Rolling Stone - USA (2020-02)

88 | Rolling Stone | February 2020

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Pryce as Pope Francis in The

Two Popes, and Christian

Bale as race-car driver Ken

Miles in Ford v Ferrari. The

age span ranged from Robert

De Niro, 76, expressing the

tragic lessons of a criminal

lifetime in The Irishman to

Roman Griffin Davis, 12,

finding the redemptive pluck

of a child who busts out

of the Hitler Youth in Jojo

Rabbit. The Academy allows

only five nominees in acting

categories. Why?! Nominate

a dozen actors if they merit

it, and only one or two in a

weak year. Get real.

Best Actress

Despite Scarlett Johansson

giving her all in Marriage

Story — ditto Saoirse Ronan

in Little Woman — all the fuss

is about Renée Zellweger

nailing the acting and singing

required to play a fluttering

Judy Garland in her agonizing

final days in Judy. Biopics get

attention: Witness Cynthia

Erivo as abolitionist Harriet

Tubman in Harriet and

Charlize Theron morphing

into TV journalist Megyn

Caption

here corit

audi od

Pedro Almodóvar in Pain and

Glory. The year brimmed

over with knockout male

performances: Adam Sandler

showed his dramatic chops

in Uncut Gems. Eddie Murphy

proved he never lost the

funny in Dolemite Is My Name.

Newcomer George MacKay

roared with potential in 1917.

And megastar Leonardo

DiCaprio excelled as a fading

TV actor (as if ) in Once Upon

a Time... in Hollywood.

Biopics brought out the best

in Taron Egerton as Elton

John in Rocketman, Jonathan

Best Actor

You might say that no actor in

2019 topped Joaquin Phoenix

in Joker, as the virtuoso

reveals the bruised psyche

of a vigilante rising from a

world without empathy. Still,

there’s a solid argument for

a three-way tie, given the

staggering emotional scale

of Adam Driver in Marriage

Story, as a theater director

who nearly breaks on the

bumpy road to divorce, and

a soulful Antonio Banderas

playing a version of his

illness-plagued film mentor

F

EBRUARY IS the month

Oscar issues the final

word on the year in

movies. But is winning one of

those neutered golden boys

really a measure of creativity?

The 92-year-old Academy tra-

ditionally denies its big prize

to sci-fi, horror, comic-book,

and foreign-language films.

And, oh, yeah, Netflix. Only

one woman (Kathryn Bigelow)

has ever won for directing.

People of color always have it

tough. So screw Oscar bias and

let’s celebrate what really cuts

it in 10 major categories.

The Cast of Parasite: Choi Woo-shik, Kang-ho,

Chang Hyae-jin, and Park So-dam (from left)

Raising

the Bar:

J. Lo defies

the odds in

Hustlers.

Banderas

in Pain and

Glory

Tour de Force:

Phoenix in Joker

Double

Threat:

Nyong’o

nails a dual

role in Us.

FORGET OSCAR:

HERE’S TO THE

REAL WINNERS

Take note, Academy — our picks for the truly

groundbreaking films and performers of 2019