A Fred-flix Special Report

——————————-

The Oscars, a beautiful time when corporate politics and bribing, uhhh I mean good old fair competition takes place. Award shows are some of the most interesting events on television, because everyone will talk about the results no matter what. You’re either really happy something won or you’re complaining about how many movies were snubbed. It’s mostly the complaining, usually for a good reason.

This year the Oscars have actually gotten a pretty good selection of the countless phenomenal movies that came out last year. While they’re were some snubs in the nominations (WHERE WAS THE IRON CLAW?), they’re a lot of amazing movies that were nominated. And I know a lot of you are asking, “Fred, who would your pics be for the different categories!” First off, thanks for asking. Second, you’re just in luck because I got the article for you. 

Best Picture

The obvious pick for best picture is Oppenheimer. Not to get on Christopher Nolan fans bad sides, but Oppenheimer didn’t astound me. Now all the cine-philes are gonna nuke my house, it was a worthy sacrifice to say Barbie was better than Oppenheimer. 

If I got to pick who would win best picture, I’d have a three way tie between Barbie, The Holdovers and Past Lives. Barbie was a truly iconic movie that dominated the zeitgeist for the whole year, and it was still really heartfelt and not corporate. The Holdovers was an intimate character study that is a new Christmas classic in the same vein as a Christmas story. It also has the best performances with Paul Giamatti as Paul Hunham, Da’Vine Joy Randolph as Mary Lamb and Dominic Sessa as Angus Tully, creating my favorite film trio of the year. Finally, Past Lives is a heart felt but depressing drama from A24. The realness and intimacy it shows through its different relationships is devastating, yet beautiful.

Acting

While I’m rooting against a Oppenheimer clean sweep, I’m hopeful Robert Downey Jr wins for best supporting actor with the best performance of career (now I got Christopher Nolan fans and Iron Man fans going after me). 

I also hope America Ferrera wins for best supporting actress, though I wouldn’t be mad if Da’Vine Joy Randoplh won either. 

Animation

We also have the battle for best Animated feature between Across the Spider Verse and The Boy and the Heron. It’s a battle between more classic animation and the new era of animation. After eliminating my bias for the Spider Verse movies, I wouldn’t be mad if either ended up winning. They were in my top five of the year, and both carried animation this year. 

Visual FX

I’m also rooting for Godzilla Minus One for the best visual effects, especially since it’s the first Godzilla movie to be nominated for an Oscar. 

Now, I know I haven’t mentioned every movie nominated. Sadly I haven’t been able to see best picture nominees American Fiction, Zone of Interest and Anatomy of a Fall. It happens, there’s so many movies coming out it’s almost impossible to watch every big movie that’s out now. Especially the ones that only release in certain areas, but we try our best. Seven out of ten isn’t that bad. 

I hope everyone has a happy Oscar weekend, and get your complaining ready for the amount of snubbing that will happen. Hopefully all the results are fair, but Dances with Wolves once beat Goodfellas so be ready for the worst. 

-30-