The 2024 Oscars ceremony takes place next Sunday. There are ten films nominated for best picture, and I decided to watch them all. I only loved a few of them, but I enjoyed watching them and reading the other responses on Letterboxd, seeing what other people made of them.
I have no idea who will actually win best picture, as my tastes are very much personal to me, and I imagine the award panel has very different criteria to the ones I have. But here are some short responses to the ten films in reverse order of how much I liked/disliked them.
- Poor Things I loathed this movie. The idea of men having sex with a child in a woman’s body is incredibly problematic. Emma Stone brings a lot to the role, and I appreciate a lot of people had very different responses to me, but I could not get past the concept.
- Barbie was clever and iconic, but ultimately it was a toy advert.
- Maestro I am so bored of biopics about successful men.
- Anatomy of a Fall I can see why a lot of people liked this one. Sandra Hüller’s acting is superb, and Messi rightfully won the Palm Dog. I’m just not a fan of this sort of courtroom mystery.
- Past Lives I’m glad I saw this but, while I appreciated the film, it didn’t work for me. I found it too gentle but I liked what it tried to do.
- Oppenheimer another biopic about a successful man, but far more entertaining that Maestro. I can’t help thinking there was a better film about physics and modernism hinted at by the first 15 minutes.
- American Fiction interesting character drama hobbled by heavy-handed literary satire. An excellent cast and an interesting ending.
- The Holdovers a little too heavily plotted, but an entertaining film that made me laugh.
- Killers of the Flower Moon a superb epic, with incredible performances from Gladstone and DiCaprio.
- The Zone of Interest a powerful and disturbing movie with an incredible soundscape.
While there were only four movies I loved on this list, I’m glad I tried them all. It’s too easy for me to just watch the same sort of movie again and again.
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Zone of interest is the winner for me. Brutal, but incredible
I saw three of these, Poor Thing, Barbie & Killers of the Flower Moon. I felt Poor Thing was just a bit of a mess that kept referencing other, better, more assured films (by Kubrick and Bunuel, for instance). The actors were great but it fell flat, for me. I agree with you about Barbie – the mild digs at Mattel and “the patriarchy” seemed the Gerwig/Baumbach “indie” power couple covering their embarrassment at literally selling out big time. Killers of the Flower Moon was the best. It could have been streamlined – I was honestly confused by the multitude if characters and their relationships — but it was a good example of making a case through storytelling rather than obvious speeches and in subtlety rather than stylisation (Gladstone should get the best actress Oscar, in my view, it was a wonderfully authentic performance).