts off with her camera distinct from the picture itself, almost as if she's just observing...but you slowly realize as the movie progresses that she's guiding the audience to an eventual destination, which might be right where we started in a lot of ways (Fern is still on the road at the end of Nomadland), but it's also proving that the journey changes you even if you are where you were meant to be. The profound beauty of Nomadland is that Fern finds what she was looking for on the road, even if she understands that absolution about her trauma (the loss of her husband & her home) will never actually be realized. There's a beauty in that, and I love the steady way that Zhao handles this conversation.
I feel like Lee Isaac Chung tries to do that, with slightly less success. It doesn't help that I liked Nomadland overall as a movie better, but I felt like Minari was a bit too tidy, never really finding a way to blend the sentiment of the film in a cohesive way with the introverted, quiet approach Chung takes to this autobiographical picture. This isn't to say Minari isn't good (this is a good lineup-all of these nominees get a thumbs up from me in one of the better recent directorial lineups Oscar assembled), but it also means that I have to be picky as we're talking about the best-of-the-best. Minari is refreshing, but it doesn't quite land some of the bigger ideas about family & the many shared experiences that result from living & loving a collective unit.
Mank is definitely the film that I have taken a more positive stance on than virtually any other film writer I read regularly, but I stand behind it, particularly when it comes to Fincher's nomination. Fincher has a great way of having one person slowly, steadily, descending into their fate (frequently for the bad), and the way that Mank is framed is genius in that regard. I love the way that we see all of these corollaries to the story that Mank is writing, the way that Citizen Kane echoes not just William Randolph Hearst, but also Orson Welles & Herman Mankiewicz himself, showing that all men can fall to the fate of their own hubris. It's gorgeous, visually stunning, and Fincher doesn't go for easy payoffs (notice the way that Welles is backgrounded until the precise moment he needs to move from God to Man). It's a towering achievement, and while it's not Fincher's best...that's an unfair metric to hold one of the best directors of our time toward.
Similar to Fincher, Emerald Fennell's Promising Young Woman feels like a distinct vision onto itself-there's no confusing this work as a "director for hire" job. Fennell's best work is, like Mank, hiding the fact that we're seeing one character go to her fate, even as there are clear off-ramps onto easier or perhaps even healthier courses-of-action. The way that Fennell frames what is ultimately a thriller with horror and romantic-comedy elements is deceptive; you feel gut-punched in the same way Cassie does by some of the ways certain characters disappoint. If you want to get picky I think the film needed more perspective into who Cassie is to really get a specificity of what is lost (i.e. how she was a "promising young woman"), but that's being picky about a very good film from a director I can't wait to see more from.
Four of these films we'll get to one more time when we talk about Best Picture this weekend, but Another Round we will be bidding adieu to today. Another Round's direction is maybe its best attribute, so kudos to the Academy in citing it here. The scenes where we watch them get drunk feel appropriately a detachment from the rest of the movie (as any good bender feels like you're leaving reality), and the juxtaposition between the first & second halves (and what is at stake) underlines the damage of this experiment. But Vinterberg never collects the film's ideas about alcohol with its own issues with toxic masculinity, particularly given the kind of gross "life is for the living" aspects of the final scenes. An intriguing premise, but I don't think it's always successful.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes went with Zhao as their winner, and in a first picked a majority female lineup with Fennell and Regina King (One Night in Miami) joining Fincher & Aaron Sorkin (The Trial of the Chicago 7). BAFTA also picked a majority lineup of female directors with Zhao besting Vinterberg, Chung, Shannon Murphy (Babyteeth), Jasmila Zbanic (Quo Vadis, Aida?), and Sarah Gavron (Rocks), while the DGA picked Zhao against Sorkin, Fincher, Fennell, & Chung. I did pretty poorly in my predictions when I guessed this initially, leaving out both Vinterberg & Fennell in favor of King & Sorkin, and of the latter two I think Sorkin was closer, particularly considering that King couldn't make the Best Picture race. I'll guess him for sixth, though there are 4-5 names you could argue were in the running for the slot that ultimately surprised for Vinterberg.
Directors I Would Have Nominated: We'll get to the My Ballot next week, so I won't telegraph more than to say I was more of a fan of subtitles than Oscar was in this category.
Oscar's Choice: Chloe Zhao stampeded throughout the season, and even if she had lost Best Picture, the Best Director trophy was inevitable for her.
Oscar's Choice: Chloe Zhao stampeded throughout the season, and even if she had lost Best Picture, the Best Director trophy was inevitable for her.
My Choice: I said Fincher at the time, and while I think this is a closer race for me than it was in 2021 when I finalized my picks, I'm still going with him as I think there's slightly more style in his direction than Zhao's, which aids his movie better...it's very close though, and there are days I'd give her the trophy. Fennell, Chung, & Vinterberg follow, in that order.
Those were my thoughts-how about yours? I suspect I'm alone here, but does anyone want to join me on Team Mank, or is everyone sticking with Nomadland? Fennell, Chung, & Vinterberg all had big splashes here-which one gets another shot at an Oscar nomination in the future? And was it Sorkin, King, or perhaps Florian Zeller (The Father) in sixth place? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Also in 2020: Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, International Feature Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound, Original Score, Original Song, Production Design, Cinematography, Costume Design, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup & Hairstyling, Previously in 2020
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