Every Best Picture Nominee of the 2010's Ranked: #60-64

Scene from Hugo (2011)

As 2019 reached its end, another decade of cinema had passed. It's amazing to think about how things have evolved since 2010 when the biggest controversies were about recognizing genre movies. Things look different now, especially as genre films like The Shape of Water and Parasite are winning Best Picture and the voting body looks incredibly different with each passing year. With this period in the books, it feels like a good time to celebrate their accomplishments by ranking all 88 titles nominated for Best Picture from worst to best with the goal of seeing which films are more likely to stand the test of time. Join me every Saturday and Sunday as I count them down, five at a time. It's going to be a fun summer looking back on what was, especially as we prepare for the decade ahead and an even more interesting diversity that we haven't even begun to think of.

A Wrap-Up of This Year's Oscars Season

The winners of this year's acting categories

This is it for another awards season. It has been a fun past 13 months (since technically Get Out started the prestige talk early), and it only feels right to look back on the highs and lows of this season, specifically as it relates to the Oscars ceremony. To me, the biggest issue with the ceremony is that it was both an exciting year, but also one of rather predictable courses. All of the acting categories went to the blazing front runners who had been winning awards since December. However, it was still a period of change the likes of which The Academy is still surprising us with. In a conventional year, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri would've won Best Picture. Instead, it went to the first monster movie to win Best Picture: The Shape of Water. Say what you will, but this was one of the best Oscar seasons in recent years.

The Story of Frances McDormand's Stolen Oscar

Frances McDormand

There's no denying that one of the big moments of this year's Academy Awards ceremony was when Frances McDormand won Best Actress for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. It wasn't just that she had given a great performance, but her speech capped off a year of Hollywood being obsessed with equality. It featured such memorable moments as her asking female filmmakers in the audience to stand, and later the inclusion of the phrase "inclusion rider." But it wasn't the end of her Oscar story. It was briefly stolen after the ceremony, which proved to be a briefly harrowing situation.

Review: "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" Hunts for Answers in Hilarious, Provocative Manners

Frances McDormand

In writing, there is one common rule: "show, don't tell." The act of telling someone your intent is seen as a lazy trope that doesn't allow moments to resonate. In director Martin McDonagh's Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, the story begins with a perfect subversion of this. The titular three billboards detail a crime that drives Mildred's (Frances McDormand) bitter passion throughout the story. These three signs tell a story, and one that is more powerful than showing a single moment of being "raped while dying." As the story progresses, it deconstructs the idea of telling someone your agenda and shows the complicated faults of a small town Midwest society in powerful detail. In the end, Mildred may still be the protagonist - but the people initially pursued as the antagonists are far less easy to hate. McDonagh's dark comedy is one of the more provocative social commentary movies of the year, but it's also unforgettable thanks to a great cast and McDonagh's phenomenal script. Few films capture characters quite as memorable as those of Ebbing, Missouri, and it's a shame that there aren't more writers as interesting as McDonagh writing movies these days.

The First "Isle of Dogs" Trailer is Wes Anderson Back in His Great Old Animated Ways

Scene from Isle of Dogs

In general, one could believe that stop motion animation is an inferior art form. After all, it takes so long to get right that studios like Pixar and Dreamworks Animation just bypass the endeavor all together. However, there's something to be said for filmmakers who pull it off. In 2009, director Wes Anderson did just that with the amazing Fantastic Mr. Fox. It will be nine years since the animated world had last seen him, but the first trailer for Isle of Dogs has the familiar sense of whimsy and awe that even his live action movies have. It may seem a little disconcerting at times, but there's no denying that an Anderson animated tale can't be told any other way than stop motion. It wouldn't be quirky enough.

Top 10 Actors Who Have Worked with The Coen Brothers Multiple Times

From Hail, Caesar! poster

If there's one thing that directors Joel and Ethan Coen love, it's a strong ensemble. With today's release of their latest Hail, Caesar!, it feels important to remember the many actors that they have worked with to make such iconic cinema for over 30 years. The following is a ranking of the Top 10 repeat offenders all between their debut Blood Simple and 2013's Inside Llewyn Davis. While this list is subject to change as more members join their weird little stable, the following reflects an insurmountable group by which The Coen Brothers would be nothing without. Along with ranking, the list will include their greatest credit, for which it would be impossible to not see them as when talking about their greatest work.

Here are Reasons Why "Moonrise Kingdom" Deserves a Best Picture Nomination

Left to right: Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman

Is director Wes Anderson ready for a Best Director nomination? I'd like to think yes. With Moonrise Kingdom, he has taken the story of puppy love, transplanted it at summer camp, and turned it into one of the most endearing, heartfelt, and most of all original movies of the year. The leads Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman may have little experience at acting, but it doesn't show as they go through this light, breezy trip set to a retro soundtrack and features almost all of your favorite action actors in scout uniforms. How can this movie not be nominated for Best Picture?