Writing this feels a bit like whistling past the graveyard, but as we move inside 20 weeks to the award show formerly known as Oscar, intensity is picking up.
We are a long way from the Academy membership settling into this season. Lots of complaining about the content on the Academy app, which suggests that many members don't understand that this year's "race" is going to be very inside baseball. The Great Settling has been postponed until March, when there is no organic driver of a Great Settling. It will happen... even if the nature of the moment will be driven differently.
Top Ten lists are leaning hard against Netflix... surely too much so. But film critics are, ultimately, fans. Very sophisticated fans. So if you want to go exclusively by critics at a time when no one is paying attention, amidst vaccines and electors and business closings (oh my!), expect the Best Picture nominees to be (in no specific order), Nomadland, Ammonite, First Cow, Never Really Somtimes Always, Promising…
