It’s the time again when all actors in Hollywood try to gain a ticket to the most exclusive awards of the year. This year Octavia Spencer and Renee Zellwegger did tequila shots whenever anyone thanked their parents and ended up smashed, while Brad Pitt and Martin Scorsese ended up doing a tango at the afterparty. But as usual, the real winner was Meryl who lipsynced to ‘Take a Chance on Me’ before unsuccessfully attempting to do the Worm.
But onto the winners of the prestigious (and final) event - yes! It’s the Paul And Doug (PAD) Awards!
Least favourite film
Paul says: Green Book
An easy choice! Mostly because the rest of the 2010s winners were so superior. Even the middle-of-the-road entries such as 12 Years A Slave and Moonlight have huge strengths. Problematic nature aside, Green Book is certainly the least well-written and well-made of the bunch. It’s simplistic, rather repetitive presentation of racism, predictable storytelling and its warm, cosy, feel-good nature is much more suited to the films of the '80s and '90s, rather than being associated with multi-layered works such as Birdman and Parasite. Even Mahershala Ali couldn’t save it.
Doug says: Green Book
In a decade that was brimming with creativity, innovation and a passion for telling new stories (hello The Artist, Birdman, Spotlight, Moonlight, Parasite) Green Book was an ultimately disappointing win, framing the urgent issue of racism from a white perspective (writer, director, main actor) and ultimately positing that it’s all dealt with now. A sweet chocolate-box of a film, it hid much more insiduous, problematic issues and really shouldn’t have won. I’ll never forgive this for beating the not-even-nominated If Beale Street Could Talk.
Favourite Male Performance
Paul says: Michael Cyril Creighton - Spotlight
A small but immensely significant role, Creighton in Spotlight plays one of the victims of the Catholic church’s abuses, revealing all to a stunned but stoic reporter, Rachel McAdams. His delivery and demeanour are fraught with nervousness, anxiety and courage, and you really get a sense of this man trying to maintain as normal a life he can whilst grappling with mental health difficulties, his homosexuality, and his desire for vengeance. After he delivers his tale of being abused by a Catholic priest, he immediately gestures off-camera and says “Oh look, there’s a church” before bursting into tears, displaying how he can never truly escape the shadow that looms over him. It’s heart-breaking. Shout outs go to Firth and Rush in The King’s Speech, Dujardin in The Artist, Ali in Green Book and pretty much the entire cast of Parasite.
Doug says: Colin Firth, The King's Speech
Oddly this isn’t a decade of individual performances so much as it is collaborative ensembles. The best films here feel more like a collection of actors working together rather than one stand out performer. But Colin Firth does beautifully underplayed work as Bertie, the stuttering King, and he manages to simultaneously convey embedded privilege alongside a nervousness and social awkwardness. It’s a fine performance and filled with subtle touches that serve to make it even more real.
Favourite Female Performance
Paul says: Naomie Harris, Spotlight
If you want to see what a self-destructive drug addict looks like, then look no further. Naomie Harris in Moonlight crosses the line between monstrous and tragic, showing how an addict who is living a life of poverty, loneliness and stress can do some pretty awful things yet also deserve help. The scene in which she is unexpectedly sweet-natured towards her son, only for us to discover that she needs his keys to get into the house to get her stash, and her transition into a raging, abusive horror when she can’t find her drugs, is hugely poignant. She lost the Best Supporting Actress award to the titan that is Viola Davis, but she would have been a worthy winner. Other shout-outs go to Helena Bonham Carter in The King’s Speech, Berenice Bejo in The Artist, Lupita Nyongo in 12 Years A Slave, Emma Stone and Lindsey Duncan in Birdman, Octavia Spencer in The Shape of Water and, again, pretty much the entire cast of Parasite.
Doug says: Jang Hye-jin, Parasite
In a decade of great performances, including Emma Stone (Birdman) and Naomie Harris (Moonlight), Jang Hye-jin shone as the matriarch of the poverty-stricken Kim family. She conveys her real, playful, grasping nature beautifully alongside the false servitude as she becomes housekeeper to the rich Park family. But it’s for the long drunken scene that Hye-jin takes this award, including a spine-tingling moment when she resentfully tells her family that she could be kind like Mrs Park, if she was rich. ‘It’s easy enough to be kind when you’re rich,’ she says in a lip-curling, sneery performance that cuts directly to the heart of the film. Exceptional.
Favourite Film
Paul says: Parasite
Not much else needs to be said about this absolute masterpiece. Parasite is tightly constructed, without a blemish on it. It conveys its message with coherent symbolism, humour, horror and shock; it benefits from a superb cast who deserve all the gigs from now on; and, above all, it’s surprisingly powerful. In a decade peppered with outstanding Best Picture winners, this, for me, is the most important, as it will hopefully pave the way for international cinema to be deservedly recognised at Western awards ceremonies just as much as Martin Scorcese’s 3.5-hour mediocrities. Parasite is living proof that quantity does not always equal quality.
Doug says: Spotlight
It was so close and Parasite nearly took the win, being the first foreign language film to win Best Picture and being so stunningly filled with sublime imagery, performances and direction. But ultimately Spotlight is the one that reduced me to angry, thankful tears, and made the strongest impact. It’s the gritty realism of the journalists’ efforts that hits home so clearly - we see them reading through reams of papers on trains and at home, tirelessly dedicated to discovering and exposing the truth. The ensemble work brilliantly together, and there’s not a minute that feels unnecessary. Most of all I admired the way they talked about the Catholic priests’ child abuse - directly without sensationalising. It was a brilliant film about the importance of the press - quiet, small and yet deeply impactful and left me angrily sobbing for about half an hour after it finished.
Average Film Scores
Paul: 8/10 (Paul’s highest rated decade)
Doug: 8/10 (Doug's highest rated decade)
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