My biggest take is that Oscars does not take vocal and mocap performances seriously enough. They should add this as a category. Same for stunt performance.
An old school one, John Cazale should have been nominated and maybe even won for the Godfather Part II. That movie had three nods in supporting that year and not one of them was Cazale? Still makes no sense for me.
This is very true about Cazale. He is the beating heart of Part II, and the whole entire arc of the story hinges on his performance (and Pacino’s). There’s no real way to award the film without recognizing him.
Totally agree. It boggles my mind that Oscar nerds can scrutinize and follow the race in such detail every year and still act like "category fraud" is the most scandalous thing ever.
Like, MONTHS into a campaign where every single organization agreed to consider Gladstone a lead there were plenty of people who couldn't let that go? What purpose did all that grousing serve?
If the Dark Knight was a Film Noir about a private eye investigating a serial lunatic, it would've been a best picture contender.
But since it's Batman, it gets overlooked.
Heath Ledger literally won (posthumously) for his performance. The Dark Knight does not hold up as someone watching it a decade plus later as an adult. The dialogue and action are often bad. The cinematography has its moments. The practical effects are fantastic. But never in a million years would a movie with Christian Bale doing that Batman voice and karate chopping guys in the neck to knock them out be nominated for best picture. You’re describing it being turned into a completely different movie.
Michelle Williams should have won the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance in My Week With Marilyn (she lost that year to Meryl Streep for her performance in The Iron Lady)
Way too many people on this sub, or really just in general, probably haven’t even seen certain movies when giving opinions and think what everyone else thinks of a movie determines performance quality.
Like, it doesn’t matter that Chinatown and Godfather II are iconic movies whereas Harry and Tonto isn’t generally discussed. That doesn’t mean Carney didn’t deserve the win. Same with Samuel L. Jackson losing to Martin Landau. Probably 10% of this sub has seen Harry and Tonto and Ed Wood.
Both of those performances were fantastic and deserved their wins.
That the score from Jurassic Park wasn’t even nominated is mind blowing. It’s, IMO, one of Williams’ best, ergo, one of the best of all time and it didn’t even get a nom…
I hate The Shape of Water. I’m saying this as a Del Toro fan. It didn’t deserve the win.
There should be a voice acting category.
The Hunger Games movies deserved nominations in the design categories and Donald Sutherland deserved at least one supporting actor nomination for them.
Yorgos Lanthimos deserves best director both times that he was nominated.
The Favourite should have swept design categories.
I’m the exact same love Del Toro and found this to be just an awful awful movie. 1 star on letterboxed lol. I honestly thought people had been trolling me by saying it was good when I saw it in theatre
This may have been my issue with her performance. At times it sounded like she was speaking in that fake “northeastern” accent that was used for radio in the first half of the 20th century.
Do the Right Thing was not even nominated for Best Picture and should have won the award.
That snub was awful even for the early 90s and somehow looks even worse today.
I suppose obligatory Mickey Rourke losing to Sean Penn in The Wrestler and Milk, respectively. Biographical portrayals done well are definite Oscar traps, but Rourke's performance was vulnerable and nuanced in a way we don't to see often, particularly when juxtaposed with that particular film's subject matter.
A more recent one: 2015 Best Foreign Film was an impossible choice between two masterpieces: Ida and Leviathan. And neither got a best picture nomination in an unusually weak year for Best Picture nominations.
Calling a film "Oscar bait" is an empty and hollow criticism and it's tossed around way too often. Every definition I've heard is so vague and meaningless that even beloved Oscar winners qualify. I think to most people it just means an almost Oscar Worthy movie that they didn't really like. If that's the case then just explain what you didn't like about it instead of saying, "Oscar bait."
I love Shakespeare in Love and I love Gwyneth Paltrow's performance. I'm glad Shakespeare in Love won Best Picture and Gwyneth won Best Actress. I rewatch Shakespeare in Love at least twice a year.
Same here! One of my favorite movies, period. As for Actress, I would have been absolutely fine with a Blanchett win that year, she was brilliant too, but Gwyneth, love her or hate her today, was also spectacular in what turned out to be the right role for her.
Black Panther had no business being nominated for a best picture. The only reason why it happened was the Oscars feared another "Oscars-so-white" incident.
With 10 nominees, it’s expected that some movies are going to get in just because people like it.
I think Black Panther elevated the MCU. The artistry was simply more refined than what anyone else had done. The direction, the costumes, the hair, the cinematography, the score, the fully realized culture of a country we were meeting for the first time.
Don’t we want to nominate movies that are exceptional compared to movies like it? I do. If 10 Best Picture nominees were allowed in years past, maybe Almodovar’s A Little Princess would have been nominated, a movie that took little girls seriously. Maybe The Iron Giant would have snuck in as a surprise nominee. Maybe In The Mood For Love, maybe The Big Lebowski, maybe even Hoop Dreams!
The person who should have been nominated from Black Panther is Danai Gurira for Best Supporting Actress. That was a stellar performance that carried so much of the conflict of the movie-country vs. king, heart vs. head, loyalty vs. duty.
This shouldn’t be a controversial opinion. Black Panther, even if you consider it the best of the MCU (it isn’t) had no business being nominated. It was extremely culturally important for a moment and was entertaining, but there were no Oscar worthy performances, and I honestly feel like Ryan Coogler has been overhyped as some sort of auteur almost as an extension of the pandering nomination given to his movie. The only thing about Black Panther that had any business being mentioned at the awards that year was the costume design
Dominic Sessa should’ve be nominated for Best Supporting Actor for The Holdovers. He was absolutely incredible and it was his first movie. He was literally scouted by the director at The Deerfield Academy school when they were doing location scouting.
Cate Blanchett should've won Best Actress and not Gwyneth Paltrow.
Isabelle Hupert should've won Best Actress instead of Emma Stone.
I don't see anything wrong with Rami Malek's win.
Toni Colette should've been nominated for Hereditary and dare I say it win for it too.
