The Oscar nominations have been announced

UncleScoopy

Best picture nominees, with Metacritic score and Rotten Tomatoes score in parens:

(Asterisks indicate that the film also received a best director nomination)

All Quiet on the Western Front (76) (92%
Avatar: The Way of Water (67) (77%)
The Banshees of Inisherin * (87) (97%)
Elvis (64) (77%)
Everything Everywhere All at Once * (81) (95%)
The Fabelmans * (84) (92%)
Tár * (92) (90%)
Top Gun: Maverick (78)(96%)
Triangle of Sadness * (63) (72%)
Women Talking (78) (90%)

Other notes:

Hose job o’ the year: Charlotte Wells. Per Metacritic, the favorite of the critics in 2022 was Aftersun, which received only one nomination (Best Actor). Charlotte Wells, who wrote and directed, was not named in either category. Its Metacritic/RT score was (95) (96%), which was a stronger combination than any of the nominated films. It also had a higher IMDb rating than five of the Best Picture nominees. It is difficult to explain the nomination of Ruben Östlund over Charlotte Wells for best director and best original screenplay.

There is not much difference between the IMDb ratings of the ten Best Picture nominees.

Everything Everywhere All at Once was the runaway betting favorite before the noms were announced, and I suppose it still will be.

The bookies had She Said, Babylon and RRR in the top ten, in place of Women Talking, Elvis and All Quiet on the Western Front.

All Quiet is the longest of long shots, but is also nominated for Best Commie Film (or whatever they now call Best Foreign Film). Given the dual nominations, it is probably a good bet to win the international one.

If you look at the actual contribution of the directors to each of the movies listed above, it would not be unreasonable of you to argue that the wrong directors were nominated, with the exception that Everything Everywhere All at Once was certainly a deserving honoree. The nomination of Ruben Östlund really came out of left field.

Brendan Fraser completed his transition from leading man to successful character actor with a Best Actor nomination. (And he’s the betting favorite.)

Glass Onion was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. The Oscar people seem to have some arcane rules that shunt it into that category, but it is an original screenplay that simply happens to have a character that appeared in an earlier movie.

30 thoughts on “The Oscar nominations have been announced”

  1. EEAAO wins all the things OR WE RIOT.

    James Hong wasn’t even nominated so I’m already prepping pitchforks and torches. Dude is a bona-fide legend with over 400 credits in some of the most memorable roles of all time and they can’t even throw him a nom?

    I say we turn over a limo or two on principle alone.

    1. Alexander the Great, who said on his wedding night, It’s only a nickname. Never got a dinner! ~ Red Buttons

      George Washington, who said to his father, Dad, if I never tell I lie, how am I ever gonna become President? Never got a dinner!

      Goliath’s mother, who said to Goliath, Stop running around with David! You’re always coming home stoned! Never got a dinner!

      Aladdin, who said to his wife, I know it’s not a lamp, keep rubbing! Never got a dinner!

      King Solomon, who said to his thousand wives, Who doesn’t have a headache tonight? Never got a dinner!

      King Henry VIII, who said to his lawyer, Forget the alimony, I’ve got a better idea. Never got a dinner!

    2. James Hong has seen some shit. Worked with John Wayne, worked with Groucho, made Roy Batty’s eyes, and has seen Leelee Sobieski naked.

      Was happy to see him get his star on the Walk of Fame.

      1. he should have gotten it for Big Trouble in Little China!

        Seriously the guy has had one hell of a career and broad variety of movies and TV shows. And at 93 is still very active.

  3. I’ve seen two of these.

    Everything deserves all of its nominations. Its fantastic.

    After watching Maverick I went to bed thinking I watched a pretty good movie. I woke up the next morning thinking: “Did I just watch Star Wars again?”

    At least its a better adaptation of A New Hope then Force Awakens. It can have its Adapted Screenplay nomination.

    1. Re: screenplays “Hollywood” hasn’t had an original thought in the last 40/50 yrs. Seriously nothing new under the sun. Just better technology.

          1. I remember back in the day when people kept making the same arguments that movies never did anything new. Makes me wish they had new arguments and had an original thought.

            Ironic, isn’t it?

        1. The guy’s a typical whiner. With guys like him it’s always “back in the day things were good.” I mean shit even in the hallowed 70s, a lot of those movies were just taking b-pictures and doing them classy, like The Godfather. Jaws is just a Roger Corman movie. In the 40s hope you liked Westerns and war propaganda pictures, and boring romances.

