Doc Corner: Ranking the Documentary Short Nominees from Least to Most Depressing

By Glenn Dunks

We have done this very particular ranking twice before now. Does that make it a tradition? We have only had to skip one year (2017) of Best Documentary (Short Subject) nominees because that year’s batch were a happy lot for a change.

This year’s nominees for what is often the most dour of categories could have certainly been darker – trust me, I’ve seen the other films that were shortlisted. They didn't nominate the one about murderous street gangs or the one about the humanitarian crisis following Hurricane Maria! Still, there are big themes among this year’s strong selection of titles (although it must be said, the feature category is far superior): we are taken from a warzone in Afghanistan to a man-made tragedy in South Korea, refugee stories from Vietnam to Sweden, and back to the streets of Missouri.

The nominees are:

In the Absence
Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl)
Life Overtakes Me
St. Louis Superman
Walk Run Cha-Cha

Let’s take a deeper look…

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The Cinematic Redemption of Amy March

by Cláudio Alves

Greta Gerwig's Little Women is a bold adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's beloved classic in more ways than one. Structurally, it shatters the novel's chronology, making past and present, childhood and adulthood, talk to each other in a dialogue of echoes and rhymes. For instance, when Jo loses a sister in the wintery coldness of the present, Gerwig marries the moment to the memory of another kind of sisterly loss, when a wedding in warm colors was a harbinger of future loneliness for the heroine. Another element that makes this new adaptation so radically different from the previous ones is its treatment of Jo's sisters. No longer are Meg, Beth, and Amy March relegated to the periphery of the text. This 19th-century classic is called Little Women, after all, not Little Woman.

When it comes to its portrayal of Amy, the novel's most condemned character, the 2019 film is of particular innovation. We could almost say this Little Women redeems Amy March after centuries of villainizing her…

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Podcast: a conversation about list-making and polarizing Best Pictures

with Nathaniel R & Nick Davis

On this week's podcast, we check in with Nick Davis as he completes his "top 100 of the decade" list and also discuss the Oscar race, the shortened season, and the more polarizing nominees for Best Picture. 

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

Making Lists and Best Pictures

Soundtracking: Diane Warren's 11 Nominations

by Chris Feil

This year, songwriting legend Diane Warren scored her 11th nomination. Readers, er, listeners will know her stamp on big ballads and pop music from as far ranging of legendary artists from Celine Dion to Cher to Mariah Carey. Ballading has mostly been the name of her game, and she's one of the greatest contributors to the past quarter century of pop music because of it.

Despite her legendary status, recent years have had some Oscar obsessives confusing her Oscar history for an entirely sour one. It's true that this year's Breakthrough nomination shows a music branch defaulting to her good name (without yet offering a win) all while sometimes overlooking more prominent work such as Burlesque or even A Star is Born's butt song. Yet what also remains true is that she is one of the great unawarded yet multinominated crafts artists among Oscar history. If music is essential to our relationship to movies, then she's written so many of our memories.

To celebrate Warren, here's a ranking of her 11 Original Song nominations...

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Happy 50th to Heather Graham

Happy half century to the one & only Rollergirl!

We were so obsessed with Boogie Nights when it came out that the characters were as real to us as the stars playing them. We haven't seen much of Graham lately -- she was sadly missing from the Twin Peaks reunion series despite her character (Annie Blackburn) still being officially alive and in a mysteriously non-aging catatonic state when last we heard news of her --  but she has three movies in post-production currently including the thriller Wander (2020) with Tommy Lee Jones and Aaron Eckhart. 

What's your favourite Graham role from the 90s... and were you a fan of Annie Blackburn on Twin Peaks?