94th: CODA (Sian Heder)
What Should Have Won: Dune (Denis Villeneuve)
I love aspects of CODA, but I overall don’t think it’s Best Picture worthy, especially when you add in that Dune was also nominated for the award. The sci-fi action of Dune coupled with a great performance from Timothee Chalamet in the lead and Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, and Josh Brolin in supporting roles. Denis Villeneuve’s cinematography is grade A and is building up for a massive sequel with tons of buzz. In general, I thought that the 94th Academy Awards were a bit weak in the Best Picture category, but Dune 100% should have won.
93rd: Nomadland (Chloé Zhao)
What Should Have Won: Sound Of Metal (Darius Marder)
Much like Best Picture at the 94th Academy Awards, I didn’t hate the winner, I just think there was a superior alternative. I adore Frances McDormand as an actress and loved her in Nomadland, but Sound Of Metal is beautiful. Riz Ahmed delivers an awe inspiring performance where he battles the likely fate of him losing his hearing and drug addiction. His emotion radiates through the screen and absorbs into the viewer where you feel genuine frustration and sadness for him, but also a heartwarming feeling when Reuben and Lou confide in one another how they saved each others lives. Just a wonderful picture that should have taken home gold.
92nd: Parasite (Bong Joon-ho)
What Should Have Won: Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino)
Parasite was a true trailblazing film. It’s intense, surprising, and is a layered film that you want to really dive into. I just find Once Upon A Time In Hollywood to be a tighter film about being past your prime. We see Leonardo DiCaprio’s character, Rick Dalton, wrestle with the idea of fame forgetting about who he is in the midst of Hollywood’s boom era. His relationship with Brad Pitt’s character, Cliff Booth, who is his stunt double, is fun and pretty deep because Rick Dalton is insecure and Booth is there for him in his career decline.
Tarantino puts his prints all over this film, especially with the ending scene. We see an overexaggerate fight that includes flamethrowers, a dog biting people, and an acid soaked cigarette. The scene that sets Once Upon A Time In Hollywood above Parasite for me is when Rick Dalton can’t remember his lines. It’s an anxiety-inducing scene that really clarifies the state of Dalton’s career and I love it.
91st: Green Book (Peter Farrelly)
What Should Have Won: Vice (Adam McKay)
On the exterior of Green Book, it looks like it should be good, but I found that it fell flat. I didn’t find a ton of redeeming qualities to it which was disappointing and lacks the rewatchability factor. Vice on the other hand is really intriguing. At times, it does get a bit too “Adam McKay has his head up his own ass” with the addition of clips and explanation, but I still dote upon the film. Christian Bale as Dick Cheney was awesome to see, and I thought his relationship with Steve Carell who plays Donald Rumsfeld was one of the most compelling parts of the film. The 91st Academy Awards had strong Best Picture candidates and I don’t feel Green Book was on par with Vice, BlacKkKlansman, and Bohemian Rhapsody.
90th: The Shape Of Water (Guillermo del Toro)
What Should Have Won: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Martin McDonagh)
Literally anything other than The Shape Of Water should have won this year. Fish sex beat out a thrilling crime drama in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, a beautiful coming of age film in Lady Bird, and a wildly original thriller in Get Out. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is an emotion packed film with great performances from Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell. It’s intense in many spots when Sam Rockwell’s character assaults Welby or when Woody Harrelson’s character commits suicide. This is a jarring look at middle American problems with small town police who have their blinders on, and it’s great.
89th: Moonlight (Barry Jenkins)
What Should Have Won: Moonlight (Barry Jenkins)
This is one of the rare occasions where the Academy got it right. While I do prefer Manchester by the Sea to Moonlight, Moonlight is a one of a kind film with extreme originality. The Barry Jenkins flick is described as a coming of age film, but it’s much more than that. It explores difficult topics from sexuality to drug abuse to bullying, all of which can be difficult things to view and make you uncomfortable. However, instead you become further invested. I cherish how the film is broken up between three acts and if I had to rank them, I’d go with II. Chiron first, I. Little second, and III. Black third, but they’re all unique and gutting in their own way.
