Best Pictures #128: My Pick for Best Picture of 2025

by A.J.

 Best Pictures #128: My Pick for Best Picture of 2025

The 98th Academy Awards

The 98th Academy Awards ceremony for films released in 2025 was held on March 15th, 2026. Conan O'Brien once again hosted, bringing his lively persona and humor to the ceremony; all of the non-Conan related comedy, such as forced banter between presenters, fell flat. Sound problems seemed to persist throughout the ceremony, most notably during Barbara Streisand's spoken tribute to the late, great Robert Redford; when it was time for her to sing, Barbara had a different microphone. 

Before the ceremony even began this was already a historic Academy Awards with Sinners earning the most nominations of any film in Academy history. This indeed did turn out to be a historic Academy Awards ceremony for a few different reasons. The frontrunner for Original Song, Golden from K-Pop Demon Hunters, won to no one's surprise; but it became the first K-Pop song to win an Academy Award. Sinners won only 4 of its 16 nominations, but one of them was for Autumn Durald Arkapaw for Cinematography, making her the first woman to win that category. Sinners also won Best Actor for Michael B. Jordan, Original Screenplay for Ryan Coogler, and Original Score for Ludwig Göransson. A rare tie, only the 7th in the 98years, in the Live Action Short category, between The Singers and Two People Exchanging Saliva, shook things up, and no doubt helped certain Oscar pools. Amy Madigan now holds the record for longest gap between nominations with 40 years passing between her Supporting Actress nomination for Twice in a Lifetime and her second nomination for the horror movie Weapons. Thankfully the wait was worth it and she took home the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. 

Overall the class of nominees for 2025 turned out to be eclectic group. Two foreign language movies, The Secret Agent form Brazil and Sentimental Value from Norway) were nominated for both Best Picture and Best International Feature, making that category a bit tricky to predict. Ultimately, Sentimental Value took home to Norway the Best International Feature Oscar. The Academy's aversion to horror is well known so it is very satisfying that two horror films, Frankenstein and Sinners were included in the Best Picture nominees. F1, a big budget crowd pleaser and Train Dreams, a small, thoughtful personal drama, both earned recognition. Marty Supreme, about a table tennis hustler in the 1950's, and Hamnet, about Anne Hathaway/Shakespeare, are both period dramas inspired by fictionalized representations of real people and were included as well. Only the Academy's love of Emma Stone and director Yorgos Lanthimos explain Bugonia's inclusion in the Best Picture nominees. Paul Thomas Anderson's One Battle After Another ended up being the big winner of the night, taking home 6 Oscars, including the big award, Best Picture. 

My Pick for Best Picture of 2025: One Battle After Another

It's no secret that I am a fan of writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson; I have been since I saw Magnolia in theaters when I was 14. He has long been on the Academy's radar, earning nominations, without winning, since 1997's Boogie Nights, so his wins for Best Adapted Screenplay, Director, and Best Picture, are, on one hand, a long time coming. On the other, One Battle After Another is a singular cinematic achievement. Anderson is such a talented and skilled filmmaker that any one of his films ranks among the best of its respective year. No matter the subject matter or the setting, his films have the sprawling scope and feel of an epic (with Hard Eight and Punch Drunk Love being the still excellent exceptions). The characters in his movies are allowed complexities and contradictions and unspoken motivations, allowing for captivating performances from the cast. Each P.T. Anderson picture feels like a treat. One Battle After Another is no different. Many things make this movie timely, and thus political, but the core of the movie is about a father and daughter; about parents wanting to protect their children from the problems of the past and realizing that is not possible; about how hope rests in the next generation. This is what will give One Battle After Another a lasting resonance no matter political landscape may be. I can't wait to see this P.T. Anderson movie again and I can't wait to see the next one. 

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 #106: The 2023 (96th) Academy Awards: My Choice

by A.J.

Best Pictures #106: The 2023 (96th) Academy Awards

The 96th Academy Awards ceremony for films released in 2023 was held on March 10th, 2024. The ceremony was still over 3 hours but still ended early because it started an hour earlier than previous years. A minor controversy was avoided when a last minute decision to exclude Messi the dog, who played Snoop in Anatomy of a Fall, was reversed and cameras showed the much loved dog in the audience. A rather unexpected milestone was reached when Cillian Murphy, nominated for Oppenheimer, became the first Irishman to win the Best Actor Oscar.

