The Quite Nerdy Blog

Nominated for zero Oscars, as a reminder that the Academy Awards are a pointless celebration of a limited range of films. As I alluded to above the poster, Uncut Gems  is not nominated for a single Oscar at this years ceremony, which made the place I had put aside for it on my schedule seem redundant. However, we're still going through with it because I've already covered most of the big hitters (I encourage you to browse, you'll find every Best Picture nominee apart from Le Mans '66  reviewed) and I need something to fill this time. Plus, it's a great chance to talk about one of the best films of the last year, that comes to Netflix everywhere apart from America on Friday. Frankly, it is my duty to encourage people to seek it out. The story is of a jeweller named Howard Ratner, a scumbag with a real bad gambling habit and a lot of people trying to collect debts from him. He meets with Boston Celtics player Kevin Garnett and while trying to impress him, Howard...

Nominated for 6 Oscars, including Best Supporting Actress, Best Actress and Best Picture. Little Women was originally a book by Louisa May Alcott written in the 19th century and due to how beloved it is, it's been adapted many times. It was made with Katharine Hepburn in 1933, with Winona Ryder in 1994 and turned into a miniseries just three years ago with Maya Hawke. Now though, Greta Gerwig (writer and director of Lady Bird ) has delivered her interpretation on the novel and it is an utter delight to behold. I'll confess, I'm entirely unfamiliar with the story. I've never read the book and I've never seen another adaptation, so all comparisons I make exist because I've had changes explained to me by other, more knowledgeable people. Anyway, it is the story of the March sisters, told over two different time frames, seven years apart. In the first, the American Civil War still rages and the titular women are all teenagers, discovering their world. In the s...

Nominated for 10 Oscars, including Best Cinematography, Best Director and Best Picture 1917  is the latest film from Sam Mendes and seems to be primed to blow this awards season wide open. It's a film with a pretty simple story, rooted in historical reality (or so it seems to posit). Two men are in World War 1 (you'll never guess the year) and are given a task; they are to go across enemy lines to find a nearby battalion and warn them that if they charge tomorrow, thousands may die, including the brother of one of our lead soldiers. I think this is all the film needs as it provides all the motivation and deadlines we need to be compelled. We know the characters have to get to this front-line by the morning and by making it personal, it gives them even more reason to do so. Great, that is such efficient screenwriting. Sure, we've had a year of some very impressive and intricate story structures ( Uncut Gems, Parasite  and Avengers: Endgame  to name just three) but s...

Edit: this post has now been edited to reflect what I did and didn't get right. As ever, it's been a nominations list full of highs and lows, accurate guesses and total flubs. It is January, which means awards season has utterly enveloped us. Discussion time for awards worthy art films and only awards worthy art films! Honestly, looking back at the year in cinema and not even having seen all the big contenders, I am blown away by what an exceptional year we've had, which makes this prediction list even more of a pleasure than it usually is. It's the exact same format as it is every year here: I'll mark out three things that I think are fairly certain bets for nominations in their respective categories and then highlight one nomination that seems very unlikely but (at least in my opinion) is highly worthy, doubling that number at the Best Picture predictions because in theory, there could be ten nominees there. We'll also be sticking to the usual thing of me t...