Opinion

2023 was a HUGE year for movies. In addition to the Barbenheimer hype, Saltburn broke the internet and almost all social media platforms were filled with Jacob Elordi edits, predictions, and analyses of the bizarre film. Even more drama filled our feeds this January with Jo Koy’s notorious Golden Globe speech which angered Barbie fans. The Holdovers gave audiences a laugh and many happy tears. But with award season coming up, one main question has been circulating: “Will anything beat Oppenheimer?”

With the Oscars right around the corner (March 10, 6:00 CDT) drama has begun specifically regarding the Best Picture award. The Best Picture award had stellar nominations. These included: American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, The Holdovers, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, Oppenheimer, Past Lives, Poor Things, and The Zone of Interest. I decided I would take it upon myself to watch all of the movies nominated for Best Picture and discover which one I think should take the crown as well as the rankings of all of them. 

After roughly 21 hours and many bowls of popcorn, I have watched all of these movies except for Poor Things which is not yet streaming out of theaters. 

Sorry, But No…

Starting from the bottom, I would say that my least favorite and least likely to win Best Picture are: American Fiction, Past Lives, and The Zone of Interest. American Fiction was an enjoyable movie, but I did not love the ending. I thought that the main actor, Jeffrey Wright, did a great job in his role and made the movie very comedic. However, the movie was very light hearted and felt a little bit cliche. It was a good movie if you’re looking for a laugh, but in my opinion did not compare to the other nominees. Past Lives and The Zone of Interest had the opposite problem for me. They both had heart wrenching plots, but I don’t think the delivery was as powerful as I would have liked. In other words, I found them very anticlimactic and a little bit boring.

Good But Not Great:

In the second tier, I put Killers of the Flower Moon and Anatomy of a Fall. While I don’t think these movies will win Best Picture, I thoroughly enjoyed both of them. I thought that they were both very eventful, had powerful acting, and beautiful visuals. Anatomy of a Fall was a little bit hard to follow because there were multiple languages, but had a very interesting plot that pushed it forward against other nominations. While I thoroughly enjoyed the cinematography and costumes in Killers of the Flower Moon, it was pretty hard for me to follow at times and felt a bit dragged out. However, I thought that the unique story was very captivating and made a good movie overall. 

Best of the Best: 

Finally, in the top tier category, I chose The Holdovers, Barbie, Oppenheimer, and Maestro as my top picks. I think that these four movies honestly tower over the other nominations. Barbie and Oppenheimer were definitely very talked about movies and it is no surprise that they are going head to head for Best Picture. Barbie stunned audiences with its amazing casting, costumes, visuals, and soundtrack. However, while I absolutely adored Barbie and its overall message, I do think that Oppenheimer should take the cake for this award. Oppenheimer contained incredible scenes with impeccable acting that helped encapsulate the audience in the incredible story of the Manhattan Project. 

Not Nominated, But…

While I loved many of these nominees, there were still other movies that I thought deserved a shot at Best Picture. The main ones that instantly came to my mind were Saltburn and Society of the Snow. I will admit, I became interested in Saltburn through social media, which is often not the best source for impactful and deep films. However, I do think that it was a really incredible, unique dark comedy that deserves attention. While I thought that much of the acting and story was very effective, one of the main reasons I was so fond of the film included the cinematography. Linus Sandgren truly propelled this story with the amazing visuals, which I believe were definitely worthy of an award. 

Society of the Snow or Sociedad de la Nieve was another fantastic movie that I watched this year. It is an inspiring documentary about the plane crash in the Andes Mountains of 1972. It primarily follows the fascinating survival stories of a few miraculous passengers. While the entirety of the film is in Spanish, the acting and visuals, specifically aerial shots, were nothing short of amazing. This film is nominated for Best International Feature Film, but I definitely believe that it was capable of a nomination for Best Picture. 

So, in my response to “Do you really think anything can really beat Oppenheimer?” I would say no. While I think many of these nominations were worthy of their recognition and nominee, I think that Oppenheimer is a strong competitor and nearly impossible to compete against. Get some popcorn and tune in to watch the Oscars March 10th!