Best Picture nominees, unstacked
Substackers size up the films being considered for the top prize at the Academy Awards
In anticipation of the Oscars this Sunday, we spent some time parsing reviews of the year’s Best Picture nominees. Here, Substackers weigh in on the contenders, the controversies, and the predictions to determine which movie will take home the biggest little gold guy.
A Complete Unknown
Vince Mancini: A Complete Unknown has the weird distinction of being a lot better than I thought it would be and not nearly good enough to be nominated for Best Picture.
Hundred Tomatoes: “The Bob Dylan Movie, starring Timothée Chalamet,” aka James Mangold’s “A Complete Unknown,” starts in New York during the year 1961. Against the backdrop of a vibrant music scene and tumultuous cultural upheaval, an enigmatic 19-year-old from Minnesota arrives with his guitar and revolutionary talent, destined to change the course of American music. He forges intimate relationships with music icons of Greenwich Village on his meteoric rise, culminating in a groundbreaking and controversial performance that reverberates worldwide.
Sonny Bunch: It’s a perfectly pleasant movie and Timothée Chalamet is quite good in it, but it never really rises above pleasingly competent.
Vince Mancini: Hearing Dylan break into “The Times They Are a-Changin’” gave me goosebumps—just to imagine a time when the words could ring broadly true, and not ironic in the face of a senile gerontocracy.
Anora
Chris Williams: Few people humanize the people who fall through society’s cracks like Sean Baker does.
Susan Bordo: I love Anora and I’m hoping that for the first time in many years my choice will be in step with the Academy’s.
Travis Scott: Sean Baker’s story of a sex worker who unwittingly falls for the son of a Russian oligarch is equal parts funny, touching, and tragic, with probably the best performance of the year from Mikey Madison.
Gabriel Miller: Anora is a rare film where the protagonist doesn’t know what genre of movie they’re in, and that creates a propulsive drive throughout each movement of the script, which ignites her character change.
In the beginning, she believes she’s in a gritty drama when, in fact, the movie is played like a fairy-tale romance.
In the middle, she believes she’s in that fairy-tale romance when, in fact, the movie has transitioned to a crime thriller.
By the end, when she is emotionally torn to ribbons, she believes she is in a prison drama when, in fact, she is part of a slow-burn romance.
Sonny Bunch: It’s heartfelt and funny and just jaundiced enough to keep from getting sappy; this is a movie that does not have a storybook ending because life is not a fairy tale.
Asli: After sitting on it, [Anora] didn’t stick with me the way I expected it to. I think the characters, especially Ani, fell flat and were too one-dimensional. Yes, the final scene was wonderful, but it wasn’t enough, and it was too late.
The Brutalist
Inkoo Kang: [The Brutalist is] not just my favorite film of 2024. It was the most exciting kind of feature there is for me—the kind that makes me excited about the cinematic medium and its possibilities.
Abhinav Yerramreddy: Shot in glorious VistaVision, The Brutalist remains true to its period settings while approaching the American Dream with a grimy undercurrent, examining the juxtaposition between the hope of America and the underlying traumas of the immigrant experience.
Eddie Huang: There wasn’t a single second of this film I wasn’t engaged, despite the fact that the entire narrative revolves around the erection of a building. Stare at me crazy all you want, but the film of the decade is a 3-hour HGTV epic set in post-World War II DOYLESTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA.
Sonny Bunch: The first half of this movie is one of the best movies of the year, a gut-wrenching portrait of immigration, assimilation, the push and pull between capital and art, and the underbelly of the American Dream. Unfortunately, there’s a second half.
Vince Mancini: I like to think of The Brutalist as a more house-trained Emilia Pérez. Certainly it’s a lot more successful at genuinely epic filmmaking (and would be worth it for that alone), but it’s also true that a lot of its appeal is making me wonder what the hell I just watched.
Conclave
Karla Marie Sweet: When Isabella Rossellini appeared on-screen, I literally said “Are you kidding me?” out loud because, wow, this is such a superstar cast. Lucian Msamati, John Lithgow, Stanley Tucci, and Ralph Fiennes (are you kidding me?) play four cardinals who have assembled (along with dozens of others) to vote for a new pope after the previous dies suddenly.
Natalia Albin Legorreta: Conclave knows what it’s doing and it’s confident with it—the comedic timing that doesn’t feel like comedy, the gossip sessions thinly veiled as very-Vatican-serious-conversations, the third-act twist … it’s delicious.
Vince Mancini: After 20 minutes of watching guys in robes be passive-aggressive to each other, I thought “Is this going to be all there is?” And then for two more hours that was all it was, and yet I was riveted.
Karla Marie Sweet: I loved the use of colour in this film, how so many shots look like paintings and how much I learned about the process of the vote. It’s a fascinating insight into a small, seldom seen community of clerics.
Dune Part 2
Travis Clark: [N]o movie represented the highs of the theatrical experience last year [better] than “Dune: Part Two,” a sci-fi epic on a grand scale that tops its (also superb) predecessor in nearly every way.
Vince Mancini: [E]verything I saw was mind-blowing and eye-popping and shit-button-puckering and all of the adjectives. It was good! And yet good in a way that a year later, I don’t have much to say about it.
Asli: I know Dune: Part Two is one of the least likely films to win in this list, but it’s definitely in the top for me. The Academy hates genre films, but this doesn’t change the fact that both parts of Dune have been some of the most influential films in recent times.
