Best Pictures #117: The 2024 (97th) Academy Awards: My Choice

 by A.J.

The 2024 (97th) Academy Awards:

The 97th Academy Awards for films released in 2024 was held on March 2nd, 2025. Overall 2024 was not a strong year for movies, at least not when compared to the films and nominees of last year. Conan O’Brien hosted the ceremony which even though it finished only slightly after expected still felt very long. There was a musical dance and montage tribute to the James Bond films that felt unnecessary and inexplicable. The highlight of the night were Conan’s comedic bits which were neither too long nor mean spirited. Adrian Brody won his second Best Actor Oscar for playing another artist who survives the Holocaust. Zoe Saldaña won Best Supporting Actress for Emilia Pérez and Kieran Culkin won Best Supporting Actor for A Real Pain, though there is a strong argument that they are actually the leads of their respective films. 

The most nominated film of the night, Emilia Pérez, won only two awards (for Supporting Actress and Original Song for El Mal), a sign of how badly support for that film fell apart. In one of the night’s surprises Emilia Pérez lost the International Feature award to Walter Salles’s I’m Still Here, from Brazil, which is not only a better film than Emilia Pérez, but one of the best films of 2024. 

Another surprise was writer-director Sean Baker tying the record set by Walt Disney for most wins by a person in one night/ceremony. Though Disney’s awards were for four separate films, Baker’s awards were all for the same film, Anora, which he wrote, edited, directed and produced and won awards for doing each. By far the biggest and most shocking upset of the night also belonged to Anora when Mikey Madison won the Best Actress Oscar over frontrunner and favorite Demi Moore for The Substance. Moore winning award after award all season combined with her “comeback” narrative seemed enough to overcome the Academy’s aversion to the horror genre, but alas. Despite the loss, I feel confident that The Substance and Moore’s performance will stand the test of time and become influential in horror and other genres. 

Anora ended up becoming the most awarded film of the 97th Academy Awards, winning 5 of its 6 nominations. I liked Anora and think it is a fine and entertaining film, but if I had a vote to cast it would be for a different film.

My Choice for Best Picture of 2024: Conclave

Among its 8 Oscar nominations, Conclave did not receive a Best Director nomination for Edward Berger, a sign that it did not have strong chances to win Best Picture. I think this is also a sign that every aspect of the filmmaking works so well that the final film feels effortless. The Costume Design was rightfully nominated though I’m sure many grumbled that it’s just the same red robe again and again and don’t those robes and vestments already exist? Berger and costume designer Lisy Christl ignored the advice to simply rent costumes from The Young Pope and create their own. The robes in the film are thicker and heavier than the real cardinal robes, to the annoyance of Ralph Fiennes, but they are also from a richer fabric so instead of appearing orange on screen, their redness highlights each frame, especially in dark rooms and hallways. Christl used the crosses the cardinals wear to signal their personality or background. Cardinal Lawrence (Fiennes) wears a simple cross. The ambitious Cardinal Tremblay (Lithgow) wears an elaborate jeweled cross. In a masterful sequence we see a frontrunner’s chances for becoming pope collapse. When confronted by Cardinal Lawrence about a scandal, the other cardinal is not wearing his cross. The effect is that he seems naked, exposed, as his scandal is about to be exposed. Berger and editor Nick Emerson intercut this moment with scenes of the next day’s vote and a subjective shot of the fallen cardinal that shows his loss of support. From the striking and frantic opening image to the striking and peaceful closing image, Conclave is excellent filmmaking, impressive all the more for its great entertainment value.

Best Pictures #116: 2024 (97th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: Conclave

by A.J.

Best Pictures #116: 2024 (97th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

Conclave

“No sane man would want the papacy.”

A movie about the college of cardinals meeting in conclave, the paradoxically famous and secretive gathering to elect the new pope, could be so reverent and serious as to be pandering and dull or it could be so artificially sensational as to be tawdry and disrespectful. Director Edward Berger's Conclave, based on the novel by Robert Harris, finds a delicate and wonderful balance. This isn’t an exposé of the Catholic church, nor is it a Christ-sploitation movie. This is an exciting and thrilling film full of intrigue and secret conversations, incredible performances, and excellent filmmaking on every level. The result is an absorbing and electrifying film, without a doubt one of the best of 2024. 

After the death of the pope (from natural causes), the task of assembling and running the conclave falls to the dean of the college of cardinals, Cardinal Lawrence played by Ralph Fiennes. We learn early on that he is dealing with doubts, not so much in faith but in himself, and tried to resign from his position at the Vatican but the pope refused his resignation. He is dedicated to doing his job well, but everyone and everything seems to be against the conclave running smoothly. All the better for us. The candidates emerge: the liberal Bellini (Stanley Tucci), the conservative Adeyemi (Lucian Msamati), the ultra-conservative Tedesco (Sergio Castellitto), the opportunist Tremblay (John Lithgow), and the drama and infighting begins. 

