Jeremy's 2022 Best Picture Rankings

It's Oscar time again, and I did not finish watching these movies until an hour and a half before the Oscar broadcast, so let's skip the intro here and get straight into these rankings: Best Picture Nominees 2022.

Not Ranked

10) West Side Story

When I was a sophomore in high school, we did West Side Story as our spring musical, it was the first full cast show I was in, and was a pretty important part of my adolescence. I have watched one iteration of West Side Story since then, and I literally still know the words to every song, I remember every piece of choreography from that show. So when I sat down to watch this version, I had to turn it off after twenty minutes. It was like watching someone act out your first real date, it was too weird, and it made me not able to even enjoy it as a piece of art. So, for the first time in about five years, I have not seen all of the Best Picture nominees, but, listen, life is hard enough as it is, I could not do another two hours of those kinds of feelings.

Not Good to Mediocre

9) Kind Richard

The big issue that I had with the Queen biopic, Bohemian Rhapsody, from a couple of years ago (other than the demonizing of Freddie Mercury's gayness) was that it frequently treated the music of Queen as some inevitable force like Thanos and that inevitability justified every decision they made, or claimed to have made, like "Oh yeah, you don't want to release Bohemian Rhapsody as a single because it's too long and has no chorus, well I think it's going to be the best song we ever made and people will remember it for years to come." C'mooooon. Same thing for this movie, the Williams sisters becoming the best tennis players in history does not justify the parenting decisions made by Richard Williams. This movie was made for two reasons: 1) The Williams sisters clearly loved their father and wanted to make a love letter to him and 2) Will Smith wanted to get an Oscar. I'm not taking the bait, the most interesting parts of this movie are when Richard shuts the hell up and we just got to see the hard work and talent of the actual athletes on the court.

8) Nightmare Alley

Ok, this movie was fine. The acting was mostly good, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Rooney Mara. But you could see the ending coming from a mile away, and also, like why is this movie even nominated for Best Picture? What a weird inclusion. I've got nothing else to say about this one, I think no one will remember its existence by June.

Good Movies

7) Drive My Car

Another strange nomination, although unlike Nightmare Alley, this one is not strange because it is not worthy, but rather because of the type of movie it is. It's a three hour long Japanese drama, featuring dialogue in Japanese, English, Korean, Mandarin, and also Korean sign language. It is a quiet and patient examination of a handful of characters, some dealing with death and guilt, others with emptiness. There's a lot of driving scenes and a ton of scenes of characters acting out a play. But it's also beautiful and has a haunting electronic score, the performances are great. I don't know why this particular Asian film cracked into the Oscars this year, but I'm glad it did.

6) Don't Look Up

Adam McKay has taken up the mantel of the filmmaker who is going to make educational allegories about something pressing in real life and then is going to edit it like a maniac who lost his ADD medication. He has taken up that mantel from Oliver Stone, if I hadn't been told who made Vice or Don't Look Up, I would guess 90's Oliver Stone, if that was some how possible. This movie was definitely funny, and I loved the acting of Leo, JLaw, and once again Cate Blanchett. The musical performance by Ariana Grande was maybe a minute too long.

Great Movies (from here on, I will be happy with any of these five winning)

5) Coda

What a cute little feel-good coming of age story about a seventeen year old girl who is the only hearing member of an all deaf family. They deal with some financial hardship, she discovers a love of singing and decides to pursue it during her senior year, and then maybe go to college instead of staying home to help interpret for the family boating business. It was lovely, and it was another beautifully filmed movie. It's nice to have a feel-good movie in the Best Picture category that isn't feel-good because it creates the illusion of being able to erase racism by riding around in a car with a sort of racist and a black dude. It's feel-good because the characters love each other and it feels real. More nominees like this please.

4) Belfast

Another feel-good movie, despite taking place in a Northern Ireland town being torn apart by religious civil war. The story is told through the eyes of a little boy. While the conflict is front and center, the real focus of the film is the Protestant family who have to decide if they want to leave their home, or be forced into persecuting their Catholic neighbors. I know it sounds heavy, but it's dealt with softly by dousing on the family love and the childhood innocence of its main character.

Really Great Movies

3) Dune

I read the book before this version of the movie came out, and I'm glad I did. The book was great, and I can't wait for the stuff from it that is going to be in the second movie, but the movie really fleshed out a lot of the visual elements of the book that I had a hard time imaging in my mind's eye. It played light with some of the dialogue, instead creating a mood in a scene to get the message across. So many dark blues, and then they are just pierced by explosions and worms and madness. Love me some Chalamet!

2) Licorice Pizza

I have always enjoyed a PT Anderson movie. Basically all of them, except for There Will Be Blood. But I saw that in college, maybe as a more defeated adult, I might relate better to it or something. Anyway, this movie could possibly be considered PT Anderson lite, it's definitely not his most disturbing or adult film, but I think it will still stand up there with his most enjoyable. It pulls great performances out of the two leads, one who is a rock star (Alana Haim) and the other the son of an actor (Cooper Hoffman). Neither are your prototypical romantic leads, but it works. Also, this movie sprawls, similar to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, but with more purpose, and with less dead in the eyes Brad Pitt.

1) The Power of the Dog

Oh man, this movie is fucking bonkers. It's shrouded by a darkness somewhat reminiscent of No Country for Old Man. But that movie was somewhat stark on score and satisfying ending sequences, and The Power of the Dog takes you along for a complete ride. Despite an initially shaky accent by Benedict Cumberbatch (it gets better as the film goes on), the acting is all impeccable. When I finished watching it, I thought "it's a shame all these actors won't have gotten nominated because they all deserved it" and then I checked and oh they actually all did. Kodi Smit-McPhee was especially good. The cinematography was something else, being filmed in the deserts of New Zealand as a substitute for the Old West, it's stunningly beautiful. The score is composed by Jonny Greenwood (also composed Licorice Pizza's superb score). Give this dude an Oscar already. And, oh man, the ending was so good. I loved this movie. Let's hope it takes home some gold!