I’m half-way through the Best Picture nominees and here’s their rank so far

The Academy Award nominations are out and each year the Conservative Critic makes an effort to see all the movies to tell you which ones are actually good and worth watching and which are terrible and just have really good campaigns amongst their peers. The “Oscars” as they’re fondly called per the name of the iconic statue will air on March 15 on ABC and Hulu.

I’m half way through the 10 film Best Picture category and here is the rank so far: 

1. Sinners 

Before you come for me: Sinners was extremely good especially compared to the field of competition. It would be easy to dismiss the film as overly progressive because of how the only white people in the movie are the antagonists and some of them are members of the Ku Klux Klan. So yes, there are some progressive ideologies in the film; there’s no getting around it. However, if you accept it for what it is there is a lot going for it. First of all, the scale of the story is very enjoyable. The whole thing takes place over the course of one night and the impact is on one small group of people. There’s something satisfying about the restraint in the story. But additionally the pace and tension is wonderful. Of all that I’ve seen, Sinners is by far the most entertaining of the Academy Award Best Picture list. It’s a true thriller. It’s a little scary and visually troubling. 

The cinematography is beautiful and it’s innovative in that it actually uses vintage movie magic. There’s a scene where the protagonist is playing a song at a party and his playing and his guitar connects him spiritually to his ancestors and the music of his ancestors. This is a running theme of the film and the scene is beautifully shot with stunning costumes and choreography that sets the setting literally on fire. It’s truly a spectacle. The treatment of music both from black and white ancient culture is powerful and unifying. Where many took away only negativity about race relations from the film, I personally saw a lot of effort to demonstrate what binds us spiritually. The antagonists are drawn to the protagonists by the music and play their own music in a very similar fashion to connect the group together through ancestral bounds. The concept is not only new (to me at least) but also beautiful. 

Between its entertainment value, its visuals, its scale and its concept – Sinners is the best movie in the pile by a long mile. And while it wouldn’t be classified as my favorite movie of the year nor is it likely to receive a Freedom award, it was in the top half of the movies I saw this year. 

2. Bugonia 

Bugonia is weird. The story follows two men, one of who is mentally or developmentally disabled and another who is portrayed as being mentally unwell who fixate on a CEO who they believe to be an alien who has come to dominate and ultimately to destroy earth. They kidnap her for interrogation and the story unfolds from there. There are a lot of twists and turns in the story and its style is one of slow, then sudden escalation. The movie made me so uncomfortable I was physically ill. This is not a criticism, I have a weak stomach. If anything it demonstrates the power of the movie’s tension and style of violence. 

The story in this film is strong, particularly in the twists and turns. And the performances are extraordinary and in a film that primarily centers around dialogue between three people, the performances matter a lot. 

Because it made me sick and I thought it was a little slower than Sinners, it’s my second choice for the five I’ve seen in the Best Picture field but the movies are really so different its tough to even compare them. A different personality in a different frame of mind might have place Bugonia above Sinners. 

3. One Battle After Another 

Shockingly in the middle of the pack is One Battle After Another (OBAA). I really didn’t love OBAA. It is the darling of the award cycle this season which is no surprise considering the deeply progressive imagery and ideology presented in the movie. But per my stand alone review of the film, it was actually quite boring and way too long. Its main charms are its interesting cinematography and Leonardo DiCaprio’s performance. But the rest of it is really a fairly explored concept that is too heavy handed on politics and makes a swing at camp but misses for its lack of willingness to laugh at itself. The hype about the young performer, Chase Infiniti, who plays opposite DiCaprio is very oversung. She does a fine job. She’s a pretty, likable girl who did a fine job. 

The story follows first a group of self-believed revolutionaries whose antics produce the consequences which the rest of the film explores. The script has a lot of intentionally spoofy elements like the names of the characters but then also has a lot of logical problems which really break the suspension of disbelief in an unrecoverable way that I do not think the filmmakers intended (such as only one guard outside of a high security ICE detention center). It cares too much about the bill of goods its selling, which is that white people and law enforcement are racist and corrupt to be as satirical and funny as it could have been. 

By and large it confuses me that anyone is writing home about OBAA. 

4. Sentimental Value 

The reason its surprising that OBAA is in the middle of the pack is how much I hated the final two films. Sentimental Value is so boring I think it owes me a refund of the time I spent watching it. I really wanted to love the film because Im a fan of stars Elle Fanning and Stellan Skarsguard. But the movie’s theme about difficult family dynamics and the power we place in objects is explored in such subtly and nuance its as though its not explored at all. All of the positive audience reviews on Rotten Tomatoes use words like “melancholy” and “draining.” Many called it “sophisticated” so call me low class but the movie is a snore and it does not achieve any kind of emotional resonance beyond self-congratulation if you made it through. 

5. Train Dreams

Train Dreams would be above Sentimental Value except it was so sad it pissed me off. And this is my list so I make the rules. The story is quiet but compelling about a man who works in the train and timber industry in Idaho and the Pacific Northwest. What’s good about the movie is the visuals and the depiction of a very specific period in time that is not often explored. What’s insufferable about the movie is how devastatingly sad it is for seemingly no reason. Its a very “meaning of life” type movie in a way I found heavy handed and obnoxious. So much of what happens feels like its sad for the sake of sadness and not for the sake of true story. I would describe Train Dreams as maudlin and a waste of acting talent. Could not more highly NOT recommend viewing this film. Unless you just feel like being sad for no redeemable reason.