Oscars Recap: 2020
Katie and I have a super fun tradition every year where we try to watch every movie nominated for the Academy Award of Best Picture.
I’ve ALWAYS loved movies and this is such a great way to ensure I see lots of good movies (and some not-so-good ones too) every year.
It may not sound like much of a challenge but even in the age of streaming…it’s NOT easy to see ALL the nine movies nominated in the time allotted between the nomination announcement and the actual awards show (this year it was barely a month!)
We actually had to pay $20 to stream one of the movies and pay $15 to stream another!
A big part of the mission comes in guessing what will be nominated.
This year we (and by we I mean Katie as she keeps up with the buzz better than I do!) did awesome in seeing stuff early enough where it was in theaters and also not over-seeing too many movies that weren’t nominated too.
This was a PHENOMENAL year of films.
I really enjoyed 6 out of the 9 nominees. Which RARELY happens!
Here’s a break down of each nominated movie and my thoughts!
This is a great list to go from if you’re wanting to see a movie and can’t decide 😉
Joker
Zach and I randomly went to see Joker together on a date night WAY prior to even having any clue that it might be nominated!
I just assumed Zach would enjoy the movie and we both heard both things.
It didn’t disappoint!
Personally, Zach and I do NOT like superhero/comic book type movies but this was NOT you’re typical comic book movie.
It’s actually a movie about mental health which is so important and something that isn’t discussed enough.
We need to stop making mental health a hush-hush thing and instead be more open about these types of struggles in order to help heal.
There isn’t a lot of action in it. It is very dark and ties in with the Batman franchise very nicely too.
I thought Joaquin was incredible.
He did earn the Oscar for Best Actor (but mega eye roll on his speech).
I assumed it wouldn’t be nominated for Best Picture due to the type of movie it was but I was pleasantly surprised when it got the nom and it def deserved it!
Ford V Ferrari
I cannot believe this was nominated.
We saw it prior to the noms being announced because it was on the must-see lists.
It’s the only movie I fell asleep during this film season.
It’s a story none of us ever knew or needed to know or cared about knowing.
There was no real character development or depth to any of the characters.
I couldn’t stand Christian Bale’s accent but then I heard he’s actually British so maybe that’s just his regular way of talking? Oops.
It just all seemed so phoned in and like the actors were just showing up for their paychecks.
It really could have gone with a patriotic theme to it and I think it would have greatly improved the film as a whole.
Katie and I both hated it but the theater was packed with people who were LOVING it so maybe we’re in a minority with that opinion?
Super, super glad it didn’t win. And disappointed it was nominated.
Out of all the nominees, this was least deserving in my opinion (would have much rather seen Knives Out instead).
If you wanna take a good nap you can watch Ford V Ferrari here:
Knives Out
This is one I also saw with Zach!
The movie tradition is a Katie and Emily tradition but we try to include Zach if there are ones we think he’ll like 😉
At this point, we can typically tell which ones Zach will want to see vs the ones he won’t.
We did pretty well this year of guessing correctly for the ones to include Zach in 😉
He and I went to see it on a date night and both LOVED IT.
It’s so, so great.
Super fun. Unique but not crazy trippy or anything.
Great acting. Laugh out loud funny in many parts.
Quick-paced and kept us guessing!
It reminded me a lot of The Favourite which I also loved!
It ended up NOT being nominated for Best Picture but I’m glad we saw it anyway and I highly recommend it!
You can watch Knives Out here:
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
This movie was also not nominated in the Best Picture category.
We knew before seeing it that it was “iffy” for the nom but both Katie and I wanted to see it anyway!
Who doesn’t love Tom Hanks, right?
If you’re going into the movie hoping to learn a lot about Fred Rogers you WILL be disappointed with this movie.
It’s not about Mr. Rogers himself, Tom Hanks is a supporting role.
It’s more about the impact that Mr. Rogers had on others during his life.
There were many parts that have stuck with me after watching it (the last scene especially)
When I first saw it I actually broke down crying pretty hard in the theater (slightly embarrassing seeing as we’d made a girl’s night out of going to see it and had a few friends with me!).
It touched heavily on some areas that are tender in my own life.
It’s pretty heavy. Which I think is true to the life that Mr. Roger’s lived. He carried a lot of burden of others on his shoulders.
I still really enjoyed the movie. I do agree with it not being nominated (I think Tom Hanks himself was amazing though).
I do recommend seeing the movie…but if you want to learn about Mr. Rogers I HIGHLY recommend watching “Won’t You Be My Neighbor” and I’m super thankful I saw it first!
You can watch A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Here:
The Irishman
Too long. Basically sums it up.
I guess I lied earlier when I said Ford V Ferrari was the only movie I slept in 😉 I did take a catnap in this one too haha
I get WHY it was nominated – it was filled with so many great actors and you can’t beat Scorsese!
