Jake's Big Ass Oscar Rundown, Part 3: Animated, Documentary, and Foreign Films

The Oscars don’t segregate comedy and drama like other award shows do but there are three specific types of film that DO warrant their own categories, so let’s give those a look!

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

Incredibles 2

Isle of Dogs

Mirai

Ralph Breaks the Internet

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Incredibles 2 is the long-awaited sequel to the Pixar classic in which our titular heroes get ready to go public with the return of supers. Isle of Dogs is Wes Anderson’s return to stop motion as quarantined dogs help a young Japanese boy reunite with his canine best friend. Mirai is also the story of a young Japanese boy as he adjusts to life with a new baby sister. Ralph Breaks the Internet sees our favorite video game “bad guy” set loose in the worldwide web. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is the story of Miles Morales, Peter Parker, Gwen Stacey and the other spider heroes of the multiverse saving their worlds.

I rather liked Mirai even though (and I fully acknowledge this is likely the result of cultural bias) Japanese animation usually doesn’t do it for me. And unless it’s Hiyao Miyazaki (Mirai isn’t), it really doesn’t seem to do it for Oscar voters either. Isle of Dogs is Wes Anderson and the Academy has seen fit to throw nominations his way but no wins to date. This category has always been dominated by Disney and Pixar. Ralph Breaks the Internet is pretty good but not as good as Wreck-It Ralph, which did not win. The Incredibles DID win and Incredibles 2 definitely stands a shot (NEVER count out Pixar), but my money and my heart are set on Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. It has an innovative animation style (which admittedly has not always paid off in this category) and a great story with fantastic characters and brilliantly accessible themes. More importantly, prediction-wise, it has won this award at a bunch of other award shows.

What Should Win: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

What Will Win: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Free Solo

Hale County This Morning, This Evening

Minding the Gap

Of Fathers and Sons

RBG

Free Solo follows Alex Honnold (whose last name amusingly is an anagram for “hold’n on,” though the movie never points this out) as he endeavors to climb El Capitan with no harness or rope. Hale County This Morning, This Evening is a collection of snapshots of black life in the titular county in Alabama. (It is available to stream as an episode of Independent Lens on PBS online.) Minding the Gap is about a trio of skateboarding friends as they grow up and deal with the cycles of abuse in their lives. (It is available to stream on Hulu.) Of Fathers and Sons followed a Syrian jihadist and his sons, who he eventually sends to a terrorist training camp. (It is available to stream on Kanopy, which is probably free for you if you have a library card.) RBG chronicles the life and career of the left’s favorite Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. (It is also available to stream on Hulu.)

Hale County This Morning, This Evening is a beautiful meditation but lacks a narrative (not in a full on Koyaanisqatsi way, though director RaMell Ross has cited Godfrey Reggio’s Qatsi Trilogy as an inspiration). People like narratives and while the nomination is certainly encouraging, I’m not banking on the Academy going so outside the box as to what constitutes documentary filmmaking. Of Fathers and Sons left me cold. Maybe it’s my personal bias that I have a very low tolerance for religious fundamentalism at home or abroad. I recognize that one must endeavor to understand their ideological opponents, but I had to fight the urge to check my phone constantly. It is not my prediction but RBG is a pretty strong contender because just how fucking important the Supreme Court is is constantly being hammered home in the news and Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s importance in particular is especially crucial and OH MY GOD PLEASE DON’T DIE!!! *Ahem* sorry about that. Anyway, it’s the type of feel-good profile that would normally make for a front-runner were it not for this year’s competition.

Minding the Gap is my personal favorite in the category. The power of this movie moved me to tears. Bing Liu has become the documentarian whose next work I anticipate the most (suck it, Alex Gibney!). But the Academy is surely going to reward the astounding spectacle of Free Solo. It’s absolutely thrilling. People have had anxiety attacks watching this man climb mountains one tiny mistake or bit of bad luck away from plunging to his death. I 100% know that (at the time of this writing anyway) Alex Honnold is still alive, but god damn watching him it seems almost impossible that he WON’T die in this movie. The movie almost has a built-in making-of story too so the lengths the crew went to in order to film these death-defying acts will be especially highlighted in the voters’ brains. Lives of quiet desperation may make for more emotionally devastating works of art but thrilling acts of intense risk win Oscars. (Just ask Phillip Petit.)

What Should Win: Minding the Gap

What Will Win: Free Solo

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Capernaum (Lebanon)

Cold War (Poland)

Never Look Away (Germany)

Roma (Mexico)

Shoplifters (Japan)

Capernaum is the story of a young boy stuck in inescapable poverty who sues his parents for having him in the first place. Cold War is about a troubled romance that takes place on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Never Look Away follows an artist and his life and career in Nazi Germany, communist East Germany, and eventually West Germany. Best Picture nominee Roma is the story of Cleo, a housekeeper for a wealthy family who falls pregnant by her deadbeat boyfriend. Shoplifters is about an informal “family” of… well, shoplifters.

I liked Never Look Away much more than I was led to believe I would, but it is still three-plus hours of obvious German Oscar bait and I think that kind of transparent aspiration kills its chances. Shoplifters is a beautiful film that might have won another year. Capernaum wowed me with one of the best child performances I have ever seen from Zain al Rafeea. It is in neck-in-neck competition for my favorite of the category, but it’s so bleak I feel a lot of Oscar voters will unfairly write it off as “misery porn.”. If you just showed me this category and none of the others, I would probably pick Cold War as the obvious winner. It’s an absorbing story set against history (though less ostentatiously than Never Look Away) and is one of the most visually beautiful films of the year. Everything this category loves. But let’s be real: ONLY ONE OF THESE FILMS IS ALSO NOMINATED FOR BEST PICTURE (with a decent shot of winning). And damn if Roma isn’t another masterpiece from one of our greatest living filmmakers. (¡Viva Mexico!) Every shot is beautiful, the acting superb. Personal opinions may vary, but predicting this category seems a slam dunk.

What Should Win: Roma

What Will Win: Roma

That wraps up Part 3. I will be back again to go through the so-called “technical” categories that shape the way a film looks and sounds. Until then…