So, the Academy Awards were last night. Bradley, Rami, Emma, and Lady Gaga were all present and shown on camera. I’ve always been a fan of watching Hollywood’s biggest night. Since my senior year of high school, I’ve made my own tradition of trying to see as many of the Best Picture nominees as I can. Below is my personal ranking of the nominees from worst to best.
8. Vice
Christian Bale stands out as one of the best actors of our generation, no doubt. But even though I knew it was Bale the whole time, I couldn’t get myself to care about Vice.
7. Green Book
Image Courtesy of IMDb
Mahershala Ali won the Best Supporting Actor award, which is absolutely well deserved. However, I don’t agree that this was the Best Picture of the year. Green Book didn’t capture my attention and praise as I thought it would.
6. The Favourite
Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz, and Olivia Colman were all fantastic in their roles for this movie. And Colman really did deserve the Best Actress award, but overall, this film was super underwhelming. The trailer made it seem so much more interesting than I actually found it.
5. A Star Is Born
Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper had amazing chemistry in this movie. Gaga’s performance in the last five minutes brought me (and the rest of the theater) to tears. Their nominations were well deserved, but I thought the plot was a little predictable.
4. Black Panther
This was a hard choice because Black Panther was my top contender for most of the year. I thought for certain when it premiered it could win. It was an amazing film and totally out-of-this-world, which is exactly what I want in a Best Picture. However, the latter half of the year brought forth many movies that had more down-to-earth themes, which I found myself appreciating.
3. Bohemian Rhapsody
Image Courtesy of Variety
Look, I love Queen. I mean, who doesn’t? I wrote a review of this movie when it first came out and I have wanted to watch it a second time ever since. Rami Malek was the winner for Best Actor in a Lead Role. He had big shoes to fill but he shined in his performance as Freddie Mercury.
2. Roma
Roma is actually a Netflix production, written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón. It’s partly autobiographical and hugely impactful. The performances by Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira were powerful and captivating. It was a deeply moving and very important film.
1. BlacKkKlansman
Image Courtesy of Kansas City Star
I saw BlacKkKlansman three times in one weekend when this movie came out back in August. It has comedy and drama, is powerful and relevant, and had actors onscreen who had great chemistry. John David Washington and Adam Driver were down-to-earth but mighty in their characters, based off real police officers. Director Spike Lee’s choice to include real footage from Charlottesville in 2017 (where a young woman died after being run over by a car during protests and aggression) shows just how relevant the issue of racism and race relations is to this day.
I honestly thought BlacKkKlansman would win the Best Picture award and I was shocked when Julia Roberts announced Green Book to be the winner. However, I think each film nominated this year showed how important the art and media of film is. Hopefully, the next year will have even better films to watch and love!