2021 Oscars Reviews: International, Documentary, and Animated Features
Stills from Time (Amazon Studios, left), Soul (Pixar Animation Studios, center), and Another Round (Nordisk Film, right). Time is nominated for Best Documentary Feature, Soul is nominated for Best Animated Feature, and Another Round is nominated for Best International Feature at the 93rd Academy Awards.
As I noted in my post on the short films, I’ve been working remotely this year and tackled a whole bunch more movies than I normally do! I also watched the feature films in the Animated, Documentary, and International categories! There’s a lot of great stuff in here - I really liked at least three movies in each category. Like last time, I also list the streaming service, if any, on which you can watch each movie. All except for one (in the International category) are available on a streaming service as of this writing.
Best Documentary Feature
Collective (Hulu): Okay, so this one kinda blew me away. If you’ve seen Spotlight, it’s sort of a documentary version of that, except it takes place in Romania. A nightclub burns to the ground and kills 27 people, injuring another 180. Then, 37 of those 180 die in the hospital, but not from their burns - from infections. From there, a team of journalists pulls back the curtain on the corruption within the Romanian healthcare system going all the way up to the ruling party in the government. It is a fascinating story that takes more than a handful of twists and turns - there are some shocks you will not see coming. It’s one of the best documentaries I’ve seen in a long time, and I can’t recommend it enough.
Crip Camp (Netflix): Here, we follow a generation of disabled campers from Camp Jened in New York who went on to battle on the front lines of the disability rights movement in the 1960s. It’s at times breezy, funny, and full-throated in its care and love for the disabled community. It’s a beautiful and charming, yet serious look into the unheralded fight for the rights of disabled people from their perspective. Highly, highly entertaining and worth checking out.
The Mole Agent (Hulu): So this one has a really cool concept but it didn’t really bear out for me as much. An old man is hired by a private investigator to infiltrate a Chilean nursing home to investigate allegations of abuse. Everyone is perfectly likable, and the friendships he builds while in the home are sweet and funny and nice, but for some reason it just didn’t fully click. I felt it sort of meandered through the second half and there isn’t really a tight conclusion. You might like it more than I did though!
My Octopus Teacher (Netflix): I spoke to a friend about this one and I said that if it was narrated by David Attenborough instead of the actual narrator, I would have been sobbing the entire time. A depressed South African diver finds an octopus in the kelp forest near where he lives, and it lights up his world. Like, for real. He gets really into this octopus for a year. Don’t get me wrong, the story of his relationship with this octopus is compelling and shows how we can find beauty in the wildest places, and all of the undersea footage is nothing short of incredible. But it gets a little weird at points. I felt weird. It’s probably gonna win the award though, so if you’re at all into nature shows you gotta give this one a shot.
Time (Prime Video): Time follows Sibil Fox Richardson’s quest to have her husband Rob released from prison. Rob received a 60-year sentence for armed robbery, and Sibil fought for decades to have him released. The film is presented through a trove of home video footage and offers up a lot of insight into the barbarity of the prison system. Not only the abuses that you see on TV, but the bureaucratic barbarity that treats human beings like they are simply names and numbers. This was a remarkable documentary.
Ranking: Collective, Crip Camp, Time, My Octopus Teacher, The Mole Agent
Best International Feature
Another Round (Hulu): This movie has a super interesting concept: four Danish men test the theory that people are happier when they are just slightly buzzed. Of course, their plan goes awry, but the message isn’t entirely anti-alcohol. Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale, Rogue One) is an absolute star and he delivers one of the best performances of the year. And this one has the best ending sequence of any movie I’ve seen in a long time. If you watch any movie on this entire list, Another Round has to be in the conversation. It’s one of a handful of movies this Oscar season that I’m still thinking about.
Better Days (rent): Based on a Chinese YA novel, this movie follows a girl getting ready for exams as she faces severe bullying. She meets a guy who’s rough around the edges that offers to protect her. Their stories intertwine, and although this whole concept probably seems hokey, it comes together in a really emotional and stirring way. As a YA adaptation, it’s obviously pretty heavy handed in a lot of ways, but I enjoyed it a lot, and it has a really good message. Check it out for sure.
