My 2023 Oscar Ballot

And we are officially now done with 2023!  As is our tradition each season, we turn the tables back on myself for whom I would've nominated.  I will start out right away saying the clause I put on all of these-while I watch every film that was eligible for the OVP, I don't watch every film that came out in 2023.  If there's a picture that missed with both Oscar and myself, call me out in the comments as it's possible I just need to see it.  But overall, I feel good (I saw a lot of pictures last year), and think that this is honestly a bang-up Top 10 list (one of my favorites we've done so far).  I will be headed on vacation for the next week, so not only will I not be writing more OVP's this week, but other than our Saturdays with the Stars article (which is pre-scheduled to close out our month on Doris Day), I will actually be going blank for the next week on the blog.  We'll return with Season 26 of the OVP (and our first foray into the 1990's!) in mid-June.  With that said, please enjoy my lineup for the best of 2023-links to all of our Oscar contests and all of my past My Ballots at the bottom...this is my favorite article series to write, so I hope you enjoy!

Picture

Afire

All of Us Strangers

Bottoms

The Eight Mountains

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

Killers of the Flower Moon

May December

Of an Age

Priscilla

The Zone of Interest

Gold: All of Us Strangers is, for my money, the best film of the admittedly still-young decade.  The movie combines a gothic horror onto two tales-one, a growing romance between two lonely men, and a second, that lonely man exploring the relationship with his parents that he was never able to have.  Andrew Scott, Claire Foy, Jamie Bell, & Paul Mescal are a quartet for the ages.

Silver: Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest is an uncanny look at the depths of fascism, and the reality (but not humanity) behind it.  The film's most provocative aspect isn't just that it makes cruelty feel like a to do list item, it's that it shows an historical picture, but one that we recognize every day in the present.

Bronze: Sofia Coppola continues her quest to be our most thoughtful director looking at the travails of young women.  The way that she takes Priscilla Presley, perhaps the most famous "doormat" feminine figure of the 20th Century, and gives her a rich (but true-to-spirit) portrayal is proof that biopics don't have to be dull if you are willing to get creative.

Director

Sofia Coppola, Priscilla

Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest

Andrew Haigh, All of Us Strangers

Christian Petzold, Afire

Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon

Gold: I'm going to be honest-we're getting (I believe) our first exact carbon copy between Picture and Director in 2023 (boring, I know).  But hear me out, and I'll tell you why.  First, we have a beautiful ode to lost childhood from Andrew Haigh.  Haigh's mastery of direction comes from the way he lets his leading actors play with sorrow and process it in different ways, and the camera learns from Andrew Scott's character's tale...Haigh's direction is so in-depth.

Silver: Second we have Jonathan Glazer's dark take on World War II.  Here, the directorial style that Glazer has become known for (cold, detached, measured) is used to full force in his best picture to date.  The use of technical elements in the film like art direction & sound mixing only underscore how much Glazer understands you have to use every aspect of the picture to terrify the audience.

Bronze: And then we have Sofia Coppola, whose Priscilla takes a look at the way that we give our heart before we know what we're getting in return (or before we want to know).  I think the use of shade (for a woman who is always in another man's shadow) in select scenes compared to sunnier ones when the Priscilla comes out are just some of the ways that Coppola makes sure every angle in this movie comes to life.

Actor

Tom Blyth, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

Thom Green, Of an Age

Barry Keoghan, Saltburn

Thomas Schubert, Afire

Andrew Scott, All of Us Strangers

Gold: Andrew Scott's devastating work in All of Us Strangers is so full because it is brimming with life.  Watching a man who feels dead in the opening scenes, cut off (literally & figuratively) from himself, and then the way that he opens up is breathtaking.  This will join the pantheon of "the best performances never nominated for an Oscar" relatively soon.

Silver: Barry Keoghan's schtick as a totally unpredictable onscreen performer has put him in a position where he's now one of our most exciting actors.  I loved the way that he handled the twists & turns of Saltburn, giving us a character whose motives are there the whole time, but even the audience gets caught up in the construction.

Bronze: Tom Blyth's work in Hunger Games is 100% the performance on this list I'm most shocked is getting a medal (if you'd told me a year ago I'd be doing this, I would've said you were mad).  But this is proof that great acting can come in any film.  His diabolical, evolving, sexy turn as the future-President Snow is hopefully the proclamation of an emerging star...Hollywood, hire him please. 

Actress

Paula Beer, Afire

Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon

Natalie Portman, May December

Cailee Spaeny, Priscilla

Rachel Zegler, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

Gold: Tight race here, but I'm going to go with Lily Gladstone for the gold (the only Oscar acting nominee I'm giving the top prize to).  This is a case where a performance grew on me in the months after I saw it.  That's what subtle work will do to you, especially her final interrogation of Leonardo DiCaprio...you understand her better the further you get away from the fire.