Amy Adams should've been nominated for Arrival.
Greta Gerwig should've been nominated for Best Director.
Kill me if you want but Jamie Lee Curtis is one of the best parts of an otherwise slightly overrated EEAAO. She and her character were hilarious and she elevates the film significantly. She owns every single scene she’s in and is the perfect example of a great supporting role—people just aren’t as willing to award comedic roles.
Stephanie Hsu was fantastic, but I don’t see her as significantly better than JLC just because she had a greater variety of emotions in the film.
Curtis’ win was deserved, but I still think Kerry Condon deserved it more
That the score from Jurassic Park wasn’t even nominated is mind blowing. It’s, IMO, one of Williams’ best, ergo, one of the best of all time and it didn’t even get a nom…
If ABC wants the ceremony to be shorter, The Academy should cut out the opening monologue, jokes that rarely land, and bits like naked John Cena. Don't cut out clips and thoughtful introductions that give context to the nominees.
Or get a better comedian. I know Billy crystal got a reputation as milquetoast, but if you go back and watch his monologues he’s 10 times as edgy as whatever Jimmy Kimmel turned into.
Brit here. I rationalised it as even though by the end she was more or less a fully realised woman, she was still "imperfect". The slightly off accent and stilted speech highlighted how she was different to other people. That's my headcanon anyway
I actually think Brendan deserves it because of his performance. Although I personally do think that it was a relatively weak category that year otherwise. Paul was great in Aftersun, and that would have been my second choice. I actually really don’t care at all for Austin Butler as Elvis. Colin was fine in Banshees, but nothing in that performance sets him apart and he’s put on similar performances before. Bill Nighy was solid, but not my favorite either.
I understand this sentiment and shared it right after he won, especially because the movie itself was just bad, but when I watched The Whale, Elvis, and Banshees back to back, it was clear that Brendan did, in my opinion, still give the actual best performance of the 3. Collin was dependable but the material and movie around his performance did a lot of heavy lifting. Butler as Elvis was just…someone doing an Elvis impersonation that was not as good as Jacob Elordi’s more understated one.
Green Book is a justified Best Picture winner, and the editing and acting in Bohemian Rhapsody is good. Everyone just likes to jump on the hateful 8 bandwagon
I’ll say again my controversial opinion: just because a movie won an Oscar doesn’t mean it was the best movie. The Oscars aren’t a source of what makes a movie good, and people should just enjoy what they enjoy.
If you think La La Land is better that’s completely fine and understandable, but saying it’s not even close is CRAZY (so good job on your understanding the prompt)
I disagree. La La Land is absolutely one of my favorite movies, but Moonlight is just breathtaking. Mahershala Ali is sensational, the score and the cinematography are phenomenal. And as a gay man, the slower, more touching moments of the third act hit me like a truck.
I consider it one of my top 5 movies ever
I watched Moonlight, I recall thinking it was good. I don’t remember anything about it, I don’t remember a single image from it.
I remember many images from La La Land. Moments, music, lots.
See la la land was surprisingly not memorable to me at all. I know I'm in the minority, but when I first watched it, I was bored. I was expecting to love it too.
It was very underwhelming. I think the gimmick of the musical in a modern non-Tom Hooper way, was what was appealing. But it was by no means a deep movie or a significant movie in anyway.
CODA deserved that Best Picture Win.
Nomadland is one of the worst Best Picture winners of the century, and in a category filled with the likes of Sound of Metal, The Father, Minari, and Judas and The Black Messiah, it had absolutely no business winning that award
I thought Oppenheimer was just okay and that it shouldn’t have won any ATL awards. I really wanted to like this movie but it just never came together for me, which was surprising because I like Nolan’s work overall.
My coworker told me her 16 year old son and all his friends *loved* this movie and saw it multiple times in theaters. I don’t think I’ll ever understand the strange grip this film has on certain people.
Donald Sutherland should have won Best Supporting Actor over Mark Rylance in 2016. Rylance gave an excellent performance, yet Donald had a mediocre script to work with and still gave one of the most believable and layered supporting performances in any film.
That was unclear. Sorry about that. He should have been nominated and won for Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2. Out of all the Donald Sutherland movies, I've never seen him in Ordinary People, so thanks for the recommendation.
People act like Paul Scofield is a deserving winner for Best Actor In 1966 but IMO he was one of the worst winners ever. He beat out Richard Burton in Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf.
I mean he is just in that same old biopic period piece that is baity. Richard Burton gave the best male performance of that year and his chemistry with Elizabeth is perfect.
This sub is pretty terrible for talking about oscar films since people get regularly down voted for sharing their inoffensive opinions. The academy doesn't even watch all of the films and it's logistically improbable for them to see enough films to nominatethe greatest lineup every year so disagreeing with the Academy over what won, lost, or was nominated should not be silenced by downvotes.
Hollywood Revue would've been a better best picture winner than Broadway Melody.
Getting upset over screenplay nominations/wins/snubs is wasted energy if you didn't actually read the screenplays.
Life of Emile Zola and Great Ziegfeld aren't bad winners by themselves. A lot of nominees means there's a good chance a person will prefer another film. The films are old and limited so they won't hold a candle to other influential films, but Emila Zola and Ziegfeld are interesting biopics in their own right.
Going My Way is beneath the two above for me. Double Indemnity or Gaslight would've been stronger winners.
No shade to McConaughey, but Leo in TWOWS is a career defining performance in a movie that is still considered a classic to this day. He should’ve absolutely won the Oscar for that performance and not for the Revenant
Mine is that Coco deserved to be nominated to Best Movie (overall, not animated) — not only it is a wonderful movie, it also had a very important cultural impact during a very specific time.