One of the biggest movies of the year ended up being the most awarded film the night with Oppenheimer winning 7 of its 13 nominations, the most wins and nominations of any film. The odd Poor Things won 4 of its 11 nominations, including the most shocking upset of the night when Emma Stone won her second Best Actress Oscar over the expected winner, Lily Gladstone for Killers of the Flower Moon. Martin Scorsese's epic, and excellent, based on true events crime drama did not win any of its 10 nominations, the same fate as Scorsese's last film with 10 nominations, The Irishman. Ryan Gosling's seriocomic performance of the nominated original song "I'm Just Ken" was the highlight ceremony. He began singing in the audience of the shoulder of co-star Margot Robbie, moved to the stage, danced with the chorus on stage, quickly adjusted the mic stand without missing a beat, and then got some of the stars near the stage to sing along. That song did not win, but the other nominated song from Barbie, "What Was I Made For?" did win, giving 22 year old Billie Eilish her second Original Song Oscar and giving Barbie its only win. The rest of the night went as expected, more or less, even with Al Pacino skipping naming all of the Best Picture nominees and then semi teasing out naming the winner: "My eyes see...Oppenheimer."

Overall the Academy's Best Picture nominees were a strong and diverse class. They included: two foreign language films, two films directed by women, four films focused on female main characters, three films that take a hard look at history, biopics, period pieces, satires, indie films, comedies, dramas, and two films about grumpy intellectuals. Some of the best reviewed movies of 2023 were included in the Academy's list of 10 nominees, including my choice for the best film of 2023.

My Pick for Best Picture of 2023: Oppenheimer

It's not often that my personal choice for the best movie of the year is a major box office hit and then not only nominated for Best Picture but becomes frontrunner and eventual winner. Of course, I'm glad when that does happen. So much has been said about Oppenheimer and it has received so much praise that it feels gratuitous to say anymore. However, it is very exciting when a movie comes along that has so much to say, so much to think about, and is done so well that you just want to keep talking about it. 

There is always the risk of sounding pretentious and even foolish—don’t the two go hand in hand?—when describing films as art, but they certainly are, even if they are not "art films." This movie should be a history lesson or another by the numbers biopic, but in the hands of Christopher Nolan, who is proving himself to be a master filmmaker, it is a rare blend of entertainment and art. No one knows for sure how a movie will be remembered, whether it wins Best Picture or not, but my theory is Oppenheimer will be a movie that people continue to revisit. After all, we do live in the atomic age of Oppenheimer.

Best Pictures #95: The 95th Academy Awards: My Pick

 by A.J. 

Best Pictures #95: The 95th Academy Awards 

The 95th Academy Awards for films released in 2022 were held on March 12, 2023. Unpopular changes like handing out awards for the technical categories before the start of the ceremony were done away with and this ceremony embraced that it would be long, to the betterment of the ceremony. There were no major incidents or controversies though, as ever, the In Memorium could have included more people. Highlights of the night included Ke Huy Quan’s win for Best Supporting Actor for Everything Everywhere All At Once, an appearance by the “real” Cocaine Bear, and the performance and win of “Naatu Naatu” for Best Original Song from the hyper-entertaining Indian film RRR. Host Jimmy Kimmel made several jokes about the previous year’s slapping incident between Will Smith and Chris Rock, but he took no low shots at the nominated movies. Recently the ceremony has taken an embarrassed, almost apologetic tone towards the nominated movies. This year felt like a real celebration of movies. 

As awards season rolled along and Everything Everywhere All At Once picked up more and more accolades, it suffered the same minor problem as Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water in 2017 in that its frontrunner status made it the conventional choice, though the movie is far from conventional. So, many of its wins did not come as total surprises, however, this did not stop the excitement of this sci-fi multiverse martial arts movie winning a total of 7 Academy Awards including Best Picture. It is no overstatement to say that Everything Everywhere won big, picking up the most awards by a Best Picture winner since Slumdog Millionaire at the 2008 Oscars. The impressive tally of wins include: Best Picture, Director, Actress-Michelle Yeoh, Supporting Actress-Jaime Lee Curtis, Supporting Actor-Ke Huy Quan, Original Screenplay, and Editing. 

