DECEMBER OSCAR CONTENDERS
Ben Affleck, Cate Blanchett, Denzel Washington+
2021 is almost over. And you know what that means, the last of the Oscar contenders will make their way to the big screen. Yes, 2021, like 2020, was another odd, unprecedented year, but it doesn’t mean we didn’t get a lot of great cinema. Below are five films hoping to strike it big at the 94th Academy Awards.
Flee
This animated documentary follows a man named Amin, who moved to Denmark from Afghanistan as a child. Now, at 36-years-old, he is a successful academic and is getting ready to marry his long-time boyfriend. However, a secret he has been keeping for over two decades threatens to ruin the life he has made for himself. Flee won the Grand Jury Prize in the World Cinema Documentary section at Sundance. It is also Denmark’s official entry into the Academy Awards. It will be released on December 3, 2021.
The Lost Daughter
Maggie Gyllenhaal makes her directorial debut with this adaptation of the Elena Ferrante novel of the same name. The film follows a college professor obsessed with a woman and her daughter whom she meets while vacationing in Italy. This passion leads her to re-examine her past. Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Dakota Johnson, Peter Sarsgaard, Paul Mescal, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, and Ed Harris star. It comes out in limited release on December 17, 2021, before its December 31 release on Netflix.
Nightmare Alley
Director Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming film Nightmare Alley is an adaptation of the novel by William Lindsay Gresham. The book was originally adapted into a 1947 movie starring Tyrone Power. The new version hosts a veritable cadre of seedy characters and follows a corrupt con-man who teams up with a female shrink to swindle patients out of their money. It stars Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Toni Collette, and other A-listers. The movie premieres on December 17, 2021.
The Tender Bar
George Clooney’s latest directorial effort is a coming-of-age movie about a boy who wants a replacement for his father, who disappeared after he was born. Throughout the movie, he bonds with his uncle and patrons of a local bar. The film stars Tye Sheridan, Daniel Ranieri, and Ron Livingston as Moehringer during three stages of his life. The Tender Bar will get a limited theatrical release on December 17, 2021, before its Amazon Prime debut on January 7, 2022.
The Tragedy of Macbeth
This marks the first film to be directed by Joel Coen, without the co-direction of his brother Ethan. This black-and-white adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic (and shortest) tragedy. Sorry if you didn’t already know The Scottish Play was a tragedy, but it’s in the title. The movie stars Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand as Lord and Lady Macbeth. The Tragedy of Macbeth’s limited theatrical release is on December 25, 2021, followed by a release on Apple TV+ on January 14, 2022.
