Oscars

I have watched every film nominated for Best Picture. Thank you, thank you, I accept the plaudits.

People are saying it's a great year, which it may be. I don't think any of the ten nominated films are bad or undeserving. Equally, the way it's going, I feel like I might disagree with pretty much every major award at the Oscars (apart from Davine-Joy Randolph, who will win and should win). Though I may not.

Here is a ranking. It is not exactly least favourite to favourite, but some charting of least enjoyed vs a combination of my own highest expectations and the extent to which it has been justly or unjustly venerated or pilloried ... it will include the 10 Best Picture nominated films and the five others I've seen which were around and about being nominated for things ...

Past Lives. Theoretically right up my street, but I felt no strong emotions when watching it. Not a patch on some of the films it was favourably compared to, for me.

Napoleon. Kind of fun, but probably a fair bit sillier than everything else here.

Rustin. Enjoyed this very much, and the central performance is great, but it is a little formulaic.

Oppenheimer. I thought Oppenheimer was great, but it's going to win everything, right? So I place it here. I think it has more obvious flaws than most of the other films. Lots of Brits and Americans doing weird European accents. The first half-hour's dialogue bring a real whistlestop tour of mild clunkiness. The last hour being about something that it is really determined you find as interesting as the second hour, even if it's not. But it has more than enough that is great to overcome that. Though if Downey wins and it wins Best Picture, and Cillian doesn't, that'll be a madness. He makes the film great. 

Barbie. Fun, clever, but felt a bit discombobulated by it, really.

Nyad. The best acting performance I saw was Annette Bening in this. She should win Best Actress. The film is good. The story is a bit dodgy, apparently, which is probably why the film is not up for more.

The rest of them were all excellent, really ...

All of Us Strangers. As with Past Lives, I was less moved while watching than i thought i'd be, but then certain elements of it really started to hit home later. 

Poor Things. Just a load of fun people fucking about and having the time of their lives on a superbly designed film. A hoot. Here, the phony accents are the making of the film, unlike with Oppenheimer.

May December. Some major skills and dark humour in this.

Anatomy of a Fall

The Holdovers. If anything, I thought I would love this a tiny, tiny, tiny bit more. Maybe I was expecting a fairytale or gut-wrenching ending. The ending is right for the film, but it's quite low key.

American Fiction. Loved this. Strikes me that Jeffrey Wright and Paul Giamatti are pretty similar in status. Just absolutely guarantees of quality, mainly support acts, but can be great leads whenever the part is right. If either of them takes Best Actor from Murphy, think i'd slightly prefer it was Wright.

Killers of the Flower Moon. De Niro should win Best Supporting Actor. Like, obviously. Why is the fact someone who was once considered the Greatest Film Actor of All Time has given his best, most thrilling, commanding, memorable performance for 30 years not more of a thing compared to the fact that, wow, Robert Downey Jr has done making billions of dollars in technicolor and also can act ok  in black and white ... who knew ... anyway, i think this film has a lot that is great about it, and little that isn't ... and they do treat Scorsese like shit at the Oscars, they really do.

The Zone of Interest

Maestro. I'm making Maestro my Number 1, because I was genuinely moved by it, it'll win nothing, and loads of people seem to hate it and be going all in on Bradley Cooper being a charlatan and a dick, whereas in fact he's directed excellently and acted excellently.