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The Overlooked Films and Performances of Awards Season
Genre films aren’t garnering any awards buzz this year, but that doesn’t make them any less impressive.
Now that awards season is upon us, it’s time for an annual reminder that awards season doesn’t really matter. As fun as it is to watch some great films get recognized, the front runners are always the films that have the biggest awards campaigns rather than groups and guilds picking the best of the year. That’s how movies like Bohemian Rhapsody or Green Book or Vice come away with a lot of awards, despite underperforming critically. That said, the crop of Golden Globes nominees this year were pretty good — if favoring white males in typical Oscar-bait films. There are plenty of other movies — genre films, specifically — and performances that are deserving of love and most likely won’t get any going forward. Here are my picks for the underrated films and performances from 2019.
Florence Pugh — Best Actress — ‘Midsommar’
Fans of Ari Aster’s debut film Hereditary were burned by Toni Collette’s lack of recognition for her tour de force performance as a grieving mother, but no one seems to be lamenting Florence Pugh’s performance in Midsommar just one year later. Pugh had a banner year in 2019, proving to be…
