Best Picture Nominees: ranked and reviewed

George Lowes

We're delving into the heart of award's season with a comprehensive look into the 2023 Oscar's Best Picture Nominees

Awards season is upon us once again, with ten films nominated for the coveted Best Picture award at the Oscars. Ranging from intimate character dramas to adrenaline-charged action spectacles, here are my reviews of them all, ranked from worst to best.

10. TÁR

Coming in last place is TÁR, a film about Lydia Tár, a fictional composer played wonderfully by Cate Blanchett. It’s nearly three hours long, which feels entirely unjustified as there simply isn’t sufficient plot to fill that runtime. I applaud the film’s commentary on cancel culture, although ultimately it’s all quite surface-level. 2.5/5

9. Elvis film progresses. Austin Butler is fantastic as Elvis Presley, though the script misses an opportunity to delve deeper into his character, leaving this a disappointingly shallow biopic. 3/5

8. Triangle of Sadness

A satire of the uber-wealthy is not the most original idea, but it does lead to some genuinely funny moments. My main problem with this film is that every scene is twice as long as it needs to be. In fact, editing out close to an hour of this movie’s runtime would improve it drastically, quickening its glacial pacing and preventing the jokes from wearing thin. 3/5

7. Everything Everywhere All at Once

On release, Everything Everywhere All at Once received almost universal acclaim. Maybe this set my expectations too high, but I can’t say I entirely agree. The film’s emotional beats didn’t always land for me, and I found most of its weirdness annoying. That said, it is undoubtedly a great movie, with well-choreographed action sequences and some very inventive sci-fi concepts. 4/5

6. Women Talking

Women Talking is an intimate drama about the women of an isolated religious community deciding how to proceed, following a series of sexual assaults perpetrated by the colony’s men.

5. All Quiet on the Western Front Kicking off the top 5, we have All Quiet on the Western Front – one of the best war films in recent years. Its superiority compared to most other movies in the genre results from its success in not glorifying any aspect of war. Every part of the film, from its editing to its acting, is deliberately designed to portray World War 1’s barbarity and pointlessness. The only other movie that portrays the brutality of war so effectively is Saving Private Ryan, with its famous D-Day sequence. Felix Kammerer plays our protagonist in a stunning debut, and it’s hard to believe this is his first film role. 4/5

4. Avatar: The Way of Water

Avatar: The Way of Water is visually breathtaking from start to finish. Unfortunately, start to finish is 192 long minutes, most of which were painfully felt – a common theme among this year’s nominees. On the plus side, James Cameron is a master of action, so, unsurprisingly, every sequence was exhilarating. Exploring a new region of Pandora was interesting, and I really appreciated the stronger focus on character development compared to the first film. However, the movie does feature a few too many characters, sometimes resulting in a cluttered feel. 4/5

3. The Fabelmans love of film and how he uses it to cope with a troubled home life. Paul Dano and Michelle Williams are similarly brilliant as Sammy's parents, gelling wonderfully with LaBelle. Spielberg's direction is exquisite, but given that he's arguably the most iconic director ever, that's hardly surprising. 4.5/5

This movie is Luhrmann at his worst. The first ten minutes are genuinely nauseating, the insane editing giving the movie the feel of a drug trip.

2. The Banshees of Inisherin

My runner-up is The Banshees of Inisherin, a movie as hilarious as it is deeply depressing. Director Martin McDonagh balances tone incredibly well here. The film shifts from delightfully funny to incredibly distressing and then back again several times in the same scene, impressively never once feeling jarring. The two leads, Colin Farrell (The Lobster) and Brendan Gleason (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) are both excellent in their roles. The history between the pair is almost tangible, and I was instantly invested in their relationship, desperately wanting things to work out for them. 4.5/5

1. Top Gun: Maverick

Words struggle to do justice to the sheer excitement I felt watching the movie's jawdropping aerial sequences on the big screen. Tom Cruise (Mission: Impossible) truly is one of the last Hollywood mega-stars, committing his all to every film. Throughout the movie, you feel the care and effort that went into ensuring the audience has the best possible experience. For my money, one of the greatest action films in recent memory. 5/5