This horrible year has been trying for all of us. Covid has exhausted us physically, mentally, emotionally, financially, and every other major way. But as we are forced to stay home with all our entertainment venues closed, it’s also exhausted our home viewing habits.
The biggest question everyone has been asking all quarantine after “When are they opening schools?” and “Have you been vaccinated?” is the most universal: “What should I watch next?” Because of my history of reviewing local and professional theatre and predicting all the entertainment awards, I’ve been asked directly too many times to count.
Let’s break for a minute to discuss the sorry state of the current awards circuit. Always political, somewhere between dubious to problematic, this past year they have been ridiculous. The Emmys were a mess, all virtual, punctuated with stupid in-person “joke” skits. (That’s one thing Covid has taught us—without laugh tracks to tell us so, most comedians and all late night talk show hosts are not at all funny.) The Tonys felt it was crucial to rush out a half-assed absurd round of nonsense nominations for a half season of shows (which include one nominee for best actor in a musical and five straight plays nominated for best score…) but have yet to actually set an awards date. Last week’s Golden Globes flowed better than the Emmys despite cohosts Amy Pohler and Tina Fey operating from opposite coasts, but they were their own special kind of mess that only the Golden Globes can be, most clearly illustrated by Borat winning best comedy and best actor. Plus, the Golden Globes aren’t about the awards, they’re about all the drunken stars at the big drunken dinner party. Without that, or drunken Ricky Gervais talking smack about everybody, there’s really no reason for the Globes.
So, rather than just spit out a random list of suggestions based on what I’ve watched, I decided what we need this year, and maybe in all to come, is a list of my best recommendations formatted into an awards show that makes sense.
The rules? I am the nominating committee and voting body. So if a movie appeared on its first in-home streaming run between March 12th and January 31st, and I saw it, it is eligible. And that means for free. If you charged me $19.99 to $39.99 to watch your movie and didn’t include a delivery of popcorn and chocolate, it will debut next season. For free. the 31st is a purely arbitrary date set by the nominating committee (me) giving the voting body (me) enough time to catch up and tabulate the results for release sometime around the anniversary of Covid shutdowns (now). And just to make it interesting, I disqualified any entry that has already won a major award this year so that I didn’t just end up recapping the Oscars or the Emmys.
So, with that, Welcome to the first annual Marco Awards for Excellence in Motion Pictures that appeared in your living room. Grab a drink. I’m your host, Mark Briner, and may the best pictures win (finally). The nominees are:
The First Annual MARCO AWARDS 2020: the MOVIES
BEST MOVIE
The Devil All the Time—Tom Holland cast against type headlines an all-star cast in this masterful slow burner exploring the dark recesses when backwoods religion and rednecked violence intersect in post-war America.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom—August Wilson’s classic stylized play about major black jazz musicians navigating the white music world of the 20s is a flawless showcase for a strong cast of actors all up for the challenge.
Mank—Netflix gives a backlot Hollywood insider look into the city and studio politics that commandeered the making of Orson Welles’ cinematic classic Citizen Kane, told through the eyes of boozy, rule-breaking screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz. Gary Oldman is a solid rock to shoulder the story, and Amanda Seyfreid surprisingly effective as William Randolph Hearst’s actress/mistress Marion Davies.
The Prom—Ryan Murphy elevates the fun, frothy Broadway musical into a sequin-covered party extravaganza with a cast of more than game veterans schooling a generation of newcomers on how to command the screen. It’s by far the best stage-to-screen transfer since Chicago 20 years ago.
Rocketman—Up and coming British sensation Taron Egerton shines in this soaring musical fantasy recounting of Elton John’s skyrocketing yet tumultuous career facing battles with alcohol, narcotics, and small-town demons while creating one of the most definitive musical catalogues of a generation.
The Trial of the Chicago 7—Aaron Sorkin’s typically flip dialogue is out of place in the famous 60s trial, but an all-star cast headed by ultimate professionals Mark Rylance, Eddie Redmayne, Frank Langella, Joseph Gordon Levitt, and a surprising Sasha Baron Cohen as Abby Hoffman elevates his glibness in a riveting courtroom story of civil rights in 1968 America, his most effective return to the genre since we couldn’t handle the truth..
Ineligible: Last year’s surprise but totally deserving Oscar winner Parasite, which would have reigned here also.
WINNER: The Trial of the Chicago 7. I could make an airtight case for and against every film nominated, but when adding the pros and subtracting the cons, director/writer Sorkin delivers the tightest storytelling and the deepest and strongest cast to execute his vision. On top of that, it serves as a very timely reminder how far we have, yet have not, come in the last 50 years of civil rights.
