BRUCE, DIANA AND KAREN LEAD 2021 RAZZIE NOMINATIONS

A musical based on the people’s princess, a tone-deaf and toothless social satire and a former global superstar now just in it for the cash are in the critical crosshairs of the voters of 2021 Golden Raspberry Awards, aka ‘The Razzies’.

Leading the nominations with 9 Razzie mentions is director Christopher Ashley’s Diana the Musical (pictured, below), Netflix’s excruciating adaptation of the lambasted Broadway bomb (it shuttered after 40 performances in the wake of brutal reviews). Coke Daniel’s privileged white-woman takedown Karen, a project that seemed like a good idea at the time but which somehow proved more offensive than the ‘Karens’ it portrayed, came in second with 5 nominations.

In a first for the organisers, the 2021 Razzies will honour actor Bruce Willis with his own category, the bald capitalist having released no less than eight films in the last calendar year, each worse than the one before. Once one of international cinema's biggest names, Willis has resigned himself to roles that sometimes take only hours to shoot for projects that are never likely to surface anywhere other than physical media dump-bins in electronic superstores. Nevertheless, such comitment was deemed worthy of mention by the awards body, no doubt due in part to Willis' long Razzie history; he has two trophies to his name (1999 Worst Actor; 1992 Worst Screenplay) and a further five nominations.  

Major Hollywood studios were determined not to miss out, providing such dregs as the Amy Adams potboiler The Woman in the Window, from 20th Century Fox (5 nominations); Stephen Chbosky’s misguided musical effort, Dear Evan Hansen, courtesy of Universal (4 nominations); Warner Bros. product placement extravaganza, Space Jam: A New Legacy (4 nominations); and, Mark Wahlberg’s execrable actioner Infinite (3 nominations), which Paramount pulled from its theatrical schedule and cynically repackaged to launch its own streaming service.

A-listers to feel the Razzie sting include Ben Affleck for his “I’m going to be in my own movie!” performance opposite Matt Damon in Ridley Scott’s dud, The Last Duel; Jared Leto (pictured, left), only recognizable by the brazen, Leto-esque self-belief that he could pull off his ‘jowly Guiseppe’ role in Ridley Scott’s other dud, House of Gucci; and, the once high-flying Amy Adams, who earned two noms, for Dear Evan Hansen and The Woman in the Window. 

The 42nd annual Golden Raspberry award ceremony will be held on March 26, the traditional ‘Oscar’s Eve’ slot that The Razzies have made its own.

Full list of nominees:   

WORST PICTURE
Diana the Musical (The Netflix Version); Infinite; Karen; Space Jam: A New Legacy; The Woman in the Window

WORST ACTOR
Scott Eastwood / Dangerous; Roe Hartrampf (As Prince Charles) / Diana the Musical; LeBron James / Space Jam: A New Legacy; Ben Platt / Dear Evan Hansen; Mark Wahlberg / Infinite

WORST ACTRESS 
Amy Adams / The Woman in the Window; Jeanna de Waal / Diana the Musical; Megan Fox / Midnight in the Switchgrass; Taryn Manning / Karen; Ruby Rose / Vanquish

WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams / Dear Evan Hansen; Sophie Cookson / Infinite; Erin Davie (As Camilla) / Diana the Musical; Judy Kaye (As BOTH Queen Elizabeth & Barbara Cartland) / Diana the Musical; Taryn Manning / Every Last One of Them

WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Ben Affleck / The Last Duel; Nick Cannon / The Misfits; Mel Gibson / Dangerous; Gareth Keegan (As James Hewitt, the Muscle-Bound Horse Trainer) / Diana the Musical; Jared Leto / House of Gucci

WORST PERFORMANCE by BRUCE WILLIS in a 2021 MOVIE (Special Category)
Bruce Willis / American Siege; Bruce Willis / Apex; Bruce Willis / Cosmic Sin; Bruce Willis / Deadlock; Bruce Willis / Fortress; Bruce Willis / Midnight in the Switchgrass; Bruce Willis / Out of Death; Bruce Willis / Survive the Game

WORST SCREEN COUPLE
Diana the Musical - Any Klutzy Cast Member & Any Lamely Lyricized (or Choreographed) Musical Number.
Space Jam: A New Legacy - LeBron James & Any Warner Cartoon Character (or Time-Warner Product) He Dribbles on
House of Gucci - Jared Leto & EITHER His 17-Pound Latex Face, His Geeky Clothes or His Ridiculous Accent
Dear Evan Hansen - Ben Platt & Any Other Character Who Acts Like Platt Singing 24-7 is Normal
Tom & Jerry the Movie - Tom & Jerry (aka Itchy & Scratchy) 