Silver: Cailee Spaeny's work in Priscilla is another announcement of a new talent.  Like Gladstone, she's playing a woman stuck in an abusive marriage that society sees as ideal for her situation.  I love the ways we catch peeks of Priscilla behind the veneer, her true self starting to come out even as Elvis covers her with cookie cutter plastic.

Bronze: Every few years, Natalie Portman comes out and shows us why she's one of the great actors of her generation.  Usually Oscar pays attention, but for some reason (maybe too many actors seeing themselves in this character?) he skipped this one, but I am not so foolish.  The way she plays vapid-but-calculating is delicious.

Supporting Actor

Jamie Bell, All of Us Strangers

Robert de Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon

Ryan Gosling, Barbie

Charles Melton, May December

Paul Mescal, All of Us Strangers

Gold: Paul Mescal's sexuality in All of Us Strangers sets this apart.  We see the shifts between his first scene (what stays, what goes), but it's the way that he uses his charm, allure, even his body to entice his way through.  In a world where loneliness prevails, I love the touches he makes in trying to find ways to make people like him, even with a man like Andrew Scott who is openhearted enough to want all of him.

Silver: In a year with a lot of really strong dialogues, no actor nails his better than Jamie Bell.  Now on the flip side of Billy Elliott (here he is trying to understand having a son that is different, whereas he was once the son that was different), he shows what a reliable character actor he has become with sob-inducing grief & regret.  Few films have captured the feelings of a father's love & expectations for his son better.

Bronze: Robert de Niro is an acting god, so him showing up here is not surprising.  What I think is surprising about his work in Killers of the Flower Moon is how an actor, one who has spent much of this century playing up his serious early work, shows that he still has the ability to simmer, calculate, and menace even into his 80's.

Supporting Actress

Penelope Cruz, Ferrari

Claire Foy, All of Us Strangers

Sandra Huller, The Zone of Interest

Julianne Moore, May December

Tilda Swinton, The Killer

Gold: Julianne Moore can do things with her voice that no other actor in the world can do.  The way she inhabits a monster, one that is so human you'll start feeling sympathy for her (even if you shouldn't-the final scene proves you've always been sleeping with a viper), you understand so much in the way she approaches her voice: reserved, choosing, never showing what might be real behind a woman who is all illusion.

Silver: Sandra Huller's work in The Zone of Interest announces a major talent on the global stage.  She is sublime as a housewife who has become obsessed with the concept of perfection, of creating a home in the middle of a war zone, anyone who gets in her way literally damned.

Bronze: The best part of Claire Foy's work in All of Us Strangers is the unease.  She's suddenly put into a situation where she's a ghost, where she doesn't know what's happening, and she's still a younger woman who has a son who is older than her.  Finding that balance with such rich characterization is fascinating-at some point the Oscars needs to recognize she's become one of our best actresses.

Adapted Screenplay

All of Us Strangers

The Eight Mountains

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

The Killer

The Zone of Interest

Gold: Andrew Haigh's films are quietly devastating, showing the world a different aspect of loneliness.  In this case, though, he adds a supernatural element, and then sort of lets it simmer in the background.  I love the way the script handles this, where we don't know what or who is in control of what's happening, and it makes every bit of dialogue feel far more poignant.

Silver: Jonathan Glazer's screenplay in The Zone of Interest is quietly devastating.  In many ways, it recreates the set design, the way that you see pops of the horrors happening behind this veneer of domesticity.  Look at how casually they discuss the deaths of a neighbor, the humanity so stripped from their conversation it almost feels commonplace (which is the point).

Bronze: The Hunger Games adaptation is a bit of a miracle.  Taking a YA novel, the fourth in a series that never really impressed me, and seeing it as a musical, one that shows how one man can lose all of his grace while pursuing fame, greed, & power (if he had any grace to begin with...a good question from this picture) is sublime.  Proof that any book is not only adaptable, it can also be an improvement.

Original Screenplay

Afire

Bottoms

May December

Of an Age

Past Lives

Gold: The latest installment in what is hopefully going to be a quartet of movies about the power of the elements, Christian Petzold's Afire is a jarring look at the writing process (topical, given the category) as well as our own humanity.  We don't oftentimes get characters that are so unlikeable (and yet so familiar) in a movie.

Silver: I love a ticking clock romance more than just about any other genre, and that's definitely what's happening in the confines of Of an Age, a movie that shows the way that our hearts can change (and how they stay the same) the longer we live, and the better we understand the most romantic portions of our souls.