88th: Spotlight (Tom McCarthy)
What Should Have Won: Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller), The Martian (Ridley Scott)
I don’t really like Spotlight. It feels factually inaccurate as the Boston Herald did have the story about priests molesting children first, but nevertheless, I don’t enjoy it. On top of that, I think that there were multiple better films that year. We witnessed the release of a great Adam McKay flick, Leonardo DiCaprio’s Oscar winning performance, an exhilarating action film, and The Martian which is A MILLION TIMES BETTER THAN INTERSTELLAR.
Mad Max: Fury Road is the decade’s best action movie by a country mile. George Miller directs a masterpiece and make the conscious decision to use minimal dialogue and instead use a glance or a facial expression that says way more than words can. I’d like to point out multiple scenes, but breaking down Mad Max: Fury Road is tough because there aren’t really stand alone scenes. The whole film is one big action sequence. Then we had Matt Damon in Ridley Scotts sci-fi film, The Martian. I find that the plot and journey Damon’s character goes on is thrilling and the visuals are jaw dropping. Sci-fi isn’t a very well represented category when it comes to Oscar winners and I think that’s a shame.
87th: Birdman (Alejandro González Iñárritu)
What Should Have Won: Whiplash (Damien Chazelle)
I’ll be completely honest with you, dear reader. This section is going to be co-opted by my bias for Whiplash because I think it’s the greatest film ever made. We will get to that though. In the case of Birdman winning Best Picture, I didn’t hate the film. I just find that it’s extremely overrated. Birdman gets praised far too much as a “brilliant” or “mind blowing” film. It’s fine. Michael Keaton is really good, but the film isn’t one that does much to be Best Picture worthy.
When it comes to Whiplash, Damien Chazelle does EVERYTHING right. The film is so incredibly tight as the run time is only 107 minutes. Do I want more of Whiplash? No doubt. Am I happy that Chazelle left me wanting more, but not in a disappoint manner? 100%. Miles Teller gives a great, relatable performance as someone who starts off very bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, but has that desire and glimmer sucked out of him by J.K. Simmons’ character. Simmons playing a mentally, and sometimes physically, abusive teacher is scary yet so real. From start to finish though, Whiplash is perfect and has an intense yet gleeful ending. I have one thing to say to Birdman and Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu on behalf of Whiplash: “FUCK OFF, JOHNNY UTAH. GIVE WHIPLASH ITS OSCAR, BITCH!”
86th: 12 Years A Slave (Steve McQueen)
What Should Have Won: Dallas Buyers Club (Jean-Marc Vallée)
A common theme with this list is that some of the films that won Best Picture are definitely deserving. Some, I have no issue with them winning the award. I just think there are better films that were nominated and should have won. This is one of those scenarios. 12 Years A Slave is a great movie and showcases amazing performances from the trio of Lupita Nyong’o, Michael Fassbender, and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Steve McQueen does a fantastic job with this film.
The thing is, the main two performances we see in Dallas Buyers Club from Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto are better than that of Nyong’o, Fassbender, and Ejifor. Jean-Marc Vallée’s film has such a compelling and original story about something we’d never seen a film about. I found that the character development of McConaugheys character was great. He goes from a crying, bumbling coward to becoming a hero in the AIDS community. Jared Leto’s performance is even better than McConaughey’s though. To take the risk of playing a transgender prostitute at that point of his career was ballsy and it worked.
85th: Argo (Ben Affleck)
What Should Have Won: Lincoln (Steven Spielberg), Django Unchained (Quentin Tarantino)
The more and more I’ve thought about Argo after a few watches, the less I like it. I enjoyed Alan Arkin and John Goodmans performances along with Bryan Cranston, but I feel like the film was a bit sloppy. While I comprehend that it’s a true story, I found that Ben Affleck was wildly miscast as Tony Mendez. In addition, there were a lot better films up for Best Picture in this year.
Even though Lincoln was a tad monotonous, it was a wildly intriguing biopic about Abraham Lincoln. The casting was pleasant having Daniel Day-Lewis play Abe Lincoln and Tommy Lee Jones as Thaddeus Stevens. Then there was Django Unchained which was a jolt of adrenaline and entertainment at every second. Yes, it was too long, but Tarantino packed action, vulgarity, and amusement into every frame. The characters were all very layered whether they were despicable like Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L. Jackson or heroic like Jamie Foxx and Christoph Waltz. I’d have no issue if either of these films won Best Picture. Just not Argo.
