With the 91st Academy Awards just a few weeks away, I wanted to chime in with my thoughts on the biggest category of the year: Best Picture. How do the films stack up to one another? How does the collective category stack up to years’ past?
8. BlacKkKlansman
I respect Spike Lee and his brand of filmmaking, but this is FAR from his best work. The editing and direction is messy as hell, the film is tonally inconsistent, and the characters are all bland and one-note aside from the protagonist. I didn’t give the film a grade in my initial review, but if I had to now, it would probably be in the C- ballpark. For the life of me I can’t understand the significant praise the film has generated within the industry, and I can only cynically speculate that this is more of a political stunt and lifetime achievement for Mr. Lee than a recognition of legitimate artistry. But I may be in the minority on this one, as some people really do like this film, so I won’t harp on it for long.
7. Black Panther
I liked the film when I first saw it, but as time went on it just faded from my memory completely (as with most popcorn flicks). The writing is solid for a comic book movie, but the acting is subpar aside from Michael B. Jordan (seriously, Chadwick Boseman has the charisma of a snail) and the visual direction of the film is atrocious. This wasn’t even the best MARVEL movie of 2018, let alone a Best Picture-caliber film! But whatever. Chuck an above-the-line nomination at it and call it a day. At least it didn’t get any further undeserving nominations like Screenplay or Visual Effects.
6. Vice
Adam McKay remains a filmmaker that I have to begrudgingly give props to. Even though I generally find his directing and editing decisions to be egregiously heavy-handed, he knows how to write a damn fine screenplay. For a man as enigmatic and private as Cheney, McKay does an excellent job exploring his career and developing a believable character arc. And that’s all that really sets this film apart from BlacKkKlansman: characters that undergo change (and strong performances to match). I appreciated that while acknowledging that the film is still a hot mess in other regards.
5. Bohemian Rhapsody
This is a tough film to analyze because I cannot deny its charm and sheer watchability as a plus in its favor. Queen is a legendary band that they did justice to, and audiences everywhere walked out feeling jubilant, no doubt thanks to the stunning finale. But man is this film a cliche-riddled, audience-pandering mess. Not only does the film sanitize history and alter Freddie Mercury’s story for the purposes of their family-friendly agenda, it manages to take one of rock music’s most unexpected success stories and turn it into a predictable snore-fest. Still, the killer finale (and Rami Malek’s incredible performance) make this a film I can’t say I thoroughly disliked.
4. A Star is Born
I’m still shocked at how poorly this film is doing this awards season, getting snubbed time and again in every category besides Original Song. To be fair, I didn’t love the film that much, but the films it has been losing to are far less deserving! Bradley Cooper gives probably my favorite male performance of the Oscar bunch, and while the second half of the film is nowhere near as strong as the first, it still gave me a powerful cinematic experience that didn’t try to hold my hand every second. Sometimes it is better to shoot for the moon and miss than to never shoot at all.
3. Green Book
Everything that Green Book sets out to do, it accomplishes in spades. Granted, it doesn’t aim very high, but it delivers a powerful emotional experience with grade-A acting and a screenplay that I begrudgingly enjoyed. It’s the rare crowd-pleasing, “Oscar-bait” film that manages to stay ahead of the audience; despite more or less knowing how the film would turn out, I was still pleasantly surprised by the smaller elements of the film’s plot and character development. I’m aware of all the criticisms of the film, but man, compared to the films above, this is basically The Godfather.
2. The Favourite
The best screenplay and performances of the year, hands-down. I adored every second of this film; it managed to walk the fine line between satire and serious drama perfectly, with the comedy managing to supplement the real-life story perfectly. By comparison, 2017’s The Little Hours follows a similar style (retelling an old tale with modern humor) but devolves into gimmicky slapstick and fails to transcend the goofy initial premise. The performances from Colman, Weisz, and Stone are all fantastic, both heartbreaking and hilarious, and I wish all three could be rewarded with awards somehow. The plot kept me endlessly engaged and hanging on every scene. Yet another strong film from Yorgos Lanthimos, and I hope he does more directorial work in the future that doesn’t involve his way-off-the-wall screenwriting.
1. Roma
Where The Favourite delivers in writing and acting, Roma delivers in directing. It’s rare for a film like this to get made nowadays, one that is so effective in its visual storytelling without needing constant dialogue and audience hand-holding to get its messages across. It is one of the most beautiful-looking films in the last few years despite being in black-and-white, and every time I hear about something they did to achieve what they wanted to film on set, I’m even more impressed. The acting from newcomer Aparicio and veteran De Tavira is revelatory, and despite the most-insignificant plot, I felt as though I’d undergone an epic journey by film’s end. I am hoping that the Academy does the right thing and rewards the best film of the year with their highest honor, something that is unfortunately a rarity these days (although it can happen).
Conclusion
I’m pretty disappointed with this year’s batch of nominees. Compare it to last year, where I thought 6-7 of the 9 nominees were strong films and deserving contenders. This is a likely over-correction from last year’s dwindling ratings and the push for more recognizable fare in the top categories. To be fair, I said almost a year ago that they should try to get more popular films nominated, but I didn’t expect that to result in a mockery of a Best Picture field at the very next Oscars. To clarify, I still believe the Academy should reward popular films WHEN THEY ARE DESERVING OF AWARDS, not just throw nominations at films because they made money and have fanbases. Yeah, they’ll probably wind up with more viewers this year, but it will dilute the prestige of their brand in the process. Please, Academy, don’t become the People’s Choice Awards.
What were your favorite films nominated in the Best Picture category this year?
-Austin Daniel
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Scriptophile 