I haven’t done this in a long time, but this year I saw all 10 movies nominated for Best Picture!
Favorite Nominated Movie: Barbie. And what can I say about it that hasn’t already been said? It’s not going to win, but it’s definitely the most fun movie nominated.
Least Favorite Nominated Movie: Past Lives. It’s gotten rave reviews but I didn’t like this movie at all. I thought it was boring and pointless. That might be partly a “me” thing, though- I’ve just never liked movie where (spoilers ahead) you’re clearly supposed to be rooting for two people to end up together but they never do.
Should Win Best Original Screenplay: The Holdovers. Super well-written movie, and it was filmed in Massachusetts, so I liked seeing places I recognized. (One nitpick: there’s one part when they’re in Boston, then they’re candlepin bowling at Wakefield Bowladrome, whose name you can clearly see, and then they’re BACK in Boston, which makes no sense.)
Liked More Than I Expected To: American Fiction. I’m a bit wary of satire because sometimes it just feels a bit too…cringey to watch. But although American Fiction is a satire of racism in the publishing industry, it’s also a very warm, human story, and I ended up enjoying it.
Liked But Was a Bit Surprised By: Anatomy of a Fall. It was a good movie, but more of a straightforward courtroom drama than I expected- parts of it kind of felt like Law and Order: France. Also, it’s supposed to be ambiguous about whether Sandra Huller’s character is guilty or not, but (spoiler) I never really thought she did it. The movie ends up making a much better case that her husband’s death was suicide.
Made Me Feel Like a Huge Prude: Poor Things. Really interesting idea and great acting, but (here’s where I sound like my great aunt, who didn’t like to see any movie she thought was too promiscuous) did SO MUCH of it have to be about sex?
Most Quietly Disturbing Movie I’ve Ever Seen: The Zone of Interest. Oh, my goodness. This one is going to stay with me. There’s not that much plot because that’s not the point- the point is that sometimes the banality of evil looks like a Nazi family living next door to Auschwitz going about their lives- growing flowers, having pool parties, celebrating birthdays, reading bedtime stories- while smoke coming out of the nearby smokestack is from the bodies of murdered Jewish people being burned. There are some really chilling lines- Hedwig and her friends having a lighthearted discussion about their clothes that were stolen from Jewish prisoners, Hedwig’s mother casually wondering if a Jewish woman she knows is at Auschwitz, Rudolf saying he couldn’t look at a room full of people at a party without thinking of what would be the best way to gas them. The business of genocide is treated like business- like it’s just a job.
Book Was Better: Killers of the Flower Moon. The book is really good and is focused much more on Mollie, the Osage woman played by Lily Gladstone who lost several family members to murder and then found out that her white husband was involved. But the movie, oddly, is from the point of view of the villains, so it’s missing the narrative surprise from the book and also spends the most time with the worst people. So I was kind of meh on it.
Biopics That Passed the Time Just Fine, Probably Wouldn’t Watch Again: Oppenheimer and Maestro. Both are well-done and worth watching but not much more than that. Oppenheimer’s probably going to win, though.