Bronze: Hands-down the funniest movie of 2023, Bottoms is a raunchy Gen Z masterpiece, giving us a smart, clever sex comedy that actually feels authentic to a new group of voices in cinema (and not just another Mean Girls retread).  Bonus points for making the shocking ending both telegraphed and totally unhinged.

Animated Feature Film

The Boy and the Heron

Robot Dreams

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Gold: I will totally own that this is my least favorite of all of the lineups I've seen in the past decade for Animated Feature, as usually at least the gold medalist is in contention for the Best Picture lineup (or already in it), but that's not the case in 2023.  Still, Robot Dreams is definitely a special movie, one that doesn't have the glorious animation of some of its peers, but instead gives us a truly meaningful look at what loneliness can look like as an adult.

Silver: We are moving into one of the most unexpected nominations on this list next.  I saw Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on a whim (wanting to celebrate the theatrical experience at the height of the strike), and lo-and-behold it's a genuinely funny flick, with a distinctive & pleasurable animation style.

Bronze: The one film on this list that I would've guessed a year out, The Boy and the Heron, is proof that even when he's only going in second gear, Hayao Miyazaki can still create something lovely.  The messaging here (about how you're willing to escape the world before admitting someone you love is gone) is done really touchingly, and if it's a bookend for his career, it's a worthy one even if it's not his best.

Sound Mixing

The Eight Mountains

Godzilla Minus One

The Killer

The Taste of Things

The Zone of Interest

Gold: The thing about The Zone of Interest is, it's maybe the only truly great film where the first attribute you're going to cite that makes it a masterpiece is its sound design.  The way that we can hear behind the wall the horrors of the Holocaust while on the other side you have discussions of gardens & remodels...the banality of evil has never been more chilling.

Silver: David Fincher's movies always sound divine, and a good example as to why is on-display in The Killer.  You have the ticking clock narrative that feels like it's actually ticking, silences used as ways to not only heighten tension, but also to extend the audience's pondering of the plot-what is happening in this man's methodical imagination?

Bronze: The warm sounds of the kitchen in The Taste of Things are as essential as the food being cooked.  We get every crackle, every crumble, every turned on oven.  It's often said we eat with our eyes, but let's be honest-The Taste of Things proves we eat with our ears as well.

Sound Editing

The Creator

Ferrari

Godzilla Minus One

The Killer

The Zone of Interest

Gold: It apparently takes slicing 90% of your budget to make a movie like Godzilla sound as good as we expect a Hollywood big-budget epic to sound.  The way that it unfolds, especially during the water sequences, is fantastic, using the distinctive calls of Godzilla as a weapon, a jump scare, & a way to show how much he means in the cinematic pantheon all in one.

Silver: Slightly down the list (but only slightly) is The Zone of Interest.  The editing is very effective in this movie, giving us a rich bit of offscreen terror, added in, frequently without the help of a score.  The only reason that this isn't higher is because there's not nearly as much as Godzilla, so it's like comparing the climbs on Everest to Denali.  Godzilla is too good too often.

Bronze: While I think there was the occasional hiccup with the mixing in Ferrari (which is why I didn't include it there), there's nothing to complain about when it comes to its editing.  The roaring engines, the thunderous crowds, the staggering drop of the score when the film's most jaw-dropping twist happens...it's all worthy of such a car brand.

Note: Unlike the Oscars, for the modern My Ballot, I continue to keep the two Sound categories separate, rather than combine them like Oscar did since 2020.  If you want a direct comparison for the record, if I had combined them, I would've nominated: The Creator, Godzilla Minus One (Bronze), The Killer (Silver), The Taste of Things, & The Zone of Interest (Gold).

Score

All of Us Strangers

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

Past Lives

Saltburn

The Zone of Interest

Gold: A score doesn't need to be omnipresent, or even the only music in the film, to be memorable and captivating.  That's the case with All of Us Strangers, which peaks out in key scenes of the movie to give us a sense of the dramatic and changing tides of the picture, and works brilliantly alongside existing music from the Pet Shop Boys and Frankie Goes to Hollywood.

Silver: That doesn't mean that a score that takes over the film can't occasionally be welcome.  Saltburn's biggest weakness as a film is the script, but it weirdly works better with the help of Anthony Willis' giant score, announcing in gargantuan, church organ-style pronouncements new chapters in the picture.  Sometimes I'm all about a big orchestration, and this is a case of that.

Bronze: Past Lives is not a big score, but it is lush & romantic.  The film is predicated on you feeling the passage of time, that you understand what can stay and what can leave in your life as you move forward, and the music, rich with continual themes and softness, brings that to life.