BEST ACTOR
Chadwick Boseman (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom)—Boseman’s posthumous final performance is an attention-grabbing tour de force as a jazz musician with big dreams and innovations held down by the white music establishment.
James Cordon (The Prom)—Forget all the flack you heard about Cordon playing a gay role. It’s just a bunch of angry gays who he beat for the part. He’s a flawless fit with the cast, and he’s not the cartoon, the script is. Cordon actually brings a refreshing restraint and respect to the role that was 100% over-the-top theatre queen fabulousness on Broadway. Cordon is a blast of fresh, rainbow-scented air in this tale of acceptance and tolerance for all.
Taron Egerton (Rocketman)—one of the biggest Oscar snubs of the millennium, Egerton is handpicked by and perfect as the talented and tortured Elton John battling the twin demons of superstardom and addiction. Egerton gives the best performance of his budding career, and inexplicably did everything Romy Malek did the previous year to win as Freddie Mercury, as well as his own singing and commanding center stage in numerous production numbers, yet wasn’t even nominated.
Tom Holland (The Devil All the Time)—young Holland, most famous as the newest Spiderman and for showing off his song and dance skills in lip sync battles (as a kid, he was a replacement Billy Elliot in the West End), gives a tortured, restrained performance as a hard luck youth torn apart by backwoods religion and a lifetime of violence. Famous for his easy congeniality, Holland brings out the heavy guns here, figuratively and literally.
Gary Oldman (Mank)—Oldman is spot on as hard-drinking, cynical screenwriter Herman Mankiewicz, focused here on his tribulations of creating the infamous screenplay to Citizen Kane. His sly trick is finding the same biting sense of dark humor the actual screenplay does in his real life behind-the-scenes dealings with the inflated, corrupt heads at RKO and the real life characters and events who inspired his masterpiece.
Mark Rylance (The Trial of the Chicago 7)—in the most star-studded cast of the season, Rylance emerges as the standout as defense lawyer William Kuntsler, navigating and mastering the social and media circuses with the aid of Aaron Sorkin’s standard quips and bon mots.
WINNER: Taron Egerton. Boseman is heartbreaking in his final role (and a well-deserved favorite for this year’s Oscar), and Holland gives an amazing glimpse of his career to come as a full-blown adult actor to reckon with, but Egerton, egregiously snubbed by the Academy, brings down the house with song, dance, charm, and pathos. Not since Sissy Spacek’s benchmark performance as country music royalty Loretta Lynn in Coal Miner’s Daughter has an actor so fully transformed into the musical legend they are portraying. And again, for all the backlash he received as a straight actor playing a gay role, take that up with Sir Elton John who hand-selected him over all those bitter gay actors he didn’t cast.
BEST ACTRESS
Amy Adams (Hillbilly Elegy)—Adams once again conjures her chameleonic abilities to dissolve into any character presented to her, and goes all-in to the point of uncomfortable as a tortured mentally ill, drug-addicted white trash mother drawing her son, pursuing a better life at Yale Law, back into his old one.
Vanessa Kirby (Pieces of a Woman)—Kirby gives the most heartbreaking performance of the season as a young mother dealing with the painful emotional fallout of a home birth gone wrong.
Margot Robbie (Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey)—The stellar Robbie really wouldn’t be nominated for this role even though she’s the only palatable performer in this painful sequel to the underrated Suicide Squad. She’s every bit as psychotically engaging and enticing as she was in the former but gets zero support from the rest of her lackluster cast. Consider this inclusion, in a very slow year for women, the equivalent of her “body of work” nomination.
Meryl Streep (The Prom)—Streep finally comes into her musical own as a comically self-absorbed Broadway diva intent on “changing lives” in a small, intolerant Indiana berg through her gifts of song, dance, a few well-posed pictures in People Magazine, and the occasional mention of a pair of Tony Awards.
Anya Taylor-Joy (Emma)—The darling of the Netflix season scored an earlier success as the winsome but “clueless” heiress at the center of the Jane Austin classic.
Ineligible: Early Academy favorites Carey Mullingan and Andra Day. Mulligan’s Promising Young Woman due to the $19.99 rule, and Day’s The United States vs Billie Holiday arrived too late. See you both at the Oscars.
WINNER: Meryl Streep. Overall the category is short because it was a male-heavy year at the streaming movies. Streep, the most Oscar nominated star ever, seems to win for all the wrong movies and lose for all the right ones. While Adams and Kirby give tear-the-room down performances, they don’t get great assists from their scripts. Great comedy is harder than tragedy and music is harder still. Streep masters them both in the musical performance of her career.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Sasha Baron Cohen (The Trial of the Chicago 7)—Borat who? Perpetual joker Baron Cohen puts down all his usual schtick and steals the show from his all star cast in a wicked, dead-on comic portrayal of counter culture’s Abby Hoffman.
