My 2023 Best Picture Nominees
“That God tells me what I’m supposed to do at home. But He doesn’t tell me what to do on the mountain. What’s happening here is a completely different situation. Numa. This is my heaven. I believe in another god. I believe in the god that Roberto keeps inside his head when he comes to heal each of my wounds…” -J.A. Bayona, Bernat Vilaplana, Jaime Marques, Nicolás Casariego, Pablo Vierci; Society of the Snow
In lieu of my usual Oscar gongoloid preview I’m going to do a series over the next few weeks, focusing in a few aspects of the upcoming show that I’d like to explore more rather than trying to cover all in one fell swoop. Where better to start than the big kahuna cheese of the day, the award to end all movie awards, the one that has pretty much always ended the night besides that one time they really wanted to show Anthony’s Hopkins face one more time, the one with a very serious and specific name that didn’t make sense to me when I was a kid: Best Picture.
Of all the things that people like to complain about the Oscars, I’m surprised no one brings up how they expanded the selection from a nice clean 5 to an amorphous, whiff of participation-trophy 5–10 selections. To me it dilutes the selections just a little and usually one or two sneak in that wouldn’t have otherwise, and then you see the best directing nominees and it seems like those are the real best 5 but it’s not best picture and if you’re nominated for best picture why not director what’s the difference and you can even win best picture but not director and yet I digress (it also bugs me when people cite/blame The Dark Knight for this phenomenon, because that movie is a classic, that decision was dumb, and Heath Ledger won for that movie anyways so who cares?). ANYWAY, since the Academy probably won’t go back anytime soon, I will, and I will also try to make it more outside of the box of your usual dramatic contenders:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem: An egregious snub for Best Animated Film this year that made me wonder whether the voters actually saw it? Because the omission makes no sense to me otherwise. First off, the animation, mostly rendered in a classic 2-d hand drawn style that gives the flick an OG 1980s vibe that still looks as beautiful as anything being made today (as impressive as the animation was in Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse, sometimes the frames feel overcrowded, a visual onslaught that tires the eyes and makes you feel like you have to rewatch it or pause the movie a bunch of times). Second, the story was brisk and fun and the stakes were slightly terrifying, very high and yet worked perfectly within the Turtles universe. I loved the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a kid (I still have a Leonardo Samurai from that era) and nothing has brought me back to that love as much as this movie, but I would have heartily enjoyed this movie anyway (also it’s still wild to me that Beauty and the Beast was once one of the five best picture nominees and now even with the expanded field it’s hard for an animated movie to even sniff Best Picture (Honorable mention here to The Boy and The Heron, I’m not a Miyazakihead but but this movie blew my mind and was about as moving of a piece on creativity as I have seen in a long time).
Dream Scenario: God bless Nicolas Cage. The man just keeps on getting stranger and making similarly weird movies (there should just be an Oscar category for him at this point) and Dream Scenario is no exception, a bonkers horror dramedy thinkpiece satire that is wildly inventive, using its already creative premise as a jumping off point for exploring our fixation on celebrity, social media, virality, trends and more. The film is meticulously well-crafted, sublimely integrating dream and reallife sequences, as well as impeccably acted, with Cage being gonzo and grounded and an ensemble more than ready to step up to the challenge. One of those good haunting types of films that has lingered with me well after seeing it.
Godzilla Minus One was the best blockbuster for me this year and it wasn’t even close. Takashi Yamazaki’s Kaiju reboot had it all: a heaping dose of heart, monster, 1940s airplanes, beautiful ocean and island vistas, ridiculous yet plausible save-the-day brainstorming sessions, a protagonist who wasn’t annoying in his righteousness, and a fun cast of supporting characters who were easy to root for. Godzilla Minus One had me from the getgo, with an opening rampage evoking Jurassic Park’s rainy tyrannosaurus night, and never let go, carefully spacing out its high octane action sequences with a moving narrative of people coming together in the wake of the destruction Japan experienced in World War II. Who knew Godzilla was the natural evolution of our old friend Jaws? And who knew the old monster could still feel so scary? I returned to the theater to see Godzilla Minus One Minus Color (a black and white version) and recommend making the adjustment on your televisions when the time comes, as it makes the flick an alternate cinematic dreamscape of the past.
The Holdovers: If I had to include one of the actual Best Picture nominees it would be Alexander Payne’s little gem of a film. Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph are just chef’s kiss level in The Holdovers, with transcendent moments of freaking out, humor, pain, and love. The heartfelt film reminded me how art can not just mesmerize but also inspire you to truly “carpe diem” (I certainly thought about the final scene when I went to Europe after my job of 13 years ended). The film may not be as Important as some of the others nominated this year, but it has that sublime slice-of-life feeling that is rare in the cinema these days and worth appreciating
Society of the Snow: Similar to the visceral punch of All Quiet on the Western Front last year, Society of the Snow was a gut punch that made me feel great empathy for its characters and gratitude that I’ve had a life free from such trials. The beginning gives a brief glimpse into the lives of the people who will be stretched beyond their breaking points- rugby players, friends, families, lovers- and is all the more poignant since you know what is to come. A brief moment of levity before the acutely terrifying crash makes it all the more painful, and as the passengers’ survival situation becomes worse and worse, and unfathomably horrible questions arise that no one should ever have to deal with, you wonder not just whether anyone will get out alive but how anyone could even live after such an ordeal.
