My ranked order of the nominees:
- The Power of the Dog
- Drive My Car
- Nightmare Alley
- Licorice Pizza
- West Side Story
- Dune
- Belfast
- King Richard
- CODA
- Don’t Look Up
We were guaranteed to get 10 Best Picture nominees this year, and it went pretty much the way most people expected. The biggest surprise was Nightmare Alley squeaking its way in, but I was delighted to see it recognized, as it was one of my top five films of the year. Conversely, Don’t Look Up was amongst my least favorite. I found it totally scattershot and obnoxious, despite yet another great DiCaprio performance. I’ve seen some disparate reactions to CODA – I have one friend who LOVES it, and one who HATES IT – and I find myself in the middle of that. I really enjoyed CODA and am thrilled to see a community that is historically underrepresented on film get some spotlight. It hits a lot of familiar beats that other movies have hit, but it hits them very well. The same could be said about King Richard, as it hits a lot of familiar biopic and sports movie cliches but does them style. Will Smith and Aunjanue Ellis are terrific, and Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton are very well cast as the young Venus and Serena Williams. Plus, Jon Bernthal is a lot of fun as their coach. Kenneth Branagh’s ode to his childhood spent in Belfast is superb and emotionally fulfilling.
The second-most nominated film this year was Dune, and that honor is well-deserved. Dune is practically perfect across the board from a technical standpoint, and it’s also an engaging story with excellent performances. How Denis Villeneuve didn’t make it into Best Director is just insane to me. Steven Spielberg took on the difficult task of re-making a classic and managed to make it reverent to the original and relevant to today’s audience. Licorice Pizza is one of the most misunderstood and mis-marketed movies of the year. I reject the idea that it’s some kind of quirky romance between star-crossed lovers – it’s a disturbing portrait of two people desperate to be anywhere but where they are with a strong undercurrent of dread running throughout. I thought it was fantastic at what it was and also features a deliriously unhinged Bradley Cooper performance that I can’t stop thinking about.
That leaves us with the top two choices – The Power of the Dog and Drive My Car. Both films are positively superb – beautifully acted, perfectly shot, and emotionally engrossing. I’m thrilled that Drive My Car has found an audience and that the Academy continues to broaden its horizons by nominating more international offerings. Dog takes the myth of the American cowboy and completely recontextualizes it.
If I had a ballot, these are the five I would have voted for: Belfast; Drive My Car; Dune; Licorice Pizza; Mass; Nightmare Alley; The Power of the Dog; tick, tick…BOOM!; The Tragedy of Macbeth; and West Side Story
This was a tough category to nail down this year, as there were a number of candidates worthy of inclusion here – this also could’ve easily been a top 10. Also, it bears repeating that Denis Villeneuve should absolutely be nominated here. Though to be fair, the five choices the Academy did make are excellent and I can’t say any of them don’t deserve to be here. Campion and Spielberg also competed at the 1994 awards for Schindler’s List and The Piano, so it’s interesting to see them back again but with the favorite status reversed. They’re joined by Oscar vets Kenneth Branagh and Paul Thomas Anderson, both of whom made deeply personal films that clearly resonated with voters.
My ranked order of the nominees:
- Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog
- Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Drive My Car
- Steven Spielberg, West Side Story
- Kenneth Branagh, Belfast
- Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza
If I had a ballot, these are the five I would have voted for: Jane Campion; Guillermo del Toro, Nightmare Alley; Ryûsuke Hamaguchi; Steven Spielberg; and Denis Villeneuve (Dune)
Z At the Movies 