          I think there’s a way wider variety of movies now. Yeah Marvel crap has taken over blockbusters and that sucks, but for the movies I’m more interested in, there’s so much. Horror movies of all types, weird stories, small action flicks. I do wish big movies had a variety like the 80s and 90s, you look at an old Entertainent Weekly summer special from back then, there was all types of movies, now it would be Marvel and other IP crap. I mean they did that then too, Mission Impossible was IP but felt different. wish James Cameron would drop making cartoons and make a real action flick again, we need him.

          1. I agree with everything you said except the last sentence – I think James Cameron has already made every great movie he had in him. I don’t know where the next great action film will come from, but it won’t be from him.

          2. You may be right Albert…but I think if he chose to make another rip-roaring action flick he could. But year, clearly he’s not interested in that at this time and most likely won’t be. It’s just nice tha he could make a straight action movie with virtually no limits if he wanted…we do have great new(ish) action stuff like John Wick, The Raid movies, Upgrade…but they all had budget limits. Although Wick is getting pretty large at this point. Fury Road was amazing, and if Miller can come back I wish I wish I hope so can my boy Cameron, he’s been counted out so many times yet he always comes back. Avatar 2, two billion…who’d think that was going to happen?

      3. And never will. Old Hollywood is dead. It’s not changing. The medium itself is changing to tik tok, YouTube, VR etc.

  4. I found it interesting that a movie with Irish actors, an Irish director, and filmed in Ireland, couldn’t get nominated for best foreign film but did get a nod for best film.

    I’m puzzling over what movie “RRR” is. Haven’t really been watching much lately so maybe it’s obvious and I’m clueless.

    1. To be nominated as best foreign film, more than 50% of the dialogue has to be non-English. So The Banshees of Inisherin isn’t eligable.

      1. Also best movie country is determined by who produces said movie, not actors, director, location etc. ie who pays the $$$ …

        btw, actually saw a movie, Top Gun 2, at a theater this yr 😮 first time since 1996. Top Gun 2 was a really good movie imo. IOW it has no chance. Surprised an entertaining flick was nominated. Must have slipped thru the cracks, eh.

        1. Not exactly – the country that produced the movie counts, but they must confirm that creative control was held by citizens or residents of that country. So if, for example, the Chinese Government paid for an Indian director to direct and Indian script with Indian actors, neither China nor India could submit the movie.

          That said, The Banshees of Insherin was co-produced by it writer/director, so it could have been submitted by Ireland. However, as I said above, it’s in English, so it’s not eligable.

          1. Was talking about best movie oscar, not best foreign film category.

            Any film is eligible for best film regardless unless it’s a documentary, etc. And any actor is eligible ie Sophia Loren, Marion Cotillard, etc. Digressing …

            Of course nowadays it helps if said film ✔ several “woke” categories. Indeed, award shows are pretty much unwatchable and have always been rather pointless except for the fashion parade.

    2. RRR is a heavily stylized Indian film about a revolution against the British Raj. It’s currently available on Netflix.

  5. I am so out of touch with movies, I did not know there had been another remake of “All Quiet on the Western Front”. Did this one achieve something the earlier versions did not? Or is it just that people won’t watch black and white movies any more, and this is still a pretty good story?

    I would not even have known about the 1979 version, but it showed up on late-night TV within the past week. I guess it didn’t get any Oscar mentions.

  6. All Quiet on the Western Front- < Not bad
    Avatar: The Way of Water- Really? Fuck no
    The Banshees of Inisherin *<- Not worthy, odd movie
    Elvis- Another Fuck no,
    Everything Everywhere All at Once * <- Didn't think this one was in that High Calibur
    The Fabelmans *<- ? A Handjob movie, No.
    Tár * <- This? Why, Wasn't that good.
    Top Gun: Maverick <- ? Bad Story, lame, No.
    Triangle of Sadness * <- Didn't see, pass
    Women Talking <- This was ok for a Drama, Didn't get much traction though.

    After all the other movies not listed , there were plenty that were MUCH better and Deserved it, None of these.

    1. The only one of those 10 that I saw was “Everything Everywhere All at Once” which in my opinion was the best movie I’ve seen in a long time. My wife didn’t like it at all, though.

      1. Based on the reviews he provided, I’m guessing that his top films all include The Rock in the cast.

        1. Ha ha ha seriously. He HATED all of those? I only saw a few of those movies, liked all of them, especially Everywhere and Banshees.

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