The Skoobies: Awarding the movies the Oscars left out

By Jake Skubish and Peter Coutu

I love the Oscars, but you’d be a fool not to recognize that the Academy’s taste in film does not always stand the test of time. For every Godfather the Oscars gets right, there’s a Do the Right Thing or Singin’ in the Rain or The Dark Knight that doesn’t even get nominated. So Peter Coutu is joining me as we hand out The Skoobies, our own set of awards for the movies and performances the Oscars left out this year.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

JS: Old

That’s right: M. Night Shyamalan’s horror movie about the beach where people get old is my pick for Best Adapted Screenplay. Old is genuinely terrifying and often unintentionally hilarious — “His name was Giuseppe” may be the single biggest laugh I had in all of 2021, and “Mid-Sized Sedan” may be the most outrageous character name in the history of cinema.

The movie also has moments of poignancy, though, particularly a late scene between Gael García Bernal and Vicky Krieps which underscores the film’s exploration of the folly of pushing back against the inevitable crawl of time. What I love most about this script is that it is always in forward motion, not in a way that is exhausting but that kept me thrilled even through the sillier moments. Old is Shyamalan at his best and his worst, but on both ends of that spectrum he remains a more inventive writer than most of Hollywood.

PC: The Tragedy of Macbeth

Joel Coen and William Shakespeare are a match made in heaven. How much can one really reinvent Shakespeare, and one of his most famous stories ever? The success of modern-day adaptations is rooted more in how they tweak the small details than how they overhaul a timeless story. And that’s where the writing of The Tragedy of Macbeth really excels. Bringing the story down to its absolutely bare essentials, it focuses on the crucial narrative elements and succeeds in doing so.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

JS: Bergman Island

Bergman Island is a movie that has really stayed with me since I first saw it, and has only grown in my estimation the more I think about it. The formal creativity of the movie’s screenplay makes it an easy pick for me here for Best Original Screenplay. Director Mia Hansen-Løve’s story is set up as a drama about two filmmakers who go on a trip to Fårö in order to gain inspiration for the screenplays they are respectively working on. Midway through the film, however, one of the filmmakers begins describing her movie, and then that movie becomes the on-screen action for a good 40 minutes.

The fact that I cared deeply about what was going on in each of these narratives independently says a lot about Hansen-Løve’s narrative control. But this only scratches the surface of what her screenplay is accomplishing. I won’t spoil where the film lands in its final act, but it’s a genius bit of narrative trickery that I still can’t believe she pulled off.

PC: Being the Ricardos

Sure this isn’t the type of underdog or wonky pick The Skoobies will be known for, but this is a snub! How was it not nominated?

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

JS: Jeffrey Wright, The French Dispatch

How has Jeffrey Wright never been nominated for an Oscar? The actor has been doing great work for decades, but the Academy seemingly has not noticed. His performance in The French Dispatch (a film which bafflingly received zero Oscar nominations) is my favorite of his yet.

Wright plays Roebuck Wright, a food writer for the titular publication, in the film’s third major storyline. It’s a tender, nuanced story in the midst of the film’s most madcap narrative. Between a classic Wes Anderson shootout and an extended animated sequence, Wright manages to deliver the film’s three most moving moments and its most enduring lines. He matches the energy required by Anderson films while also standing out as a deeply realized character. He deserved to be recognized at long last with this performance.

PC: Bradley Cooper, Licorice Pizza

This role could very well be the definition of a show-stealing performance. Cooper is so funny every single second he is on screen, and his presence far outlasts his actual screen time. I kept hoping he would walk through the background one more time as the film was nearing the credits. Plus, Cooper said he would have given up acting, or was at least thinking about it, if Paul Thomas Anderson didn’t offer him a role in the movie. Thank god PTA did, not just for the future flicks Cooper will star in, but this performance alone. He was the best in a very strong cast. 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

JS: Ruth Negga, Passing

The performance of the year. Negga is both completely transparent with her intentions in Passing and maddeningly indecipherable. She is in complete control of the film every time she is on screen without ever overpowering the story. It’s a forceful performance and the Oscars completely missed it, a peculiar choice considering they recognized her just a few years ago for Loving. Negga does not currently have any upcoming acting roles listed on IMDb; I can only hope the next time she inevitably turns out a great performance, the Academy pays attention.