The flipside of Everything Everywhere winning big, along with the remake of All Quiet on the Western Front, which won 4 Oscars, is that films with multiple nominations like The Banshees of Inisherin (9), Elvis (8), The Fabelmans (7), and Tar (6) went home empty handed. Typically, the Academy spreads the wealth, but not this year. 

Everything Everywhere is a fun and exciting choice for Best Picture, a nice change from the last couple years in which the Academy has awarded Best Picture to films that were good but not very daring. For me, the Best Picture nominees of 2022 were a mostly great selection of films and I was torn about which film would be my choice, if I had a vote, because for the first time in a long while not one but two of my absolute favorite films of the year were nominated for Best Picture. On my personal list of the best of 2022, Top Gun: Maverick and The Fabelmans are tied for first place, but if I can only award one…

My Pick for Best Picture of 2022: Top Gun: Maverick

There are scenes in Top Gun: Maverick that do not advance the plot but are important because they grow the characters. This is not done through dramatic monologues or speeches or cheap tricks but in intimate person to person moments. These moments feel honest; they add humanity into an action movie, something that is not strictly necessary but greatly enhances the movie. Jennifer Connolly’s character Penny is a great addition, a real challenge for Maverick, since flying comes so easy to him. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell is close enough to the character you remember, but a lot of time has passed and the screenplay and Tom Cruise are not afraid to show us a different, mature version of a familiar character. The scenes of the F-18s in action will always dazzle and they are more than pure spectacle because of the work the cast and crew put into every aspect of the movie. It is difficult to blend action and emotion but, here, every thrill and every heartfelt moment are well earned. I can’t wait to watch it again.

Best Pictures #84: The 2021 (94th) Academy Awards: My Pick

 by A.J. 

Best Pictures #84: The 2021 (94th) Academy Awards: My Pick

The 94th Academy Awards for films released between March 1st and December 31st, 2021 was held on March 27th, 2022 and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic loomed over the ceremony. The effect of the theater closures in 2020 could still be felt due to that year’s extended eligibility calendar (January 1st 2020-February 28th, 2021), giving the 2021 Academy Awards the shortest eligibility period in its history. As with the 2020 Oscars, eligibility was granted to streaming releases and theatrical runs outside of Los Angeles. In an attempt to boost broadcast ratings, several changes were made to the ceremony that stirred controversy and backlash. To shorten the broadcast, several “technical” categories were handed out before the official ceremony then edited into the primetime broadcast with speeches intact (except for one winner who mentioned the importance of the technical workers). The "In Memoriam" tribute included dancers which some found inappropriate. The results of internet polls for Fan Favorite and Stand Up And Cheer Moment were announced to awkwardly silent reactions from the ceremony audience and confusion from people watching at home. All the efforts to shorten the ceremony were unsuccessful and though the ratings increased from the previous year they were still among the lowest the Oscars broadcast has received. Perhaps the only change that worked was the expansion of the Best Picture nominations to a full set of 10, instead of the between 5-10 sliding scale that always resulted in either 8 or 9 nominees.

Any highlights of the 94th Oscars, including Troy Kostur’s win for Best Supporting Actor, and even the lowlights, were overshadowed by Will Smith slapping Chris Rock on stage after a joke Rock made about Jada Pinkett, Smith’s wife. The speech Smith gave about 40 minutes later when he won the Best Actor Oscar for King Richard could best be described as painfully awkward. For weeks after, whenever anyone talked about the Academy Awards they only talked about “the slap.”

