Best Picture Nominations

Oscar season is one of my favorite times of the year. Each year when the nominations are announced, I get excited to see which movies were selected for the chance to receive the grand award, Best Picture. In recent years I have been trying to watch all of the nominees before the big night. Some of the movies nominated for Best Picture this year I had already seen before the nominations were announced. However once the nominations did come out, there were plenty on that list I didn’t see. Since then I have made a point to watch what I can. From all that I watched, here are some quick thoughts and my personal ranking of all the nominations.

Honorable Mention #10 - The Zone of Interest: Unfortunately, this is the one movie I did not get a chance to watch and won’t have a chance to watch before the award ceremony on Sunday. This movie was never playing at a local theater at a convenient time for me to go and see and it is currently unavailable to rent or stream on any digital platform. This movie is available to purchase digitally, however I couldn’t bring myself to spend $20 to own the movie without me knowing if I would enjoy it. It was hard for me to justify adding this to my digital library for a one time watch. I’ve been hearing great things about it from the movie people and sites I follow so I am looking forward to watching this when it becomes available to rent or stream somewhere.

#9 - Poor Things: Honestly, I hated this movie. The vulgarity of this movie was just unnecessary to me and it made it really hard for me to care about anything going on in the movie. I am all for trying “weird” things in movies, like its a movie go ahead and do something different that others aren’t doing. But I just really had a problem with the way sex was used and portrayed throughout the movie. There are a lot of people out there saying this is a great movie, and if you saw it and enjoyed it good for you. However, I would warn and highly recommend staying far away from this one if you haven’t seen it. If I wasn’t trying to see everything nominated I would have walked out of the theater during this one.

#8 - Maestro: It’s hard to watch a movie that features music from one of the greatest composers of the 20th century and not find yourself having a good time. However this movie wasn’t about Bernstein’s music but about who Bernstein was as a complicated person. Overall the movie seemed to be choppy to me. Things didn’t flow and for me that made the story this movie was trying to tell feel hard to connect to and by the end I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to take away from the telling of Bernstein’s life.

#7 - Killer of the Flower Moon: This movie was just fine, not bad by any means. It’s a long one like you would expect from Scorsese these days. The acting in it is nothing short of great. However it’s hard for me to really get invested in a movie and connect with it when a main character is supposed to be hated and Leo’s character is not a good dude. I honestly might have enjoyed it more if this was a little shorter.

#6 - Barbie: Probably the most FUN movie of all the best picture nominations. OK it’s definitely the most fun one (I mean, just look at some of the subject material of the other nominees). The production design and overall cinematography of the movie is bright and inviting and I think that is really this movie’s strength. The story is simple (and I don’t mean that in a negative way). The acting is fine, I don’t think there was anything really challenging for an actor in this, again not a negative thing but you look at some of these other movies and you can see what I mean by challenging for actors. I don’t think I’m this movie’s target audience and that’s ok. I still think anyone can watch this and have a good time. At the end of the day if a movie entertained me it served its purpose and I remember leaving the theater and thinking “that was fun”.

#5 - Anatomy of a Fall: Give me a courtroom drama and I am already sold. However this was an interesting experience because it centers around France’s legal system (does France have their own version of Law and Order?). I loved how this movie set everything up and makes the audience come to a decision of their own. In the movie there is a verdict given and you are told the verdict but you are still left wondering, after all I just watched, is the verdict correct? I made me invested and I enjoyed my time with this one. A fun aside, after you watch this movie you can go to didshedoit.com and vote on what you think and give your reason why you voted the way you did and then it will show you a percentage of yes vs no and all the reasons why people voted the way they did. If you want to know where I landed, ask me on the side.

#4 - The Holdovers: Barbie might be the most fun of the bunch but The Holdovers takes the place of most charming movie for me. I absolutely loved this movie and the characters it gave us. Each of the main characters we follow have their own troubles and throughout the movie we get a glimpse into their life and we end up empathizing with them as we watch their relationships grow with one another. The relationship between Paul Giamatti and Dominic Sessa’s characters was especially beautiful to watch unfold. This is just a feel good kind of movie. If you are looking for a heartwarming movie to watch this is one needs to be at the top of your list.

#3 - Past Lives: Talk about being in your feels. This movie blew me away. The relationship of the 2 main characters was beautiful and messy and I was so invested. I loved how it told this story from them as children, to them as young adults (20’s), to them in their mid 30’s and where they both are in their lives during these points. Watching how everything plays out, it definitely becomes an emotional rollercoaster but in the best ways. My favorite thing about this movie was its ending and I’m sure there will be many people who watch this and aren’t satisfied by the end (that might be kind of a spoiler, sorry) but I think its fitting for these characters and where they both are in their lives. This movie was beautiful and real and had me all up in my feels for days following it (literally, I couldn’t stop thinking about this movie for days).

#2 - American Fiction: How much are you willing to sacrifice and give up for the well being of family? That’s one of the main questions this movie is asking through Jeffery Wright’s character and his current situation. And there are many questions this movie asks regarding family and self and how the past affects relationships. And then there are the questions regarding race and how America views the black community this movie asks. It asks these questions and answers them in unique, and at many times, funny ways. This movie was way funnier than I thought it would end up being. It also got pretty real and dealt with certain issues in the family that hit kind of close to home for me, I definitely wasn’t expecting that element walking in to this one. Still, I came away from this one loving every moment. I should maybe say if profanity is not your thing, there is a decent amount in this movie so just aheads up.

#1 - Oppenheimer: Nolan has been one of my favorite directs for a while now and he is obviously one of the top directors currently working in Hollywood today. It is no surprise that Oppenheimer is nothing short of outstanding. The way Nolan told the story of Oppenheimer and his moral struggle to do what he thought was right was just amazing to me. This is one of the best character pieces I have ever seen put to film. Then you add in the courtroom drama stuff, and I already said I’m a sucker for a good courtroom drama, and just wow. The acting in this movie is top notch, the score of this movie is top notch, the cinematography is top notch, the story telling is top notch. Talk about being invested in a movie, everything about this movie had me locked in making a 3 hour movie not feel like 3 hours. This movie was nominated for 13 different categories for the academy awards and I honestly think it has a chance to win many of them. If this doesn’t win the award for Best Picture I will be SHOCKED.