Oscar Night Gets Noggin'd! 2024

Time to roll up that red carpet.  After a year of movies that almost didn't happen I take my hat off to the union workers.  Here's my completely uneducated review of what I guess were the top movies of the year.  

Oppenheimer was a textbook Oscar movie and I'm bored with how predictable it was that it would win. I was confused as to why I needed to see a bunch of people talking in IMAX. The explosion FX were lame. Also I'm just sick of loaded casts in movies. When every person in the movie is a huge recognizable star it takes me out of the story. Really, dude...Gary fucking Oldman?

Holdovers was a much superior movie to Oppenheimer in so many ways.  The story had heart and was original.  Also the production on this one was sneaky but so unique and cool.  I didn't notice while watching but the whole thing is filmed and edited as if it was made in the time it was set.  A nice call back to a golden age of American cinema. 

Poor Things was very original but suffered from too much sexual content. When it was over I felt like I had just watched a very weird porno.  In a theater.  With strangers.   Also Mark Ruffalo's accent was horrible but his character was good.

Anatomy of a Fall was a 2 hr episode of Law & Order.  That's all I'm gonna say. 

 

I originally left the theater not liking Zone of Interest but the more I tell people "it sucked" then go on to describe it I end up appreciating it more and more. I'm glad it won best sound design. That whole movie is long still shot after long still shot with all the action happening off camera. Brutal honesty in that one.

Past Lives felt like a dram-rom-com. I agreed to go see it because I like the ginger snaps they have at our theater. I had no idea it was a best pic nominee.

American Fiction was entertaining and had an almost too in-your-face message but it needed to be said. It didn't feel like an Oscar movie to me. 

Killers of the Flower Moon, while having an important subject matter was way too long. Again with the loaded casts. Especially Scorsese casts. Ugg. I think any good that should have come out of that was overshadowed by the "please nominate me" -ness of that film. Like Oppenheimer It just tried to hard.

Barbie was way more than people expected. I don't think Hollywood knew what was coming and wasn't ready for what hit them. Fucking adapted Screenplay tho? If you're going to have an award for that and not give it to the screenplay that wasn't based on an extensive piece of writing that already existed, but created out of thin air around a toy, then fuck you Academy.

The only one I didn't see was Maestro.  That's my review.