84th: The Artist (Michael Hazanavicius)
What Should Have Won: Moneyball (Bennett Miller)
The Artist winning is one of the all-time great shames in Academy history. 2011 wasn’t an awesome year in film, but Moneyball was moons better than The Artist. To me, The Artist was boring. You can make a silent film at least semi-entertaining, but Michael Hazanavicius didn’t even do that. While both Moneyball the film and novel aren’t historically accurate, it’s a more entertaining film. Jonah Hill gives one of his best performances and somehow Philip Seymour Hoffman as Art Howe works. There isn’t much to say here other than that I think The Artist wreaks of pretension and just isn’t entertaining.
83rd: The King’s Speech (Tom Hooper)
What Should Have Won: The Social Network (David Fincher)
Not only was The Social Network the best film of 2010, it’s the best film of the decade. The King’s Speech was a fine film, but it’s not even on the level of The Social Network. Fincher delivers a film with three magnificent performances from Jesse Eisenberg, Andrew Garfield, and Justin Timberlake along with maybe the best score of all time from Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. Side note, when ever I want to feel like a true academic when I read pretentious books like Silver Screen Fiend, I’ll throw The Social Network score on.
Fincher traditionally directs psychological thriller like Se7en, The Game, and Gone Girl. He stepped out of his typical genre of work to direct this and killed it, but still left his stamp on it. There were many tense scenes like the famous “Lawyer up asshole” scene and the start of the film when Zuckerberg creates the “hot or not” survey game. An absolute masterpiece and chefs kiss to the GOAT David Fincher.
82nd: The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)
What Should Have Won: The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)
The most baffling thing about The Hurt Locker winning is that it’s the first time a female directors film won Best Picture. I think films like Lost In Translation from Sofia Coppola or The Piano from Jane Champion could have won the award. In the Best Picture category at the 82nd Academy Awards, it was a stacked category. Up, Inglorious Basterds, and Avatar which are all great films were nominated, but The Hurt Locker is outstanding. Bigelow does a great job telling a story in a thriller style way at war which hadn’t really been done before. The films originality coupled with great action and an interesting story made this a proper Best Picture winner.
81st: Slumdog Millionaire (Danny Boyle)
What Should Have Won: Tropic Thunder (Ben Stiller)
I’m going a little out of the box here because Tropic Thunder wasn’t even nominated for Best Picture. It’s a hilarious, satirical comedy about how moronic actors are about real world issues. I don’t hate Slumdog Millionaire, I just think that when you look at the films that’s sandwiched between No Country For Old Men and The Hurt Locker, it doesn’t belong. What definitely hindered Tropic Thunder from getting nominated and winning is that comedies don’t have a great track record with the Academy. Tropic Thunder is hilarious and has a massive cast giving entertaining performances.
80th: No Country For Old Men (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen)
What Should Have Won: There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson), Zodiac (David Fincher)
Let’s get something clear. I have absolutely no problem that No Country For Old Men won. It’s a terrific western thriller with one of the greatest performances of all time from Javier Bardem. I just think that Zodiac and There Will Be Blood are better. There Will Be Blood has quite possibly the greatest acting performance ever from Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview and is a peak piece of cinema from Paul Thomas Anderson. There’s always a sense of intensity revolving around every seen of There Will Be Blood because of how unhinged Daniel Plainview is. In all honesty, I believe There Will Be Blood is the second best movie of the 2000s.
Then there’s Zodiac, which I find to be the best film of the 2000s… AND IT WASN’T EVEN NOMINATED. Zodiac has a grim feel to it and a fantastic storyline that’s based on a true story. The entire film builds real life suspense, not horror movie style suspense which makes me feel more spooked. Jake Gyllenhaal delivers a lights out performance and Robert Downey Jr. gives his last great performance before becoming a super hero. Like I mentioned prior, I have no issue with No Country For Old Men winning Best Picture, but There Will Be Blood and Zodiac are better films.