WORST REMAKE, RIP-OFF or SEQUEL
Karen (Inadvertent Remake of Cruella deVil); Space Jam: A New Legacy; Tom & Jerry the Movie; Twist (Rap remake of Oliver Twist); The Woman in the Window (Rip-Off of Rear Window)

WORST DIRECTOR 
Christopher Ashley / Diana the Musical; Stephen Chbosky / Dear Evan Hansen; “Coke” Daniels / Karen; Renny Harlin / The Misfits; Joe Wright / The Woman in the Window

WORST SCREENPLAY 
Diana the Musical / Script by Joe DiPietro, Music and Lyrics by DiPietro and David Bryan
Karen / Written by "Coke" Daniels
The Misfits / Screenplay by Kurt Wimmer and Robert Henny, Screen Story by Henny
Twist / Written by John Wrathall & Sally Collett, Additional Material by Matthew Parkhill, Michael Lindley, Tom Grass & Kevin Lehane, from an “Original Idea” by David & Keith Lynch and Simon Thomas
The Woman in the Window / Screenplay by Tracy Letts, from the Novel by A.J. Finn

THE BEST TELEVISION OF 2021

A funny thing happened at the Screen-Space office in 2021 - I watched a lot of television. More precisely, I was called upon to review a lot of television, mostly as one half of the Screen Watching podcast. This site has always been film-focussed, but that’s largely because when Screen-Space launched nearly a decade ago, there was no Netflix or Apple+ or Amazon Prime. Back then, we went to the cinema, bought the DVD, caught anything we’d missed on our exciting new pay-TV channel. Good times…

Screen Watching’s other-half is Dan Barrett, the boss of the TV-centric site Always Be Watching (amongst many other projects) and an opinionated enthusiast for all things televisual. If I was going to keep up with his small-screen babblings, I needed to watch more than just Major League Baseball and Seinfeld repeats. So, with COVID’s grip upon society ensuring that sofa time was always the best option, I’m weighing in with the inaugural Screen-Space Best of Television 2021...  

1. ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING (Hulu (US) / Disney Star (Aust), 10 eps; starring Steve Martin, Martin Short, Selena Gomez) Not such a surprise that comedy veterans Steve Martin and Martin Short should pull off the years’ most wry, witty, laugh-out-loud hilarious romp; a classy whodunnit farce that slyly satirises everything it touches, from apartment etiquette to podcast obsession. The big surprise is that they let Selena Gomez steal the show, the actress the perfect comedic foil to Martin and Martin’s ‘old guy’ schtick.

2. MIDNIGHT MASS (Netflix, 7 eps; starring Hamish Linklater, Kate Siegel, Henry Thomas) Horror’s most accomplished and assured new voice, Mike Flanagan skewers blind faith and zealotry in his smalltown horror masterpiece. The deliberate pacing of his reveals left behind those that like their frights more frantic, but this is his deceptively simple modus operandi - establish setting, then introduce character, then pose a mysterious threat, then…BOO! The comparisons to the King classic Salem’s Lot are unfair, because Midnight Mass is better. 

3. PHYSICAL (Apple+, 10 eps; starring Rose Byrne, Rory Scovel, Deirdre Friel) As a satire of the ‘Greed is good’ mantra of the 1980s and the Reagan-esque nationalism that inspired overspending and wilful over-indulgence in the name of capitalistic growth, Physical is a masterwork. As the unravelling housewife who parlays her love of aerobics into social acceptance and financial independence, Rose Byrne is a whirlwind of anxiety, dark energy and ever-expand(ex)ing self-worth.

4. THE CHESTNUT MAN (Netflix, 6 eps; starring Danica Curcic, Mikkel Boe Følsgaard, David Dencik) For those who thought the Scandi Crime wave had had its day in the endless sun, The Chestnut Man reinvigorated all the recognisable tropes with crackling tension, horrific violence and the best ‘reluctant partner’ chemistry since the heady days of Scully and Mulder. 

5. SUCCESSION Season 3 (HBO Max / Binge, 9 eps; starring Brian Cox, Jeremy Strong, Sarah Snook) No family has done cold-hearted and calculated with this much twisted glee since The Ewings; the #MeToo plotline and how it threatened to derail The Roy Family empire inspired a rare degree of cut throat-razor dialogue and boardroom tension. In Adrien Brody and Alexander Skarsgård, nailed the 2021 ‘Best Use of a Guest Stars’ honour.

6. VIGIL (BBC, 6 eps; starring Suranne Jones, Rose Leslie, Adam James) There is a pulpy daftness to this submarine-set murder mystery that is occasionally glimpsed on the radar, but when producer Tom Edge’s plotting stays on course it is the most gripping adventure-thriller that the small screen offered up all year. As the investigating detective sent on board, despite having her own recent watery tragedy still on her mind (really?), Suranne Jones is Sigourney-esque in her presence.

