Despite the many films in release this year, there are just a small handful that are actually good movies. Of course, it’s a matter of taste; everyone has their own. I once asked an Academy member years ago how they awarded Best Picture and he said to me, “We pick the best picture.” What he meant was that they choose what they like the best. You’d be surprised how people prioritize their vote, especially now.
I haven’t come close to seeing everything yet but there is no question that Clint Eastwood has made not just one of the best films of the year — by a country mile — but one of the best films of his career with Juror #2. It’s amazing to watch someone who really knows how to direct a movie well. You almost forget by now that it is a skill that can take decades to master. He has mastered it and it shows with this perfect, lean, brilliant film.
Eastwood is a master class in every respect, and he’s doing it in his 90s, which is all the more remarkable. We have old timers delivering their epics this year, those that were self-financed, like Kevin Costner’s Horizon and Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis and while I respect their ambition and their right to tell a story any way they want, it is the kind of discipline Eastwood conveys that makes for the best films. His concern is to tell the story. That’s it. And he’s knocked it out of the park here. The man has not lost a step and his ability and talent should be studied for decades.
Juror #2 is a Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and maybe Actor and Supporting Actress (JK Simmons needs a bigger part for Supporting Actor, though he is, as usual, great). This ensemble is acting at its finest, with no weak link in the chain.
What surprised me most about the film is that it is a movie I can recommend to anyone from anywhere of any age or demographic. That means there are signs of life in Hollywood. It hasn’t been completely suffocated by Invasion of the Body Snatchers. It isn’t the only movie this year that is a universal story. But it should be considered one of the strongest films made this year. Clint Eastwood be honored with a nomination, which he deserves.
One thing that makes Juror #2 so good, and probably among the reasons it stands out, is that Eastwood is old school. He doesn’t feel the need to write his own script. He relies instead on what has to be among the best screenplays written this year by Jonathan A. Abrams.
Almost all of the films in the Oscar race this year were written and directed by the same person. It’s tough to get both of those things right. Usually someone is good at one or the other, not both. Filmmakers like Sean Baker and Coralie Fargeat writing the screenplay is necessary because their films are immersive in their world-building.
Anora – Written/Directed by Sean Baker
Conclave — Written by Peter Straughan/Directed by Edward Berger
Emilia Perez — Written/Directed by Jaques Audiard
The Brutalist Written/Directed by Brady Corbet
Dune 2 — written by Denis Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts
A Real Pain Written/Directed by Jesse Eisenberg
Sing Sing — Written by Greg Kwedar and Clint Bentley/Directed by Greg Kwedar
Gladiator II — Written by David Scarpa / Directed by Ridley Scott
Nickel Boys — Written/Directed by RaMell Ross
September 5 — Written by Tim Fehlbaum, Moritz Binder, Alex David/Directed by Tim Fehlbaum
Saturday Night — Written/Directed by Jason Reitman
The Substance — Written/Directed by Coralie Fargeat
Hard Truths –Written/Directed by Mike Leigh
All We Imagine as Light — Written/Directed by Payal Kapadia
The Piano Lesson — Written by Virgil Williams, Malcolm Washington/Directed by Malcolm Washington
Queer — Written by Justin Kuritzkes/Directed by Luca Guadagnino
It’s a richer experience if you are bringing together two different worlds when you make a movie – that of the writer and that of the director. It is very rare for the Academy to award someone who wrote an original screenplay, picture, director, or screenplay. It rarely happens. So predicting Sean Baker to win both Director and Screenplay, as many are, is probably a prediction that won’t pan out.
What I loved about Juror #2 is that it is a great example of a director who allows the writing and the acting to shine through and doesn’t feel the need to show off. Right away we are pulled into the story because Nicolas Hault gives a strong performance as the lead and the writing pulls us in immediately by making things hard on the protagonist. Every good film will start that way. We want to know what the problem is and whether the problem will be solved.
