Best Picture Noms: So Far
Alright, I made it through most of the movies I could stream via the subscription services we already have. Heads up, I will spoil things in this post so if you haven’t seen these movies then just bounce here.
I’m going to do these in the order that I watched them, and will be sure to put where I saw them etc.
The Banshees of Inisherin
Amazon Prime
Alright, what appeared to be some sort of prequel of In Bruges is a cozy cold and wet comedy set on a tiny Irish island where it takes a little while to realize what year it is set in. The show starts of with Colin Farrell looking sad and wandering over to his buddy’s house who suddenly goes “I don’t want to be your friend anymore.” which confuses Colin Farrell’s character to no great end. Most of the movie is him trying to find out why Brendan Gleeson doesn’t like him anymore, and it becomes like this bit of gossip around the island. It’s all kind of silly until Brendan gets fed up and tells him if he ever talks to him again he will cut off his own fingers. That’s the point where this show takes off and gets really good because fingers get cut off, houses burn down, and little donkeys get caught in the crossfire.
If you can’t watch British or Irish shows without subtitles you will absolutely need them on this one, they don’t dial it back like they do in mainstream shows. Favorite character is the old woman with the cutty pipe who appears as a symbol of death and just laughs at people. Great movie, I will probably rewatch this one.
All Quiet On The Western Front (Again)
Netflix
Alright, this one is by Netflix so they can sort of skirt ratings police and show more gore and such - which is a must for a war movie I think. You need to show just how bad it was and to be honest it could have easily been much more gore given WWI was where we had to all stop and go “OK war has to have rules now.” Also, when you first start this up on Netflix it is dubbed in English, there isn’t anything wrong with your audio and you can swap it to German with English subtitles if you wish.
This is a story based on the book Im Westen nichts Neues which was quickly banned and burned by the up and coming Nazi party for being anti-war and portraying doctors, soldiers, and basically everyone involved in a bad light. Oh and for more fun there was a movie made of this in the 30’s that won best picture at the Academy Awards.
It follows a German boy who joins the Imperial German army and gets sent to the front lines in France only to watch all his friends get killed, starve in the trenches, and be forced to fight a losing battle.
I don’t see this one winning best picture this time around but it is a great war movie that depicts a realistic outcome of so many soldiers that didn’t have plot armor. This is a great movie but it is loooooong and would have really benefited from being a series.
Top Gun Maverick
Paramount +
This is the complete and total opposite of All Quiet on the Western Front. Top Gun movies are very pretty military recruitment films that sell sunglasses. This movie picks up well after the last one leaves off, Maverick is doing test pilot stuff with ultra high tech aircraft and wears seven layers of plot armor. You can’t eject at mach 10, and Maverick would have probably retired well before this movie is set. This is not a movie to take seriously whatsoever.
Just put on your nostalgia glasses and enjoy the extremely pretty landscapes and fighter jet eye candy. The plot requires Maverick to train a group of top pilots to infiltrate and destroy a target inside a crater and fly out without being shot down. Maverick teaches all the pilots how to do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs and off they go to !Russia. I won’t give away too much but the F14 that is mentioned in the first act flies in the 3rd.
Elvis
HBO Max
This is a two and a half hour montage of Elvis’s life as an entertainer and how much his manager screwed up his career and his life. The guy who plays him does a good job. The clothes and sets are top notch, it’s shot beautifully.
I do not know what Tom Hanks was thinking, they should have used someone who could play the part of his character without the suit and makeup.
The pacing in this is frantic. Every little bit of time gets it’s ten minutes and bam, you get moved on to the next year/month/major event. I think this also would have done much better as a series given the sheer amount of info and detail they wanted to cram into it.
It’s pretty, it’s sad (especially the ending where they swap to real Elvis footage), but I don’t think I could sit through it again. I hope they win best makeup/costume design because that team nailed it.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Showtime
Out of all the nominees I’ve seen so far, I’m going to just say it, this one is going to win on Oscar night. Hotdog-hands down, this is the most absurd and silly movie you will watch but this isn’t for everyone. You know how you can split a group of people down the middle as to those who love Monty Python and those who can’t stand it? This is for the Monty Python people.
Michelle Yeoh is the main character who discovers that there are multiple parallel universes around her and must use the knowledge/skills of her other selves to combat an evil force in her timeline. There, that’s as boiled down and simple as I can make the plot for this movie because each of those universes is wildly different.
My favorite alt universe is the one with Raccacoonie in the hibachi chef’s hat. It’s a fun movie and it’s nice to watch something different for once.
Alright, that leaves The Fabelmans, Tár, and Triangle of Sadness to watch this week. Avatar and Women Talking aren’t streaming just yet but there is still time. Also, might wait on Fabelmans because it’s streaming for twenty whole American dollars. So, Triangle and Tár are getting watched first. :)