The Power of the Dog, the most nominated film of the night and early frontrunner to win Best Picture, ended up winning only one award: Best Director for Jane Campion. The most awarded film ended up being Dune with 6 awards, however, nearly all of these were for technical categories given out before the live broadcast. Ultimately the big award went to CODA, which won every category it was nominated for (Picture, Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actor). In a potentially historic achievement CODA also became the first film distributed by a streaming service, AppleTV+, to win Best Picture, a prize long sought by established rival Netflix. CODA is an entertaining and heartwarming film in spite of its familiar and formulaic structure. As the Oscars approached, CODA picked up more and more awards from other awards bodies so its Oscar win was not entirely a surprise, but it still caught me off guard. The objections that have arisen to CODA’s Best Picture win run along the lines of: it’s a good movie but hardly the most creative, affecting, or the best. Depending on the person, this is true of every Best Picture Oscar winner. I agree that CODA is a satisfying film, but I would cast my vote another way:

My Pick for Best Picture of 2021: Licorice Pizza

There were two films from 2021 that had a profound and lasting effect on me. I saw both in theaters but I doubt this had any extra bearing on feelings as I’ve seen one of them at home twice since then. They are In the Heights and Licorice Pizza, each tied for my choice as the best film of 2021 and since only Licorice Pizza was noticed by the Academy, it gets my vote for Best Picture of 2021. I find it's much more difficult to write about a film I love (not like but love) because they make a connection on an emotional, ineffable level and it is hard to write about pure emotions. I believe that after Martin Scorsese, Paul Thomas Anderson is the greatest living filmmaker. Like Scorsese, even when his films miss or don’t work, they do so in an interesting way. Licorice Pizza works in every way. It’s the kind of film that could only be made by a master filmmaker. From cinematography to costumes to even sound (the sound of heavy car doors slamming shut, a sound I remember from my childhood, is expertly captured) to the performances and writing and editing. It is the kind of movie that makes me forget I’m watching a movie and creates an all-encompassing experience. It transports me to a time and place that I have no experience or familiarity with but makes me feel that they are similar to my own experiences. Licorice Pizza makes me want to say that it “reminds me of what I love about movies” and all the other clichés people use when they can’t pin down the words to describe the profound, moving, and elevating experience they just had at the movies.    

Best Pictures #73: The 2020 (93rd) Academy Awards: My Pick

 by A. J. 

Best Pictures #73: 

The 2020 (93rd) Academy Awards

The COVID-19 pandemic left no part of society and culture unaffected. The movie industry and Academy Awards were no exception. Movie theaters closed, releases were pushed back by months or in some cases a full year. Studios sold some movies to streaming services like Netflix, Apple TV+, or Amazon Prime. Warner Bros. boldly released their films in theaters and on their streaming service, HBOmax, simultaneously. The movie industry did its best to adapt to pandemic times and the Academy Awards did the same. The date of the ceremony was pushed back by two months and the eligibility period for qualifying films extended beyond the calendar year. The last time the eligibility period was longer than 12 months or covered more than a single year was at the 6th Academy Awards for films released between August 1st 1932-December 31st, 1933. The following year the Oscars moved from a seasonal schedule to a normal calendar year, until 2020. 

The 93rd Academy Awards for films released in theaters or on streaming platforms between January 1st, 2020-February 28th, 2021 was held on April 25th, 2021. The venue was Union Station in Los Angeles, instead of a traditional theater and the set up had the look and feel of a casual lounge with nominees at tables spread out across the room. To those familiar with Academy history, it was a reminder that the awards ceremony began as a hotel banquet. The number of attendees were limited to ensure safe social distancing, with some nominees making appearances from all over the world. There was once again no host, but actress-director Regina King opened the ceremony in style. 

Some of the changes were good (letting all the winners speak until they finished without the threat of being played off), others were not (no clips at all from the nominated films, except for Best Picture). The most drastic change was announcing Best Picture before the end of the night. Chloe Zhao's Nomadland won the big award with Best Actress going to Nomadland's star, Frances McDormand, her third Best Actress Oscar win, afterwards. Paradoxically, the night ended anticlimactically with the biggest upset of the ceremony. Anthony Hopkins won his second Best Actor Oscar for The Father, over the frontrunner and presumed winner, the late Chadwick Boseman. Hopkins was not in attendance so the award was accepted very briefly on his behalf by the presenter, Joaquin Phoenix, and the ceremony ended rather unceremoniously. Hopkins indeed gave an incredible and deeply affecting performance (in a movie I did not particularly care for), and the 83 year-old cannot be blamed for not wanting to travel during a pandemic. It is clear that the producers of the broadcast expected the show to end with a win and tribute to Boseman, but instead we got a speechless, unusual ending to an already unusual Oscars. It was a big gamble on the part of the broadcast producers and it did not pay off. 

