The Father: The Ravages of Dementia (Amazon Prime, $20)

Just like "The Sound of Metal," "The Father" has Academy Award nominations for both Best Picture and Best Actor (for Anthony Hopkins).  Although not nominated for Best Actress, Olivia Coleman also gives an AAW performance.  Hopkins could easily win the Best Actor award for his performance, although I think Chadwick Boseman will get it this year.  This film is extremely well-crafted and there are numerous subtleties that make it one of the best films of the year, though painful to watch.  Directed and co-written by Florian Zeller along with Christopher Hampton, the movie is adapted from Zeller's 2012 French play of the same name. Anthony (Anthony Hopkins) is about 80 years old and his dementia is progressing rather rapidly.  His daughter Anne is doing the best she can to try to take care of him without putting him in a nursing home, but she is fighting a losing battle with this horrible disease. What makes this film extraordinary is how the confusion in Anthony's mind is conveyed as well as the sadness, frustration, and helplessness of Anne as she watches her once-brilliant father become incapable of knowing what's going on and caring for himself. Anthony's confusion is conveyed via misplacing everyday items such as a watch and thinking they have been stolen by his caretaker.  There are time reversals, his daughter sometimes looks like a different person, he doesn't know whether he is living in his own flat or Anne's, whether Anne is married or divorced, and even if she's staying in London or leaving to be with her lover in Paris!  Sometimes, Anthony gets very hostile, and he keeps driving caretakers away.  It is apparent that things won't end well for Anthony and Anne, but it's a sad and depressing film that will give you an "up-close and personal" essence of dementia and how devastating it is.