Brief Reflections On Oscar Best Picture Nominees 2023
With Oscar ceremony approaching, there's that intriguing question lingering in the air: who's going to win the best picture award on the 12th of March? We've been lucky to watch all ten movies nominated in the best picture category and would like to share our top-of-the-minds that swiftly crossed our heads right after the screenings:
A nostalgy of Take My Breath Away wins the curiosity contest and actually doesn't turn down: a new turmoil of new intense action with the same air force rebellion Maverick played by the same kindly aging Tom Cruise invites a spectator into an inside of a gripping video game where everything has to go wrong to only triumph with a happy ending afterwards.
Based on the novel by Miriam Toews, the movie centres around two main locations: the barn representing the isolated religious colony and the vast crop fields - presumably the rest of an open world. Will the abused women leave the barn into the open fields? That is the core development of the story, as the women should decide to do nothing, to stay and fight or to leave. The movie keeps up with the modern trends manifesting the female power, but still proves that the mother's instinct to protect her children is the main catalyzer to dare for a change.
The title tells it all: it's a hotchpotch of chaos itself that never settles down, even when you think that you've already grasped what's happening. Strange as hell and highly entertaining, though don't ask what we've seen - it's impossible to retell, so better watch yourselves!
It's a comedy but it reeks of hopeless loneliness displayed by a trivial conflict between old friends. However, trivial for us but not for Padraic whose best friend suddenly decides to befriend him. All the characters in the movie are worth recognition, and the movie itself is that paradox of "nothing is happening", which nevertheless leads to a top-notch emotional climax and settles again on the low water. It's one in a million, a pearl in a heap of Hollywoodian bijouterie.
Bravo Ruben Östlund! Although most of the people who have seen the movie are just talking about an extensive vomiting scene, it is much more than this shocking experience. The clash of ideologies with a hilariously mocking episode of the drunk yacht captain preaching Marxism on the mike during the storm, super riches killed by their profitable gun business, and a reversible social ladder that might be flipped in a second but still keep the same "Dragon is dead. Long live the Dragon!" principle - those are only ones of many so subtly and masterfully served topics of this great social satire.
There always comes the time when your own memories start looking much better than any screenplay. Perhaps this very time stopped by Steven Spielberg, too. The Fabelmans seems like an ode to his mother, a tribute to this closest artistic person who has supported a young boy with his cinematographic dreams, has encouraged to follow his heart but also appeared to be the one to broke it. A really heartful and sincere story-telling that pins you to the screen.
One of our favourite adolescence books by a German novelist Erich Maria Remarque adapted by Netflix. So many movies on the WWI have been already on the screens, but this one demonstrates an extremely poetic camera work, which only strengthens absurdity and cruelty of this war, whereas the actual length of the movie probably symbolizes the long never-ending years of war, as somewhere in the middle of watching it already becomes a torture.
Name us at least one reason other than commercial why this movie has landed at cinema theatres? We have no intention to undermine all the tremendous work done by the movie crew, however, the story has no such effect as the first Avatar had (because the time changed!), whereas the length of the movie only demonstrates an inability to make a long story short. Since when it became a rule that the longer the movie, the better? Blockbuster it is but definitely not the best picture of the year.
It's not always the same glorious effect when you try to relive the life of a world-known star. Bohemian Rapsody has been a real hit, however Elvis doesn't bear the same pounding of the heart. Nevertheless the embodiment of the king of rock'n'roll by Austin Butler is flawless, and the very idea of reminding young generations about the ones who really matter in the music history is more than appreciated.
Apart from a compelling performance by Cate Blanchett who plays a female conductor Lydia Tár, the movie maintains its intellectual aura not because of the world of classic music it portrays but of that peculiar sophisticated way it unfolds a story of balancing on the rough edge of the omnipotent power and what it might look if you accidentally fall down.
The authors' view might not comply with the one of the general public. It's only five days left to find out the Academy's decision.
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