PC: Alina Turdumamatova, Take and Run

Here at The Skoobies, we do not have any minimum time lengths or time on screen requirements (this is pending further discussion with Jake), so I am going to go with what was genuinely one of the most emotional performances of the year: Alina Turdumamatova in the short film Take and Run. (It doesn’t seem totally fair to pit her against people who get a full 90 minutes of screen time, so I am slotting in this performance as supporting — a bit of fudging the rules, I’m sure.) This was an all-out performance — think Marriage Story’s screaming scene for the last half of it — that was genuinely gut-wrenching. I’ve often told Jake going to the Oscar-nominated short flicks is my favorite movie trip of the year. And Turdumamatova elevated the experience once again.

BEST ACTOR

JS: Joaquin Phoenix, C’mon C’mon

One eternal hallmark of the Oscars is to give awards to great actors for their worst performances. Such was the case with Phoenix’s win for Joker. It was a transformative and showy performance not worth discussing for the time it took me to write this sentence. Meanwhile, C’mon C’mon shows Phoenix at his absolute best. His performance is much more subtle but way more emotionally evocative. It’s a lived-in character, as if Phoenix had been carrying this performance around with him for years before allowing us to see it. So what does the Academy do? Not even consider it, of course.

PC: Joaquin Phoenix, C’mon C’mon

When Jake is right, he’s right!

BEST ACTRESS

JS: Agathe Rousselle, Titane

I can’t really be mad about this omission; a performance this batshit crazy never had a shot at an Oscar nomination. But Rousselle, in her feature film debut, turned out the most memorable showcase of the year in Titane. It’s difficult to talk about Titane without spoiling it, so I’ll just say this: Rousselle must take on a radically different sort of performance from scene to scene. The range she displays is remarkable. It’s a very physical performance; she does not speak much, but you still understand everything her character is going through. Will this sort of performance ever be nominated at the Oscars? Not a chance. But at our much cooler awards show, it’s a winner.

PC: Renate Reinsve, The Worst Person in the World

I mean, she was the best part of an absolutely incredible movie, just completely charming and infuriating at the same time. The movie, to me, felt more like “real life” than anything else I’ve seen in a long time, rooted in the incredible performances on the screen. And Reinsve was the best among them. To be honest, I am shocked Jake didn’t pick her, knowing how much he loves this movie. But his loss is my gain!

BEST DIRECTOR

JS: Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Lost Daughter

I just caught up with this movie last night, and I’m so glad I did: It is beautiful and devastating and one of the absolute best movies of 2021. The Lost Daughter is rich in details, and the control Gyllenhaal displays in her directorial debut is astonishing. She already has a clearly established vision, and I cannot wait to see what she does next.

PC: Denis Villeneuve, Dune

Officially, and for the record, I did not love Dune. I thought it was pretty good, and definitely a nice set-up for what’s to come. But on principle, if a film gets double-digit nominations from the Academy, the director needs to be nominated. We can’t say a film excelled so well in so many different critical functions, while being a popular hit, and not give Villeneuve a nod. Maybe folks are waiting for the sequel to really decide how the crew gets rewarded. But I think this middle ground is bogus. Either it is worth 10 nominations and Villeneuve did a great job, or it’s not and he didn’t.

BEST PICTURE

JS: The Worst Person in the World

To clarify: I am not just voting The Worst Person in the World as Best Picture of the year. I am voting for it as Best Picture of all time. Joachim Trier’s portrait of the angst of young adulthood almost hits too close to home to describe how glorious I found it to be. It’s an expression of the vacillation between hopelessness and possibility, between regret and letting it all go, between wanting to stop time to look around and knowing that you can’t. The ache of the passage of time has never been more deeply felt on screen. I don’t really care that the Oscars failed to recognize it; I’m just glad it exists.

PC: Spider-Man: No Way Home

Now this is what movies — nay, cinema — is all about. Hell, this movie saved movie theaters. What a triumph this movie was. The excitement back in-person. There weren’t any surprises, not really. Everyone knew the villains, the other Spider-Men, and we knew who would live and who very well could die. The only gut punch — a stabbing of our beautiful Tobey Maguire — was really just a gag. But still, it knocked everyone’s socks off. It was that good. You knew what was coming, loved every second of it, and then begged for more. Everyone, and I mean everyone, loved this movie. If Jake’s cold, tiny heart could thaw, then he would too. I couldn’t stop talking about Spider-Man for weeks after. I started rewatching the old cartoons. I bought a few comics. This movie is what blockbusters should be. More!