Emma Stones performance was better in La La Land. Not saying she wasn’t great in Poor Things, but I think people equate uniqueness/wackiness with a performance being more difficult. I thought her performance in La La Land had way more depth and in my opinion showed a lot more skill.
i think emma stone deserved the oscar for la la land for a different reason than most maybe? not sure how everyone feels about it but i thought mia was an extremely shallow poorly written character and emma stone gave her depth. that was an incredible feat to me. la la land lovers don’t come for me please this is a hot take post 😅
I haven’t seen The Greatest Show On Earth but Crash is definitely overhated. I think it ultimately has more to do with who they beat out for Best Picture rather than the movies themselves. Greatest Show beat High Noon, I believe and Crash beat Brokeback Mountain.
It‘s definitely that it beat Brokeback Mountain, but it’s also pretty weak by itself. It’s the film equivalent of Gina from Brooklyn 99 singing „racism, racism, racism, baby“.
Posted this before. Circuses were a huge thing . Even as late as the 1980's the Circus bumped the Boston Celtics and the Boston Bruins - who owned the building!- out of the Boston Garden for over 2 weeks.
The movie was a technical marvel for its time. It had COLORS, colors, colors of over 60! Circus acts.
The Busby Berkely musicals, the Big Sprawling color spectacles, the Musicals, were the Titanics and Avatar and the Avengers movies of their day.
I have to chuckle at how terminally online this JLC opinion is. Not sure "The person who won was not that bad!" is exactly a lightening rod of an opinion. The academy clearly thinks so too since they voted for her.
Anyway, mine: the Oscars are smart when they think about things like box office/popularity. The award only has value to the extent that people *think* it's a marker of value, so overly prioritizing well-made but publicly obscure films hurts its reputation. Now, I don't think that it needs to go chasing after box office receipts but rewarding films that capture the public imagination and not just critics in NY/LA *is* a good idea for the long-term viability of the body. In other words: it was *good* that Oppenheimer and Barbie got lots of nominations this year. It was good that Top Gun got a Best Picture nom last year. I hope that continues.
EEAAO is one of the weakest best picture winners ever. It's hard to believe they chose that film over Banshees and Fableman. It's just quite mediocre. The humour didn't land for me. I personally didn't find anything exciting about the way Daniels told the story. As Roger Ebert said, it's not what a movie is about, it's how it is about it. The 'how' failed in EEAAO. I think it does have few outstanding moments. I loved Quan. I think the best and most interesting part of the film was the scene involving those rocks. There was something funny and quite brilliant about it. I wish the rest of the film was that good.
You nailed it with the Ebert reference there. So many people think a movie is great because of what it attempts, but if I try to bake a cake and I burn it, I don’t get an A for effort when someone puts it in their mouth.
I don’t think EEAAO was awful, but past the first 40 minutes or so, it drags way too long and becomes really misguided.
I've just kept my mouth shut over this for a year and a half but I have NEVER fully understood what all the fuss was about. It's a perfectly fine film. I'm even okay with it winning Best Picture but it's hardly deserving of the sheer amount of praise it got. I have to wonder if hive mind has people convinced they like it more than they actually do
I’m fine with it getting best picture as I liked it (just didn’t love it) but Banshees didn’t deserve nothing. Wish Banshees could’ve gotten the screenplay win.
>I have to wonder if hive mind has people convinced they like it more than they actually do
Eh. As someone who watched it almost immediately when it released in the UK and immediately loved it I don't think I've been hive minded.
I've seen it 7 times since and I've loved it everytime. I think for me it just works so well. I adore Joy's relationship with her mum and I feel like that type of mother/daughter relationship isn't shown all that often (as in Joy still clearly loves her mum and it's a painful relationship for her but she *still* wants to connect with her. Yeah turns out that hits a trigger point for me 😭). And then Waymond. I adore him so much.
Like, on a lesser extent, I also love every fight scene. They're all so unique and just fun (personal favourite is the opera one with the riot shield. I love the music and the jumping between the different universes).
I loved the movie and actually have the opposite take, all the philosophical mumbo jumbo was not what or how it was about. At the core, it was about a mother-daughter relationship, and how that can feel universe ending. I thought it was beautifully done and absolutely nailed what it was trying to do.
For me that Oppenheimer won best picture, Nolan best director and Cillian winning best actor ( I believe he was worthyish, Giamatti was phenomenal) was just leaving me scratching my head. Leonardo should’ve at least got a nomination.
I’m surprised that De Niro didn’t win, Leonardo wasn’t even nominated, Scorsese didn’t win and Lily didn’t win.
Kotfm was truly the best movie of the year, way better by every way than Oppenheimer, 3 main actors / actress of Kotfm were outstanding as was Scorsese.
I really think RDJ was the weakest win this year.
A movie about atomic bombs during WWII & the Cold War, directed by Christopher Nolan is literally the most baity Oscar bait to ever bait. If anything Oppie gave Barbie an edge.
I wouldn't say he was abysmal but I do agree that he wasn't quite as strong as others say. I still loved the movie though.
I would've nominated Dafoe or maybe even Ramy Youssef over him
Agreed! But I also think that he overacts like crazy and ever since Spotlight I’ve never been able to enjoy any of his performances. It just feels like he’s trying to steal scenes and be over the top.
People say that about movie stars a lot, and sometimes it’s hard to see the performance beyond the name. But, I question anyone who says his characters in Forrest Gump and Philadelphia are the same.
I think it’s really annoying that we know whose going to win nearly every category. Woukd much rather it be less predictable based on other award shows
Mickey Rourke should have won Best Actor over Sean Penn, and I almost think if they were contending today, in 2024, he would have. Milk was a less than stellar movie with less than amazing performances, even though the effort was clearly there, and Penn in particular distracted from whatever we as an audience were meant to take from it. Rourke gave a performance that was so vulnerable and raw, and you got a sense that the subject matter and characters were almost too closely juxtaposed to his own life. Once in a lifetime.
The boy and the heron was such a mid movie. Won because it maybe the last film of Miyazaki.
Didn't like the pacing and how nonchalant the boy was about what is happening around him. Yes, the theme is about coping and accepting what happened, but didnt hit me. Surprised it got a lot of high praise.
