For the first time since 2007, every film nominated for Best Picture this year is worth seeing. Which is a very different thing than saying they’re all deserving of the nod. Or even good, for that matter. (For scale: Bad = Her. Pretty good = Captain Phillips, American Hustle, Philomena. Great = everything else.)
And this is a good thing. Since the Academy opened its nomination policy—allowing between five and ten films to vie for industry validation (and the opportunity to humblebrag on television)—we’ve seen more of the trying-too-hard crap bubbling to the surface with far more ease (in the past, see: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, The Help, Les Misérables) at the expense of having greater diversity in nominations (see: Inception, Toy Story 3, and A Serious Man). And fewer crowd-pleasers being nominated has meant more crowd-panderers with heavy marketing campaigns getting the edge while widening the gap between the film-going public and the Academy establishment.
But the relative success of the nominees this year—which reflect the diversity of tastes, styles, and morals (if not the demographics) of American filmmaking—also arrives in the same year as one of the most astonishing artistic achievements in the history of cinema, 12 Years a Slave. As a film, it’s a perfect marriage of director Steve McQueen’s fine arts background and the gripping narrative of Solomon Northup’s true story, which directly confronts the philosophical, social, and political effects of treating another human being as property one owns. It has set a new standard for Hollywood’s treatment of difficult subjects without relying on cheap, exploitative melodrama.
And it would be a travesty if it doesn’t win Best Picture. Here’s why, and what it’s up against.
IF HER WINS:
It’ll be tragic. How this man-boy wish fulfillment fantasy about male catharsis at the expense of three-dimensional female characters became known as one of the best films of 2013 is baffling. Maybe it deserves Best Costume Design, but only because the awful colors and high-waist pants accurately captured the horrific post-ironic tropes of a dystopian iPhone-as-life future. But not because it’s actually good.
IF AMERICAN HUSTLE WINS:
It’ll be embarrassing. The problem with Hustle has nothing to do with anything about the film itself. It’s that initially, it passed itself off as inspired by Scorsese-style crime biographies, lightly peppered with humor. Now it’s being sold as straight comedy to zero in on positive audience reactions to the over-the-top performances, and the world seems to have bought the rebranding. If American Hustle wins, it’ll show how susceptible our perceptions are to clever marketing.
IF GRAVITY WINS:
It’ll be pointless. At first glance, Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity seems to be the moment when big, special effects filmmaking grew up big and strong. For its visuals alone, Gravity is a must-see. But upon subsequent viewings, plot holes and uninteresting characters that were concealed by effective editing and good acting became more and more apparent. It deserves every technical award coming its way (and will probably win Best Director). Just not Best Picture.
IF THE WOLF OF WALL STREET WINS:
It’ll be a surprise. Wolf is well made. It succeeds in its task. And unlike Hustle, its status as a comedy is intentional. The acting and directing will receive attention, sure, but the controversy of the overall message and celebration of greed will likely stop its Oscar hopes dead in its tracks.
IF CAPTAIN PHILLIPS WINS:
It’ll be same shit, different day. It’s a good movie that misses its opportunity to be a great movie, largely by becoming a Navy SEAL procedural blowjob for its second half. And while the last five minutes is the best acting of Tom Hanks’s career, and Barkhad Abdi is a revelation, the movie itself is neither.
IF PHILOMENA/NEBRASKA/DALLAS BUYERS CLUB WINS:
All good movies and worth seeing, but they just won’t win Best Picture
