The Best Best Picture

Ranking every movie up for Best Picture. Why not?

The thing that you always have to remember about me is that I’m an insane person.

Right after the Oscar nominations dropped, Letterboxd did this thing in which all of its users could change posters for any of the Best Picture nominees. Now, most people would be like, “Oh, that’s cool. Maybe I’ll do that at some point.” I immediately went through all of the posters, changing them at the drop of a(n oversized Oppenheimer) hat and decided that I also had to rank the 10 movies up for the most prestigious film award.

Starting in 2009, the Academy pushed the amount of movies to be nominated for Best Picture from five to somewhere between five and 10. It was very confusing but between 2009 and 2021, you could have a different number of noms each year depending on voting percentages. There’s nothing more fun than convoluted math, and, shockingly, the following didn’t stick.

In 2011, the Academy revised the rule again so that the number of films nominated was between five and ten; nominated films must earn either 5% of first-place rankings or 5% after an abbreviated variation of the single transferable vote nominating process.

Since 2021, the Academy decided that it’ll be 10. Essentially, they decided that their complicated rules weren’t worth it as it was mostly confusing for the audiences. Great stuff.

Anyway, we’ve got 10 movies nominated this year. And this is how I see them.

10. American Fiction

Although I love Jeffrey Wright—he should’ve had a nomination for his supporting work in Asteroid City—I found myself pretty disappointed by this adaptation even with his strong lead performance. What was promised as a social satire felt pretty stale out of the gate and became a bland This Is Us episode with some pretty weak comedy. I kinda wish they could just try this again. Same cast, same premise. This felt like a first draft that never became anything more than that. It has some bright spots but I found myself pretty underwhelmed. Sorry, Jeffrey.

9. The Zone of Interest

The Zone of Interest being in the No. 9 spot goes to show you how strong of a crop of films we have this year. A formal and artistic expression, this is probably the least “entertaining” and “straightforward” of the movies on the list, but it’s also an inner look at the life of an Auschwitz commandant, so that makes a lot of sense. This Jonathan Glazer film is almost more of an art piece than a straightforward movie, which makes it kind of surprising that it snuck into Best Picture. It’s formally ingenious and cleverly conceived, and it’ll certainly ruin your week. Really good movie that I may never watch again.

8. Anatomy of a Fall

I really want to see this one again, as so much happens on first viewing and it takes a bit of time to sink into this murder mystery/court thriller. Sandra Hüller is unbelievable as the accused and has quite a few show-stopping scenes that made her shoo-in when it came to Best Actress. I especially loved the court sequences here, which essentially are made to show you that the French court system is a madhouse. Not that we’re thriving over here, to be fair. Just a strong movie that makes you think and text your friends about what actually happened.

7. Maestro

I know I’m in the minority, at least when it comes to social media takes, but I thought/think Maestro is pretty great. It falls into a few Oscar-baity traps but is less of a biopic than one might think. It reminds me of Spencer a bit as it takes a moment in a famous individual’s life and keeps on pressing on all that’s wrong with it. Maestro has a destructive ending and a few scenes that are up there for the best of 2023. It also has Bradley Cooper saying, “Who abandoned Snoopy in the vestibule?" which is what the movies are for.

6. Barbie

The Barbie discourse ever since the nominations has been abysmal, but that’s what’s going to happen when people who see only a few movies a year decide to have some takes. Barbie's a good movie. I love Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie but it’s perfectly fine that they missed out on Best Director and Best Actress. They both got nominated elsewhere and they were in stacked categories. It happens. In fact, I didn’t have either making it on my own ballot. Well, I did have Robbie for Best Supporting Actress for Asteroid City, but that was unfortunately never going to happen. Anyway, this is a fun movie with a tremendous Ryan Gosling song-and-dance number. Pretty good movie. Let’s move on.

5. The Holdovers

In most years, this would be a top-three selection for yours truly, but 2023 wasn’t most years. This new Christmas classic is a perfect little gem that centers on a dynamite Paul Giamatti performance. I’m perfectly fine with him taking Best Actor. That Cillian Murphy-Giamatti battle is going to be really fun. Nevertheless, we should get one movie like The Holdovers every year, a dependable, comedic and beautiful emotionally-volatile story from a master filmmaker. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like this movie. You should see it as soon as possible.

4. Past Lives

Past Lives rules. It’s a decades-spanning, continent-jumping love story that is both existential and down to earth. It has three tremendous performances at the center from Greta Lee, John Magaro and Teo Yoo and one of the best endings of the year. It has one cut that I think about all the time and it’s so fun that this somehow became a lock for Best Picture despite its small stature compared to other films in the mix and its early-summer release date. We tried out the bar that this movie concludes at and it’s so fucking cool. Great movie, great bar, great stuff.

3. Poor Things

I know that I’m in the bag for Yorgos Lanthimos, so this was always going to be one of my favorite movies of 2023. It’s kind of shocking how he’s become an Oscar stalwart with how bizarre, offbeat and sexually explicit his movies usually are, but I’m glad it’s happened. His partnership with Emma Stone is one of the best 21st-century pairings and Mark Ruffalo is so goddamn good in this. A bizarre sci-fi fever dream that is also one of the funniest movies of the year.

2. Killers of the Flower Moon

I’ve written about this movie (and Lily Gladstone) so much already, so I wanted to discuss the little-known actor Leonardo DiCaprio for a second. If we’re talking snubs, his Best Actor miss is atop the list. I can see why he missed the cut for the academy as he’s playing a reprehensible, morally-fucked loser and the voters usually steer clear of such a difficult performance, but this movie doesn’t work without his ability to play uglier than he ever has before. It’s cool that Leo hasn’t rested on his laurels and is constantly one-upping himself, fine with playing an evil character in order to make a movie work.

1. Oppenheimer

I promise that someday I’ll stop writing about Oppenheimer. Today is not that day. Best movie of 2023, my personally favorite Christopher Nolan movie. I saw it again (again) recently in 70mm IMAX and it’s just unreal that something like this exists on such a massive scale. I don’t have much more to say other than the fact that you should see this in theaters before the Oscars because it’s going to win a hell of a lot of awards.

So, yeah. This is how I ranked the Best Picture nominees, and these are the posters I ultimately chose on Letterboxd. Okay, cool. Bye.