Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Adapted Screenplay 2019

The Contenders:

The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit (winner)
Joker
Little Women
The Two Popes

Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Actor 2019

The Contenders:

Joaquin Phoenix: Joker (winner)
Adam Driver: Marriage Story
Leonardo DiCaprio: Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood
Antonio Banderas: Pain and Glory
Jonathan Pryce: The Two Popes

One is Too Many

Films: The Two Popes
Format: Streaming video from NetFlix on basement television.

Say what you will about NetFlix, but the company is aggressively going after talent. At least two of the Best Picture nominees from the recent Oscars were NetFlix movies (Marriage Story and The Irishman), and they are absolutely seeking top talent both in terms of actors and directors. The Two Popes was directed by Fernando Meirelles, the director who also made City of God. For the average person, that might not mean a great deal but for even casual movie fans, that’s a quality pick up.

The Two Popes is not some wacky alternate universe where there are two guys living in the Vatican sharing duties (although that would have been fun), nor is it a clash between the guy in the Vatican and the Coptic patriarch in Egypt excommunicating each other (although that would have been entertaining). No, this is the much more prosaic story of Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis. We go more or less from the death of John Paul II through to the abdication of Pope Benadryl and the election of Pope Frank. If it seems that I’m being glib, well…I am.