I Ranked All 10 Of This Year's Best Picture Nominees From Worst To Best
ABC / Via giphy.com
Happy Oscar Nominations Day to all who observe! Whether you got up at the crack of dawn to tune into the nominations telecast (complete with Leslie Jordan wearing a feather boa and plenty of mispronounced names) or are just scanning the lists at your office, welcome to Hollywood's second most exciting day of the year.
Though nominations for Kristen Stewart, Worst Person In The World, and Encanto's soundtrack are exciting, and snubs for Lady Gaga, Jay-Z, and Passing are tragic, all eyes are really on the Best Picture race. While there has been the potential for 10 Best Picture nominees since the category was expanded in 2009 (post-The Dark Knight snub) in hopes of more big-budget films cracking the top category, we haven't seen a top 10 since 2010. This is due to highly complicated voting methods that allow anywhere from six to 10 nominees depending on various factors. BUT this year, in an attempt to create a more diverse group of noms, the complicated rules were forgone and a mandatory 10 was established. Thus, we have 10 shiny new Best Picture nominees entering the pantheon this morning.
Of course, this is BuzzFeed, and so instead of just providing you with a dull list of the top 10 films of 2021, I've decided to rank them for you from worst to best. Is comparing a sand worm-infested sci-fi epic with a heartwarming tale of deaf fisherfolk a fools errand? Perhaps. But the Academy is going to have to rank these films on the preferential ballot when they vote, so why shouldn't I? Here's to hoping they take my advice and give the trophy to the right film.
10.Nightmare Alley
Total Nominations: Four - Best Picture, Cinematography, Costume Design, and Production Design
Step right up! Step right up! Come see the worst Best Picture nominee! Despite being the follow up to Guillermo Del Toro's Best Picture-winning The Shape of Water, this remake of 1947 noir failed to connect with critics and audiences in the ways one would have hoped. It was largely blanked by the guilds and critics, and didn't get anywhere near making back its budget at the box office. The two-and-a-half-hour-long film is essentially two separate movies mashed together with Bradley Cooper and Cast A running carnival scams for the first half before Bradley Cooper and Cast B work to pull off a psychological con in the second. While the crafts are beautiful and the cast of old pros (Toni Collette, Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe) do their best, the whole thing just feels a bit bloated and unfocused. The fact that it is in the Best Picture conversation at all is as miraculous as a fortune teller trick. I will also say that I blame this sluggish three-card monty for stealing Tick, Tick...Boom!'s Best Picture nomination, and that alone is enough for me to lock Nightmare Alley in a crate and charge dimwitted tourists to look at it (although the box office returns already proved no one is paying to watch this movie).
9.West Side Story
Total nominations: Seven - Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actress (Ariana DeBose), Cinematography, Costume Design, Production Design, and Sound
The 92% on Rotten Tomatoes, the 11 Critics Choice nominations (tied with Belfast for the most this season), and the Golden Globe win for Best Picture - Musical or Comedy would beg to differ, but I would argue this is easily near the bottom of this year's Best Picture crop. It's not because of the filmmaking (which is beautiful), the music (which is as catchy as ever), or even the performance (which are largely good), but rather the story itself. West Side Story is inherently flawed and incapable of being saved or tweaked for the modern era (even if the casting is better.) It's racially problematic. The finger-snapping tone doesn't match up with the incredibly dark messages at its core. We're expected to believe Maria would sleep with the man who murdered her brother the same evening of his death after meeting him once. And the last hour is a slow, miserable march full of unlikable characters (Anita being the one exception) to an even more miserable end. I understand the intense nostalgia for the beloved musical, BUT if this was a completely original fare that premiered this year, I think the critics would have been much tougher (and the already abysmal box office numbers would have been even lower). Ariana DeBose's magnificent performance is the sole reason this isn't last.
