Only four days until the ceremony and I’ve watched all ten of these now, so it’s time for a ranking session, and it wasn’t easy. Read on for some controversial (and some less controversial) placements.
10 Killers of the Flower Moon
Okay, so let’s start off with the controversial. Scorsese’s latest did nothing for me, and, like his previous effort The Irishman, it didn’t warrant its hefty running time. He’s certainly capable of making long films that are high quality (see: Silence), but this ain’t it. Lily Gladstone is fully deserving of the Best Actress nomination, but all the other big players fall flat. The trailer got me really hyped for this one, but the end result just didn’t deliver.
9 Maestro
Bradley Cooper’s latest didn’t impress too much either. It felt Oscar baity in a particularly disingenuous fashion, in a similar vein to Cooper’s A Star is Born. But, as with the previous entry in this ranking, the main female lead puts in a standout performance worthy of a Best Actress nomination. After all, this is Cary Mulligan we’re talking about. She’s great in everything, even if the overall film she stars in isn’t particularly great.
8 Anatomy of a Fall
I didn’t hate this film, per say, but it did leave me a bit cold. Not just because it’s set in an isolated mountain in southern France, just because the courtroom drama film it quickly turns into didn’t really grip me. I also had meandering thoughts about comparisons to Marriage Story in terms of themes, but then realised that it’s not really like Marriage Story at all since one of the partners starts off dead (Whoa there, that’s not spoiler, it’s part of the plot). But that’s by the by.
7 American Fiction
Now we’re onto the films that I genuinely really liked and were rather difficult to order. Jeffrey Wright puts in the performance of his career as Theolonious ‘Monk’ Ellison, imbuing the embittered academic with warmth, comedy and pathos. It’s great to see Wright step out into a lead role, and he’s supported by a wide range of talent, particularly Sterling K Brown, who got a deserved Oscar nod as Monk’s estranged brother.
6 Poor Things
It was disconcerting to see Yorgos Lanthimos dabble with a bit of mainstream fare with his Best Picture nominee The Favourite, despite the film’s brilliance. The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer were a special kind of eccentric, and Poor Things delivers that in spades. Emma Stone puts in her finest performance yet as the reanimated Bella Baxter, and is fully deserving of her Best Actress nomination. Also, whacky Mark Ruffalo is fun too, although it’s a shame that Willem Defoe didn’t get much awards recognition.
5 The Holdovers
There seem to be a lot of career bests this year, and The Holdovers is no exception. Paul Giamatti has usually stayed out of the limelight in his filmography, but The Holdovers proves that he needs to get out there a heck of a lot more. He also has the rare gift of a genuinely fascinating face, which is put to great use with the camera’s various close-ups of his furious and exasperated expressions. It’s disappointing that charismatic first-time actor Dominic Sessa didn’t get an Oscar nod, though.
4 Barbie
No, this didn’t make the number one slot. He’s just Ken, after all. In another Oscars ranking, maybe he’d be a ten (but yeah, Ryan Gosling did make it into the Best Supporting Actor category, so that’s something). It would’ve been a travesty if this didn’t make it into the nominees, even though it’s unlikely to get the gong. Greta Gerwig made a comedy that’s full of zany, funny performances, and it justifiably blew up the box office. It’s pink. It’s proud. It’s Barbie.
3 The Zone of Interest
This one, not so much pink. More of a bleak colour palette filled with plenty of dread, fear and tension courtesy of some genius compositions from Mica Levi combined with some fascinating sound design (this is deserving of the Best Sound Design gong). Like Jonathan Glazer’s previous masterpiece Under the Skin, it forces the audience to put the pieces together with minimal dialogue, and it allows them to bask in the terror as happy family scenes take place just a wall away from the atrocities in Auswitch.
2 Past Lives
Celine Song’s film just feels like it’s from a whole different world. If you hop onto Wikipedia, you’ll notice that it’s described as a ‘romantic drama’. But it’s so much more than that. It deserves a lot more recognition than it’s getting at the Oscars. It’s insane that Song isn’t in the Best Director category. This quiet masterpiece is the director’s debut feature, and it’s a crying shame to see her (and Greta Gerwig) snubbed by more recognised faces. Anyway, it’s a fantastic film from an exciting new talent.
1 Oppenheimer
Wow! Surprise! Who expected this to get the number one spot in my ranking? Most people, probably. While it’s definitely Christopher Nolan’s most ‘Oscar-y’ film to date, that doesn’t detract from the fact that he’s crafted a masterful work of cinema, which also exhibits Cillian Murphy’s best performance to date. It’s fantastic to see Nolan’s muse finally get his deserved spot in the major role, imbuing the tortured scientist with angst, tragedy and despair.