There were important milestones at the 93rd Academy Awards. Nine of the twenty acting nominations went to performers of color and a record number of women (70) were nominated across the 23 categories. Steven Yeun became the first East Asian actor nominated for Best Actor for Minari. For the first time ever, two women were nominated for Best Director: Emerald Fennell for Promising Young Woman and Chloe Zhao for Nomadland. Perhaps the most significant win of the night was Chloe Zhao for Best Director, becoming the first woman of color, and only the second woman ever, to win the award. Yuh-jung Youn became the first Korean actress to win Best Supporting Actress for her outstanding performance in Minari. 

The diversity of the nominees reflects the diverse collection of films nominated for Best Picture. At first glance, they may seem like a dour bunch. They deal with hearing loss, memory loss, job & home loss, the murder of an activist, a quest for retribution, the struggles of immigrant farmers, the trial of protesters falsely accused of inciting a riot, and a washed up writer dealing with his past. However, I think there is something to be gained from nearly all of the nominees and they prove Roger Ebert's claim that "no good movie is depressing" (though The Father really challenges this). They speak to socio-political issues being dealt with today or show that after our personal or emotional hardships, a catharsis is possible. They did what movies are supposed to do: they showed us what it is like to be someone else. For better and/or worse, they capture what we were feeling and dealing with in 2020. 

My Pick for Best Picture of 2020/21: Sound of Metal

Sound of Metal took home two Oscars for Best Sound and Best Editing and I would have given it at least one more award: Best Picture of 2020/21. Movies about addicts and addiction are tricky. They can slip into melodrama and unearned sentiment or serve as a pretense for a performer to show off their range. The same goes movies about a character losing a sense or ability. This is not the case with Sound of Metal. If the main character is an addict in recovery, the movie pretty much requires a scene where, after doing well, they hit rock bottom or relapse. These moments happen in real life but they often feel contrived in movies because dramatic structure requires them to happen at the end of the second act. I was so invested in Ruben’s adjusting to his new life that I was dreading this obligatory scene. What Sound of Metal delivers instead is something unique to its characters and story and is all the more moving because of it. I suppose what I responded to most in Sound of Metal, aside from Riz Ahmed's performance, is that it never did what I expected, especially at the end, which is a big treat. The filmmakers know what Ahmed's Ruben discovers: our most significant realizations and epiphanies come from unlikely places at unexpected times. 

Best Pictures #68: 2020 (93rd) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: The Trial of the Chicago 7

 by A.J. 

Best Pictures #68: 2020 (93rd) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

The Trial of the Chicago 7

“This is the Academy Awards of protests and as far as I'm concerned it's an honor just to be nominated.”

The Trial of the Chicago 7 resonates as much as it does because even though it is a dramatization of events from 50 years ago, it feels like it could have been based on current events. I knew next to nothing about the Chicago 7 before watching this movie, but I also know that good movies don’t always make for good history. However, The Trial of the Chicago 7 does the best thing a movie based on an important true story can do: it gives me a strong sense of what things were like for the people involved and it makes me want to learn more. I have never cared much for Aaron Sorkin’s TV projects, but I have really enjoyed his film writing (A Few Good Men, The Social Network) and even his work as a director (Molly’s Game). As with Molly’s Game, Sorkin writes and directs, but it is clear that Sorkin the writer is at the helm. Aaron Sorkin is aware that his forte is writing speeches and debates and that awareness can also be his problem. This based-on-true-events courtroom drama is in many ways what you expect, but it is no less satisfying to watch.

Protests against the Vietnam War at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago turned into riots and 7 people (actually 8) were arrested and charged with crossing state lines to intentionally start a riot, though, of course, this was not true. We see dramatizations of the trial, strategy sessions and arguments the 7 have with each other and their lawyer, and flashbacks of the events leading up to the protests turned riots and why that turn happened (it might be unfortunately no surprise or shock to find out that the police, not the accused 7, escalated the protests into riots).  

