The Case For And Against Every Best Picture Nominee At The 2020 Oscars

On Monday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences named the nominees for Best Picture at the 92nd Academy Awards: Ford v Ferrari, The Irishman, Jojo Rabbit, Joker, Little Women, Marriage Story, 1917, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and Parasite. There’s less than a month before the host-less ceremony on February 9, but you still have time to see all the nominated films and choose which one you’re “rooting” for.

To help you along, I made a case for and against every potential 2020 Best Picture winner: why all the nominees should win (sometimes based less on quality than historical or cultural significance) and why they all shouldn’t win. Maybe it’s a good thing Uncut Gems wasn’t nominated (for anything, but especially Best Picture). Otherwise the case “against” every other nominee (minus one!) would be, “It’s not Uncut Gems.”

Ford v Ferrari

For: You know who loves Ford v Ferrari Dads, and as far as dad movies go, Ford v Ferrari is one of the better ones in recent memory. It’s well-acted, of course, with Matt Damon, Christian Bale, and Jon Bernthal, and it’s a thrill to see (and hear) on the big screen; the racing sequences are genuinely thrilling. Hollywood should make more movies like Ford v Ferrari, a mid-budget drama aimed at adults (with great sunglasses).

Against: Best Picture is supposed to go to, well, the best picture of the year, right Ford v Ferrari isn’t even the best mid-budget drama aimed at adults released in 2019 (Knives Out is out). I look forward to watching this movie on TNT on a lazy Sunday afternoon in three years, but keep its Oscar consideration to the (much deserving!) sound categories.

The Irishman

For: If The Irishman wins Best Picture, it would be the fourth-longest film to do so, narrowly edging out The Godfather: Part II and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (non-extended edition). That’s not my “for” case, but it’s still interesting! Anyway, Netflix might be the future of film, but the best title in its streaming library is obsessed with the past. The Irishman is Martin Scorsese’s decades-stretching meditation on what happens to goodfellas when they “don’t feel so good” (sorry, Marty!), a beautiful, sprawling epic about considering your own legacy. America’s greatest living filmmaker is 77 years old. How many (three hours or otherwise) movies does he have left in him

Against: “It’s too long” — some guy on Twitter, probably.

Jojo Rabbit

For: The most Jewish movie of the year wasn’t nominated for anything (justice for Adam Sandler!). Why not the second most Jewish movie

Against: Jojo Rabbit wasn’t as loudly controversial as Joker, but, rightly or wrongly, it was criticized as a failed satire and being “more interested in making jokes about silly ol’ Nazis than exploring the other questions it raises, relevant ones about indoctrination, fanaticism, or even the Holocaust, which is only haltingly touched upon by the movie.” Beyond that, Jojo isn’t even director Taika Waititi’s best movie (What We Do in the Shadows and Hunt for the Wilderpeople are both funnier, sharper, and more poignant). Then again, how funny would it be if the Disney movie (technically!) to win Best Picture, in a year where the studio made more money than ever before, was the Hitler comedy

Joker

For: Comic book movies reign supreme at the box office and dominate the cultural conversation — isn’t it time for the Academy to acknowledge Hollywood’s most popular genre with the industry’s biggest award (for a movie that won the Golden Lion, no less)

Against: Maybe, but hopefully that movie isn’t Joker. Every year, there’s an Oscar villain, “the film it becomes the duty of every enlightened movie fan to root against,” according to Vulture. This year, that honor belongs to Joker, a movie with style (it was rightly nominated for Best Makeup and Hairstyling and Best Costume Design) but little substance. Actually, I take that back: it has substance, but of the “15-year-old boy not sure where to direct his anger” variety. Todd Phillips’ Joker is made up of pieces that other Best Picture nominees, and their directors, did much better. Want to watch a Martin Scorsese movie Check out The Irishman. A movie about class consciousness There’s always Parasite. A movie with a killer throwback soundtrack Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is right there. Don’t let Joker‘s phony prestige trappings fool you. If any 2019 comic book movie deserved a Best Picture nod, it’s Avengers: Endgame.