in an ideal world this is what all oscar nominees would be like: inoffensive, workmanlike biopics with solid performances. and we wouldn't have to pretend insanely bad festival junk like coda or wild swing-and-misses like nightmare alley are worth discoursing about for months and months. there are better films up for best picture this year but i think this should win, if only to remind the academy that it's not their job to have perfect taste, only middlebrow.