Original Song

"The Ballad of Lucy Gray Baird," The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

"Can't Catch Me Now," The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes

"Dance the Night," Barbie

"Quiet Eyes," Past Lives

"What Was I Made For," Barbie

Gold: A very tight battle for gold & silver here, but I'm going to give it to "The Ballad of Lucy Gray Baird" in part because I liked The Hunger Games more than Barbie, but also because it's so unexpected.   The music is fantastic, but it also sets up both of our characters-the knowing puppet and the evolving puppetmaster...for the rest of the movie, you're not entirely sure who is in control.

Silver: Behind it, though, you have "Dance the Night" in all of its glossy delight.  That this didn't even get nominated at the Oscars proves how silly the "only two nominees" rule is because this is the song and the scene from Barbie that ten years from now everyone will associate with it.  A perfectly coordinated dance routine...it's a fully-fledged musical number by the end of it.

Bronze: Billie Eilish's lovely lament "What Was I Made For" is a fitting accompaniment to Barbie's realization scenes at the end of the picture.  Eilish is such a fine vocalist & writer (for my money, she's the most innovative new voice in pop music in the past 5 years), and understands the exact tenor Gerwig is trying to achieve, giving us a really strong piece of music.

Art Direction

Barbie

Ferrari

Saltburn

The Taste of Things

The Zone of Interest

Gold: Stepping into the dream house, you understand Greta Gerwig's vision in every corner of Barbie.  The production designers here use the tactile nature of toys to their advantage, building actual sets (it shows) and even relying upon practical effects (to minimize CGI) to better get us things like the modes-of-transportation scene with actual vehicles.  What you end up with is a glorious pink wonderland, in many ways reminiscent of the fantasy heydays of Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings for this category.

Silver: The Zone of Interest's greatest asset might be its production design.  Look at the way that the camera is constantly trying to juxtapose this house & gardens, built to the exact specifications of Sandra Huller's Hedwig, against the atrocities happening just beyond the wall.  The way that it feels so exacting, as if she's living her dream, makes the house's unique design more chilling.

Bronze: If you want to go big-and-bold, you can't go wrong with Saltburn in this field.  The titular house itself is opulent, with its ornate hedge mazes and vaulted bathtubs, it gives a constant sense of "you can't afford this," that would drive someone a bit mad...

Cinematography

All of Us Strangers

Fallen Leaves

Oppenheimer

The Taste of Things

The Zone of Interest

Gold: As I said when we wrote the Oscar article, it's not just about pretty pictures with Best Cinematography-it's also about telling a story through the imagery.  That's what's happening with The Zone of Interest, the way that we get wide shots and unyielding long takes to give us a sense of the scope and immediacy of a genocide (literally) right in the backyard of the film's protagonists.

Silver: The rich golden hour beauty of All of Us Strangers is so intoxicating.  Look at the way that the film changes its camera angles from the sensual lensing of Paul Mescal to the more nostalgic feel whenever we see Claire Foy or Jamie Bell.  It's a tricky, subtle trick and makes all of the actors look that much better.

Bronze: I am enthralled with what the camera does in The Taste of Things.  The cooking projects like an oil painting, rich with hues and textures, always trying to invite in an a new sense.  The movie flows so beautifully that you are never exhausted even as you watch a literal meal cook, sometimes in real time.

Costume Design

Asteroid City

Barbie

Killers of the Flower Moon

Priscilla

Saltburn

Gold: A beautiful cascade of designs, from neon yellow rollerblades to gorgeous beachwear to an iconic fur coat, Barbie gives us an entire world from your toy chest come to life.  Every corner of this movie is genius designs that feel like homages (but of course real world ones) to the universe Mattel put into our childhoods.

Silver: For a movie about a "trophy wife" the costumes in Priscilla need to be exact, showing us looks that feel like they were structured to accentuate a man, not to allow a woman her own individuality.  The buttoned-up, hyper-fashionable dresses worn by Cailee Spaeny in this film are grand recreations of a style icon.

Bronze: I loved the way that Saltburn uses its costumes to inform the viewer.  We know this is circa 2006, and we're watching all of the characters with too much money spending lavish amounts on ultra-trendy looks that will be traded in a season later.  Particular points for the way that Jacob Elordi looks like he's about to cause people to audibly moan with every flawlessly-tailored look.

Film Editing

All of Us Strangers

The Eight Mountains

The Killer

Killers of the Flower Moon

The Zone of Interest

Gold: Editors need to know how to make a scene work, know how to slice it and look away at just the right moment.  But the opposite is true too, and we see that in The Zone of Interest.  This is a movie where you can't help but stare, wanting to pull from the scene as a reprieve, but they keep it focused, your eyes never leaving the horror in front of you.

Silver: All of Us Strangers gives us a sense of memory, of the way it flitters around us, and the reality that days of our life are far more memorable than full years of it.  I loved how we get a sense of Adam's childhood without the need for flashback...we are all kids again when we get to be with our doting parents.

