THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 57 NOVEMBER 6, 2019
Illustration by Mario ZuccaRHYS, HELLER, NEIGHBORHOOD OF MAKE-BELIEVE, HEALY: LACEY TERRELL/SONY. LIVING ROOM, MINIATURE: JADE HEALY/SONY.1 An Esquire
journalist (Matthew
Rhys) peers into the
model town on the
set of Mister Rogers’
Neighborhood.
2 Pittsburgh,
depicted in an
intricate
miniature model.
3 The whimsical
Neighborhood of
Make-Believe.
4 A Beautiful Day in
the Neighborhood
director Marielle
Heller and star Tom
Hanks, who plays
Fred Rogers, relax
on the steps of the
on-set house.
5 Mister Rogers’
cozy on-set
living room.
select indie theaters Nov. 1, it was unable
to reach an agreement with major cinema
chains such as AMC and Cineplex: It
wanted to stream the film starting Nov. 27.
In a New York Times interview, NATO pres-
ident John Fithian slammed the company,
saying, “The Irishman is going to play on
one-tenth of the screens it should have
played on.”
Will voters see it in a theater? No, says
one Academy member, even if it means
sacrificing the immersive experience
Scorsese has so passionately touted,
especially in recent comments bashing
Marvel’s superhero films. Most observers
believe Roma was hurt by being viewed
on a TV even more than by its black-and-
white images or subtitles.
Marriage Story is as personal as the
Scorsese film is panoramic. But, says
another Academy voter, only one feature
centered on divorce has ever been named
best picture — and, he asks, “Is this one
as good as Kramer vs. Kramer?” That 1979
drama, starring Dustin Hoffman and Meryl
Streep, won five Oscars despite depicting
its leading lady in a harsh light.
Audiences in the post-#MeToo era
may have trouble accepting a movie that
largely takes the man’s point of view,
especially if rivals dredge up comparisons
to the real-life split between Baumbach
and his ex-wife, Jennifer Jason Leigh, on
which the picture is loosely based. That
kind of negative campaigning has dented
contenders in the past.
The Two Popes faces a similar issue.L
ast September, Netflix’s Roma, Alfonso
Cuarón’s Spanish-language period
piece, staked its place as the frontrunner
for the best picture Oscar after win-
ning the Golden Lion at the Venice Film
Festival, the first in a battery of victories
that looked likely to climax at the Academy
Awards. In the end, of course, the movie
fell short, earning laurels for director,
cinematographer and foreign-language
film but being outflanked for best picture
by that feel-good drama Green Book, a
movie helmed by Peter Farrelly, a cineaste
more famous for Dumb and Dumber than
awards entries.
Now Netflix is back, this time with three
heavyweight contenders.
Foremost among them is The Irishman
from director Martin Scorsese and the
power combo of Robert De Niro, Al Pacino
and Joe Pesci. Ten years in the works, the
picture cost $160 million and is toplined by
a team (including writer Steven Zaillian)
that can boast six Oscars among them.
It’s vintage Scorsese, a throwback to such
admired works as 1990’s GoodFellas and
1995’s Casino and a far cry from his most
recent endeavor, the spiritually thick but
dramatically thin Silence.
Should Irishman fall short, Netflix has
two beefy backups: Noah Baumbach’s
Marriage Story, the portrait of a divorce
starring Scarlett Johansson and Adam
Driver; and The Two Popes, director
Fernando Meirelles’ dialogue between
two pontiffs, featuring Jonathan Pryce
(Francis I) and Anthony Hopkins
(Benedict XVI).
Combine these films’ budgets and they
might give even Marvel cause for concern;
add up Netflix’s spend on the campaigns
(rivals cite numbers deep into eight fig-
ures) and it makes Roma’s outlay look like
lunch money. Still, none of these titles is
without challenges for a company that has
made winning best picture the sine qua
non of its movie ambitions.
The most notable obstacle is Irishman’s
209-minute length, nine more than 2003’s
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the
King (the longest best-picture winner
of the 21st century) and a half-hour less
than the longest winner in history, 1939’s
Gone With the Wind (three hours and 58
minutes). But as one marketing executive
notes, “People sit at home and watch 12
hours of The Crown, so why not this?”
So far, that doesn’t seem to have
deterred voters. When the film made
its Academy debut Oct. 26, the Samuel
Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills was
almost full and Scorsese was greeted with
a standing ovation (attendees differ on the
enthusiasm shown for the picture itself).
While Netflix released The Irishman inThree Irishmen, Two Popes
and One Divorce
With awards-campaign spending running deep into eight figures for three heavyweight films,
Netflix is going all in for the hardware it covets the most: the best picture OscarWhile writer Anthony McCarten (who’s
made a specialty of historical charac-
ters, such as Darkest Hour’s Winston
Churchill) claims the two top-ranked
clergymen had three recorded meet-
ings before Argentine cardinal Jorge
Bergoglio ascended the Vatican throne,
experts on Roman Catholicism will likely
poke holes at his rose-hued view of
their relationship — especially following
Benedict’s much-discussed 6,000-word
April epistle, which was widely perceived
as an attack on Francis.
All these candidates have bolted out of
the gate fast thanks to positive word-of-
mouth and festival acclaim. Irishman has
also benefited from an unusual full-court
press from its director and stars, who
not only were highly visible at the Oct. 27
Governors Awards but also graced a
weekend packed with guild screenings,
roundtables and even a private showing
for Jerry Seinfeld and his pals.
Soon they’ll have to take on rivals such
as Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, whose
leads have largely been MIA, except for
attending the Governors Awards and
doing a Nov. 1 live-stream Q&A. Netflix
also has to consider how the Academy’s
newly enlarged voting membership of
8,628 will play out in the final result.
But first Scorsese will have to convince
voters to sit through his movie; Baumbach
will have to persuade them that his film is
fiction and not fact; and Meirelles will have
to do the opposite: argue credibly that his
picture is fact and not fiction.THE RACE | STEPHEN GALLOWAY