Oscars 2024: The Best Picture Nominees, Ranked

For the first time since I started doing these lists, I actually live somewhere where there are cinemas that show all the strange films that get nominated for Best Picture. So naturally, I streamed the last two films late last night on one of those dodgy putlocker websites which harvests your kidneys while you watch. Anyway, I have managed to watch them all, just in time, and this is my ranking:

10. Poor Things

Of all the weird books I’ve read, this was about the last I was expecting to get a major Hollywood adaptation. The author, Alasdair Gray, was one of those left wing firebrands who’s all about the downfall of capitalism without really noticing that women are people. Only he could write such an interesting setup — Bella Baxter is Frankenstein’s monster but a fully grown woman with the brain of a child — and then completely miss the feminist angle. However, this film wisely corrects his mistake by adapting the story with a feminist stance, which sees Bella embark on a journey of sexual discovery. And …

Nope. Not for me. No matter what spin we’re putting on this, we are still watching someone with the mind of a child having a lot of sex on screen. Despite the many talented people involved, despite the amazing set design, this one goes in the Bad Ideas Box with the Glasgow Willy Wonka Experience and your boyfriend’s ‘tash.

9. American Fiction

Films about books normally suck, let’s be honest, so in some ways, American Fiction was a breath of fresh air. The idea that only some forms of Blackness are commercially viable is interesting. Unfortunately, most of what this film has to say is said within its 3-minute trailer. The full film has some interesting side characters, especially a turn from Sterling K Brown, but they don’t add much to the premise either.

Also, I’m not sure that I agree with the premise. In 2000, maybe there was an argument to be made that the only Black narratives that were culturally rewarded were about slavery or the streets, but I just don’t think that’s true anymore. I think there has been a tangible change: from Girl Woman Other to Moonlight, today’s Black media has risen above the stereotypes and has been suitably rewarded with Oscars and Booker prizes. So, American Fiction didn’t quite hit home for me.

8. Past Lives

Please don’t be mad at me. This was beautifully shot, beautifully acted and a poignant story, but there is not much to this story, and so much of what there is goes left unsaid. I think this film is suggesting that you can love two people at once, just so long as one is very, very far away, and I think that’s a story worth telling. It’s strange, because the desperate-distanced-longing narrative is normally catnip to me (Normal People, One Day), but it turns out that my Instagram reel-added brain does actually want some events to happen. By the time we passed the 100-minute mark in the cinema, I was making eyes at the bloke in the next row just to keep my heart rate to self-sustaining levels. At the end of the day, I wanted to like Past Lives more than I actually did.

7. All of Us Strangers

As someone who was stubbornly denying Paul Mescal’s acting ability on account of his excessive handsomeness, it’s time to admit that he has an uncanny ability to (a) act and (b) have excellent chemistry with literally anyone. Andrew Scott shines too, especially in the scenes with his parents, but then it all ends before it gets started and before anything is explained. The final scene is just two characters spooning — spooning so good that both of them are maybe dead. Don’t get me wrong, more films should end this way, but I was a bit baffled by the whole thing.

As my girlfriend is saying from over my shoulder, maybe we didn’t experience the full effect of All of Us Strangers because it’s an exploration of the middle-aged queer experience. And even with us perhaps not being the target audience, even with it only being fragments of a story, it’s such an effective mood piece (mood: intense loneliness) that I would still recommend it to anyone.

7. Anatomy of a Fall

I went into this knowing nothing except that it had won the Palme d’Or, and also knowing that last year they gave the Palme d’Or to a film about a woman having sex with cars. So yeah, I expected Anatomy of a Fall to be weirder or more twisty than it was. It’s quite a straightforward story of how marriages fall apart and how at the end of the day we choose our own moralities, but it’s propped up by an incredible performance from Sandra Huller, who manages to look shifty even as she’s giving her son a kiss goodnight.

6. Maestro

I put off watching this for so long. I am to composers what SpongeBob Squarepants is to the Middle East peace process, so it really didn’t seem like the film for me. But writing this bloody list every year forces me to watch films I wouldn’t otherwise watch, and once again it paid off — because this film is really quite good.

It’s pacy and strange. A lot of experimental camera angles do a great job of giving everything extra layers. There is wanky black-and-white sections but fortunately they eventually go away. And Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan give their all. Bradders seems to have become this year’s Oscar villain for being too damn good at everything (his sweaty conducting is admirably sweaty), but really it’s Carey Mulligan who steals the show. She’s so often the miserable silent damsel in films that it’s really quite satisfying to hear her tell someone to fuck off. And towards the end, her illness is so well acted it’s actually quite harrowing. If she doesn’t win Best Actress, I will be, as the kids say, getting mad.