The CGI technology was cool but also distracting from the movie and the acting too (the blue eyes really bugged me).
It really could have been so much better than it was.
It was disappointing for sure.
The storyline itself was just too boring – and is based on true stories and people means it could have been WAY more interesting than it was.
Katie and I knew really early on in it that we didn’t like it but Zach saw it through the whole way and kept waiting to like it but he never did either!
You can watch the Irishman on Netflix, here.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
This movie came out over the summer last year and I really, really wanted to see it.
We didn’t get to watch it when it was in theaters so I was super pumped that there was a lot of buzz about it so we got to watch it during our movie mission!
This was another one Zach wanted to see so we had Katie over and watched it together.
I LOVE Tarantino. LOVE.
I was SO pumped for this.
And so, so disappointed. SO disappointed.
This was my biggest bummer of the movie season for sure.
It just wasn’t good. At all.
I cannot believe Brad Pitt won Best Actor. Cannot. Believe. It.
I heard somewhere that he made the comment that it wasn’t a stretch of a role for him because he was just acting high and walking around without a shirt. ACCURATE.
It had a MOMENT of Tarantino glory but it was so brief.
The fact that this story is SO intriguing (Charles Manson murders) leaves no excuse for it being BORING.
You can watch Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Here:
Little Women
I have never read the book and I didn’t see the older versions of the movie.
I know so many loved the 90s version!
Britt is always asking to go with Katie and me to the movies and this is one I felt comfortable with her seeing with us.
She LOVED being included!
We are planning to watch the 90s version this weekend so I can give a comparison.
Having not seen the older one I did feel a bit lost watching this one.
I’ve heard that the new version is sort of a sequel to that one in a way.
It jumped around a lot (too much) and it was tough for both Britt and I to follow who was who and in what time period.
It’s a great multi-generational movie, Katie’s mom came with us and I brought Britt and we all enjoyed girl time together!
I was surprised it was nominated for Best Picture.
It was cute, we enjoyed it, but I didn’t feel like it was Best Picture worthy.
You can watch Little Women here:
Parasite
I heard absolutely NOTHING about Parasite.
Katie said we needed to see it and that it was super intriguing and she thought Zach might like it too – so we all watched it together.
When I think back on it I NEVER think about the fact that it was a foreign language movie.
Like I don’t remember even having to read the entire time (other than the fact that we had burritos we were trying to eat while reading and I ended up with queso all over me haha).
Katie and I both really liked it (Zach less so).
It was very “metaphorical”
It was truly something so different than any other movie I’ve seen and it was such an interesting look at Korean culture too.
I do wish it’d pushed things even further than it did.
It did NOT stick with me the way some of the others did this movie season though.
I enjoyed it. I thought it was great. But I feel like Best Picture should STAY with you on some level ya know?
I am not mad that it won Best Picture but I wouldn’t personally have chosen it.
I thought the director was adorable with his speech in honoring how much inspiration others have been for him.
It was NOT my favorite of the year, but I did really love it!
1917
Usually, when we have to see a war movie we are prepared to sleep through it.
This one?
We were both on the edge of our seats the entire time.
It is NOT your typical war movie.
Very realistic without a lot of heavy action scenes.
I thought the acting was phenomenal and can’t believe George MacKay wasn’t nominated. He was ROBBED.
I enjoyed it so much that I told Zach he NEEDED to go see it and he went with two friends on their ski trip to watch it!
This was a CLEAR Best Picture. I am very surprised it didn’t win.
It had all the elements I feel like the academy usually loves.
I do wish it’d given us a little more, in the beginning, to understand what exactly was going on – which war we were watching, what the situation was.
I think move movies need to copy Star Wars and have some initial background information at the start of the film haha!
If you haven’t already seen 1917 I really, really recommend watching it!
Bombshell
I didn’t want to see Bombshell.
I really am not a fan of a political agenda being shoved down my throat while watching a movie and from the trailers for it, I assumed that’s what Bombshell would be.
I was wrong!
Or maybe not totally wrong but I don’t know the real-life story enough or know the famous people involved or follow Fox News enough to have really seen any political slant that may have been there.
The movie carried itself regardless of any political slant that may or may not have been there.
It’s done by the same people who did The Big Short which I enjoyed a lot so I knew I’d probably like the style of this movie, and I did!
Very quick, never boring, and had lots of real-life segments sprinkled in too which always makes a movie more interesting.
We knew prior to seeing it that it was not nominated for Best Picture but it had two actress nominations so we still wanted to see it.
Personally I think Margot Robbie should have won for supporting actress.
She had one scene that will FOREVER stick with me.
The movie did an incredible job of playing the audience how they wanted us.
Katie and I both commented on thinking similar thoughts at the same time then moments later in the film feeling horrible guilt over the feelings we’d just felt.