In this case, Hoult’s character is serving on the jury. As he’s watching the case unfold he realizes that he’s serving on a jury that has convicted the wrong man. How does he know this? because he is the man who killed the woman (this isn’t a spoiler – it’s in the trailer). But that’s just the beginning. He’s also struggling with sobriety. His wife has a high-risk pregnancy. He needs to prove his worth. Every character in the film is grappling with something. The harder the writer makes it on the characters, the more involved we become.
Juror #2 should be taught in film schools as to how you make a good movie and how you tell a good story. Whether or not people will watch the film and whether Academy voters will understand exactly what they have here with this late-stage masterwork by Eastwood is a different story. There is a good chance they won’t notice it at all. I don’t see much in the way of publicity for it. It isn’t dropping on streaming until January. The critics won’t seem motivated to boost the film since Eastwood’s just another “old white guy.” But the art of the thing still matters. Eastwood has taken us all the way there.
The Gate Crashers Update
The second installment of the Gate Crashers has updated. We have two new members, my old friend Michael Grei and author and journalist John Nolte. Here are the majors categories and you can see the rest by clicking the image below.
You can see all of our predictions and our members by heading over to the Gatecrashers page, here.
Here are my predictions for this week, which you can also find on my Gate Crashers page here.
Best Picture
1. Anora
2. Conclave
3. The Brutalist
4. Emilia Perez
5. Dune Part Two
6. Sing Sing
7. The Substance
8. A Real Pain
9. Sept 5
10. Juror #2
Alt: Wicked, Blitz, Saturday Night, All We Imagine as Light
Best Director
1. Sean Baker, Anora
2. Edward Berger, Conclave
3. Brady Corbet, The Brutalist
4. Coralie Fargeat, The Substance
5. Clint Eastwood, Juror #2
Alt: Jaques Audiard, Emilia Perez, Denis Villenueve, Dune Part Two
Best Actor
1. Ralph Fiennes, Conclave
2. Colman Domingo, Sing Sing
3. Adrien Brody, The Brutalist
4. Timothee Chalamet, A Complete Unknown
5. Daniel Craig, Queer
Alt. Nicolas Hoult, Juror #2
Best Actress
1. Mikey Madison, Anora
2. Karla Sofia Gascon, Emilia Perez
3. Demi Moore, The Substance
4. Nicole Kidman, Babygirl
5. Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Hard Truths
Alt: Cynthia Erivo, Wicked
Best Supporting Actora
1. Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain
2. Adam Pearson, A Different Man
3. Denzel Washington, Gladiator II
4. Samuel L. Jackson, The Piano Lesson
5. Jeremy Strong, The Apprentice
Alt. Stanley Tucci, Conclave
Best Supporting Actress
1. Zoe Saldana, Emilia Perez
2. Danielle Deadwyler, The Piano Lesson
3. Isabella Rossellini, Conclave
4. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Nickel Boys
5. Margaret Qualley, The Substance
Alt. Felicity Jones, The Brutalist; Toni Collette, Juror #2
Best Original Screenplay
1. A Real Pain
2. Anora
3. The Brutalist
4. Sept 5
5. Juror #2
Alt. The Substance
Best Adapted Screenplay
1. Conclave
2. Sing Sing
3. Nickel Boys
4. Emilia Perez
5. The Piano Lesson
Best Cinematography
1. Dune: Part Two
2. The Brutalist
3. Nosferatu
4. The Substance
5. Conclave
Alt. Wicked
Editing
Sept 5
Conclave
Dune Part Two
The Substance
Juror #2
Production Design
Dune Part II
Nosferatu
Wicked
The Substance
Emilia Perez
Costumes
Wicked
The Substance
Dune Part II
Maria
Nosferatu
Sound
Wicked
Dune Part II
Gladiator II
Emilia Perez
Maria
Hair/Makeup
Wicked
Furiosa
The Substance
Nosferatu
Emilia Perez