The Snubby Awards: 2023 Oscars

It's that time again: The Snubby Awards!  For those of you who don't know, the Snubby Awards take a look at all of the Best Picture nominees from a given year and determine if the best film won or if another was snubbed.  If that's the case, they win the coveted Snubby Award!

This time we'll be taking a look at the 2023 Oscars, which was a strong selection of movies.  I liked all of them even if there's at least one that I think had no business being nominated for Best Picture.  The nominees were: All Quiet on the Western Front, Avatar: The Way of Water, The Banshees of Inisherin, Elvis, The Fabelmans, Tár, Top Gun: Maverick, Triangle of Sadness, and Women Talking with the winner being Everything Everywhere All at Once.  Did Everything Everywhere All at Once deserve to win or did another movie get snubbed?  Let's find out!

#10. Avatar: The Way of Water

This long awaited sequel is the weakest of the Best Picture nominees and I don't think it had any business being nominated.  I enjoyed the first movie and I was excited to return to Pandora, but apart from some amazing visual effects, the movie didn't do much for me.  There is some solid action and Sigourney Weaver playing a teenaged character is great, I didn't care for most of the new characters.  Jake's (Sam Worthington) son, Lo'ak (Britain Dalton), is not a compelling protagonist.  Plus the 3rd act goes on for way too long and the resolution to the Spider (Jack Champion) storyline doesn't work for me.  I was really just waiting for the movie to wrap up as we got into the final battle.  The movie is mildly entertaining and wonderful to look at, but the story didn't really interest me.

 6/10: Okay

#9. Triangle of Sadness

The trailer for Triangle of Sadness got me really excited.  A satirical, black comedy about the survivors of a luxury cruise ship getting stranded on a deserted island sounds right up my alley.  Unfortunately, this wasn't the movie I wanted it to be.  It's full of ups and downs with some parts I loved (the passengers all getting sick while the Marxist ship captain (Woody Harrelson) and a Russian capitalist discuss politics over the intercom) and some parts I hated (most of the stuff on the island).  It's frustrating because I feel like I could have made a better movie with the same budget and material.  The ambiguity of the ending feels like a cop-out and the movie absolutely should have gone harder.  That said, overall I liked the film, I just wanted more from it.

6/10: Okay

#8. Tár

Tár follows the story of an acclaimed classical music conductor, Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchette), whose past comes back to bite her as she finds herself on the wrong end of cancel culture.  Tár is certainly an interesting movie that isn't up my alley at all.  Blanchette gives an incredible performance and she is what kept me engaged in the movie, not the story.  Director Todd Field likes to cut away from a scene just as it's get interesting and show the reaction and fallout in the next scene.  It's not a style I'm a big fan of.  While I found the movie interesting as a whole, it's not one I particularly liked, but I do respect it.  This movie is an excellent cup of tea, but I simply don't care for tea.  It's one everyone should give a chance.

8/10: Really Good 

 #7. Elvis

My least-favorite genre is biopics.  I find them pretty repetitive.  Unless it's about a performer or just a person I'm really interested in, I generally don't care to watch them.  I like Elvis' music well-enough, but this was another film I definitely wasn't interested in seeing.  However, I ended up liking this film a lot more than I thought I would.  Austin Butler is excellent as Elvis and I love the wild and frantic energy of Baz Luhrmann's direction.  It's still too long for my taste and Tom Hanks is legitimately bad, but this is still a solid movie.

 8/10: Really Good 

#6. The Fabelmans

This was another biopic that I wasn't very interested in seeing.  As much as I enjoy Steven Spielberg's movies, I didn't care to see a movie about how he fell in love with movies.  Luckily, that's not really what this movie is about.  His love of film is there, but it's definitely secondary to the family drama.  The meat of the story is about the conflict between the parents and Spielberg's stand-in.  That's far more interesting to me and it really works thanks to some excellent performances.  This is another one that felt a little long, but I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I was going to, especially since we get a cameo from David Lynch telling Spielberg to get the fuck out of his office.

9/10: Great

#5. Women Talking

This movie takes place Mennonite colony.  The women of the colony discover that they have all been repeatedly drugged at night and raped by a group of the colony's men.  The movie follows the women discussing what they're going to do about it.  This is a really interesting and well-acted movie that is horribly depressing to watch, especially since the background is based on real events.  I would have fully supported them killing all of the men.  It's a very upsetting film, as it's supposed to be, and we never see any sort of comeuppance for the men.  I would have given anything to get a reaction shot of the men returning to the colony.  Even though this is a tough watch, it's absolutely worth sitting through and I think all men should watch it and pay close attention.  Maybe if we shut up and listen once in awhile, we'll learn a thing or two.

9/10: Great 

#4. Top Gun: Maverick

I'll be honest, I don't like the original Top Gun, but I loved this sequel.  It's definitely in the conversation for sequel that improves the most over the original movie.  This is a true blockbuster and was so much fun to watch with a large crowd in a theater.  The action is top-notch, the finale is genuinely thrilling, and Maverick is a much more likable and interesting character this time around.  Plus the movie has actual stakes, unlike the original.  This was, simply put, a fun, well-made, and entertaining movie, which is what I want out of most movies.

 9/10: Great 

#3. All Quiet on the Western Front

This is the only version of All Quiet on the Western Front that I've seen and I loved it.  It's such a brutal anti-war film.  It's not subtle, but it doesn't need to be.  Out of the handful of World War I movies I've seen, this is my favorite.  The cinematography is beautiful and the score is hauntingly powerful.  I love this movie even if it leaves me profoundly sad and disappointed in humanity.

 10/10: Amazing

And now for the Final 2 in particular order!

The Banshees of Inisherin

This is a movie about two friend that live on a remote island off the coast of Ireland.  One day, one of them decides he doesn't want to be friends with the other anymore.  That's it.  That's the movie.  The rest is fallout and boy is it both dark and hilarious.  I was talking to a good friend of mine who didn't find this movie funny at all.  I don't get it, this is one of the best comedies of the year.  It's an incredibly written, acted, and directed film.  Martin McDonagh continues to show why he's one of my favorite directors and writers.  I liked this movie even more the 2nd time I watched it!  The subtitles helped, for sure.

10/10: Amazing

Everything Everywhere All at Once

The Best Picture winner easily makes its way into the Final 2.  This absolutely insane film follows the owner of a laundromat who gets wrapped up in the multiverse.  After I saw this movie in theaters, I walked out to my car and sat there for about 10 minutes and contemplated my existence.  When I rewatched it, I bawled my eyes out to a rock with googly eyes sitting on a cliff.  I can't express how much I love this movie.  It's beautifully bonkers with stellar performances across the board.  I love every single second of this movie.  It's a marvel of editing with brilliant direction and music.  This is in my Top 10 favorite movies of all time.  As far as I'm concerned, this is peak cinema and the world is a better place with this movie exisiting.

10/10: Amazing

And the Snubby Award goes to...!

No one!  Everything Everywhere All at Once was completely deserving of winning Best Picture, so no Snubby Award is given out.  This is one of my favorite movies of all time.  It's the best of the nominees and my favorite movie of 2022.  It's rare the Academy and I completely agree.  It's only happened with The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and The Hurt Locker.  Everything Everywhere All at Once is in good company.

Next time we'll be looking at the 2001 Oscars.  Did Gladiator deserve to win or did another movie get snubbed?  Stay tuned!