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.