5. The Zone of Interest

How to make films about the Holocaust without putting human depravity on screen and exploiting human misery for the sake of film? The Zone of Interest shows everything but the thing itself, and it works, in a profoundly unsettling way. It’s a viewing experience which keeps your brain in constant anxious mode, jumping every time the soundtrack kicks in. I’ve never seen a film like it.

Even more unsettling is the context. The filmmakers couldn’t have known a genocide would be taking place in Gaza as this film was released, but it’s almost impossible not to view it with that in mind. The Zone of Interest makes clear how petty and ridiculous our daily troubles are compared to the weight of human suffering elsewhere, and in doing so it shows how complicity is shared between all of us.

4. Barbie

The clear movie event of the year, and tactfully released on the same day as Oppenheimer so a million straight men had an excuse to go see it as part of an “ironic” double bill. Barbie was lightning in a bottle — a film which captured and shaped the cultural moment in a way which I haven’t seen before. I don’t know if that can be repeated, but you can bet your bottom dollar the Mattel Extended Universe will try. Greta Gerwig deserves all the praise for having such a clear and distinct artistic vision and then pulling it off in an industry which is often hostile to women-led films. I cannot believe she didn’t get a Best Director nod.

Meanwhile, there has been a lot of people online shouting about Barbie. And yes, maybe there are some elements of its feminism that are problematic. But that misses the point that this film is, first and foremost, fun. Every woman I know who went to see it had so much fun, which really emphasised how even films targeted at women aren’t necessarily that enjoyable for women to watch. And that on its own makes it important that a film like this was made.

3. Oppenheimer

I was beginning to wonder if I’d ever see a Chris Nolan film which made sense again. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the way Tenet had 0 interesting characters and no coherent plot and a horrible soundtrack. Wait, did I? Anyway, Oppenheimer is a huge return to form.

It’s a good thing Cillian Murphy does such an impressive pained look because he needs it — for the press interviews as much as the film itself. He will probably snag Best Actor, but for me, he was actually overshadowed by Robert Downey Junior. It seems obvious now that the Iron Man man would make a fantastic villain, but it wasn’t obvious before, so it’s inspired casting. Here’s hoping this begins a long line of RDJ villain roles.

The discourse surrounding Oppenheimer focused a lot on the choice of lens to tell this story. Is the bombmaker really more important than the 200,000 people his bombs killed? My two cents is that you don’t have to pick one or the other: there’s nothing wrong with making a film about Oppenheimer, but it would have been improved with a slightly broader lens. I do feel that using a white girl to represent those Japanese who died was fucked up — particularly since Chris Nolan cast his own daughter. So yes, although I don’t think it’s wrong to focus on a morally grey character, it would be nice if our stories put non-white people front and center instead of relegating them solely to the victim role. But it’s not as if Hollywood would make a habit of it, right? I mean, they wouldn’t do it twice in one year, would they? Oh, for fuck’s sa —

2. Killers of the Flower Moon

There is rarely a justification for a film being three and a half hours long, but Killers of the Flower Moon is a rare thing. This is a film of many parts, and yet they all fit together seamlessly: the visuals, the music, the pacing, and the wider context. I’m glad I watched it while studying my university course (MSc Oil Has Really Fucked Us Up) because it made the film feel important and relevant, as well as everything else.

Lily Gladstone is wonderful and says so much with her limited lines. It was distracting to see Leo DiCaprio in a role defined by a dodgy relationship, given the way he lives his actual real life, but he remains a committed actor, so I guess we’re rolling with it. But the biggest shock was Robert De Niro in an absolutely inspired turn as the real villain of the story. We all thought he’d phoned it in after Meet the Fockers 2, but this is incredible stuff from an 80-year-old.

And when you finally make it to the end, Scorsese pulls the rug out from beneath you. After a lifetime of making films about criminals, he finally addresses the slightly fucked up way we consume true crime stories. The man himself appears on screen to suggest his complicity in turning death and horror into entertainment, and he’s looking at you too.

1. The Holdovers

I absolutely love that this film got nominated for Best Picture. Shot with meticulous care to resemble a grainy ’80s mid-budget film, it’s a reminder of the kind of simple character drama that we have (sort of) lost. It’s completely without pretentiousness, and it’s got no real agenda — it’s just a great story of a teacher and a student left alone for the holidays. Specifically, it is a misanthrope’s delight — Paul Giamatti plays his character with such infectious glee that you begin to wonder if the evil teachers of your childhood were actually having a huge amount of fun. It’s impossible to watch without a huge smile on your face. Will it win Best Picture? No chance, but I’m hoping for it regardless.