Lee Sun-kyun (Parasite)—Criminally overlooked at last years Oscars, Lee takes charge of the second act of the complex movie as the wealthy homeowner who’s not as in control of his “perfect” life as he assumes.
Jared Leto (The Little Things)—The movie falls short of everything it should be except for Leto as the wily, offbeat suspect in a serial murder case. Leto is everything as he engages Malek and Washington in a game of cat and mouse where he’s more accurately the dog. He’s the only reason to watch this film that should have been better.
Bill Skarsgǻrd (The Devil All the Time)—Skarsgǻrd the youngest makes his mark as a backwoods WWII vet trying to keep his small family together during tragedy while struggling with his faith.
Sebastian Stan (The Devil All the Time)—Stan turns in a chilling performance as a corrupt southern sheriff with more than a few crime issues of his own.
Glynn Turman (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom)—Providing the solid old-school sense to balance co-star Boseman’s youthful bravado, veteran Turman grounds the volatile world of Ma Rainey and her band in jazz age reality.
WINNER: Sasha Baron Cohen. Leto is deliciously creepy and breathes the only life into a disappointingly underwhelming film, but the movie bottoms out beneath him. Baron Cohen is the comic standout and the boldest character in the strongest ensemble of the season, finally showing that less is more.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Yeo-jeong Cho (Parasite)—Cho is the heart of the ever darker movie as a naïve upper class mother who falls prey through her gullibility to the lower class parasites who intend to feed off her status. Another oversight from the Academy in the award-winning film.
Glenn Close (Hillbilly Elegy)—Every year Close swings for the fences and every year she walks away with no Oscar. Here she throws vanity to the breeze as a trashy grandmother struggling with a mentally ill daughter and raising her grandson as best she can. Hopefully Hollywood will get her Sunset Boulevard musical project off the ground (suggestion, with Taron Egerton as parasite Joe Gillis) so she can win with a performance that is truly representative of her super-sized gifts.
Bryce Dallas Howard (Rocketman)—Somehow the daughter of the most congenial man in Hollywood excels playing the most grotesque bitches she can find on paper. As the self-absorbed, disinterested mother of aspiring musical prodigy Reginald Dwight (pre-Elton John), Howard is so cold even a British actress couldn’t beat her out for the role.
Viola Davis (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom)—With a brilliant costume assist of a padded body suit, some full-bosomed flapper gowns, a face full of smeared Crayola-toned makeup, and a mouth full of gold teeth, Davis is real life 20s jazz pioneer Ma Rainey.
Park So-dam (Parasite)—Park gives a sly performance as a sibling who helps mastermind a devious plot to ingratiate her family into the lifestyle of a naïve upper-class employer.
Amanda Seyfried (Mank)—Seyfried steps out of her comfort zone and gives a savvy performance as studio harlot/starlet Marion Davies, mistress of William Randolph Hearst, who, caught between her loyalties to beau Hearst and friend Mankiewicz, provides a window to the screenwriter’s target. She deftly draws inspiration from Kane’s leading lady Dorothy Comingore who was based on Davies.
WINNER: Viola Davis defines and embodies yet another character as only she can.
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Family Band—The untold story of 60’s family top 40 sensation the Cowsills (“Hair”, “Indian Lake”, “Love American Style”) who were the inspiration for (and supposed to portray) TV’s The Partridge Family—but with the character of the abusive, alcoholic, controlling military father wisely written out. The take-aways, besides the insane degree of innate talent possessed by the founding brothers, is the extent to which ABC massively ripped off their singular sound for their TV counterparts, and the unexpected events of the epilogue.
I Am Divine—An insightful look back into the life and career of John Waters’ underground icon and Baltimore institution Glenn Milstead, better know as his alter ego Divine, from her white trash beginnings to the verge of Hollywood crossover stardom. An absolute must-see for anyone who has ever uttered the blasphemy “John Travolta was great in Hairspray!”
Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood—Another “truth-is-stranger-than-fiction”, the story of Scotty Bowers, who in his tell-all book Full Service spilled all the goods on the worst-kept secret in golden age Hollywood: the clandestine callboy/callgirl ring he ran from a strategically located corner service station, providing well-paid entertainment for legends from both sides of the camera. It’s total National Enquirer trash on film, but impossible to turn away from. Read the book, too. You may never be able to hear a Cole Porter tune again in the same way.
