It’s my favourite time of year, to talk about the nominees from my favourite award show ever made, The Oscars. It’s just over a week before we get to find out if they’re going to embarrass themselves for the third year in a row and most importantly if the right movies win the right awards. I’m quite fond of the structure of last year’s post, so we’ll go over the best picture nominees first and then we’ll wrap up with everything else.

Best Picture Nominees

All Quiet on the Western Front

First up is The Oscars’ favourite foreign film, which also happens to their favourite remake as well. 2022’s All Quiet on the Western Front is up for 9 different awards, most of which feel warranted and others not so much. Don’t mistake me for disliking this film as it got into the top 10 of my best of the year list and it’s one the best war films from recent memory. It’s just not as great as the 1930 film or Come and See, which this film pretty much rips off. The film is definitely winning Best International Feature and perhaps cinematography. I think the only awards it shouldn’t get is Original Score, because they overused that thing a lot in the movie and it wasn’t very good to begin with. Also best Adapted Screenplay, which is only because of my distaste for that boring political subplot. I always like to mention snubs so I’m going to bring up that Felix Kammerer should have been nominated for Best Actor. He’s quite easy to overlook as this guy doesn’t talk too much and it’s mostly just him reacting to horrible events, which is why he is so good. I kind of wish the Oscars would accept more subtle performances like this instead of just always picking the most dramatic performance.

Avatar: The Way of Water

I don’t think I’m surprising too many people when I say this is my least favourite out of this bunch. I like Avatar: The Way of Water, it just isn’t Best Picture material. I’m just glad this isn’t up for any writing awards as it would be the main thing I would against. Avatar is up for four awards and I think it really only deserves Visual Effects as it easily has the best out of every movie that came out that year. I’m surprised there was no nomination for Score and Cinematography for this movie as they both feel warranted as they only enhanced those effects.

The Banshees of Inisherin

Here’s one I hadn’t discussed on this site before as I only saw it last month. The Banshees of Inisherin is up for 9 categories and they all feel very warranted to me. It’s a very solid film carried by its bleak storytelling and dry humour, as it’s a movie I think could easily grow on me overtime. The only problem with it, is it’s up against some really stiff competition and there are other movies I would rather win in the categories Banshees’ has been nominated for. That’s how good 2022 was, if only Banshees came out in 2021 it would have swept that season. Out of the awards it should win is Best Supporting Actress for Kerry Condon, perhaps also give Martin McDonagh might have a chance at Directing. Wishful thinking here, but it will be very gratifying to see Barry Keoghan win for Supporting Actor. Even before seeing the movie, I was just happy to see his name pop up. I hear some say Banshees has the best chance to win Best Picture and I would agree as it feels quite traditional choice for them, rather than the movie I would want to win Best Picture, which we’ll discuss when we get to it.

Elvis

Next is another favourite of mine last year and Elvis is up for 8 awards and I feel pretty good about all of them. It’ll likely win Costume Design, Sound and more than likely Best Actor for Austin Butler. I would be interested to see it get Editing, because that’s where Elvis lives or dies, besides Butler’s performance. This might sound insane, but I would have loved to see Baz Luhrmann get nominated for Directing as Elvis lives and breathes as one of his movies. It would have been a daring pick for the Academy as otherwise they’re never daring. Except for when it comes to next pick.

Everything, Everywhere, All At Once

This is a first, my favourite movie out of the bunch has been nominated for the most spots with a total of 11 nominations. This honestly feels a little surreal for me, as I’m used to promoting the underdog. I’m just thrilled that the Academy is even acknowledging Everything, Everywhere, All at Once exists, but they really went overboard with the 11 nominations. It’s up for Original Score, which is strange as most of the movie is just a soundtrack. It’s also up for Original Song, which is for a song that is played in the credits. (Sorry EEAAO this spot is for RRR, because that movie needs the love.) EEAAO should win Editing, and why not give the Daniels Directing. There should be an award for fight choreography, but one more award might be too much. I feel bad for Barry, but Ke Huy Quan for Supporting Actor is also another one I’m super happy to see and he seems to winning at every other award show, so he’s definitely getting this one. Michelle Yeoh will more than likely win Best Actress and I would like to see Stephanie Hsu win for Supporting Actress. As I eluded to earlier this is my pick for Best Picture, as I genuinely believe it has a shot and it would be nice to see something fresh and original win for a change instead of movies like Green Book or Nomadland that you pretty much forget about after the award season is over.

The Fabelmans

I told you we’re on a roll as I also really enjoyed The Fabelmans. It’s up for 7 awards and I honestly don’t see it winning too much besides it has the best shot at giving Directing to Spielberg as it is a movie based on his childhood and it’s also a movie about making movies. I can’t recall the Original Score for this one either and despite how much I enjoyed Judd Hirsh in Supporting Actor role, but I think it’s a missed opportunity not giving David Lynch for Supporting Actor. The guy is only in the movie for a couple of minutes as this grumpy old director that Spielberg admired and he just roasts the kid and it’s absolutely hilarious! There’s a fair amount of other performances Fabelsman should have got as it’s littered with great showings, probably the most obvious ones are Paul Dano as Daddy Spielberg and Gabriel LaBelle as little Spielberg.