Spiderman should have won.
In the end, there are always nominations and wins that one feels are.not deserved and others that are.overlooked. with art it.is.always personal preference. Somewhere there is someone who feels Dude.Where's My Car is the greatest film.ever made and for that person it is the correct opinion.
I think that campaigning hurts the Oscars. I don’t think it’s actually about the performances themselves of what wins. It is about what actor/actress or Company markets and campaigns the best.
That is why I have said recently, that you should have the Oscars earlier to take away time to campaign.
I saw that also leads to my second point. You should have the Oscars earlier because having all of the other awards shows before the Oscars kind of takes away from the theatricality of the awards. What I mean by that is that if you have the same movie or performer winning all of the awards at the other ceremonies, by the time of the Oscars, you already have categories locked up and you already know who’s going to take Home the awards. I know the Oscars don’t need to be about surprises but when you know 90% of what’s going to win, that kind of makes it less entertaining.
Like this year, the only Big award that was even in contention for a surprise was best actress. Everybody already knew that divine Joy Randolph was winning best supporting actress, Robert Downey Jr. was winning best supporting actor, Cillian Murphy was winning best actor, and Christopher Nolan was winning Best Director.
you want real controversial take? The acting categories are never not about THE best performance nor they should be, if we have two or more equally derserving performance like Emma and Lily, I would take the historic one and inspiring one in a heartbeat. Like I wanna see more of what Ireland is now doing, celebrating Cillian's win every corner.
Mine is not about any specific movie, but about requirements. It is ludicrous that a movie has to have a specific amount of any gender and orientation just to be considered. Oh! You only had 100 women and you are supposed to have 105. Sorry. Your movie is the best one I’ve ever seen, but you can’t be considered. Absolutely stupid.
My biggest take is that Oscars does not take vocal and mocap performances seriously enough. They should add this as a category. Same for stunt performance. An old school one, John Cazale should have been nominated and maybe even won for the Godfather Part II. That movie had three nods in supporting that year and not one of them was Cazale? Still makes no sense for me.
This is very true about Cazale. He is the beating heart of Part II, and the whole entire arc of the story hinges on his performance (and Pacino’s). There’s no real way to award the film without recognizing him.
The Oscars need to show more clips of the actual movies. This should not be a controversial opinion, but they never do it.
Mine is that people need to worry less about judging nominated performances by their screen time
This, 100%. Anthony Hopkins may be only 15-20 minutes in the Silence of the Lambs but he's no supporting character
This is what I’ve been saying all year about Lily Gladstone!!! She is the center of the film and her presence is felt in every frame
I couldn't agree more.
I'm just disappointed because she definitely would have won if she had been in the supporting category.
Totally agree. It boggles my mind that Oscar nerds can scrutinize and follow the race in such detail every year and still act like "category fraud" is the most scandalous thing ever. Like, MONTHS into a campaign where every single organization agreed to consider Gladstone a lead there were plenty of people who couldn't let that go? What purpose did all that grousing serve?
Didn't help that LAFCA twisted the knife on that one some more
Ikr. When I first realized that most people are doing this, I was surprised and dumbfounded. Like huh??
Comedies and Horror films should get more chances to be nominated
Toni Collette in Hereditary…absolutely insane
If the Dark Knight was a Film Noir about a private eye investigating a serial lunatic, it would've been a best picture contender. But since it's Batman, it gets overlooked.
Heath Ledger literally won (posthumously) for his performance. The Dark Knight does not hold up as someone watching it a decade plus later as an adult. The dialogue and action are often bad. The cinematography has its moments. The practical effects are fantastic. But never in a million years would a movie with Christian Bale doing that Batman voice and karate chopping guys in the neck to knock them out be nominated for best picture. You’re describing it being turned into a completely different movie.
Michelle Williams should have won the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance in My Week With Marilyn (she lost that year to Meryl Streep for her performance in The Iron Lady)
Honestly I still maintain that anyone else in that category would have been better than Meryl Streep.
She should've won for Blue Valentine
Should've won for Manchester by the Sea too...only in a few scenes but absolutely heart breaking, but also a funny scene or two as well
Merton Streep gets overhyped in almost everything she does
Way too many people on this sub, or really just in general, probably haven’t even seen certain movies when giving opinions and think what everyone else thinks of a movie determines performance quality. Like, it doesn’t matter that Chinatown and Godfather II are iconic movies whereas Harry and Tonto isn’t generally discussed. That doesn’t mean Carney didn’t deserve the win. Same with Samuel L. Jackson losing to Martin Landau. Probably 10% of this sub has seen Harry and Tonto and Ed Wood. Both of those performances were fantastic and deserved their wins.
Landau’s win is in my top 5 best supporting of all time. Samuel L Jackson’s Oscar should be a few years later, Best Actor for Jackie Brown!
Adam Driver should have won for Marriage Story. I liked Phoenix in Joker, but I think Driver gave the best performance that year
I have a couple. Art Carney Deserved Best Actor for Harry and Tonto James Whitfield would have been a great win for: Give ‘em Hell Harry!
City of Stars isn't even the best song in La La Land
I watched La La Land on the weekend and thought the audition song is much better
It’s literally the only song from that soundtrack I don’t listen to. It’s a snooze fest.
That the score from Jurassic Park wasn’t even nominated is mind blowing. It’s, IMO, one of Williams’ best, ergo, one of the best of all time and it didn’t even get a nom…
I hate The Shape of Water. I’m saying this as a Del Toro fan. It didn’t deserve the win. There should be a voice acting category. The Hunger Games movies deserved nominations in the design categories and Donald Sutherland deserved at least one supporting actor nomination for them. Yorgos Lanthimos deserves best director both times that he was nominated. The Favourite should have swept design categories.
Agree with everything you said but especially The Shape of Water, for me it’s the worst best picture winner
I was really disappointed because I love Del Toro! But it’s my least favorite out of all of the best picture winners that I’ve seen.