8.Don't Look Up
Total nominations: Four - Best Picture, Editing, Score, and Original Screenplay
If there is a true wild card in this year's Oscar race it is the latest Adam McKay political satire about a meteor headed to destroy Earth. Before it's release on Netflix, the film got dinged up pretty bad by critics who called it uneven, and heavy handed, stamping it with a 56% on Rotten Tomatoes (easily the worst score on this list). But then it rolled up to the streaming platform over Christmas, became the most watched film ever in a single week, and scooped up nominations from the Screen Actors, Producers, and Writers Guilds. With most films underperforming at the box office, a populous hit is worth a whole lot and there is SIGNIFICANT overlap between the Guilds and Oscar voters, so don't count it out. All that (and a number of wonderful performances) aside, I do think the film is uneven and heavy handed in parts. It's not a bad film by any means, but it feels a bit like it was rushed together by a director who only had a few months to put a film together because a meteor was headed for earth.
Watch it on Netflix.
7.King Richard
Total nominations: Six - Best Picture, Actor (Will Smith), Supporting Actress (Aunjanue Ellis), Editing, Original Song, and Original Screenplay
Since it premiered on the festival circuit this September, King Richard has sat solidly at the heart of the Oscar race. It is no surprise that the biopic about Venus and Serena Williams' eccentric father did well on nomination morning. It landed nominations from the Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards, SAG, PGA, and WGA, plus PLENTY of love for Will Smith's central performance. The film is good, and I would say much better than the usual crop of biopics that slosh around the Oscar race (Judy, Bohemian Rhapsody, Trumbo), but it feels fairly pedestrian and bright eyed. The film (produced by the Williams sisters) doesn't take their father to task nearly as much as it probably should, and the triumph-over-adversity storyline is one we've seen in plenty of sports movies. Everything here is executed well, but this is the Best Picture race, and like with professional tennis "good" isn't "GOAT".
Rent it on Prime Video.
6.CODA
Total nominations: Three - Best Picture, Supporting Actor (Troy Kotsur), and Adapted Screenplay
This year's quirky family, feel good crowd pleaser (in the vein of Little Miss Sunshine or Juno) is CODA (an acronym for Child Of Deaf Adults if you didn't know). The film follows Ruby Rossi (Emilia Jones), the sole hearing member of her family as she nears the end of high school, with aspirations to go away to college and study music, even if it will disrupt her family's lives. Since its Sundance premiere in January 2021, it's been getting nothing but love from audiences and critics alike. Nominations from the PGA and WGA plus the coveted ensemble SAG nomination (which is often a Best Picture winner bellwether, and so would limit the race to this, Belfast, Don't Look Up, and King Richard if we go by that logic) bolstered its case, and it's heading into the Oscars with plenty of gas in its tank. It may have the least nominations of the Best Picture crowd, but with a small budget, it was never competitive in the craft catagories. While I loved the film, I found it to be a tad schmaltzy and more predictable than some of its competitors, but I would not be upset if it won. Troy Kotsur's delightful performance alone is enough to get me on this film's side.
Watch it on Apple TV+.
5.Licorice Pizza
Total nominations: Three - Best Picture, Director, and Original Screenplay
As a Paul Thomas Anderson fan, a Haim fan, and a fan of waterbeds (although that was in childhood and I haven't tested one out in a while), I'm thrilled to see this odd '70s Hollywood dramedy go the distance. PTA's work has been hit or miss with the academy (at least in the Best Picture race), but with DGA and PGA noms, it made sense that Licorice Pizza would find its way into the Best Picture race. The movie is a long series of vignettes (some of which work better than others) that follow an unlikely pair of friends played by Cooper Hoffman and Alana Haim as they traipse around Los Angeles getting into trouble. I'm not exactly sure why we get SO MANY adult/minor love stories coming out of Hollywood (and I docked this film some points on that unsettling front), but the sets, costumes, performances, and directing all shine through. I doubt this will be PTA's night to take home the trophy (the three nominations speak to this), but perhaps he will be able to use the box office money from this film to open a lucrative pinball palace (I hear that it's now legal in CA).
