(Because really; award season means you’re trying to winnow down the musts from the must-pass.)

“I know your heart has more in it than the men who counsel you.”

An epic true story gets a intimate imagining in this beautiful biopic based on Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth I. Saoirse Ronan and Margot Robbie deliver award-worthy performances as the two queens, while David Tennant gives great skeevy religious fanatic. Queer representation as well as POC at court portrays a more realistic look at 16th Century England (even if not exactly historically correct in terms of actual members of court.) But Scots is best at painting a picture of two women used as chess pieces by the machinations of men in their service. Oh, what might have been, if these leaders had been left to rule as they saw fit. Grade: A-