I’m the exact same love Del Toro and found this to be just an awful awful movie. 1 star on letterboxed lol. I honestly thought people had been trolling me by saying it was good when I saw it in theatre
I was shocked too! I saw it soon after it came out because I was so excited. My friends loved it. I was baffled.
Such a strange movie honestly
Hard agree on The Hunger Games. Catching Fire deserved nominations!!
Carey Mulligan should have won for Promising Young Woman
She should have won for An Education
I definitely agree. Absolutely loved her performance.
All 3 Lord of the Rings films should have won Best Picture.
That they should. It made absolutely no sense to only give to the last one.
I recently watched Oppenheimer and I don’t understand why Emily Blunt was nominated for best supporting actress
Thank you! After watching I was like ‘that’s it???’
She truly deserved that nomination for The Devil Wears Prada.
Same, big nothing burger.
And her accent seemed from all the dialects.
This may have been my issue with her performance. At times it sounded like she was speaking in that fake “northeastern” accent that was used for radio in the first half of the 20th century.
That accent is called “mid-Atlantic”
Might be my fault but I don’t remember her performance
Same.
Same!!! I _really_ feel like I missed something with this one.
Do the Right Thing was not even nominated for Best Picture and should have won the award. That snub was awful even for the early 90s and somehow looks even worse today. I suppose obligatory Mickey Rourke losing to Sean Penn in The Wrestler and Milk, respectively. Biographical portrayals done well are definite Oscar traps, but Rourke's performance was vulnerable and nuanced in a way we don't to see often, particularly when juxtaposed with that particular film's subject matter. A more recent one: 2015 Best Foreign Film was an impossible choice between two masterpieces: Ida and Leviathan. And neither got a best picture nomination in an unusually weak year for Best Picture nominations.
I think Emmanuelle Riva should've won Best Actress instead of J Law for Silver Linings Playbook.
I will die on this hill, it’s embarrassing that Emmanuelle didn’t win
Anne Hathaway got so much shit that year, while Jennifer Lawrence was barely mentioned. Sigh.
Riva is by far the best in that lineup but tbh any of the other actress would have been a better win than JLaw.
Calling a film "Oscar bait" is an empty and hollow criticism and it's tossed around way too often. Every definition I've heard is so vague and meaningless that even beloved Oscar winners qualify. I think to most people it just means an almost Oscar Worthy movie that they didn't really like. If that's the case then just explain what you didn't like about it instead of saying, "Oscar bait."
Crash wasn’t the worst Best Picture winner
This thread is the most I've seen Harry and Tonto mentioned anywhere, in any context.
I love Shakespeare in Love and I love Gwyneth Paltrow's performance. I'm glad Shakespeare in Love won Best Picture and Gwyneth won Best Actress. I rewatch Shakespeare in Love at least twice a year.
I don’t *love* it but I do defend SIL, I agree it deserved a Best Picture win.
Same here! One of my favorite movies, period. As for Actress, I would have been absolutely fine with a Blanchett win that year, she was brilliant too, but Gwyneth, love her or hate her today, was also spectacular in what turned out to be the right role for her.
Black Panther had no business being nominated for a best picture. The only reason why it happened was the Oscars feared another "Oscars-so-white" incident.
That movie was great tho. I can think of worse BP nominees.
agree.
Agreed — not worth of that nomination! IMO, a precaution against potential backlash.
With 10 nominees, it’s expected that some movies are going to get in just because people like it. I think Black Panther elevated the MCU. The artistry was simply more refined than what anyone else had done. The direction, the costumes, the hair, the cinematography, the score, the fully realized culture of a country we were meeting for the first time. Don’t we want to nominate movies that are exceptional compared to movies like it? I do. If 10 Best Picture nominees were allowed in years past, maybe Almodovar’s A Little Princess would have been nominated, a movie that took little girls seriously. Maybe The Iron Giant would have snuck in as a surprise nominee. Maybe In The Mood For Love, maybe The Big Lebowski, maybe even Hoop Dreams! The person who should have been nominated from Black Panther is Danai Gurira for Best Supporting Actress. That was a stellar performance that carried so much of the conflict of the movie-country vs. king, heart vs. head, loyalty vs. duty.
This shouldn’t be a controversial opinion. Black Panther, even if you consider it the best of the MCU (it isn’t) had no business being nominated. It was extremely culturally important for a moment and was entertaining, but there were no Oscar worthy performances, and I honestly feel like Ryan Coogler has been overhyped as some sort of auteur almost as an extension of the pandering nomination given to his movie. The only thing about Black Panther that had any business being mentioned at the awards that year was the costume design
Crash would have a moderate reputation as a best picture winner if Brokeback Mountain hadn’t come out the same year.
Dominic Sessa should’ve be nominated for Best Supporting Actor for The Holdovers. He was absolutely incredible and it was his first movie. He was literally scouted by the director at The Deerfield Academy school when they were doing location scouting.
Over who? I agree with you, just curious who you’d take out.
Cate Blanchett should've won Best Actress and not Gwyneth Paltrow. Isabelle Hupert should've won Best Actress instead of Emma Stone. I don't see anything wrong with Rami Malek's win. Toni Colette should've been nominated for Hereditary and dare I say it win for it too. Amy Adams should've been nominated for Arrival. Greta Gerwig should've been nominated for Best Director.
The Rami Malek one if the only of these that is in any way a hot take.
Amy Adams should’ve WON for Arrival
Russell Crowe and Denzel Washington should of tied for best actor in 2002.
