Woot! Once again, Paul and I watched all of the Oscar Best Picture nominees. We started this hobby in the mid-1990s and have stuck with it ever since. I therefore inflict my completely amateur/random/welcome to my world ranking of the films upon you. They are from worst to first. Enjoy!
This is unusual: only one film made my list of should not have been nominated/I almost died watching it:
10. “Poor Things”: Poor me for watching this movie. I was bored out of my mind. Emma Stone really was brilliant in it, which is all the more telling about how much I disliked it because I love Emma and wanted to love her movie. This is not my kind of humor. I see the message they wanted to communicate, but the execution left me falling asleep.
Two films I found to be mediocre. I enjoyed them but wasn’t convinced they needed to be nominated.
9. “Past Lives”: The concept of migration and the pull of two souls into each other’s orbit was enchanting. I liked the characters and the angst in the movie. There was powerful emotion jumping off the screen. But overall I found it to be a fine movie, but not an extra special one.
8. “The Holdovers”: Hollywood loves these stories of personal redemption and growth. This one hits the emotional mark and was very good. Paul Giamatti, Da-Vine Joy Randolph, and Dominic Sessa were extremely good in their roles. I thought Sessa, in particular, knocked it out of the park and should have been nominated for Best Actor. Yet not much here felt ground breaking and new to me.
The rest of the movies I thought merited a nomination:
7. “Barbie”: This one had me laughing a lot. I’d nominate it just for how the “dolls” step off the second floor into nothing because of how Barbie houses are made. Very funny. The story was sharp and super original, which I appreciated. I’m not as in love with it as some, but the movie warranted a nomination. Margot Robbie got screwed by being overlooked for Best Actress.
6. “American Fiction”: here’s an author bias for you: movies are seldom as good as the novel. That is definitely true here. Still, I was compelled by the drama, the subtle comedy, and the story of race, family, and surviving in America. The spin of his disdain for what sells as African American life and then benefiting from his mocking of it came to life on the screen. But even more important was the story of love and family.
5. “Maestro”: As a gay man, I thought this at times soft pedaled around his sexuality. But the biography is well told and the pace was really good. Cooper did a nice job of bring Bernstein and all of his complexities, especially with his wife, and contradictions to a wide audience. The cast overall was amazing.
4. “The Zone of Interest”: If you dig into the meaning here, it is disturbing and horrific, which is exactly the point of the movie. A Holocaust movie that shows the disdain of everyday people and how easily they accepted genocide is brilliantly rendered. A haunting tale of human cruelty and disregard, done in a unique way.
3. “Killers of the Flower Moon”: First, a negative. This movie did not need to be so freaking long. However, it tells a profound story about American racism and so much of the past in this country that we’ve swept away. The humans involved come to life here. The evil is palpable. The heroes, even in defeat, shine through.
2. “Oppenheimer”: I loved how Nolan made a story in which you know the ending feel like an action thriller. The mood was intense from the beginning. He also humanizes the players who made the most horrific weapon to that point, and their motivations and understandings of what was about to happen.
1. “Anatomy of a Fall”: I doubt a lot of people will rank this one first. But I loved it. My favorite actor was Messi, who played the dog Snoop. Stole the show, as dogs always do. What wowed me here was the ability to intentionally confuse us about what really happened, but in a very good way. The twists and turns and courtroom drama thrilled me throughout. The acting was superb. The movie forces you to grasp how we make assumptions and the way reality becomes clouded. And when you are left hanging at the end, on purpose, it was brilliant.