Bronze: I adore how Thelma Schoonmaker uses the length of Killers of the Flower Moon to her advantage.  We have a film that stretches for hours, but she uses things and character traits early on, telegraphs them (without us even knowing), and brings it back later.  Look at the way that Robert de Niro's villainous uncle seems to give us everything that'll happen next...the actor has no greater friend in his strong performance than the editing room.

Makeup & Hairstyling

Barbie

Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3

Nyad

Priscilla

Saltburn

Gold: The looks of Priscilla are so marvelous, and are honestly a vital plot point.  Look at the way that Jacob Elordi's Elvis stays consistently himself, while Cailee Spaeney tries to escape under the increasing control he elicits over her appearance, showing her to be his fantasy, while he remains the world's.

Silver: I am one of those people who thinks that the Makeup & Hairstyling looks don't just have to be ugly or prosthetics-they can be just beautiful.  That's the case with the looks of Barbie, forming the characters from the toys themselves, plastic but still unique in each actor's two-dimensional ensemble.  Bonus points if they did, in fact, paint on Ryan Gosling's abs.

Bronze: That said, prosthetics have their place if you want to impart some sort of knowledge to the audience.  That's the case with Nyad, where we understand as Annette Bening's body is subjected to saltwater and intense sunlight for days on end the extremes of her endeavor, and we see the intense (yet subtle) damage to Bening's skin as she inhabits the titular swimmer.

Visual Effects

The Creator

Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Godzilla Minus One

Oppenheimer

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

Gold: I am a total sucker for visual effects where you see every dollar on the big-screen.  Godzilla Minus One is not Avatar, with the GDP of a small country projected in your theater, but you still get exactly what you need-a realistic-looking monster storming a believable city.  Bonus points for the water effects, which I honestly assumed were entirely on the open ocean they felt so plausible.

Silver: The Creator is one of those movies where you spend much of it wishing it had a better script, because you want to play in this world for longer.  The way that they use the CGI to make the empty-heads on the robots look totally plausible (even on real-world actors) is maybe the best single effect of 2023.

Bronze: Again, I'm not above picking the film with the smaller budget.  Oppenheimer gets its only medal in this article (and just under the buzzer) as we see the dynamism and horror of the atomic bomb throughout the picture, and then with the explosions, the audience is subjected to its terrifying, all-encompassing threat.

Also in 2023: Picture, Director, Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, International Feature Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound, Original Score, Original Song, Production Design, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup & Hairstyling, Previously in 2023

Other My Oscar Ballots: 1931, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022

OVP: Picture (2023)

 OVP: Best Picture (2023)

The Nominees Were...

Ben Le Clair, Nikos Karamigios, Cord Jefferson, & Jermaine Johnson, American Fiction

Marie-Ange Luciani & David Thion, Anatomy of Fall

David Heyman, Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley, & Robbie Brenner, Barbie

Mark Johnson, The Holdovers

Dan Friedkin, Bradley Thomas, Martin Scorsese, & Daniel Lupi, Killers of the Flower Moon

Bradley Cooper, Steven Spielberg, Fred Berner, Amy Durning, & Kristie Macosko Krieger, Maestro

Emma Thomas, Charles Roven, & Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer

David Hinojosa, Christine Vachon, & Pamela Koffler, Past Lives

Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Yorgos Lanthimos, & Emma Stone, Poor Things

James Wilson, The Zone of Interest

My Thoughts: Whenever I finish another one of these seasons, I always seem to start humming "The Blower's Daughter" by Damien Rice, a song that I associate specifically with the film Closer, which I saw in college and was one of the first (then) contemporary films that I saw specifically as "mine."  It was a movie that very few of my friends or people I knew had seen (or liked), and that I loved when it came out (and still do, as is evidenced by the 2004 My Ballot where it made the Best Picture lineup).  The movie is about the passage of time & missed opportunities, but it's also a distinctly college movie for me, one of those formative flicks that you didn't realize going into the year would become part of your personality.  I think about that particularly with Best Picture lineups, because my hope is that some of these movies mean that for young cinephiles who are carving their path in the world, and loving movies in that way that it becomes harder to do the older you get.

One of the movies, though, that shocked me in that specific way in 2023 was The Zone of Interest. Jonathan Glazer takes way too long to make his movies, but he does at least make your patience worthy of the wait.  The Zone of Interest is a fascinating treatise on evil, how it seeps into our day-to-day life so much we can no longer see a world without it feeling commonplace.  The sound design is rich here, adding personality to the picture, and the writing & performances (particularly Sandra Huller) only accentuate this distinct look at the Holocaust and World War II (and, let's face it, modern fascist movements in the United States & Europe).

