The Blank Press
AARON BILGRAD MOVIE AWARDS 2021
BEST MOVIE TO BENEFIT FROM THE DEATH OF 500,000 PEOPLE: TIGER KING
As of this writing, the Covid19 pandemic has killed over 500,000 people in this country. Back in the early days of this worldwide horror, when I called people to extend my painful condolences over the loss of their dearly loved family member or friend, through their mourning, they would express a hurtful and angry sadness for the irresponsible behavior of many Americans that contributed to the unnecessary sickness and heartache of so many… then they would ask if I had seen Tiger King.
About a week or so into the official national quarantine, Netflix released Tiger King and heavily promoted it on their home page. As everyone was now stuck inside and “forced to watch a lot of TV” (an oft-repeated refrain of many people, as if not for the forced lockdown, they would be partaking in their normal leisure activities of planting trees in Israel or developing devices to rid the earth of all pollutants), they clicked on Tiger King as some type of guilty pleasure. While the documentary is entertaining in some respects, in any other time, this documentary series would likely have been buried and forgotten by whatever auto-played at the end of your screening. But, because of Covid and Trump’s “15-Days To Slow The Spread”, seemingly EVERYONE watched this (even the coronavirus watched Tiger King). It became not part of the zeitgeist, but THE zeitgeist. If America put a fraction of effort into being less angry about wearing masks instead of whether Carole Baskin killed her husband, more people would be alive, theater chains might not be out of business, and we might have been able to go see more movies this year. Instead, the nation cared deeply and about toothless folk who illegally encaged tigers, and cared very little for each other.
BEST MOVIE IN WHICH THE COST OF A TICKET WAS MURDERING YOURSELF: TENET
Spoiler: I did not see this movie because I did not want to die. In the summer of 2020, all of the major studios found themselves in a predicament: If it was extraordinarily unsafe and potentially deadly for people to be in a poorly ventilated indoor theater, how could they make money from the hugely expensive summer blockbuster films they made? Well, this is why big executives at film studios get paid millions of dollars — for when there is a difficult economic situation to solve, these executives must come up with the creative business solutions they learned from their Masters programs and years of experience. After putting their heads together, they thought the best course of action would be releasing some of their movies in a poorly ventilated theater during the emergence of a a once-in-a-lifetime killer virus that does its best killing indoors.
To test the waters, they thought the best movie that could draw people out of their homes and to an increased chance of death would be a confusing mind-bending thriller. It seems obvious that with the climbing infection rates and death toll, that this would be the perfect time to launch an expensive marketing blitz on television. They also banked on the theoretical quality of the film, expecting word of mouth to spread as fast as the California fires. Here is an example of the positive word-of-mouth discourse they expected to occur:
MAVERICK IDIOT: “Dude, you gotta go see Tenet!”
TRULY STUPID BUDDY: “Really? I heard it’s kinda weird”
MAVERICK IDIOT: “That’s what makes it great! It really makes you think!”
TRULY STUPID BUDDY: “Hmm — actually sounds good. We only really leave the house for absolutely essential things like groceries and doctor appointments, but I’ll talk to my wife, as this really sounds like the type of movie we should murder ourselves over and leave our kids as orphans. And sure, we might contract Covid and murder others too, but since Tenet is from the makers of “The Dark Knight”, seems worth it.
The business situation surrounding the release of this film centered around the idea that Warner Brothers needed to do something to recoup the $100,000,000 it spent on the movie, and releasing the movie made sense to all of the shareholders and analysts. But nobody asked the very simple question… “Why did you spend $100,000,000 on Tenet?”. Remember, it’s also ok NOT to make Tenet. Or, you can make 10 small mind-bending thrillers for $10million each, which could each be creative visions in their own right, and might actually bring back some of the originality to what we loved about the movies. Instead, they assumed you would overlook the very value of your own life, disregard your feelings about those you love, and dismiss the potential of your own future because Tenet was “SHOT ON IMAX!”