Collective (Hulu): See the Documentary Feature category - loved it.
The Man Who Sold His Skin (Hulu): I think the themes in this one were compelling, but it was too heavy-handed. It’s about a Syrian man separated from his fiancée who, in order to reach her in Europe, allows a controversial, Banksy-like artist to tattoo a visa onto his back and display him at art shows. It’s a pretty off-the-wall concept, but it offers an interesting look at how we dehumanize immigrants and refugees, as well as some commentary about the art scene. I don’t know, the performances were good, and I think there are some kernels of good ideas in this one, but it beats you over the head with those ideas, and because of that it’s easily the weakest of the contenders this year in my opinion.
Quo Vadis, Aida? (Hulu): This Bosnian movie is carried by its lead actress, Jasna Đuričić. As the titular Aida, a translator and negotiator, she tries to get her husband and sons out of the small Bosnian town of Srebrenica as it is taken over by the Serbian army during the Bosnian War in the 1990s. It’s a war which there’s not much popular art about, so to see the story of that war told this way is eye-opening. Đuričić is incredible, and she has to be, because the camera rarely leaves her. It’s a thrilling and heartbreaking story, but it’s really good. International Feature is a great category this year so there’s stiff competition, though. But if you like tense war movies, you should watch - this is a different twist on one.
Ranking: Another Round, Collective, Better Days, Quo Vadis, Aida?, The Man Who Sold His Skin
Best Animated Feature
Onward (Disney+): I was told that this was going to make me sob, but it really didn't! It was a charming movie with two good leads (despite my feelings on Chris Pratt in general), and the story of sibling love is sort of rare in movies, so it was nice to see. But Onward did little, if anything, to break the Pixar mold, which makes for a perfectly fine movie. Not one of the group’s strongest efforts, but touching, sweet, and funny nonetheless.
Over the Moon (Netflix): This one was like a Disney movie turned up to 11. It was really fun and really bright and there were a lot of songs, and it’s about Chinese mythology, and it’s not that deep. But that’s okay, it was entertaining! I think to some degree Disney and Pixar have ruined people’s appreciation of animated movies (maybe I’ll write about that in full one day). This one’s not as deep as a movie like Inside Out or Soul, and it treads a lot of familiar territory, but I liked it!
A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (Netflix): Stop-motion can freak me out sometimes, but Shaun the Sheep rules. Without really a word of dialogue, Farmageddon is a fun ride. There’s aliens, and a mean farmer, and a theme park, and it’s all about finding your home and making friends with people different from yourself. Even your enemies. It’s not quite my favorite of the animated films this year, but it’s a fun, charming watch.
Soul (Disney+): As I hinted at earlier, I think Pixar might have twisted itself into a pretzel because of its formula. Right after they put out a cookie-cutter effort in Onward, they flew all the way to the other end of the spectrum with Soul and somehow got more abstract and adult than they did in Inside Out. That’s not necessarily a bad thing though, and it was really cool to finally see a Black protagonist in a Pixar film. I’m a sucker for stories about self-determinism and finding who you are, regardless of how old you are. And that is a lot of what happens in this movie - both for Joe Gardner and for 22. But my question is, like, do kids like Soul? Or is this movie just for millennials who love Pixar? I’m not really sure. It had a lot of interesting things to say though!
Wolfwalkers (AppleTV+): THIS MOVIE RULES! It’s part of the “Irish Folklore Trilogy” by director Tomm Moore, though the movies aren’t necessarily connected. It’s got Celtic mythology and there’s wolves and awesome songs and the message, similar to Soul, is to embrace who you are even if you’ll no longer fit in your comfort zone. The animation is different and incredible, and the point-of-view switches from human to wolf are super well done. And Sean Bean (Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, that YouTube video that shows all the movies he dies in) is in it as the protagonist’s dad. It’s legitimately radiant and stunning and I loved all 103 minutes of it. Soul is probably gonna win the Oscar, but if the Academy would stop giving the Oscar to Pixar every time they make a movie, they would recognize the same thing I do: Wolfwalkers is the best animated movie of the year.
Ranking: Wolfwalkers, Soul, Onward, Over the Moon, Farmageddon (but I liked all of them, I promise!)