Tár

This one hurts the most as this was the last nominee I saw and I found it the most disappointing. What works about Tár is Cate Blanchett’s performance as I think it might be my choice for Best Actress. Also the story of the great composer Lydia Tár, which leads to her eventual war against cancel culture, which is where the movie gets really good. The main problem with this movie is it takes a really long time to get that interesting stuff so most of the movie is just really boring padding. I think this movie could redeem itself on a rewatch, but remembering my bad points is making that option seem less and less appealing. Besides Best Actress and perhaps Cinematography I don’t think this movie really deserves the other 4 nominations it has, I’m sorry Tár left too much of a bad taste in my mouth.

Top Gun: Maverick

Back on track with another movie I enjoyed, but similar to EEAAO Top Gun: Maverick also feels very out of left field for the Oscars, because it’s the most blockbustery movie out of all these movies. Out of the six nominations it has I think it should get Sound, because you gotta acknowledge that they were flying real planes somehow. The Adapted Screenplay choice also makes sense to me as the writing of Maverick was another one of its highlights. Most of the other categories it has been nominated for I think should go to other movies, though I would enjoy seeing Maverick win Best Picture just from the idea of seeing Tom Cruise get an Oscar.

Triangle of Sadness

Here’s this year’s funny movie, Triangle of Sadness and it was pretty damn good at being that. It’s a movie that makes fun of rich people and it’s not at all subtle about it. TOS is up for 3 awards and is probably going to win none of them, but it’s nice to see it here anyway. I don’t have anything to add to this, except it isn’t Glass Onion.

Women Talking

The final movie is another that I don’t particularly care for. Women Talking is about a bunch of women talking about all the evil rapey men in their community. It’s another movie that is very on nose to the point of preaching and it got really old really fast. Women Talking has been nominated for 2 Oscars and I don’t see this winning anything. Finally I don’t have any notable snubs for this one either, it’s just that bog-standard.

Everything Else

Acting

I was kind of surprised when they first announced this year’s nominees that The Whale missed out on Best Picture, as people couldn’t shut up about this movie last year. I saw The Whale a couple of weeks ago and it wasn’t that great. I agree with the Hong Chau nomination, but the other two not so much. Sorry I don’t feel the hype for Brendan Fraser as he was good in the role, but the film’s writing didn’t make me connect with the character. He was such an unreasonable push off to his scorn of the Earth daughter and absolute refusal to save himself was very frustrating. It reminded me too much of King Richard from last year. I’m happy to see Ana De Armas here, mainly because the amusement that Ana was so good in that movie it has given the most controversial movie of last year an Oscar nomination. Like Barry Keoghan, it’s also just nice to see Ana de Armas finally get some recognition. The last big acting nomination is Angela Bassett for Best Supporting Actress in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, the first MCU acting nomination. I don’t have any strong feelings on this as I more found it weird they singled her out as I thought all the acting in Wakanda Forever was really good. Probably because she is the oldest actress in the movie and the only time the Oscars acknowledge blockbuster performances is when some veteran actor like Alec Guinness rocks up for a supporting spot in a Star Wars film.

Best Animated Feature

The one category that I actually care about this year and don’t want the Oscars to mess up! The Animated Feature category is called the freebee win for Pixar or Disney award as it’s very rare they lose. There is some strong competition in this category and all Pixar have is Turning Red, which isn’t one of their stronger movies. Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio seems to be the favourite this year, which I wouldn’t be against as it was very good and was definitely better than Disney’s attempt. My preferred choice would be Puss in Boots: The Last Wish as it’s not only one of my favourites out of all the nominees, but as cheesy as it’s one of those movies I’m glad I saw in the cinema and that reminds me why I enjoy going. Plus it actually has me excited to see more of this franchise. (A feat that is almost impossible to do nowadays.) That’s my pick, but I would also be happy if Pinocchio won, or even Marcel, I hear that’s great, but I unfortunately missed my window to see it. Just don’t pick Pixar again please as I’m just sick of animation being dragged through the dirt again and again.

That’s pretty much it, again for another year. I could rag on how the amazing horror movies from last year got absolutely no recognition, but for what they did nominate I’m quite impressed. Sure it would have been nice to see something like RRR, Babylon or even The Batman get some more love, but I’m still amazed that something like Everything, Everywhere, All At Once is leading the way for possibly allowing more creative movies to have a win at the Oscars. I guess we’ll find out the results in a couple of days. Until then, Blog Complainer, signing out.