Wait for Your Laugh—The legendary Rose Marie (who at the age of 94 reminds us that she was the original one name performer, not Madonna or Cher) gives a whirlwind interview that recaps her near century-long professional career. From her beginnings as 3-year-old Vaudeville phenomenon Baby Rose Marie, the little girl who sang with the big Sophie Tucker voice (it’s amazing, check her out on YouTube), to big band singer to The Dick Van Dyke Show and beyond (with a side trip to her dad’s Mafia connections, like the fact that “Uncle Al” from all the Sunday family dinners’ last name turned out to be Capone), it’s a privilege to hear the unique story told by the source in a film released only 3 months before her passing.
WINNER: Family Band. Rose Marie’s is a sublime sentimental journey, Divine’s is a salute to local pop culture, and Scotty Bowers’ is just plain old-fashioned tabloid fun, but for story-telling and emotional impact, the Cowsills have one last solid gold hit.
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising—The second theatrical release from the world-acclaimed Adult Swim anime franchise starring the vocal talents of local artist Justin Briner, wherein a powerful new supervillain arrives in town to take over and rid them of the local heroes and their training school.
Onward—Disney’s first offering of the season, a feel-good brother film about two teenaged ogres (Chris Pratt and Tom Holland) on a road trip to search for a spell to revive their deceased father.
Soul—Disney’s second and more highly promoted offering features Jamie Foxx as a jazz musician who meets an untimely end, and Tina Fey as a stray soul who attaches to him to try to earn a shot at a human life.
WINNER: My Hero Academia: Heroes Rising—Full disclosure: yes, it’s my son who is the lead of Heroes Rising, but this is a totally objective call. Disney has all the spotlight, but Onward leaves one feeling somewhat incomplete at the end, and Soul is, for all the buzz it’s getting, comparatively soul-less (not to mention humorless). To back the decision up, Heroes Rising is the rare film, animated or otherwise to capture a solid 100 rating on both the critical and audience portions of Rotten Tomatoes. Congratulations, Justin, I will accept this award on your behalf!
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT RECOGNITIONS
This year was also a great time to reconnect with some old favorite comfort movies. During the fall, I revisited several of the classic Halloween movies. Psycho, first time ever on the big screen, is a different animal than what’s known from video/TV. Viewed where it was intended, it is still a masterpiece. The music, the cinematography, the filming technique and editing are still effective and produce the requisite chills precisely where Hitchcock orchestrated. Anthony Perkins is still awkwardly creepy with a natural delivery ahead of his time, and Janet Leigh still underrated as the femme fatale.
The Exorcist isn’t the scare fest it allegedly was, but still holds up because of great acting from vets Ellen Burstyn, Max von Sydow, and Lee J. Cobb.
80s classic Nightmare on Elm Street is silly fun and nowhere as gory as you remember it (or by modern standards). The highlight of the movie, however, was the credits, specifically “and introducing Johnny Depp”, who was adorable as the cute nerd across the street.
Rounding out the Halloween cycle was the Bette Midler/Sarah Jessica Parker/Kathy Najimy neo-classic Hocus Pocus, good family fun with the high point remaining the iconic inspired arrangement of “I Put a Spell on You”. Midler is always at most home on a concert stage.
60s-70s classics provided some welcome comfortable noatalgia. The return of Bonnie & Clyde to Netflix always merits a viewing with the stellar ensemble cast of Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway (neither whom have ever been better or more beautiful) in the title roles and Gene Hackman and Oscar winner Estelle Parsons as Clyde’s blustery brother Buck and neurotic sister-in–law Blanche.
Make that a Dunaway double feature with her next high profile role in the slow boiler about LA politics, Chinatown, a salute to film noir which Jack Nicholson basically owns.
A first viewing of On a Clear Day, You Can See Forever, which has held up better as a costume vehicle than a musical, started a month-long Barbra Streisand festival of her early films. The Owl and the Pussycat hasn’t aged well as a story or a convincing performance piece for either her or costar George Segall, and Up the Sandbox is just silly. But revisiting her beginnings as one of Hollywood’s most underrated comediennes is always a treat. In the delightful For Pete’s Sake, Streisand and Michael Sarazin are charming as newlyweds on a budget who she gets in debt over their heads. But Streisand is at her all-time best in Peter Bogdonavich’s masterpiece ode to the screwball comedies of the 30s, What’s Up Doc? Bogdonavich assembled a classic lineup of stellar comic costars headlined by Ryan O’Neal, a perfect love interest as a gender flip on the stock dumb blonde, and the movie debut of the divine Madeline Kahn as his overbearing fiancée the Eunice Burns.