The cast is an incredible collection of great performers, some well known, others lesser known but no less impressive. The breakout performance belongs to Sergio Castellitto as the ultra-conservative Italian Cardinal Tedesco. He arrives with such force that wind billows under his red coat making it look like a cape. At one point he howls with laughter and is constantly vaping. Carlos Diehz finds the exact notes necessary for the quiet and mysterious Cardinal Benitez, who no one knew about and arrived only at the last minute. Brían F. O'Byrne as O'Malley, Cardinal Lawrence’s right hand man, gets to play the only character who is maybe more stressed out than Cardinal Lawrence and provides some comic relief. Isabella Rossellini lends her great screen presence to a small and mostly silent role. Nevertheless she has a stand out scene and curtseys like it is a mic drop. Of course Tucci and Lithgow shine at every moment. 

At the head of the incredible ensemble is Ralph Fiennes, giving one of his best performances in a very impressive career. His Best Actor nomination is most deserved. It is clear Lawrence does not want his job, and he certainly doesn’t want votes when they start coming his way, but he also wants everything to go the way it should and the most worthy man to be elected. When his frustrations boil over, even his outbursts feel constrained, but Fiennes conveys everything that Lawrence tries to conceal. Lawrence does not have the most lines. He is a character who observes and reacts. Fiennes makes a would-be passive character into a sympathetic and relatable leading man.

Many reviews have called Conclave pulpy, trashy, even like an airport novel, but I have a word that better describes Conclave: fun. I suspect that this caught many people off guard and will continue to do. For several scenes Cardinal Lawrence has to be a detective, searching for information and answers without directly breaking the sequester. Characters gossip, scandals are uncovered; there are whispers in hallways late at night, and shouts in the cafeteria. The pageantry and rituals of the Vatican provide a certain level of class and seriousness, but the brilliance of this story is that it remembers that all of these aged holy men are just people and people can be petty, ambitious, deceitful, secretive, and sometimes even righteous. The Oscar nominated screenplay by Peter Straughan (who also wrote the adaptation for the brilliant character piece Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) provides for nuance as well as showpieces and speeches. Nothing that happens in Conclave feels contrived or unbelievable. Even an explosion (shown in the trailers) does not feel out of place.

Of course you don’t have to be Catholic or religious or familiar with anything about the church to enjoy Conclave. Neither director Berger or Straughan’s screenplay condescend to the audience. Explanations arise as they would in the natural course of events. When Lawrence tries to cardinal-splain simony to Bellini, Bellini responds curtly, "I'm aware of what simony is." If you are not aware of what simony is it becomes apparent a few scenes later. At its core, this is a movie about a stressed out manager, which is something that is very relatable.

Nominees: Tessa Ross, Juliette Howell and Michael A. Jackman, Producers

Director: Edward Berger

Screenplay: Peter Straughan; based on the novel by Robert Harris

Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Isabella Rossellini

Production Companies: FilmNation Entertainment, House Productions, Indian Paintbrush

Distributor: Focus Features

Release Date: October 25th, 2024

Total Nominations: 8, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Actor-Ralph Fiennes; Supporting Actress-Isabella Rossellini; Adapted Screenplay-Peter Straughan; Editing- Nick Emerson; Production Design-Suzie Davies (production designer), Cynthia Sleiter (set decorator); Costume Design-Lisy Christl; Original Score-Volker Bertelmann

Best Pictures #115 2024 (97th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: Wicked

by A.J.

Best Pictures #115 2024 (97th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

Wicked

“Popular! I'll help you be popular!”

It is a shame that it took so long for the major Broadway musical Wicked to be adapted into a movie for a few reasons. One is simply that it took so long for a stage musical with great songs to come to a medium that can be widely seen by anyone anywhere. The other reasons are to the film's detriment I'm afraid. Wicked debuted on Broadway in 2003, was a major hit, and became influential, directly and indirectly, on other musicals, movies, and books. By 2024 however, many tropes and trends it helped popularize have become tired and cliched. Every time I see yet another movie or read yet another fantasy book that purports to invert “everything you thought you knew” about a well known story, or in which the main character discovers that the revered figure or institution is actually villainous,  I roll my eyes. Wicked does not deserve eye rolls but the effect of subverting the familiar world of Oz has been lost. 

There are still things to enjoy of course. The highlight for me was the surprising comedic talent of Ariana Grande as the glamorous Galinda, later to be the Good Witch of the North. Her funniest moment happens when she tries to turn green-skinned outcast Elphaba's frumpy coat, or froat, into a ball gown by shaking her training wand and saying "ball gown!" She's shocked when it doesn't work, after all, isn't that how casting spells works? I suppose it helps that she has the performance of the great Kristen Chenoweth, who played the role on Broadway, to help model her own performance. 