This is the epitome of an ensemble cast. Every role, major and minor, is a distinct one and played by recognizable name or face. It is an impressive and slightly distracting cast. When the defense team tracks down an important witness you spend the preceding scene wondering what celebrity will be waiting for them at the end of the hall. The standouts of the ensemble are Sacha Baron Cohen, who has earned a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his performance in the very showy role of Abbie Hoffman, Mark Rylance as William Kunstler, the determined lawyer for the 7, and Frank Langella as the prejudiced, frustrating, and incompetent Judge Julius Hoffman. Eddie Redmayne gives a good performance as Tom Hayden, the head of Students for a Democratic Society, but his best scenes are his arguments/debates with Cohen as Abbie Hoffman. I really enjoyed their scenes together; both are on the same side and want to achieve the same goal but are on different paths. 

The 8th person on trial is Bobby Seale, the national chairman of the Black Panthers, played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. who was not involved in the planning of any of the DNC protests but was charged nevertheless and lumped into the trial as part of the FBI’s campaign against the Panthers. The scenes with Seale are noteworthy not just for the injustice being dealt to him but for Mateen’s performance as well. Joseph Gordon Levitt plays the federal prosecutor and does a good job in a pretty restrained role. John Carol Lynch and others also turn in solid performances but in a cast this stacked it is difficult to stand out. 

The story of the Chicago 7 is perfect material for Sorkin. It allows for lengthy speeches, wordy arguments, memorable characters, and declarations about political and moral values. The runtime is just over two hours but for a dialogue heavy movie, it is well paced and engaging. I think Sorkin successfully makes this into something more than just another courtroom drama. The Trial of the Chicago 7 feels like a pageant at times but it is one that needs to be performed and is done so very well. This film doesn’t have the at times frenetic feel of Molly’s Game—which really feels like he was trying to recreate Danny Boyle’s lively aesthetic—or an especially distinct visual style. Here Sorkin lets the dialogue and performances shape the movie. 

Nominee:  Marc Platt, Stuart Besser, producers

Director: Aaron Sorkin    

Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin    

Cast: Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne, Mark Rylance

Production Companies:Paramount Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures, Cross Creek Pictures, Marc Platt Productions, ShivHans Pictures 

Distributor: Netflix

Release Date: September 25th, 2020

Total Nominations: 6, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Supporting Actor-Sacha Baron Cohen; Original Screenplay-Aaron Sorkin; Editing-Alan Baumgarten; Cinematography- Phedon Papamichael; Original Song-Celeste, Daniel Pemberton for "Hear My Voice"

Best Pictures #64: 2019 (92nd) Academy Awards: My Pick for Best Picture

by A.J.

Best Pictures #64

The 2019 (92nd) Academy Awards

History was made at the 92nd Academy Awards for films released in 2019. The South Korean film Parasite won Oscars for Original Screenplay, International Film, Director, and, in a historic first, Best Picture. In 1933, The Private Life of Henry VIII became the first non-Hollywood film to be nominated for Best Picture and win an Academy Award (Charles Laughton for Best Actor). In 1938, Grand Illusion made history by becoming the first foreign language film to earn a nomination for Best Picture. A total of 11 foreign language films (or 12 if you include 2006's Babel, which has some scenes in English), including Parasite, over an 80 year time span would earn Best Picture nominations. A foreign film earning a Best Picture nomination is no easy feat, even in the expanded "up to 10 nominees" era, but the contention of these films is usually not taken seriously; that film would win Best Foreign Language Film (now called International Film), and that was that. Until February 9th, 2020. 

The British World War I action thriller 1917 was released at the very tail end of 2019 and quickly earned precursor awards (Golden Globes, BAFTAs). 1917 and and its director, Sam Mendes, took frontrunner status and seemed like locks for the Academy Awards. Parasite was a lock to win the newly renamed International Film category, and Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won became favorites to win in the Original Screenplay category (and indeed they did). 