Emilia Pérez
John Paul Brammer: Emilia Pérez has been called many things: Offensive. Misguided. Overrated. Regressive queer representation. An inaccurate portrayal of Mexican culture. Musically unpleasant. Bad at Spanish. Honestly, it sounds a lot like me.
Chris Williams: Jacques Audiard’s film is many things, but boring isn’t one of them.
Vince Mancini: Suffice it to say, it’s a Spanish-language musical set in Mexico starring mostly non-Mexican actors and directed by a Frenchman, featuring a plot about a drug lord getting a sex change and then redeeming herself by helping cartel victims’ families find their loved ones’ bodies. Oh, and then the “lead” actress (not really, but she was nominated that way) was discovered to have said some nice things about Hitler. And then compared herself to Jesus and civil rights martyrs in the apology tour. So, yeah. “Controversy.”
John Paul Brammer: None of this blowback would be happening had the film not racked up a truly bewildering thirteen Oscar nominations, making it the most nominated film of the year. Its critical success raises questions. Questions like: Why? and Did you watch it? I kind of feel bad for Emilia Pérez. I don’t think it was supposed to get this many accolades. They piled too many awards on it, and it’s collapsing under the weight of its trophies. It’s just not a movie that can hold up to this level of scrutiny.
I’m Still Here
Abhinav Yerramreddy: Not many people had I’m Still Here making it into the Best Picture Top 10 earlier this year, but here we are.
Natalia Albin Legorreta: I love nearly everything Walter Salles did with this story about the Paiva family during Brazil’s military dictatorship in 1964.
Chris Williams: This is why the Oscars are so important. I hadn’t heard hardly anything about Walter Salles’s drama—also nominated for Best International Feature—until it began collecting nominations. I’m glad I was alerted to it, because it’s one of last year’s best films, an emotional epic about the defiant act of living a normal life in a state of oppression.
Asli: I was very moved by I’m Still Here, but even more so by Fernanda Torres and her performance. This movie relies heavily on the actors—on their performances and especially on their chemistry. And there isn’t a second where any of that is less than perfect.
Nickel Boys
Travis Clark: A bulldozer of a movie that generated a few hushed “wow”s in my theater as the credits rolled. RaMell Ross’s adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel is told in a first-person POV style that isn’t a gimmick but a fully realized expression of the film’s narrative. It took a bit for it to win me over, but it soon washes over you. Now I can’t imagine it any other way.
Asli: Nickel Boys was gut-wrenching. I couldn’t look away—literally and figuratively. I’m still not sure how I feel about the first-person perspective, but I love that the director took an unconventional and original approach to this story.
Chris Williams: I wish I loved Nickel Boys as much as many other critics do.
Abhinav Yerramreddy: Ultimately, Nickel Boys feels more like an intellectual exercise than an emotionally resonant story.
The Substance
Hundred Tomatoes: The Substance brilliantly explores the dangers of attempting to overcompensate for societal beauty standards with excellent acting while simultaneously scarring me for life in the process.
Lora Dailey: [It’s] The Picture of Dorian Gray on ayahuasca. The younger alter ego, Sue, drains the life force from the older Elisabeth, abusing the Substance to the point where her body literally falls apart. But it doesn’t end there, as the final half-hour is an over-the-top gore fest with a deformed female figure literally described as a “monster.”
Chris Williams: I may not love The Substance, but I love that it’s nominated for Best Picture. Imagining old fuddy-duddy Oscar voters sitting through this movie’s Troma-adjacent final moments fills me with glee.
Wicked
Asli: Seriously, Wicked for Best Picture?
Jenny Gorelick: I cried just as much in the theater as Cynthia and Ari did on the press circuit.
Chris Williams: I’m glad Wicked is good and I hope it means we get more musicals. I’m glad it found an audience. But in terms of recognition, to quote Don Draper: That’s what the money’s for.
So, what’s gonna win?
Clare: It’s a particularly interesting year, I would say, especially in contrast to last year’s snoozefest (predictable + Anatomy of a Fall 😴). Not because the nominated movies are better (they’re just slightly worse) but because they are just a little unwieldy.
Gabriel Miller: Anora had a triple win this weekend. Top Award at the Directors Guild of America (DGA), Producers Guild of America (PGA), and Critics Choice Awards. This trio of wins puts Anora as the front-runner for the Oscars, as there is a significant crossover between the PGA/DGA voting bodies and Academy voters.
More importantly, when all three voting bodies align, as happened with Oppenheimer, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Nomadland, and The Shape of Water, the film went on to win the Best Picture Oscar.
Allie L.: Anora is the current front-runner, but not as much of a lock as recent winners like Parasite (2019) and Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) were. I think The Substance has a shot, especially for its contrast in theme and tone to last year’s winner, Oppenheimer.
Vince Mancini: Conclave feels like a good-value dark horse, but the simple fact of me typing that ensures that it won’t happen. Did I reverse jinx myself by typing that second sentence? Maybe! Go sacrifice a goat and see what its guts tell you!
Not Jess: I don’t know why I’ve put full stock in The Brutalist winning here. It just is an energy that I’ve always felt. I know there’s a lot working in Anora’s favor, so perhaps I should cast my net wider to one or the other … it just feels like depending on the show, Anora either gets a lot of love or absolutely none.
Hollywood is so last year. Literally no one cares about the Oscars.
Who cares