Oscar best picture round up 2024 (Part 2)
Oscar best picture round up 2024 (Part 2)
From Cooper's musical mess to Glazer's unique vision
Happy Oscars day!
Here are my thoughts on Maestro, Oppenheimer, Past Lives, Poor Things and The Zone of Interest, all nominated for the big prize of Best Picture.
Catch up on Part 1 for my thoughts on the other half of the line-up: American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, The Holdovers and Killers of the Flower Moon.
Maestro dir. Bradley Cooper
One of the main reasons that I decided to watch all the movies nominated for Best Picture each year is to expand my horizons by checking out movies that I otherwise would never have watched.
Maestro is one of those movies. Without the Oscars, I don’t think I ever would have watched it because on the surface it sounds like another boring and unoriginal Oscar-bait vanity biopic.
Maybe that’s still true, but Maestro was such a pleasant surprise in several ways. I’ve never been a big fan of 21st century black and white movies but Maestro felt like the first movie to finally challenge my view on this.
It was beautifully shot with wonderful cinematography from Matthew Libatique and direction from Bradley Cooper. Each scene felt deliberately considered and expertly framed to produce a truly stunning film.
I’m also not usually a fan of actor-directors but I was stunned by Cooper’s direction in this. I’d really love to see a movie from him where he directs but doesn’t star.
Unfortunately, Maestro loses its way with a rather average screenplay. It appears that the film is trying to tell the story of Leonard Bernstein’s life through the prism of his relationship with wife Felicia but I came away feeling like I hadn’t learnt much about either Bernstein’s music or his relationship with his wife.
There are occasional glimpses of brilliance in the dialogue, particularly when delivered by Carey Mulligan, but the overall narrative is way too messy for these moments to really land.
Oppenheimer dir. Christopher Nolan
Oppenheimer is widely tipped as the Best Picture favourite this year (so widely in fact that there are many people complaining that the Oscars will be boring this year as a result) but it’s not even my favourite Christopher Nolan movie, let alone my personal pick for Best Picture this year.
I’ve seen almost all of Christopher Nolan’s filmography (I’ve only got Following, Insomnia and The Dark Knight Rises left to go) and despite its ambitiousness, Oppenheimer isn’t his best work. It’s a vast improvement from Tenet, but I didn’t think Oppenheimer remotely matched the visual feast of Inception or the emotional depth of Interstellar.
Overall, the story drags and I often questioned what certain scenes and sub-plots added to the narrative.
It’s still a solid movie. There are several moments where it hints at the more emotional place I was hoping it would go, such as when Oppenheimer grapples with the enormity of his invention and the haunting moments towards the film’s end. Ludwig Göransson’s Oscar-nominated score is wonderful and there are many great performances from the cast, including Cillian Murphy and Florence Pugh.
I greatly respect the sheer volume of its ensemble cast. Where many biopics will happily merge and modify real life people to fit into a better Hollywood mould (and occasionally just make them up entirely, like Alan Arkin in Argo), Oppenheimer set out to employ every up and coming male actor in a supporting/cameo role to demonstrate the massive amount of people who contributed to the Manhattan Project.
Past Lives dir. Celine Song
Past Lives is a spell-binding, impossibly beautiful debut film from Celine Song. I was drawn in from the very first image of the movie which shows Nora, Hae Sung and Arthur sitting together from the perspective of a stranger on the other side of the bar who asks, ‘Who do you think they are to each other?’
As we delve into the story and learn the answers – Nora and Hae Sung grew up together in Korea, Nora and Arthur are married, Hae Sung’s visit to New York is the first time he has seen Nora in over twenty years – we explore questions of love, ambition, dreams and fate.
On one hand, Song’s previous work as a playwright shines through in this movie: the brilliant tension dripping through the wonderfully crafted dialogue and the immense magnitude of an intimate story based around three people. But on the other hand, her brilliant execution of filmic visual storytelling makes it hard to believe that this is her first feature film. I really would have loved to see Song nominated for Best Director alongside her nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
This film marks another debut, not just Song’s. The wonderful score by musicians Christopher Bear and Daniel Rossen is also their debut writing for film. Their reserved, luminescent, nostalgic score – reminiscent of the twinkling city lights outside Nora and Hae Sung’s bedrooms and the falling rain – is a marvellous feat in musical composition.
Poor Things dir. Yorgos Lanthimos
On paper, this movie has so much going for it: starring Emma Stone. Clearly inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. From the wonderfully weird and creative mind of Yorgos Lanthimos.
And yet I would rank it as the solid third out of three Lanthimos movies I’ve seen (after The Lobster and The Favourite).
Visually, it was spectacularly bold in its commitment to fantastical and artificial sets which clearly linked to the themes of the film. Many scenes feel like stepping into a psychedelic painting.
Lanthimos always commits to a visual style for his films and it is clear from watching Poor Things that he is only becoming better at this aspect of filmmaking.
But I found the story itself messy and lacking. The film felt confused between whether we were experiencing the events of the story through the misshapen eyes of its supposed protagonist Bella or through the eyes of her scientific observers medical student Max and her not-so-subtly named creator God.
Poor Things delves into some interesting ideas but I didn’t feel like it had anything particularly new, or even bold, to say about the Frankenstein myth.
The Zone of Interest dir. Jonathan Glazer
While I respect the bold and unique vision of The Zone of Interest, I ultimately did not see as much brilliance in this film as most critics did.
I loved the decisive choices made by Jonathan Glazer’s direction and Łukasz Żal’s cinematography. The pure white and green colour palette perfectly creates the sickening vibe of this dream house built on the same ground as Auschwitz.
The best scene of the movie is clearly when Rudolf and Hedwig argue beside the lake. Sandra Hüller’s ability to convey Hedwig’s petulance in this scene is brilliant and begs the question of whether she should have been double-nominated in the acting categories.
There is also a brilliant sub-plot which showcases another bold design choice from Glazer and further explores the ideas of the film but sadly it does not go anywhere interesting.
Ranking
Ranking the nominees always feels like an impossible task.
I’ve been formulating a list of questions that I ask myself when writing this list: how did the movie make me feel? How did the storytelling and technical aspects excel? Do I want to rewatch it?
So here it goes:
Killers of the Flower Moon dir. Martin Scorsese
Past Lives dir. Celine Song
Anatomy of a Fall dir. Justine Triet
The Holdovers dir. Alexander Payne
Barbie dir. Greta Gerwig
Oppenheimer dir. Christopher Nolan
Maestro dir. Bradley Cooper
The Zone of Interest dir. Jonathan Glazer
Poor Things dir. Yorgos Lanthimos
American Fiction dir. Cord Jefferson
Killers of the Flower Moon, Past Lives and Anatomy of a Fall are my solid favourites which I suspect will stay with me for a long time.
I can’t contain my excitement any longer, thank goodness the Oscars are on today!
The 96th Academy Awards ceremony will air on Channel 7 from 10am on 11 March 2024.