Another film that reminds me of Closer (I promise, I won't reference Mike Nichols' picture for all of these, but if you haven't seen it, do yourself a treat & seek it out) is Past Lives, though the 2023 movie has a far warmer heart.  I talk about my love of ticking clock romances on this blog a lot, but this one turns that a bit on its head, giving the main love triangle too much time to process their romance, leaving regret in place of urgency.  The way that the film examines how we become ghosts of our former selves (something you only begin to understand as you enter middle age), not in a melancholy way but in an inevitable one is really prescient stuff.  More than any other film in this lineup, I'm happiest this made it because it's the film that could've most easily gotten lost from public consciousness of the Oscar contenders.

The Holdovers is one of those movies that becomes better because of the parts, even if the sum doesn't always add up.  The warm performances from the three leads give it a lot of its flavor, as does some of the poignancy that invades Alexander Payne's script.  The movie is too neat, with every turn feeling telegraphed from the opening moments, and in the process Payne manages to screw up the ending, as he hasn't invested in our main character to make some of his choices in the final scenes feel unsaid.  Simple movies can be total masterpieces, but you have to get every part right if you're going to approach from that vantage-Payne only gets some things right.

Screwing up the ending, though, is not a sin exclusive to The Holdovers.  Maestro has the overconfidence to end with "any questions?" as if Bradley Cooper's film has answered fully the life of a complicated man.  But he doesn't-the movie invites far more questions than it answers, and what it does it gives a lot of really staid conversations about the life of Leonard Bernstein.  I think some of the conversations here are overplayed (I'm tired of talking about straight actors playing gay-in an era where openly gay Jonathan Bailey can get cast as the straight romantic lead in Wicked and get to front a major franchise like Jurassic Park, I think we can concede that we've made some progress), but the film's handling of Bernstein's sexuality seems hampered by real-life considerations (like his family's access to the life rights), and in the process Bernstein remains unknowable throughout the picture, a clear drop given the ending of the film.

But Maestro doesn't fumble at the beginning of the movie.  This is the last time I'll complain about it this season, but Anatomy of a Fall screws up much of its film's momentum at the top of the picture when it shares that it will end without resolution.  The movie never really recovers from that.  Though there are scenes of value (I think the title sequence is impressive, and Sandra Huller is better than the script), the movie's need to stay ambiguous becomes a problem as it feels too open-ended, and especially given how long it is, it lacks perspective on the crime itself.

A movie that better balances the need to be two things at once is American Fiction, though it isn't totally successful either.  American Fiction is really smart as social satire, giving us a cutting diatribe about the commodification of diversity and the ways that racism can take on different forms, even in seemingly progressive politics.  But in a weird twist, the film itself doesn't have enough strength in its family drama (the types of books that the main character wants to write) to sell that story-within-a-story angle.  The film's call sheet is smart (save for a woefully miscast Sterling K. Brown), with Jeffrey Wright a strong lead and I loved the meta-casting of Erika Alexander in a movie about a writer who struggles to convey to his publishers that the Black experience can take on any lens (Alexander is best-known for playing Cousin Pam on The Cosby Show, one of the first mainstream Hollywood productions to truly emphasize this message).  It's just short, though, of being something truly special.

Poor Things in a lot of ways has that "just short" of something truly great scenario going for it as well.  Like American Fiction, it has a strong lead performance, and it has a lot to say, in this case about feminism.  But also like American Fiction, it can't quite find a balance, though here it's trying to keep up with Lanthimos' need for shocking the audience through sex, body humor, and tantalizing moral conversations.  All of these can make up great art (see Lanthimos' The Favourite, in fact), but in Poor Things it gets in Lanthimos' way.  I'll also own that some of the aesthetic choices in the picture feel arbitrary (and a bit ugly for me), which made the film suffer whenever I wasn't getting to revel in Emma Stone's brilliant work.

Killers of the Flower Moon continues Martin Scorsese's recent trend of making his best pictures at the close of his career.  Running well over three hours, the movie gives us a totally epic tale, one that feels more complete for being pieced together (news flash: not every big story works better as a miniseries...this is proof of that).  The acting is somewhat strong.  We have Robert de Niro giving his best performance in decades, and Lily Gladstone's understated approach giving us a woman who is always hiding in Mollie Kyle, a strategy that makes her final scenes just sing on the screen.  I think DiCaprio is miscast (and Brendan Fraser is laughably bad), but those are minor quibbles when you're getting to see a master like Scorsese at work.

We of course have to end with the two movies that will forever be intwined, both in moviegoers' minds and at the Oscars: Barbie and Oppenheimer.  We'll start our Barbenheimer conversation with Oppenheimer, a movie that underlines how Christopher Nolan is one of our most visually arresting film directors.  The movie's aesthetic choices are divine (the art direction & cinematography are both laudable, I also think the editing approach works when it easily could've been too much), and most of the ensemble cast delivers, including some of the bit players like Benny Safdie or Casey Affleck.  I do think Nolan continues to struggle at writing women (and Emily Blunt's not giving us enough to make up for that), but Oppenheimer is going to age beautifully as a Best Picture winner, a striking meld of populist intellectualism.