Bong Joon-ho's win for Best Director and Parasite's win for Best Picture were the most pleasing upsets in recent Oscar history. In his acceptance speech for Best Director, Bong Joon-ho honored fellow nominees Scorsese and Tarantino and asked for a "Texas chainsaw" to split the Oscar statue. The audience at the Academy Awards (judging from what I saw on TV) matched my own and doubtless many others: initial shock followed by total delight. The cast and crew of Parasite were noticeably thrilled (it's always great to see people that are actually happy to win an award). Not only was Parasite's win a landmark moment for international cinema and Academy Awards history and film history, but it encapsulated everything that the Oscars could and should be. A brilliantly crafted, superb film that uses every aspect of filmmaking to the fullest was singled out for its achievements drawing even more attention it, and, hopefully, new audiences. And for viewers at home, the ceremony had an actual sense of excitement, as opposed to being a parade of preordained winners from start to finish (though there were some of those too).

 

Overall, the the 9 Best Picture nominees of 2019 were an interesting group. They included period pictures, war films, satires, a literary adaptation, a comic book movie, a crime drama, a divorce drama, and, of course, a foreign film. Except for Joker, they were all strong, entertaining films that I would recommend. I'm glad that a movie that I never would have seen, Ford v Ferrari, picked up a Best Picture nomination (it ended up with well deserved wins for Sound Editing and Film Editing) so that I had to watch it and got to be thoroughly entertained and thrilled by its quality filmmmaking. I am extremely happy that Parasite won as many Oscars as it did, especially Best Picture. The reaction on social media was that the actual best picture of 2019 won Best Picture. Parasite is a superb, one-of-a-kind film. Everything about it works in harmony to excellent results: the screenplay, production design, cinematography, editing, score, performances, and direction. It is timely in its themes but it is never for a moment didactic or pandering. It is a compelling satire and thriller that challenges the audience and genre conventions. It entertains at every moment but also causes us to reflect on our society. That is cinema. That is art. That's the movies at their best. 

As excited and delighted as I am that Parasite won Best Picture and made history, were I a voting member of the Academy I would still have to cast my vote for my favorite film of 2019.

My Pick for Best Picture of 2019: I Heard You Paint Houses (The Irishman)

The great critic and filmmaker Francois Truffaut said (I'm paraphrasing) it is impossible to make an anti-war film because to put anything on film is to ennoble it. Roger Ebert believed that if Truffaut had lived to see Oliver Stone's Vietnam film Platoon (1986) he would have changed his mind. While watching I Heard You Paint Houses (The Irishman) I thought, surely if Truffaut were alive today he would agree that The Irishman in no way ennobles the criminal or the criminal life. Scorsese has been accused of glamorizing the gangsters in his crime movies (Goodfellas, Casino, and, if you count it as a crime movie, which I do, The Wolf of Wall Street), which he does to a point to show the appeal of that life to a certain kind of young person or outsider. Though the main character lives to be an old man (and not in prison), this film feels like a great tragedy from its opening moments. The elderly Frank Sheeran recalls his life, not just his crimes, like it is a confession. Anna Paquin as Frank's adult daughter, Peggy, has only a few scenes and even fewer lines but what she does with those scenes says everything about the kind of person she knows Frank actually is. Paquin does more with a cold, accusing stare than most actors or actresses could do with entire monologues. Joe Pesci was my personal pick for Best Supporting Actor. His performance steals the whole movie. That he came out of retirement for it, and likely will go back into retirement, makes it all the more notable. This film spans an adult life but also history. In the background are major events, like the Bay of Pigs invasion and Watergate break-in, covered in other films like Oliver Stone's JFK and Nixon. 

Yes, this is a very long movie; some of the best films are. I don't think any of The Irishman's effect would be lost by watching it over separate viewings. Being the story of a life over the course of 30 years, it has an episodic feel which would lend it to being watched in parts. Currently, The Irishman is only available for streaming through Netflix, but it was recently announced that the Criterion Collection will be releasing on DVD/Blu-ray later in 2020. I can't wait to actually own this movie. Everything I've said about this film makes it sound like a depressing movie, but I stress that while what happens in the film is depressing, watching the film is not. The Irishman is a masterful achievement that ranks among Martin Scorsese's best films.