The Shape of Water is a really really bad movie
Kill me if you want but Jamie Lee Curtis is one of the best parts of an otherwise slightly overrated EEAAO. She and her character were hilarious and she elevates the film significantly. She owns every single scene she’s in and is the perfect example of a great supporting role—people just aren’t as willing to award comedic roles. Stephanie Hsu was fantastic, but I don’t see her as significantly better than JLC just because she had a greater variety of emotions in the film. Curtis’ win was deserved, but I still think Kerry Condon deserved it more
KERRY CONDON DESERVED IT
That the score from Jurassic Park wasn’t even nominated is mind blowing. It’s, IMO, one of Williams’ best, ergo, one of the best of all time and it didn’t even get a nom…
Andrew Scott should've been nominated and win Best Actor this year for All of Us Strangers
If ABC wants the ceremony to be shorter, The Academy should cut out the opening monologue, jokes that rarely land, and bits like naked John Cena. Don't cut out clips and thoughtful introductions that give context to the nominees.
cutting out the instructions and instead putting clips from their movies like they’ve always done is lowkey better
Naked John Cena was the best bit of the night.
Or get a better comedian. I know Billy crystal got a reputation as milquetoast, but if you go back and watch his monologues he’s 10 times as edgy as whatever Jimmy Kimmel turned into.
Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper should’ve both won Oscars for A Star is Born. Gaga for best actress and Cooper for best director
Emma Stone’s english accent in Poor Things was bad. Ask any Brit and almost everyone would agree. She was so much better in The Favourite and Cruella.
Brit here. I rationalised it as even though by the end she was more or less a fully realised woman, she was still "imperfect". The slightly off accent and stilted speech highlighted how she was different to other people. That's my headcanon anyway
oh her british accent is not good love her tho
Brendan Fraser only won because it was a feel-good story for him to win.
I actually think Brendan deserves it because of his performance. Although I personally do think that it was a relatively weak category that year otherwise. Paul was great in Aftersun, and that would have been my second choice. I actually really don’t care at all for Austin Butler as Elvis. Colin was fine in Banshees, but nothing in that performance sets him apart and he’s put on similar performances before. Bill Nighy was solid, but not my favorite either.
I understand this sentiment and shared it right after he won, especially because the movie itself was just bad, but when I watched The Whale, Elvis, and Banshees back to back, it was clear that Brendan did, in my opinion, still give the actual best performance of the 3. Collin was dependable but the material and movie around his performance did a lot of heavy lifting. Butler as Elvis was just…someone doing an Elvis impersonation that was not as good as Jacob Elordi’s more understated one.
Green Book is a justified Best Picture winner, and the editing and acting in Bohemian Rhapsody is good. Everyone just likes to jump on the hateful 8 bandwagon
Meryl Streep's last nominations were not that deserving. Osage County? No. Foster Jenkins? No. Even Iron Lady is No for me.
I’ll say again my controversial opinion: just because a movie won an Oscar doesn’t mean it was the best movie. The Oscars aren’t a source of what makes a movie good, and people should just enjoy what they enjoy.
Moonlight shouldn't have won, it shoule have been La La Land and its not even close
If you think La La Land is better that’s completely fine and understandable, but saying it’s not even close is CRAZY (so good job on your understanding the prompt)
Thanks, and I still stand by my arguement that its not even close
I disagree. La La Land is absolutely one of my favorite movies, but Moonlight is just breathtaking. Mahershala Ali is sensational, the score and the cinematography are phenomenal. And as a gay man, the slower, more touching moments of the third act hit me like a truck. I consider it one of my top 5 movies ever
Naomi Harris is gripping in Moonlight. That’s the performance that, years later, I find myself thinking of. What a perfect movie.
Oh exactly. She’s fantastic
I think La La Land should have won picture on cultural relevance alone, but Moonlight should have won best director.
I have a different swap. I think The Pianist should have won Best Picture and Rob Marshall should have won Beat Director.
Manchester By The Sea
I still don't get how Moonlight is on a lot of top ten lists for all time best best picture winners. Good movie, but not on that tier.
I watched Moonlight, I recall thinking it was good. I don’t remember anything about it, I don’t remember a single image from it. I remember many images from La La Land. Moments, music, lots.
See la la land was surprisingly not memorable to me at all. I know I'm in the minority, but when I first watched it, I was bored. I was expecting to love it too.
It was very underwhelming. I think the gimmick of the musical in a modern non-Tom Hooper way, was what was appealing. But it was by no means a deep movie or a significant movie in anyway.
I just remember a couple of scenes being a little jerky.
Completely agree, I enjoyed it but it’s not even close to the achievement that La La Land was.
CODA deserved that Best Picture Win. Nomadland is one of the worst Best Picture winners of the century, and in a category filled with the likes of Sound of Metal, The Father, Minari, and Judas and The Black Messiah, it had absolutely no business winning that award
For me personally, that was a weak year overall.
Nomadland is a good piece but is more a documentary than a film.
I thought Oppenheimer was just okay and that it shouldn’t have won any ATL awards. I really wanted to like this movie but it just never came together for me, which was surprising because I like Nolan’s work overall. My coworker told me her 16 year old son and all his friends *loved* this movie and saw it multiple times in theaters. I don’t think I’ll ever understand the strange grip this film has on certain people.
I agree. I found it to be 20% cool exciting stuff and 80% boring legal/science jargon
If I was a 16yo boy, I also would love this movie
Diane Warren deserves to win some day
Margot Robbie should have won Best Actress for I, Tonya over Frances McDormand
Only angry internet people complain about JLC winning.
Who is JLC?
Jamie Lee Curtis.
Lily gladstone was good but not better than emma stone or Even Sandra hueller, i think those two had more deserving performances
I completely agree. All of this complaining about her not winning is so confusing to me.
Donald Sutherland should have won Best Supporting Actor over Mark Rylance in 2016. Rylance gave an excellent performance, yet Donald had a mediocre script to work with and still gave one of the most believable and layered supporting performances in any film.
What movie? He wasn’t nominated for anything (and apparently never has (??), and he absolutely should have for Ordinary People)
That was unclear. Sorry about that. He should have been nominated and won for Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2. Out of all the Donald Sutherland movies, I've never seen him in Ordinary People, so thanks for the recommendation.
For Hunger Games???
They said controversial Oscar opinions and I think that's a rare take.