Barbie is a movie, unlike Oppenheimer, that wasn't guaranteed Best Picture consideration.  It's due to Greta Gerwig's shiny pink optimism that this became the biggest hit of 2023.  Barbie is going to be hard to grade for future generations primarily because it was a phenomenon (the marketing on this film was both costly and insanely effective, with a press junket that should be studied), but the film itself is also strong.  It looks sensational (love the costumes, art direction, & makeup), and the lead actors are both fizzing with chemistry, though the standout remains Ryan Gosling's Ken, inevitably the definitive role of one of our best working actors.  I do think some of the commentary about feminism feels a bit prosaic, but I am hardly going to Kensplain girl power-Barbie is delicious & frothy fun.

Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes have their categories separated into Musical/Comedy and Drama, with six nominations each so we do get some new names, though not in Drama, where Oppenheimer beats Anatomy of a Fall, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, Past Lives, & The Zone of Interest.  Instead it's in Musical/Comedy where Oscar nominee Poor Things took it over some films from the AMPAS lineup (Barbie, American Fiction, The Holdovers) and some not (May December, Air).  The PGA copied Oscar verbatim for both nominations and wins, and BAFTA (the only game in town still doing five nominations) went with Oppenheimer atop Anatomy of a Fall, The Holdovers, Killers of the Flower Moon, & Poor Things.  I wrote an entire article about who might've been in 11th place, and while future pundits (who rely too much on stats for my taste) will assume The Color Purple or Nyad were in 11th place, I honestly think it was All of Us Strangers, Origin, or Air that was in 11th, and would've been the first film since 1943 to get in for Best Picture without a nomination anywhere else.  This is a fascinating conversation (more so than any recent "who was the runner-up" dialogue), so here's the article if you want more or want to know why I picked those specific titles.

Films I Would Have Nominated: You'll find out tomorrow!

Oscar’s Choice: Oppenheimer won by so much, it's a genuine question between The Holdovers, Barbie, Poor Things, Killers of the Flower Moon, and The Zone of Interest what was in second place (whomever it was, they were distant, but I'd probably bet on The Holdovers if forced to choose because of how the ranked ballots work).

My Choice: Not a hard one for me-The Zone of Interest is the best in a really solid list of movies (Oscar did better here than he has in a lot of recent years even if there won't be much overlap with my personal ballot).  Behind it (in order) are Killers of the Flower Moon, Past Lives, Oppenheimer, Barbie, American Fiction, The Holdovers, Poor Things, Anatomy of a Fall, and Maestro.  So that means in our six Barbenheimer matchups, Barbie went 5-1...but still missed for Best Picture.

And there you have it-another OVP in the books.  Are you all still enchanted by Oppenheimer, or do you favor a darker picture like The Zone of Interest?  Who do you think was in the second and eleventh places in a year where that was quite murky?  And overall-what is your favorite movie of 2023?  Share your comments below!

Also in 2023: Director, Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, International Feature Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound, Original Score, Original Song, Production Design, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup & Hairstyling, Previously in 2023

Past Best Picture Contests: 1931-32, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022

OVP: Director (2023)

OVP: Best Director (2023)

The Nominees Were...

Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall

Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon

Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer

Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things

Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest

My Thoughts: We are moving toward the tail end of our 2023 conversation today, with the Best Director field.  One of the more pronounced side effects of the ten-wide field, and one of the weirder ones for sure, is that people have forgotten how to count.  With ten nominees for Best Picture and only five for Best Director, that means that (at least) five films from the Best Picture field will not get into the Best Director field.  This is okay (not every good film needs an Oscar nomination), but for some people, this is an invitation to scream about, say, Greta Gerwig missing here for Barbie even if she was nominated for Best Screenplay, as if this is an enormous crime.  So, before we begin, I do not think that Gerwig's lack of a nomination was a huge surprise (I didn't guess her), nor do I think her missing was particularly anti-feminist (especially since the one woman in this lineup was likely the one who bumped her).

That woman is Justine Triet, who directed Anatomy of a Fall.  Triet's nomination is kind of cool on a solely political front, given that many feel that her film was not chosen for the International Feature race because of her public criticisms of French President Emmanuel Macron during her Cannes acceptance speech.  We don't judge based on personal feelings about the nominees, but I will note-she seems like a badass.  Her nomination, though, I wasn't a huge fan of-I think that the film feels too overlong, and it runs into too much repetition with its plot.  It also doesn't handle the "did she do it?" question well, a problem I put pretty squarely at the feet of the director.  The actual title scene is done well, and there are some Hitchcockian flares that I was into, but overall I was disappointed with this and feel like it got a nomination in part because it was so serious.