4.The Power of the Dog
Total nominations: Twelve - Best Picture, Director, Actor (Benedict Cumberbatch), Supporting Actor (Jesse Plemons), Supporting Actor (Kodi Smit-McPhee), Supporting Actress (Kirsten Dunst), Cinematography, Editing, Score, Production Design, Sound, and Adapted Screenplay
If there is a Best Picture frontrunner, it is Jane Campion's western about a mean cowboy, his brother who is a nice cowboy, his new sister-in-law who he drives to alcoholism, and his soft-boy nephew. The stunningly gorgeous saga, shot on location, landed the most nominations of any film and is competitive in nearly every category its been nominated in. Jane Campion has won nearly every directing prize available this year and is as close to a lock as possible for an Oscar as you can be. And then there are the acting categories where it would not be a stretch to see trophies leaving the ceremony in the hands of three POTD actors (if Benedict Cumberbatch can overtake Will Smith and Kodi Smit-McPhee and Kirsten Dunst win in their chaotic categories). The film is certainly a slow burn, but the revelation that arrives in the final minutes left me agog and aside from its slight austere, cerebral nature that keeps the characters at a bit of a distance, there's nothing to fault. Send me a handkerchief monogrammed POTD and I'll go bathe in the creek with it.
Watch it on Netflix.
3.Belfast
Total nominations: Seven - Best Picture, Director, Supporting Actor (Ciaran Hinds), Supporting Actress (Judi Dench), Original Song, Sound, and Original Screenplay
If there is a film primed to overtake The Power of the Dog it is Kenneth Branagh's black-and-white, semi-autobiographical drama about an Irish family during The Troubles. The sweet, warm-hearted period piece has landed nominations in just about every category and nabbed DGA, PGA, and SAG nominations (it wasn't eligible for the quadruple crowning WGA award). All five of the film's top-billed actors have been nominated for and/or won major awards. Not to mention Kenneth Branagh is certainly in the Best Director conversation. There is a warmth here that something like Power of the Dog never quite musters while still having a depth of narrative and strength in craft that CODA and King Richard don't deliver. Plus just imagine how cute Jude Hill will be on stage in a little suit if it wins Best Picture!
Rent it on Prime Video.
2.Dune
Total nominations: 10 - Best Picture, Cinematography, Costume Design, Editing, Makeup and Hairstyling, Score, Production Design, Sound, Visual Effects, and Adapted Screenplay
Arrakis may be an inhospitable planet for non-worm life, but it is certainly a great place to grow an Oscar campaign. The first of the two-part adaptation of Frank Herbert's classic sci-fi novel is an impressive film on nearly every front. With 10 nominations (and none for acting), this is clearly the below the line Oscar juggernaut of 2021. Don't be surprised if it (like Mad Max) ends the night with the most statues. While its competitors consistently stumbled at the box office, Dune became an in-theater phenomenon that performed well for weeks before scooping up DGA, PGA, and WGA nominations (although it was shockingly snubbed for Best Director here in favor of Spielberg). The degree of difficulty adapting this complex novel into an intelligible film is dizzyingly high, the ensemble (while not flashy) execute their roles well, and the film is a feast for the eyes that makes the rest of the nominees look like a sand-coated famine. While the Academy will likely yet again snub the crafts-heavy sci-fi film from winning the top prize (an outer space movie has never won Best Picture), I would be perfectly happy if this was the night's ultimate winner. No other film of 2021 so seamlessly integrated every part of movie-making into one exquisite piece of art. Let me use the Voice on some of these Academy members to get it some wins.
Rent it on Prime Video.
1.Drive My Car
Total nominations: Four - Best Picture, Editing, Score, and Original Screenplay
Couldn't be me (and every other critic) out here stumping for the three-hour-long Japanese film about a man riding around in a red Saab listening to his dead wife recite Uncle Vanya over a cassette tape. With the Academy adding more and more international members to compensate for its lack of diversity, non-American films have been snatching up more and more nominations each year. This year, the adaptation of a Haruki Murakami story snuck into the top 10 to my shock and delight. While the film is quiet and doesn't boast the array of crafts expertise that Dune does, its screenplay and performances will leave you glued to the screen for the entire runtime. Its slow build to a forceful climax is storytelling at its finest, and the beautiful landscape shots of the titular car sliding back and forth across the Japanese countryside are intoxicating. While this film is unlikely to win Best Picture, it was still easily my favorite in the lineup. Never have I been so fascinated by a mixed-language performance of a Chekov play and squabbling over car insurance. If you're only going to watch one of this year's Best Picture nominees, please carve the time out of your calendar to make it this one.
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