AARP "Grown-Up" Nominations

by Nathaniel R

 

The Two Popes leads the nominations for the 19th annual AARP "Movies for Grown-ups" Awards . The ceremony, which will also honor Annette Bening with the Career Achievement Award will be held on January 11th in Beverly Hills with Tony Danza hosting. These awards don't get much attention but we think they're worth noting each year since a good chunk of Oscar voters are in their target demographic as a magazine...

Best Picture/Best Movie for Grownups

• A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
• Bombshell
• The Farewell
• The Irishman
• Little Women
• Marriage Story
• Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
• The Two Popes

Bombshell sticks out in this crowd as 'one of these things is not like the others', doesn't it?

Best Actress

• Isabelle Huppert, Frankie
• Helen Mirren, The Good Liar
• Julianne Moore, Gloria Bell
• Alfre Woodard, Clemency
• Renée Zellweger, Judy

Since they are only honoring actors over 50, this time their Best Actress list skews non-Oscar bound with Mirren, Huppert, and Moore all cited, despite no Oscar heat for any of them. So that said, WHERE IS MARY KAY PLACE for Diane? 

Best Actor

• Antonio Banderas, Pain and Glory
• Robert De Niro, The Irishman
• Eddie Murphy, Dolemite Is My Name
• Jonathan Pryce, The Two Popes
• Adam Sandler, Uncut Gems 

Their age range cuts off the two men everyone expects are fighting for the actual Oscar: Joaquin Phoenix and Adam Driver. 

Best Supporting Actress

• Laura Dern, Marriage Story
• Nicole Kidman, Bombshell
• Jennifer Lopez, Hustlers
• Maggie Smith, Downton Abbey
• Zhao Shuzhen, The Farewell

It's kind of shocking to see Nicole Kidman being the only actor recognized for Bombshell (and you'll understand this once you see the movie) until you remember that they only honor 50+ actors and Charlize and Margot don't qualify.

Best Supporting Actor

• Jamie Foxx, Just Mercy
• Tom Hanks, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
• Anthony Hopkins, The Two Popes
• Al Pacino, The Irishman
• Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood 

No Joe Pesci or Alan Alda or Tracy Letts? That's cuz you had to have some leading men in the supporting category.

Best Director

• Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story
• Fernando Meirelles, The Two Popes
• Sam Mendes, 1917
• Martin Scorsese, The Irishman
• Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

But for the absence of Bong Joon Ho this list feels like it might happen with Oscar. Interesting to see 1917 make this list but NOT their best picture list despite 8 nominees in the other category.

Readers’ Choice

• A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
• Bombshell
• Downton Abbey
• The Irishman
• Joker
• Little Women
• Marriage Story
• Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
• Richard Jewell
• The Two Popes

 A curious category. We assume these can't be movies their readers voted on since they would not have seen some of them yet. So is this what they're assuming their readers will like? Or is this some sort of ungodly Frankenstein monster of "it was successful" films + expectations of what senior moviegoers will like around Christmas time + publicist pleas for attention? 

Best Foreign Language Film

• The Farewell (US)
• Pain & Glory (Spain)
• Parasite (South Korea)
• An Unexpected Love (Argentina)
• The Unorthodox (Israel)

Best Documentary

• The Apollo
• Apollo 11
• Ask Dr Ruth
• Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice
• Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am

Best Ensemble

• Bombshell
• Dolemite Is My Name
• Downton Abbey
• Knives Out
• Little Women

Fun lineup. SAG could do worse.  

Best Intergenerational

• A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
• Little Women
• Parasite
• The Etruscan Smile
• The Farewell

Parasite's only nomination outside of foreign? For shame AARP. 

Best Buddy Picture

• A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
• Ford v. Ferrari
• Just Mercy
• The Lighthouse
• The Two Popes

Ford V Ferrari's only nomination despite its seemingly obvious appeal to 50+ moviegoers who lived through Le Mans '66. Ouch.

Best Screenwriter

• Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story
• Kasi Lemmons, Harriet
• Anthony McCarten, The Two Popes
• Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon A Time in Hollywood
• Steven Zaillian, The Irishman

Best Time Capsule

• Harriet
• Judy
• Little Women
• Motherless Brooklyn
• Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

When you name your "period piece" category "time capsule" it kind of makes revisionist history like Once Upon a Time in Hollywood unintentionally funny. Not that Once Upon a Time isn't also intentionally funny. Also SURELY there were better options than Motherless Brooklyn? It's here where you suddenly realize anew that the whoever was doing the nominating here didn't like Ford V Ferrari very much or Jojo Rabbit or Rocketman at all. 

Comments

[Brad]

You simply cannot have a Best Ensemble category without Marriage Story and Parasite.

[Gwen]

Richard Jewell will be Oscar's surprise movie.

[TF]

Poor Annette ends up with Tony Danza as host?

[Feline Justice]

Alfre Woodard! \ o / Rooting for Renée Z, but if she doesn't win - give the Oscar to Alfre! The statuette she received for Cold Mountain has no meaning, maybe not even to herself - it's like Butterfield 8 to Eliza Taylor. What matters is Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - Judy.

[Pollyanna]

Movies For Grown-Ups. Love this "unintentional" shade. ^_~

[Se_bas_tian]

Mary Kay Place will be this year's Toni Collette (Hereditary).

[Peggy Sue]

It would have been such a lovely lineup with Mary Kay instead of Helen Mirren.

[Marcos]

I am surprised with Argentina's An Unexpected Love's nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. It's a sweet story but not award material in such a competitive "international films" field. The movie stars (who else?) Ricardo Darín and the spectacular Mercedes Morán (Neruda and The Angel are recent titles in her filmography).

[Claran]

I'm suprised by the snub of FvF in best pic & Reader's Choice..Its the kinda movie tt's rite up their alley!! lol

[Glenn Dunks]

"SAG could do worse." I think you mean SAG *will* do worse.

[FrenchToast]

Nathianel - I'm intrigued by your comment. Do you mean that Kidman's performance is so short that it's barely deserving of a nod and/or that her performance is so uninteresting that the nomination isn't justified?

[/3rtful]

Kathy Bates should have made that lineup in supporting actress but Richard Jewell might have arrived too late for consideration from them.

[Fadhil]

I cannot imagine JLo being a member of AARP