Yorgos Lanthimos is also a nomination from someone I like, but who didn't need his name listed here.  We talked yesterday about how much I loved Emma Stone's performance in Poor Things, but it sometimes feels like I'm liking it in-spite of her director's work.  Lanthimos' approach here is too much.  He uses too much garishness, and the way that the film's use of a sort of futuristic Victorian style feels, well, it feels undefined; why are we doing this other than it feels odd?  I also don't like the way that he can't handle the evolution of Bella in the final thirty minutes without it just being about her fighting yet another man.

Jonathan Glazer, on the opposite end, puts so much into the pacing of The Zone of Interest it reads very much like a director's picture.  The way that he moves the camera, using tracking shots and far-away dialogue to give us both the foreground and background of the story in multiple scenes is superb, and I loved the interruptions of color across the movie screen, letting the audience absorb what is happening in the picture.  Glazer's mastery of the ending, too, cannot be ignored-I admired the way that it connects to modern day, and the wretching sound that happens when your soul feels like it's vomiting out of your body, you've condoned so much evil.

Quentin Tarantino has spent much of the past five years complaining about how he's only going to make ten pictures, because "directors make their worst stuff toward the end of their lives."  Meanwhile, Martin Scorsese, now in his eighties, has made two of his finest films during that time frame.  The approach with Killers of the Flower Moon is so awe-inducing, giving us the sort of large, expansive epic that (if your name isn't Martin, Steven, or Ridley) they don't really let you make anymore.  I enjoyed the way that he honors not just the Osage people, but also the illumination that can happen from making a movie at all, bringing a story to light that has been kept in darkness.  The film's final, solemn moments (where Scorsese takes centerstage) are some of his best.

Christopher Nolan was always going to win an Oscar.  All of the fanboys who worried about it for years, the second he made a movie like Dunkirk, should've known it was inevitable.  That he won for a movie that combines his blockbuster flare with an Academy-friendly plot (and that made almost $1 billion) is a really incredible testament to his endurance as one of the most exciting mainstream filmmakers of the past couple of decades.  I think his approach with Oppenheimer is great, particularly the tricky balance that he strikes between jumping through decades & finding some sort of insight into an enigmatic man.  There are problems that I have with Oppenheimer, but those are not an issue of the director (more of the writer and to some degree the actors & composer)...I have nothing bad to say about this nod.

Other Precursor Contenders: The Globes have six nominations now (ruining the only category where we used to have five-wide for all precursors) and they picked Nolan to win against Gerwig, Lanthimos, Scorsese, Bradley Cooper (Maestro), & Celine Song (Past Lives).  The BAFTA's also had six nominations (I hate this trend), with Nolan beating Cooper, Glazer, Payne, Triet, and Andrew Haigh (All of Us Strangers) while the DGA chose Nolan over Gerwig, Lanthimos, Payne, & Scorsese.  I'll be real to all of those who led the charge-I don't think Gerwig was in sixth place here...my money is that she was in seventh.  Payne is a more traditional choice for the Academy, and they have liked him more in the past.  I actually predicted him in favor of Triet, and so he's the one that stands out as the likely just-miss.

Directors I Would Have Nominated: Sofia Coppola got nominated so early in her career, and then the Oscars totally forgot she was still making truly great pictures.  This trend continued with Priscilla, which shows the unrest of a young woman finding herself while also falling in love with a domineering man, with a distinct directorial flare that I suspect the Academy would admire from Tarantino or Scorsese.
Oscar's Choice: Christopher Nolan had this Oscar roughly by last August.  It was the kind of train you can't stop from coming.

My Choice: Glazer, who is in a different league (in general-this is his best movie, and the made Birth and Under the Skin).  Scorsese is next, followed by Nolan, but I would've been proud to put either of them in the top spot if Glazer hadn't hit such a home run.  Triet, and then Lanthimos close out the category.

Those were my thoughts-how about yours?  Are you staying with Oscar and his Nolan coronation, or do you want to sit with me and Jonathan Glazer?  At some point Greta Gerwig is winning this-but for what kind of movie?  And do we think Scorsese (or his buddy Steven Spielberg) just get nominations for the rest of their careers, or will they get one more statue?  Share your thoughts in the comments!

Also in 2023: Actress, Actor, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Original Screenplay, International Feature Film, Animated Feature Film, Sound, Original Score, Original Song, Production Design, Cinematography, Costume, Film Editing, Visual Effects, Makeup & Hairstyling, Previously in 2023

Past Best Director Contests: 1931-32, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022