Once Galinda finally stops being a mean girl and befriends Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo), the future Wicked Witch of the West, the movie really takes off. They have some wonderful moments together, including Galinda promising to make Elphaba popular (one of the signature songs). Galinda’s makeover of Elphaba turns out to be less about fashion and more about Galinda becoming a nicer person. Erivo handles the songs and dramatic moments well though her best moments are when she and Grande are together. They have much better chemistry as friends than as adversaries which makes the middle section of the movie enjoyable and adds tension to the final moments. Both Erivo and Grande have received Oscar nominations for their performances in the Lead and Supporting categories, respectively. 

Wicked’s Oscar nominations for Production Design and Visual Effects are very well deserved. Watching the deleted scenes with unfinished effects and the making-of featurette on the Blu-ray I was impressed by how much of any given set was real and tactile. Despite flaws with the pacing, on this level Wicked certainly qualifies as an impressive achievement. I read complaints about the look of the movie but I saw no problems. I wonder if people were unimpressed by the sights because Oz is a fantasy world that nearly everyone is already familiar with to some degree. 

It is not all songs and costumes, of course. There is a plot too. Elphaba, born green and marked as an outcast, is drafted into the Shiz, a sort of school or academy, after one of the teachers, Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh), witnesses Elphaba's magical talents. She's forced to room with Galinda, the pretty, pink, popular, and mean girl. After seeing the effects of a prank, Galinda has remorse and becomes friends with Elphaba. Although only Elphaba is invited to visit the mysterious and wonderful wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum), she brings Galinda along. Together they learn a dark secret truth about their world and their friendship is tested. There are important themes in Wicked, but they, like many side characters and plots, are not fully explored because of what is by far the biggest flaw of the movie. 

The big screen adaptation of Wicked unfortunately fell victim to the most cynical and unnecessary trend of current big budget fantasy films: splitting one story over multiple movies. The advertising did not mention it, but this is actually Wicked Part 1. On stage, the entire musical runs at 2 hours 45 minutes. For the movie, the first act of the stage version has been stretched out to be as long as the entire show, so that after 2 hours and 40 minutes we’re only halfway through the story. A few characters have been added but mostly scenes and songs have been stretched and stretched. Many stretch out beyond the breaking point of dramatic effectiveness and lose their poignancy. The scene of Galinda mirroring Elphaba’s dance at a prom-like event to show her newfound empathy lasts so long I went from feeling moved to thinking, “I get it already!” The most egregious example of a scene being stretched and broken up for the sake of runtime is the climactic song Defying Gravity. This wonderful and powerful song happens in fits and starts. It is broken up for dialogue and action beats, including a personal reflective moment for Elphaba, so that it stretches out for almost 14 minutes. I was expecting to be overwhelmed and blown back in my seat but instead I found myself frustrated and wondering if now the movie would let Erivo hit that big finale. 

Director Jon M. Chu has made successful movie musicals before, including my beloved In the Heights, but here I think the task of adapting Wicked must have overwhelmed him. The scenes of actual dancing are very well done and lively; he even finds a way to include his favorite touch, people dancing through water. In his commentary track Chu admits that it was difficult to decide what to show and when and for how long. This is unfortunately obvious, especially in Defying Gravity. Chu did his best to make a Part 1 that would stand on its own and it stands, but unevenly.

Wicked, the stage musical, made its debut on Broadway in October of 2003. I started college in New York in September of 2003 and it was all the rage among many of my friends who sang Popular so often that I knew the words without ever listening to the cast recording album. I never saw the original Broadway run and still haven’t seen any stage version, but I am absolutely ready to believe that the show is as fun and enchanting as my friends found it in the fall and winter of 2003. It seems like the movie had a built in fan base ready to like it no matter what–in that way it is like a Marvel movie–but they and my college friends deserve a better movie. 

Nominees: Marc Platt, Producer

Director: Jon M. Chu

Screenplay: Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox; based on Wicked by Stephen Schwartz and Winnie Holzman and the novel by Gregory Maguire

Cast: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh

Production Companies: Universal Pictures, Marc Platt Productions

Distributor: Universal Pictures

Release Date: November 22nd, 2024

Total Nominations: 10, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Actress-Cynthia Erivo; Supporting Actress-Ariana Grande; Editing-Myron Kerstein; Production Design-Nathan Crowley (production designer)Lee Sandales (set decorator); Costume Design

Paul Tazewell-Makeup and Hairstyling; Frances Hannon, Laura Blount, Sarah Nuth; Original Score-John Powell, Stephen Schwartz; Sound-Simon Hayes, Nancy Nugent Title, Jack Dolman, Andy Nelson, John Marquis; Visual Effects-Pablo Helman, Jonathan Fawkner, David Shirk, Paul Corbould