The nominations I applauded, the nominations that I was confused by, and the nominations I still need to actually watch…

It’s that time of year again! The 2024 Academy Awards nominations dropped yesterday, and it was a very mixed bag for me. I said all year that I thought awards season would be a real toss-up since I just don’t think there were tons of “great” movies that both entertained me and would also be appropriate awards bait. I’ve known for quite a while that my tastes are not always compatible with the Academy’s choices, mostly since I heavily prefer movies that make me laugh over ones that were just brooding and drama for over 3 hours (I’m looking at you, Brutalist). That’s not to say that I don’t appreciate movies that are well-made, but I’ll be the first to admit that I am not an expert on the subject, leading to my definition of “well-made” being a bit too broad to be useful.

MY RANKING SYSTEM

Last year, I saw 50 movies, and because I’m a data dork, I scored and ranked every single one of them as the year went on. Of course my ratings were quite subjective, but the general idea for each tier was as follows:

• MUST SEE – Movies that I loved and walked out ready to start texting all of my friends and family to give them my recommendation
• RECOMMEND – Movies that I enjoyed and recommended, but only really to people who have similar taste to me
• WORTH A WATCH – My life was not worse for seeing it, so each person should probably see it once to form their own opinion
• MEH – Movies that made me disappointed, but not actively angry. Probably the most forgettable ones
• UGH – Movies that pissed me off and made me regret going to the theater at all

I plan on publishing more insights into my larger data set as the beginning of the year drags on, but there wasn’t a lot that I hated this year. Only 5 movies were in my bottom category, and a whopping 11 managed a “MUST SEE” rating. Where things get tricky is that there were some pretty big incongruencies between what I thought and what the Academy thought…

BIGGEST POINTS OF AGREEMENT

• ANORA
  Definitely a Top 5 movie for me last year, and it scored a few big nominations: Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Director, Best Writing, and Best Editing. While I don’t see Mikey Madison winning Best Actress given her very seasoned competition, I do think she was incredible in this movie and I really hope this helps her career take off in cool new directions.
• A REAL PAIN
  Kieran Culkin got a nomination for Best Supporting Actor for this, and it’s so well-deserved. I thought he stole the whole movie, and I think he’s got a strong chance to win this category as long as The Brutalist doesn’t swipe every single award.
• FLOW
  I’m so glad this Latvian animated film was nominated for Best Animated Feature because it was a truly unexpected delight. I don’t think I’ve ever seen visuals quite like it, and it kept me entranced the whole runtime.

BIGGEST POINTS OF CONTENTION

• WICKED
  Please no one try to fight me about this… I thought Wicked was good! I just didn’t think it was amazing enough to get so many nominations. I’m fine with the nominations for the visuals and design, which were wonderful, but I don’t think Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande gave performances great enough to oust other well-deserving actresses in both categories (see below). Same goes for Best Picture, I just didn’t think it was a top 10 of best movies of 2024.
• THELMA
  I understand why this movie was not nominated for something major like Best Picture, but I do think that June Squibb delivered one of my absolutely favorite performances this year, and SHE WAS ROBBED. #justiceforjune
• MEMOIR OF A SNAIL
  This animated movie was in my bottom 5 this year, earning a rare “UGH” rating. Did not enough animated movies come out in 2024? How is this a Best Animated Feature nomination? I do not understand at all.
• KNEECAP
  Kneecap being nominated for an Oscar was probably a longshot (as is the case with most comedies), but I held out hope anyway. Maybe it will just remain an undiscovered streaming gem.

MOVIES I MISSED

There were a few movies I didn’t see in theaters just due to timing and ticket availability, so I’ll be sure to see where these stack up as I get to them on streaming:

• Emilia Pérez
• I’m Still Here
• A Complete Unknown

So where does this leave me? Well, I’m obviously going to watch the Oscars (or at least some recaps, the show itself has a lot of filler these days), but I feel like I might need to start some kind of competing awards show that focuses on movies that are just purely entertaining, even if they’re not “quality”. I also think any awards show run by me would combine Oscars and Razzies, because I would definitely need to throw some shade at last year’s trash in addition to praising the gems. For now, stay tuned for my 2024 rankings, publishing soon!