It’s an important movie for our time that hits current issues in a really perfect way.
I think Katie and I stood outside the theater talking more about this movie than we did any other this season.
I think it deserved the Best Picture nomination far more than Ford V Ferrari.
Marriage Story
I had very low expectations with Marriage Story as well.
I heard it was rather boring. Katie is notttt a Scarlett Johansson fan and I don’t adore her much myself either.
So we weren’t going into it expecting much.
It is very, very heavy.
And sad. So, so sad.
And raw and just REAL.
It should be called Divorce Story.
I think every engaged couple should watch this movie before getting married because after watching it you will never, ever, ever want to get divorced.
It had a few odd moments that didn’t really fit the rest of the film but overall it was so well done.
I love how they started it out with positivity and love. The beginning really set the tone for the entire movie beautifully.
We both liked it, but I LOVED it.
Adam Driver was just amazing. I was rooting for him for Best Actor and it totally has made me a big Adam Driver fan after seeing it.
I also loved Scarlett in it and was rooting for her for Best Actress too.
Laura Dern, however? I can’t believe she was nominated and especially that she WON for Best Supporting. Nope.
I was also hoping it’d pull out a surprise win for Best Picture – it ties as my favorite movie this awards season for sure!
You can see Marriage Story on Netflix!
Judy
We decided to see Judy since Renee Zellweger was heavily predicted to win Best Actress (which she did win for it).
I knew NOTHING about Judy Garland before seeing the movie other than that she played Dorothy in Wizard of Oz.
I finished Judy with only the new knowledge that Judy Garland played Dorothy and then afterward lived a super sad and depressing life.
The articles we found while googling her during the movie were WAY more interesting, entertaining, and insightful on her life than the movie was.
Yes, Renee did great but I also think she is just meant to play this role which I feel like takes less talent, ya know?
I felt that both the Best Actress and Best Actors went to rolls that were just easy for them to play which was disappointing.
Judy was boring. Too many songs that no one recognizes (or at least we didn’t).
Not nearrrrrrly enough flashbacks to the Wizard of Oz stage of life.
And really we adored the young Judy and would have liked to see more of her.
JoJo Rabbit
I was intrigued to see JoJo Rabbit but didn’t have a whole lot of high expectations for it either.
We typically save a movie to watch ON Oscar night prior to starting the awards.
That way we can record the awards show and pick it up far enough into it where we can fast-forward through the commercials and boring parts 😉
This was one I knew Zach would enjoy watching.
And we ALL enjoyed it so, so, SO much.
So inventive and creative and funny and smart and BEAUTIFUL.
The beauty amazed me so much because it was so well detailed and thought out and I never notice stuff like patterns and such in movies but I kept commenting on those small things because they stood out in their beauty!
The main character was AMAZING. I can’t believe he didn’t get some sort of nomination!
The entire pace of the movie was very well done and it was the perfect amount of being trippy. It was simply incredible and basically movie perfection to me!
I wanted it to win Best Picture but knew it wouldn’t.
It was SO good though yall and I just can’t recommend it enough!
It ties with Marriage Story as my favorite of the year!
Oscar Night
Katie came over and the three of us watched JoJo Rabbit then Zach went to bed and we stayed up until past midnight watching the awards show!
It was NOT worth our time.
For SUCH an incredible year of film the awards show itself was straight awful.
It needs a host. Hands down. After all the buzz about the Golden Globes this year the Academy really should have gotten a host.
It seemed like the whole night was revolved around the Academy saying “look here is a way we are diverse!” in a response to all the flack they’ve gotten about not being diverse enough.
I love Eminem but his performance was random. It could have been a bigger moment with the proper context.
There should have been an introduction and an explanation as to WHY he was performing.
We also missed how they used to have information about the nominees/winners typed on the screen.
We spent a lot of time googling past wins and such because the show didn’t give us enough info!
Loved seeing Elton perform and win – Katie and I saw him in concert back in college.
No really great overall moments though.
We expected it to be a bit of a letdown from last year since A Star is Born Bradley Cooper wasn’t there 😉
But we did decide we should have a yearly “Oscar crush” to keep it fun.
SO RANDOM but the goofy dude who played Hitler in JoJo Rabbit actually wrote, directed, and produced the film and he’s adorable! (His name is even adorable: Taika Waititi)
When he won for Best Adapted Screenplay he was so cute that we gave him the honor of our 2020 Oscar Crush (I feel like Adam Driver is a close second even though he’s not the least bit cute…it’s about swag right?).
It was a disappointing Oscars night but an incredible Oscars year!
2021 is going to have a TOUGH time filling these shoes but I can’t wait to keep the tradition rolling together!
Looking for more movies to watch?
Be sure to look back at previous years oscar recaps:
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