We'll forego the usual "Don't Make a Scene" feature for this Sunday, as it's Oscar-night.
When the Oscar nominations were announced on January 23rd, I was taken aback by how few of them I had seen. Some of that was due to the large number of "indie" films being noticed and I had seen few of them, so I was determined to see as many of them, even if they were being released "late" in the schedule as I could before the date of the Awards.
Which is tonight.
Most of them I saw them where you should see them—in a theater—but four of them I watched streaming. Amazingly, they're all available on some service or another and the rental prices on them dropped very precipitously very quickly. I'm old enough to remember a time when theaters kept nominated movies in their theaters after the nominations were announced and usually dropped "the losers" after the Awards show to capitalize on the "Best Picture's" newly won bona fides. Now, films, especially the "indie" ones, barely have a week to get attention before they're on VOD or streaming. It's like theaters are still operating in "pandemic" mode.
And I was a little nonplussed by the choices: they didn't look like they'd be enjoyable to watch at all. But, there's a reason these things get nominated (besides aggressive campaigning) and the quality shows through.
It's an eclectic bunch: a couple blockbusters, one foreign film (although three of the films have French directors), two are musicals (and one has a musical subject), five are based on books (one even winning the Pulitzer) and they range from fantasy to sci-fi to biography to body-horror. Your favorite film of the year might not have been nominated for "Best Picture." Mine wasn't, but it's up for consideration in another category.
And I noticed a theme running through them. I had a talk the other day with someone who gave me the opinion that behaviors of merely enacting the roles society imposes on them. With the possible exception of Conclave (which also has elements of it), all the Best Picture nominees seem to cater to that theme.
Grab your popcorn. It's going to be a long night.
Here are my reviews of the Best Picture nominees.
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