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| Scene from Bohemian Rhapsody |
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.
88. Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) – Dir. "Bryan Singer"/Dexter Fletcher
If there was any bigger nadir in the 2010s for Best Picture nominees, it would be tough to find one. Even if you loved Queen, it was tough to call this a tribute fitting of singer Freddie Mercury thanks to terrible editing, factual inaccuracy, and enough behind the scenes controversies to make this whole thing a headache. Given that Rami Malek also won Best Actor for lip-synching is a decision that will age poorly. So what if that Live AID performance was cool looking? The rest of the story was a mess and one that sought to undo the goodwill of a band who changed rock music for the better. By glancing over what made them interesting, they managed to create one of the most hollow jukebox biopics of the decade. There are few films on this list that have less artistic integrity than whatever this was supposed to achieve.
87. The Imitation Game (2014) - Dir. Morten Tyldum
On one hand, Alan Turing was a great man whose accomplishments were worthy of the biopic treatment. The issue is that by zapping him of any characteristics that made him interesting, the film became another dull World War II story that lacked any deeper emotional resonance. When the end text suggests something more interesting than what the film ultimately says, you know that there are problems. Along with one of the worst, more self-serving Oscar campaigns in Harvey Weinstein’s career (“Honor the man, honor the film”), the film’s inability to explore Turing in any interesting way and almost entirely washing out his personal identity made the film one of the biggest missed opportunities of the decade. It’s a shame that Alexandre Desplat had to make one of his career-best scores for this otherwise forgettable fare.
86. Dallas Buyers Club (2013) – Dir. Jean-Marc Vallee
It hasn’t even been a decade later, and already this film feels like it’s from another time. The gender politics are all sorts of backward, continuing Oscar’s terrible trope of only rewarding queer performances if they’re: A. Performed by cisgender actors; and B. Are martyrs who suffer in some capacity. The transgender community deserved better than to have Jared Leto’s lame performance of a tragic figure who didn’t actually exist. Sure we all agreed that Matthew McConaughey was deserving of some award during the McConaissance, but everything else he did in 2013 was far more deserving than this Oscar-bait role. It’s the type of film that seemed more appropriate in 1993, but in 2013 is an offensive, tacky attempt to tackle serious subjects without any true nuance or insight.
85. Vice (2018) – Dir. Adam McKay
It’s disappointing to know that the more that Adam McKay tries to make his films matter, the more they come off as disjointed messes. While the George W. Bush administration has been deserving of deeper examination for some time, the film prefers to be a scattershot PowerPoint, favoring style over substance at times and making Christian Bale’s decent performance seem grating, lacking any deeper engagement with the source material. If it has a point, it’s completely gone by a post-credits scene that is supposed to be a comedic take on group testing, but only shows how much McKay missed the point with this whole project.
84. Darkest Hour (2018) – Dir. Joe Wright
There aren’t that many Oscar wins this decade that makes less sense than the ones that this Winston Churchill earned. The Best Hair and Make-Up win is especially baffling given that it is one of the least convincing jobs even of that year’s nominees. Critics praised the fact that Gary Oldman disappeared into the role, but all he did was find himself under pounds of make-up that took away his ability to emote, making him look alien. Oldman is deserving of a Best Actor statue, but when all this performance has is passable emoting, it’s tough to understand why this deserves any recognition. It’s a distracting mess and takes away from a story worthy of more effort than this b-level Lincoln knock-off.
83. Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) – Dir. Benh Zeitlin
There is nothing inherently wrong with this Hurricane Katrina allegory, but it lacks any staying power. The story of Hushpuppy was cute, but it ultimately feels like it glamourizes poverty to such a degree that it begins to lose its sincerity. While the score by Dan Romer may qualify as one of the decade’s greatest, it’s lacking an ability to make its premise into something greater and more interesting. While it can be praised for having one of the most unique set designs of the year, there are dozens of better Sundance films that could’ve been nominated. Ones that pushed boundaries and made you think about something more than how cool it was to watch children go on wild adventures through a flooded neighborhood.
82. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (2011) – Dir. Stephen Daldry
Even at the time, it was an amusing punchline to hear that this film was a Best Picture nominee, mostly because of how emotionally manipulative it was. With a performance by Thomas Horn that was considered grating, it never quite became this poignant commentary on 9/11 that it sought out to be. Whether that was because Daldry was considered an Oscar-bait director at the time or the source material was considered important, it failed to transcend into something more timeless like The Hurt Locker or Zero Dark Thirty, servicing as a weepy film with an unlikeable lead. It may be about the best in humanity, but it wasn’t enough to make its surface-level intentions universal.
81. The Help (2011) – Dir. Tate Taylor
On one hand, it’s a perfectly acceptable movie that reflects on how race relations were once more complicated. However, it came midway through Obama’s first administration and by then the discussion had evolved into something more complicated and interesting. Octavia Spencer’s pie aside, this film doesn’t have much going for it that could’ve been better served by shifting perspective away from the white savior trope. There’s a reason that Viola Davis claims that the film wasn’t great as it could’ve been. It was a timid look at social divisions that solved the obvious, creating a feel-good movie without much of a bigger point.
80. The Theory of Everything (2014) – Dir. James Marsh
As far as love letters go, there are few that feel as sappy as this ode to Stephen Hawking’s life. It’s sweet and has a timid romance in the center that helped launch Felicity Jones’ career. However, it’s one of those stories that’s more about the inner strength of Hawking, doing everything in his power to overcome his debilitating condition. It’s inspiring, but you can’t help but wish that they had given his accomplishments more of a focus, reflecting a man with one of the greatest stories of overcoming strife in history. The world’s a better place for having Hawking in it, but this film is too inoffensive to give that substance. The chemistry between Eddie Redmayne and Jones is admirable, but you kind of want more by the end beside a nostalgic filter over everything.
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