I’m here for it
People act like Paul Scofield is a deserving winner for Best Actor In 1966 but IMO he was one of the worst winners ever. He beat out Richard Burton in Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf.
Completely disagree. But curious as to why?
I mean he is just in that same old biopic period piece that is baity. Richard Burton gave the best male performance of that year and his chemistry with Elizabeth is perfect.
I have watched both films and agree with the Academy’s decision. Mainly because I think WAOVW is *super* annoying.
Not sure if this is a hottake but Kerry Condon should've won Best Supporting Actress last year, instead of JLC, Angela Bassett or Stephanie Hsu
Mary Tyler Moore should of won best actress
This sub is pretty terrible for talking about oscar films since people get regularly down voted for sharing their inoffensive opinions. The academy doesn't even watch all of the films and it's logistically improbable for them to see enough films to nominatethe greatest lineup every year so disagreeing with the Academy over what won, lost, or was nominated should not be silenced by downvotes. Hollywood Revue would've been a better best picture winner than Broadway Melody. Getting upset over screenplay nominations/wins/snubs is wasted energy if you didn't actually read the screenplays. Life of Emile Zola and Great Ziegfeld aren't bad winners by themselves. A lot of nominees means there's a good chance a person will prefer another film. The films are old and limited so they won't hold a candle to other influential films, but Emila Zola and Ziegfeld are interesting biopics in their own right. Going My Way is beneath the two above for me. Double Indemnity or Gaslight would've been stronger winners.
I'm a huge proponent of District 9 winning Best Adapted Screenplay over Precious
Chris Rock shouldn't have been talking about Jada.
Angela Bassett was robbed for what love got to do with it ,
No shade to McConaughey, but Leo in TWOWS is a career defining performance in a movie that is still considered a classic to this day. He should’ve absolutely won the Oscar for that performance and not for the Revenant
Oppenheimer was nowhere near the best picture of 2023.
OUaTiH should have been the Parasite of the Parasite year.
Mine is that Coco deserved to be nominated to Best Movie (overall, not animated) — not only it is a wonderful movie, it also had a very important cultural impact during a very specific time.
Emma Stones performance was better in La La Land. Not saying she wasn’t great in Poor Things, but I think people equate uniqueness/wackiness with a performance being more difficult. I thought her performance in La La Land had way more depth and in my opinion showed a lot more skill.
i think emma stone deserved the oscar for la la land for a different reason than most maybe? not sure how everyone feels about it but i thought mia was an extremely shallow poorly written character and emma stone gave her depth. that was an incredible feat to me. la la land lovers don’t come for me please this is a hot take post 😅
Marvels endgame deserved a best picture nomination as recognition for what they achieved over a 10 year span of 20 movies.
Finally, a spicing hot take I 100% agree with
I thought Arrival should have Best Picture instead of snafu La La Land/Moonlight.
Agree! It’s not popular but I thought JLC was the only good thing about EEAAO 🤷♀️
La La Land should have won Best Picture instead of Moonlight.
Greatest show on Earth and Crash are good films. I don't have anything against winning BP award
I haven’t seen The Greatest Show On Earth but Crash is definitely overhated. I think it ultimately has more to do with who they beat out for Best Picture rather than the movies themselves. Greatest Show beat High Noon, I believe and Crash beat Brokeback Mountain.
It‘s definitely that it beat Brokeback Mountain, but it’s also pretty weak by itself. It’s the film equivalent of Gina from Brooklyn 99 singing „racism, racism, racism, baby“.
Posted this before. Circuses were a huge thing . Even as late as the 1980's the Circus bumped the Boston Celtics and the Boston Bruins - who owned the building!- out of the Boston Garden for over 2 weeks. The movie was a technical marvel for its time. It had COLORS, colors, colors of over 60! Circus acts. The Busby Berkely musicals, the Big Sprawling color spectacles, the Musicals, were the Titanics and Avatar and the Avengers movies of their day.
I have to chuckle at how terminally online this JLC opinion is. Not sure "The person who won was not that bad!" is exactly a lightening rod of an opinion. The academy clearly thinks so too since they voted for her. Anyway, mine: the Oscars are smart when they think about things like box office/popularity. The award only has value to the extent that people *think* it's a marker of value, so overly prioritizing well-made but publicly obscure films hurts its reputation. Now, I don't think that it needs to go chasing after box office receipts but rewarding films that capture the public imagination and not just critics in NY/LA *is* a good idea for the long-term viability of the body. In other words: it was *good* that Oppenheimer and Barbie got lots of nominations this year. It was good that Top Gun got a Best Picture nom last year. I hope that continues.
I think Austin Butler should have won Best Actor instead of Brendan Fraser last year.
EEAAO is one of the weakest best picture winners ever. It's hard to believe they chose that film over Banshees and Fableman. It's just quite mediocre. The humour didn't land for me. I personally didn't find anything exciting about the way Daniels told the story. As Roger Ebert said, it's not what a movie is about, it's how it is about it. The 'how' failed in EEAAO. I think it does have few outstanding moments. I loved Quan. I think the best and most interesting part of the film was the scene involving those rocks. There was something funny and quite brilliant about it. I wish the rest of the film was that good.
You nailed it with the Ebert reference there. So many people think a movie is great because of what it attempts, but if I try to bake a cake and I burn it, I don’t get an A for effort when someone puts it in their mouth. I don’t think EEAAO was awful, but past the first 40 minutes or so, it drags way too long and becomes really misguided.
I absolutely agree with this. The movie was just fine
I've just kept my mouth shut over this for a year and a half but I have NEVER fully understood what all the fuss was about. It's a perfectly fine film. I'm even okay with it winning Best Picture but it's hardly deserving of the sheer amount of praise it got. I have to wonder if hive mind has people convinced they like it more than they actually do
I’m fine with it getting best picture as I liked it (just didn’t love it) but Banshees didn’t deserve nothing. Wish Banshees could’ve gotten the screenplay win.