BEST MOVIE IN WHICH IT SEEMS THAT THE ACTUAL PEOPLE FEATURED AS THE SUBJECTS OF THE MOVIES FIRST AGREE TO NETFLIX & AMAZON DEVELOPMENT DEALS BEFORE COMMITTING HEINOUS CRIMINAL ACTS AGAINST HUMANITY: JEFFREY EPSTEIN: FILTHY RICH – AMERICAN MURDER: THE FAMILY NEXT DOOR (THE CHRIS WATTS STORY) — KILLER INSIDE: THE MIND OF AARON HERNANDEZ
Documentaries used to be heavily researched human interest pieces. A filmmaker would pursue a story that they felt deeply passionate about. They would dedicate years of their life to capturing their subject (usually a person, family, or group of people) that they wanted to deeply mine in order to find the true essence of humanity that, if not for this particular documentary, the world would not otherwise not be exposed to. Think of the 90s hit-documentary Hoop Dreams, in which the filmmaker followed two inner-city kids from 6th grade until graduation (and beyond) in order to capture the organic spirit of wanting to escape impoverished situations and broken family life through their dream of playing professional basketball. The filmmaker not only followed the two students, but also showcased their families to give the viewer a comprehensive vision of a small, but very real slice of life.
Now, it seems like every murderer or despicable super villain agrees to a development deal with Hulu ahead of committing their actual crimes. This way, their vile acts will be properly profiled and exhibited to me while I eat Chipotle. These are not bad documentaries per se, but they’re also not exactly good, or even authentic documentaries for that matter. They are created so Amazon Prime has a reason to charge me for their streaming service, and I can have something to watch to… “escape”. But is learning of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking or Chris Watts murder of his entire family an “escape”? Perhaps. But it feels like an underlying correlation exists between the fact that these crimes exist and America’s overwhelming demand to consume more information about the story.
I remember when the Chris Watts murder investigation broke on the news, and it was revealed that he tried to cover up murdering his own wife and kids. The public gravitated to the story due to the relatable “it could be YOUR neighbor” factor. And thus, in hindsight, it seems to make perfect sense that there was a documentary sold to and distributed by Netflix just a little more than 18 months later. Hoop Dreams took 7 years to make, but a story of a man murdering his family was cobbled together and ready for the public to consume as entertainment almost immediately. Even documentaries like this can take a year to produce, film, and edit. So I’m certainly being presumptuous here, but it seems like the deal to turn the story into an 82-minute feature documentary must have happened pretty quickly. Since Netflix is profiting in a major way off of this type of content, it only feels fair that they should make significant charitable contributions to organizations that are trying to solve mental health issues or stop sex trafficking or draft less evil tight ends.
We have almost come to expect that if there is a terrible crime, we will soon consume and relive it via Netflix (although with elegantly shot interviews and a tingly score) And then, when the movies end, Netflix will show us some other vicious murder stories (that actually happened and had real and awful pain involved) that we, to use their vernacular, “might like”.
AND HERE ARE THE BEST MOVIES I SAW THIS YEAR IN DESCENDING ORDER:
Note: Did any movies actually come out this year? I feel woefully unprepared to write this, as I only watched what new movies went straight to streaming. I’m not even sure what is considered a “movie” anymore. But, from what I did see, these were the best:
13) BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM
It feels fitting to start the list with this movie, as the fact that this movie received Oscar nominations shows the Academy didn’t have much to choose from. But, the Borat humor is quite timely and necessary now, and I was impressed that, somehow, this movie had a heart to it.
12) DON’T F**K WITH CATS: HUNTING AN INTERNET KILLER
I know it seems like I just flipped through Netflix this past year, but in the interest of integrity, I really do think about the ranking of this list and what deserves to be on it. My enjoyment of this documentary may seem hypocritical given my criticism of other similar Netflix documentaries mentioned above, but it is more about how lonely people came together over seeing someone kill a cat on YouTube. They pooled their resources and dedicated years of their time sleuthing to find a killer. The profane title is purely for sensational marketing purposes, but the documentary is well made, and the story truly unique, gripping and worth watching.