7. DOPESICK (Hulu / Disney+ Star, 8 eps; starring Michael Keaton, Kaitlyn Dever, Rosario Dawson) Op-ed rants by John Oliver only go so far in conveying just how insidiously callous Purdue Pharmaceutical and the cartel that owns it, The Sackler Family, were in lying about, spreading and profiting from the social horror they caused with OxyContin. Director Barry Levinson paints a heartbreaking picture of the smalltown, blue-collar lives that The Sackler’s destroyed for financial gain. Does for the opioid crisis what The Day After did for nuclear proliferation.

8. WANDAVISION (Disney+, 9 eps; starring Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Bettany, Kathryn Hahn) As a journey through TV culture, Disney+’s first small-screen MCU narrative was inventive, charming and, with Olsen and Bettany allowed greater dimensionality to explore their big-screen bit-players, proved a better-than-expected canon add-on. But it was the acuity with which it explored Wanda/Scarlett Witch’s grief and PTSD that made it significantly better than we had any right to expect.

9. INVASION (Apple+ TV, 9 eps; starring Golshifteh Farahani, Shamier Anderson, Shioli Kutsuna) That hoary ol’ scifi trope, the ‘alien invasion’, gets a supremely polished, truly international makeover in Apple’s understated but gripping multi-strand narrative. A grab-bag of influences (War of The Worlds; Independence Day; Arrival) are used to superb impact; in  a great cast, Golshifteh Farahani as the betrayed wife/warrior mother is sensational.

10. THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT (HBO Max / Stan, 8 eps; starring Kaley Cuoco, Michiel Huisman, Rosie Perez) Never seen The Big Bang Theory, so The Flight Attendant was quite the jump-off point for me and Kaley Cuoco. As the sexed-up, boozy stewardess whose life careens dangerously close to catastrophe at every turn, she is a revelation. The production’s profound understanding of alcoholism and Cuoco’s unhinged version of someone in denial and under threat is white-knuckle, character-based black comedy at its best.

There were some big hits (White Lotus; Nine Perfect Strangers; Mare of Eastown) and critical favourites (Hacks; The Underground Railroad; Muhammad Ali; The North Water; The Reservation Dogs) that I just couldn't fit into the viewing schedule. But there were also a handful that I count as highlights, even if they couldn't budge the ten best...

BEST REALITY: THE HILLS: NEW BEGINNINGS Season 2 (MTV, 12 eps) 
Heidi, Spencer, Audrina, Brody, Justin…they’re all still spoilt LA brats, but by 2021 they are spoilt, brattish thirty-somethings, and the seriousness of such themes as family, addiction, wealth (or lack of it), infidelity and honesty are coming into sharper focus. Dismiss their surface sheen as glaringly shallow, but MTV’s stable of in-house reality stars mined some darker emotions in Season 2, and the television (however manipulated) was compelling.

BEST INTERNATIONAL: KATLA (Netflix, 8 eps)
A fissure in the Earth’s surface caused by the eruption of the titular volcano unleashes creatures of Icelandic folklore in Baltasar Kormákur’s slow-burn, bleak, nightmarish study in isolation, paranoia, memory and grief. The year’s best final frame cliffhanger.

BEST LIGHT ENTERTAINMENT: TASKMASTER (BBC / UKTV, 10 eps)
The well-established U.K. franchise hit its stride in 2021. At first, the mixed-bag of semi-celebs fronting the eleventh go-around of the Greg Davies/Alex Horne cult hit seemed an oddly mismatched bunch; by episode 6, and Mike Wozniak’s career-defining/ruining shock admission (“It’s an absolute casserole down there”), the season proved a series’ highwatermark. 

BEST AUSTRALIAN: DIVE CLUB (Network 10 / Netflix, 12 eps)
What pitched as a teen-dream trifle emerged as a stylish, sophisticated drama, impeccably crafted and brimming with complex characters against a gorgeous backdrop. The title conjures pre-teen Saddle/Babysitter Club-style misadventures, but the dramatic meat on its bones more closely recalls the best of Dawson’s Creek or Party of Five.

And while I don’t want to dwell on the worst TV of the year (it was LA BREA), I do want to address why two of 2021's biggest TV hits left me cold. 

I cannot reconcile the preposterous premise of TED LASSO with sufficient suspension of disbelief to find it charming or funny. The character is annoyingly cloying, a downhome doofus inconceivably tolerated by everyone in England. On the back of its success, expect a Yes Minister reboot featuring Forrest Gump. 

And the phenomenon that is SQUID GAME? The show is well-made, stocked with some interesting characters and handsomely produced, but its genre inspirations weigh heavily on its shoulders. Everything from Battle Royale to The Hunger Games to The Running Man has trodden this well-worn path to better effect. 

READ THE SCREEN-SPACE TEN BEST MOVIES OF 2021 HERE (Coming Soon!)