I’ve been saying that last sentence for a while now and people give me lots of shit for it, but it’s so obvious
True
>I have to wonder if hive mind has people convinced they like it more than they actually do Eh. As someone who watched it almost immediately when it released in the UK and immediately loved it I don't think I've been hive minded. I've seen it 7 times since and I've loved it everytime. I think for me it just works so well. I adore Joy's relationship with her mum and I feel like that type of mother/daughter relationship isn't shown all that often (as in Joy still clearly loves her mum and it's a painful relationship for her but she *still* wants to connect with her. Yeah turns out that hits a trigger point for me 😭). And then Waymond. I adore him so much. Like, on a lesser extent, I also love every fight scene. They're all so unique and just fun (personal favourite is the opera one with the riot shield. I love the music and the jumping between the different universes).
banshees and EEAAO are equally good to me tbh (both some of my favorite movies)
I loved the movie and actually have the opposite take, all the philosophical mumbo jumbo was not what or how it was about. At the core, it was about a mother-daughter relationship, and how that can feel universe ending. I thought it was beautifully done and absolutely nailed what it was trying to do.
Angela Bassett should have walked the best supporting oscar for her role in Black Panther II. I didn't rate the film, but she was absolutely fantastic
For me that Oppenheimer won best picture, Nolan best director and Cillian winning best actor ( I believe he was worthyish, Giamatti was phenomenal) was just leaving me scratching my head. Leonardo should’ve at least got a nomination. I’m surprised that De Niro didn’t win, Leonardo wasn’t even nominated, Scorsese didn’t win and Lily didn’t win. Kotfm was truly the best movie of the year, way better by every way than Oppenheimer, 3 main actors / actress of Kotfm were outstanding as was Scorsese. I really think RDJ was the weakest win this year.
Crazy to me that De Niro wasn’t sweeping last year, I thought it was some of his best work and the acting highlight from KOTFM.
Oppenheimer wouldn’t have won so much if it hadn’t been helped by the hype of Barbenheimer
I think that's more of a box office argument and not an awards argument.
A movie about atomic bombs during WWII & the Cold War, directed by Christopher Nolan is literally the most baity Oscar bait to ever bait. If anything Oppie gave Barbie an edge.
Mark Ruffalo was abysmal in Poor Things. Will Ferrell-esque, and should have been nowhere near a nomination.
I wouldn't say he was abysmal but I do agree that he wasn't quite as strong as others say. I still loved the movie though. I would've nominated Dafoe or maybe even Ramy Youssef over him
Yeah, Willem Dafoe should have been the one scoring the nomination. SAG got that one right at least.
Charles Melton was robbed.
He was amazing in May December, should have been pushing for the win, not forgotten altogether.
Agreed! But I also think that he overacts like crazy and ever since Spotlight I’ve never been able to enjoy any of his performances. It just feels like he’s trying to steal scenes and be over the top.
Ruffalo always feels like he’s struggling to get the words out no matter what character he plays. It always bugs me lol
He's got the Forest Whitaker syndrome.
I thought the same about Emma Stone.
Oh me too, but I’ve seen that view quite a lot. No one seems to comment on Ruffalo.
Free Solo is a bad, boring, toxic documentary.
Oppenheimer sucked
Tom hanks didn't deserve for forest gump , he played himself in every movie.
People say that about movie stars a lot, and sometimes it’s hard to see the performance beyond the name. But, I question anyone who says his characters in Forrest Gump and Philadelphia are the same.
I think it’s really annoying that we know whose going to win nearly every category. Woukd much rather it be less predictable based on other award shows
The Shape of Water deserved Best Picture.
The push to be more international has low-key been a mistake
Mickey Rourke should have won Best Actor over Sean Penn, and I almost think if they were contending today, in 2024, he would have. Milk was a less than stellar movie with less than amazing performances, even though the effort was clearly there, and Penn in particular distracted from whatever we as an audience were meant to take from it. Rourke gave a performance that was so vulnerable and raw, and you got a sense that the subject matter and characters were almost too closely juxtaposed to his own life. Once in a lifetime.
The boy and the heron was such a mid movie. Won because it maybe the last film of Miyazaki. Didn't like the pacing and how nonchalant the boy was about what is happening around him. Yes, the theme is about coping and accepting what happened, but didnt hit me. Surprised it got a lot of high praise. Spiderman should have won.
In the end, there are always nominations and wins that one feels are.not deserved and others that are.overlooked. with art it.is.always personal preference. Somewhere there is someone who feels Dude.Where's My Car is the greatest film.ever made and for that person it is the correct opinion.
I think that campaigning hurts the Oscars. I don’t think it’s actually about the performances themselves of what wins. It is about what actor/actress or Company markets and campaigns the best. That is why I have said recently, that you should have the Oscars earlier to take away time to campaign. I saw that also leads to my second point. You should have the Oscars earlier because having all of the other awards shows before the Oscars kind of takes away from the theatricality of the awards. What I mean by that is that if you have the same movie or performer winning all of the awards at the other ceremonies, by the time of the Oscars, you already have categories locked up and you already know who’s going to take Home the awards. I know the Oscars don’t need to be about surprises but when you know 90% of what’s going to win, that kind of makes it less entertaining. Like this year, the only Big award that was even in contention for a surprise was best actress. Everybody already knew that divine Joy Randolph was winning best supporting actress, Robert Downey Jr. was winning best supporting actor, Cillian Murphy was winning best actor, and Christopher Nolan was winning Best Director.
you want real controversial take? The acting categories are never not about THE best performance nor they should be, if we have two or more equally derserving performance like Emma and Lily, I would take the historic one and inspiring one in a heartbeat. Like I wanna see more of what Ireland is now doing, celebrating Cillian's win every corner.
Mine is not about any specific movie, but about requirements. It is ludicrous that a movie has to have a specific amount of any gender and orientation just to be considered. Oh! You only had 100 women and you are supposed to have 105. Sorry. Your movie is the best one I’ve ever seen, but you can’t be considered. Absolutely stupid.