11) LET THEM ALL TALK
A casual movie directed by Steven Soderbergh about a woman (Meryl Streep) who takes a cruise with her son and old friends en route to her European book tour. The drama is subtle, but authentic, and I enjoy how Soderbergh doesn’t use any music to score the dialogue scenes. In many modern movies, there is often an obtrusive musical score to direct the viewer as to what they should be feeling during a scene. Soderbergh just lets the scenes and character interactions play out, allowing the viewer to decide how they want to process it.
10) BILL AND TED FACE THE MUSIC
I might be the only person who watched this movie (and I bought it so I own it digitally for eternity). It’s far from great, but I was happy it existed. I saw the original Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure in the theater and rented it many times in the 90s. The characters are charming, but, more notably, I always loved the mythology they created about 2 idiot teenagers who will theoretically write a song that will save humanity. Thus, in Excellent Adventure, it was paramount that they passed their history test in order to maintain the order of the universe (I thought this was a far more interesting, imaginative, playful, and likable mythology than the much more popular and earnest Star Wars mythology that people drool over). Unfortunately, the 1991 sequel, Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, was terrible, and since Keanu Reeves became a big movie star, they never finished the mythology… until now. For that reason alone, it’s worth seeing, and the feel good ending made me nostalgic. However, I’m very sentimental, and I had a sense of melancholy after I watched it, because it felt like the ending of the Bill & Ted series also felt like the end of a youthful chapter in my life too.
9) DA 5 BLOODS
Spike Lee’s present-day Vietnam movie about veteran soldiers who return to the country to search for a lost treasure. I don’t take the Oscars very seriously, but Delroy Lindo not being nominated is ridiculous. (As a side note, for fans of the series The Wire, it’s always interesting that the actor Isiah Whitlock (who plays Senator Clay Davis), whenever he is in a Spike Lee movie (he’s also in Chi-Raq), or most of the movies he’s in, he plays the respective character of the film he’s currently in, but he also simultaneously plays Clay Davis from The Wire and utters his famously sustained “Sheeeeeeit” line (even though his current character would have no idea or even conceive of saying “Shit” like “Sheeeeeeeit”. Does Whitlock’s character in Da 5 Bloods theoretically watch The Wire? It’s so meta (and cool, because I want to see him do it, even though it always takes me out of the film, but it’s still somehow makes the movie better because he says it). As a bonus moment at end of the film, after the credits, the whole cast and crew says “Sheeeeeit” together, so I’m not crazy for thinking that Spike Lee might agree with my point about Isiah Whitlock’s duality in all of cinema.
8) THE LAST DANCE
This Michael Jordan documentary also benefited from being, essentially, the only sports content that people had to watch during Covid. However, this one is actually an excellent 80s/90s time capsule that meticulously detailed Jordan’s rise to greatness in a creative and very entertaining fashion. The parts in which they show Jordan watching (and laughing at ) what other people say about him are just perfect. You can watch an example HERE in which Jordan hilariously reacts to the Seattle Sonic’s Gary Payton confidently saying he could have shut Jordan down in the championship.
7) THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7
Aaron Sorkin delivers another very engaging script and the cast is so good that there is almost too much charisma on screen. That sounds like a bit much, but I mean it. I became literally distracted when I discovered, after an already abundant amount of good performances, that Michael Keaton was also in the movie. For a moment, I ignored what the scene was about and said to myself, “This is too much charisma — they need to tone it down and perhaps cast less interesting actors like Johnny Depp or George Clooney”.
6) THE 40-YEAR OLD VERSION
Rahda Blank delivers a simple, albeit very funny and original movie about a struggling play-wright who decides to become a rapper. Many new filmmakers get pretentiously touted as a ” fresh new voice in cinema”, but this time it’s actually true.
5) MANK
An excellent and timely piece by David Fincher about the classic Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz with a script by Fincher’s late father. It also serves as a smart allegory about propaganda in an election year. I even rewatched Citizen Kane before watching this, so effort points for me.
