Watching all the Best Picture Nominations
Watching all the Best Picture Nominations
In an attempt to derail progress
I think we like award shows because they remind us of award ceremonies in school. Back then it was for silly things like the all A honor roll or perfect attendance. You don’t get award ceremonies as an adult on a grand scale like that very often, and when there is it’s nowhere near that level of fancy. We don’t watch this stuff because we know these people and we don’t win anything ourselves (Unless you are betting on the results!) but the awards themselves (about entertainers) are entertaining.
If not to watch your favorite actors get extra dressed up to sit in a theater for three hours then you want to find out if the movie you liked - regardless of the folks involved - was voted better than all the others. We want to see the stuff we like win, especially when it’s up against something with a big name director or the budget of a decent US city.
We all have different tastes when it comes to music and film and all that. Thankfully there are way less movies out there than new songs every year making it way easier to narrow down the good ones - at least compared to what else came out. I know there are rules about what can be submitted and the shows are all voted on by curated members. The website says they are all part of the film industry in some way as well.
That’s going to mean that the movies that get nominated, should be selected based on artistic merit in some way. Which is great, for the integrity of the choices blah blah blah. But we all know how voting works. Folks vote for their friends, get bribes, etc. Then there is the whole opinion of the general public. Especially now with the price of theater tickets and easy access to streaming media, people are going to be way more picky about what they will sit through for three hours. Then you have fandoms! People have expectations - especially from certain directors and franchises.
While there are subcategories for actors and sound and animation, there is one catch all category that everyone pays the most attention to - Best Picture. This year there is everything from a WWI movie to an A24 fever dream to a Top Gun film. It’s hard to pick the “best in show” from a half dozen shows in completely different genres.
So, anyway I’m going to do my best to watch all of the films nominated for best picture. Why? So I can make my own objective take on each one and wonder, aloud, how this movie could have been nominated over NOPE.
Here is the list of movies that are up for “best” picture:
“All Quiet on the Western Front” (Seen)
“Avatar: The Way of Water” - (Can’t stream)
“The Banshees of Inisherin” (Seen)
“Elvis” (Seen)
“Everything Everywhere All at Once” (Seen)
“The Fabelmans”
“Tár”
“Top Gun: Maverick” (Seen)
“Triangle of Sadness”
“Women Talking” - (Can’t Stream)
Of these so far I’ve seen Top Gun and Banshees of Inisherin both of which are great. I’m halfway through All Quiet on the Western Front and so far it’s a solid war movie. I’ve been meaning to watch EEAO for a while but haven’t got around to renting it yet. Will do a little write up on those as I get to them.
If you’ve seen these let me know what you liked.