This movie always happily takes me to Bogdonavich’s other definitive pairing of O’Neal and Kahn (brilliant as washed-up carny dancer Trixie Delight) with his Oscar-wining daughter Tatum in the flawless dust bowl family comedy Paper Moon.
In preparation for Hayley to understand the roots of Ratched, we revisited its inadvertent “sequel” One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Nicholson chews the scenery and Louise Fletcher as the inspiration for the Ryan Murphy series is perfectly frigid, but the scene stealers are the future stars (including Christopher Lloyd, Brad Dourif, and a sweetly funny Danny DeVito) cast as the inmates of the facility. The movie, however, is a little slow and creaky with age, and Fletcher’s Nurse Ratched no longer seems as villainous or even unreasonable as intended with her firm hand she uses to govern Nicholson.
A venture into movie musicals produced some re-evaluations. Guys & Dolls is better than remembered. While not perfect, Marlon Brando and Frank Sinatra are not as miscast as once thougt, and Jean Simmons and Vivian Blaine make up for any inconsistencies with the leading men.
As far as controversial musicals, reel in the controversy. Hello Dolly and Mame are hot-button musicals, but I will stand on my critique that not only is Streisand not too young and Lucille Ball not to old as the respective leading ladies, but both were the perfect star at the time these vehicles were produced. No one has ever sung the Dolly score as perfectly as Streisand, who makes the usual 11:00 throwaway “So Long, Dearie” into a showstopping, last call highlight. And Ball brings her usual welcome warmth and razor sharp comic timing to the latter while looking stunning in Theodora van Runkle’s art deco fashions. Plus immortalizing a charming Robert Preston as smitten suitor Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside, and the acid-tongued wit of Bea Arthur as best frenemy Vera Charles makes up for any perceived slights.
Rounding out the retro viewings, the newly re-edited and renamed The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone (previously The Godfather 3) has actually aged to make peace with itself. Yes, daughter Sophia Coppola is still dreadful as Mary Corleone, and the “hey, Cuz” flirtations between her and Andy Garcia as Sonny’s illegitimate son are significantly grosser than remembered, but the real crime is refusing to give Robert DuVall equal pay to return as the remaining original character alongside Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, and Talia Shire. Nowhere near as superb as parts 1 or 2, but nowhere near as horrible as you remember.
The salute to the white trash figure skating crime ring I Tonya plays as a fun black comedy with the always perfect Margot Robbie as the always second best Tonya Harding, Sebastian Stan as her loser husband, and Oscar winner Alison Janney hilarious as her heinously toxic stage mom.
And after watching Mank, I filled in the unforgivable void of my movie viewing career by making it a double feature with its source, Citizen Kane. At the top of most modern movie rankings, it’s very well done, years ahead of itself in storytelling and cinematography, but honestly only a solid top 10 (Gone with the Wind and The Godfather can breathe safely).
The remaining movies of the season that did not merit any nominations above:
Ari Aster’s über-bizarre Scandiavian horror film Midsommar (C-)
Disney’s adequate live action remake of Mulan (B-, down a half grade for cutting the music. What is Mulan without the Village People-esque “I’ll Make a Man Out of You”?)
Birds of Prey, the dreadful sequel to Suicide Squad that was such a theatrical bomb they had to rename it in its second week as Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey to take advantage of Margot Robbie fulfilling a contractual obligation. There were early cries of sexism on the screens (“Sexist audiences won’t support strong female superheroes!”) but who are they kidding? Despite what should be intriguing ties to Batman, Catwoman, Batgirl, and Harley Quinn, the Birds franchise has never taken off in any media form. Even the very game Robbie can’t save this super-zero klunker. (F)
The Little Things should have worried about a few of the bigger things. Yes, Jared Leto is having as much fun as possible as a cagey murder suspect, but Denzell Washington is playing yet another burnt out cop and Romy Malek is merely underwhelming in the central role.
An update of the miracle at Fatima, which is far more reverend, engaging, and superior to any of its Sunday morning church basement predecessors (B+)
And Regina King’s One Night in Miami, about a meeting between Malcolm X, Cassius Clay, Jim Brown, and Sam Cooke. Based on a play, it’s all dialogue and zero story (B-, up a half grade for Leslie Odom’s vocals as Cooke)
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm—I just changed the channel about 35 minutes in. Congratulations on your Golden Globe. (D)
Statistically there has to be something here that you haven’t watched which I’ve piqued your interest with. Stream it and enjoy it. We’ll get into a different discussion next month when the Oscar nominations come out.
Until then, stay tuned here later this week for subsequent installments of the First Annual Marco Awards 2020 for Television and Theatre. Believe me, the Movie awards were the easy ones. There’s way more fertile ground for discourse ahead….