4) NOMADLAND
This movie caught a lot of flack for being dull, but it truly is an erudite vision of living life without a permanent home. I watched it, ready to dislike it, but that didn’t happen. It’s an impressive execution, as the filmmaker, Chloe Zhao, places Frances McDormand among mostly real nomadic people living in the back of their vans and trailers — many of them working real part-time physical labor jobs where they can find it. The musical score is also quite beautiful, and, in my subjective opinion, as a fun small detail, there are subtle very anti-Amazon undertones to the movie that feel very courageous (given that Amazon most likely had to give their permission to film scenes in their warehouses). It’s impressive that the filmmaker could get Amazon’s permission, and then use the opportunity to criticize how poorly Amazon treats their workers.
3) I’LL BE GONE IN THE DARK
A documentary on HBO Max about Michelle McNamara’s multi-year pursuit to unearth the identify of the Golden State Killer from the late 70s/early 80s before her premature death (partially caused by her unhealthy obsession for catching the killer). In the film, Michelle identifies that a portion of her motivation to catch this guy is that no attention was paid to this horrible rapist/killer because all the press and resources went to the more famous Zodiac killer. Her obsession, along with other amateur sleuths and real detectives is quite inspiring insofar that she dedicates basically every ounce of her time tracking this guy down (when police had completely given up on the case decades ago). The documentary series is nuanced and detailed, and the Aimee Mann version of Leonard Cohen’s “Avalanche” sets such a haunting tonal beginning to each portion of the documentary.
2) SOUND OF METAL
In High School, I was also a heavy metal drummer and I barely wore earplugs. I was always scared of hearing loss, but I also wanted to feel the powerfully loud sounds when our band covered Megadeth’s “Countdown To Extinction”. So I was dubious of this movie, as I thought a story about a metal drummer who goes deaf was a going to be trite and bit too ‘by the book’. However, the ‘learn-to-be-deaf’ storyline is simply an allegory for living with, adjusting to, and being at peace with whatever major weaknesses we each have. Riz Ahmed is great, but Paul Raci as the mentor figure is wonderful and should win the supporting actor Oscar. The sound design of the movie takes you inside the experience of being deaf and the imperfect world of cochlear implants, and the final few scenes and character moments of the movie beautifully accomplish the very difficult cinematic task of being heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time.
1) SMALL AXE: EDUCATION
I still don’t know what qualifies as a movie anymore, but as “Education” is a stand alone film inside an anthology series (the fifth and final film in the Small Axe series on Amazon Prime), I think it counts. And “Education” is the very best and most brilliant piece of cinema I saw this year. Writer/Director Steve McQueen paints a portrait here about a topic that is not often approached in movies: the value of education, how some kids, mostly communities of color, are shielded from receiving even a bare minimum education, and the perilous consequences that result from an overall lack of an education. With the exception of the genius Season 4 of The Wire, there have not been too many filmic commentaries on education. Movies have been made about schools, but it’s largely about some teacher who comes into a poor school and inspires the students to believe in themselves. Small Axe Education is about how the school system can completely fail our youth, how quick society is willing to discard failed students, and, more notably, the lack of self-esteem that arises from simply being uneducated. This is a relatively short film, but each scene provides an impact. Not one scene is wasted. I often criticize the mechanics of school, as I mostly thought school was a slog of countless tests, essays, projects and hours and hours of homework. But this movie made me not take for granted and truly appreciate the importance of an education.
It’s a common refrain in our society to say “education is important”, but there is not much talk in school of WHY education is important. I think there is a disconnect between student and educator on this point. Not because some degree makes you smarter than someone else, but that without receiving vital general knowledge, one’s very sense of self-worth can completely crumble, setting them on a path for, at best, basic survival in a very competitive society. Additionally, everyone knows that they should read more, but many take for granted that they even have the ability to read (as this movie points out that knowing how to read is absolutely not a given, and if you don’t learn to read, it’s possible that nobody will ever care if you do — including your own family).
I wish Hollywood (or anybody) would make more movies about unique, interesting, and important topics, and channel these concepts through an artistic lens of rich characters that provide an emotional impact that could legitimately provoke change. However, until this happens, I’m sure I will be forced to choose among the 49 documentaries about the Covid19 experience that Netflix will inevitably release later this year.
To read Aaron Bilgrad Movie Awards from past years, click HERE