Oscars 2019 – Best Picture

This is always the biggest talking point of any Oscar ceremony and which film will walk away with the title of being Best Picture. I seem to have a love/hate relationship with the winners of this category over the years. It seems to be either my favourite film that wins it or the film I hate the most from the nominees.

This year I feel its been a very strange and odd awards season, with that I don’t really have a film that I totally love out of these eight nominated films. None in this years batch I totally love and I don’t particularly hate with a passion either. I just feel rather neutral towards them. I am hoping that by putting together this blog post that I might be able to make my mind up a little bit more. I just feel as though it is a very weak year in terms of the quality of the films. We shall soon see, so let’s take one more look at the eight films up for the most prestigious honour in film . . .

Black Panther – Review

It was always going to happen one day and a comic book film was going to eventually get nominated for best picture. The thing is though as much as I enjoyed the surprise of this film when it was released at the cinema I just don’t feel it was best picture worthy. I can understand some of the reasons it has been nominated but I feel then makes the feel something that it well quite frankly isn’t. I am sure in the past ten years many other films were more worthy for this honour.

BlacKkKlansman – Review

We always seem to get a film about racism as a best picture nominee, this one is a very tough viewing. Like anything with the KKK in it, the story is very engaging though and done in the best possible manner with very good performances from start to finish. It really does rely on that from Washington and Driver, who work very well as the police who manage to get inside. For that reason it is worth watching as who doesn’t want to see a film with high level performances?

Bohemian Rhapsody – Review

The most disappointing nomination and rightly so this is not a best picture film. They condensed the story which was supposed to chronicle the life of Freddie Mercury and made what could be called fluff of a film. Making everything seem all nice and that it worked out in a good way. His real life would certainly not have been this fairytale that it appears to be. If you are a fan of Queen (I am) it is enjoyable at times with the music, but I just find it very strange it has managed to have awards success and nominations as it isn’t anything special in that sense.

The Favourite – Review

Now this would be my pick as a winner. Why? Well quite frankly because it is so different to any film you have really seen before and that is what I think should be honoured as a best picture winner. It dared to push boundaries and stereotypes of genres. That for me makes it very special, not forgetting that it has three outstanding female performances and is led superbly by them. Nicholas Hoult is amazing as well, I fear he doesn’t get enough credit. This was the first film I saw at the cinema this year and it really is going to take some beating.

Green Book – Review

This film seems to be getting the most hate in the build up to the ceremony and I have no idea why in all honesty. I found it to be a lovely and well acted film with an amazing friendship coming from unexpected places. It might have some clichés but that is something we do get when it comes to Oscar season. Might well be seen as Oscar bait but I seriously don’t care as I really did like and enjoy this film. Fantastic performances to go with it all, another that also tackles the issues of racism.

Roma – Review

Now I am going to try to not be too brutal towards this film as I have surely managed to express that I just don’t like it at all. I find it to be pretentious garbage that I did not care about, I had no idea about the historical events that were taking place during different scenes in the film. Yet, I just have a feeling that it is going to win to become the first foreign language film to win Best Picture. It will also mean that my love or hate streak for the winner will continue.

A Star Is Born – Review

Having now watched this film twice, the second viewing it was better than I actually remembered and I fully appreciate this film a lot more now. Being a huge fan of the Garland/Mason version I thought it would be difficult to also fall in love with this film. But due to the songs and then Cooper/Gaga it was very easy. I enjoy how they made the story relevant to current times and that is certainly something that works so well for it. The haunting Shallow is probably nailed on to win Best Song.

Vice – Review

This one is a pretty tough film but we have established that the Academy really do like a political film. This one about Dick Chaney who is regarded as the post powerful Vice President in American history. As a Brit watching these films can sometimes be rather tough as I never really have the huge background knowledge about the people. But then I guess that works in a good way for actually just watching the film and learning from that. Christian Bale is outstanding but I don’t feel the actual film as a whole is.

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What I want to win: The Favourite
What I think will win: Roma
Outside chance: BlacKkKlansman

What would you like to see win?