Oscar Snubs

The 2023 Oscar nominations, as always, snub some worthy movies. Before these movies that are unloved by Oscar are forgotten forever, here are ones that The Wheel recommends catching wherever they are streaming. I'm sometimes accused of being a tough grader but these movies all received an "A-" grade by The Wheel, better than the grades given to six of the films nominated by the Academy.

The snubs are after the jump.

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Rotten Tomatoes RRR (2022): India. A patriotic historical drama, with Brits as the bad guys. An over-the-top action movie, violent and bloody. Frenzied Bollywood singing and dancing. What's not to like? (Brits excepted, but they can watch James Bond instead.) Best movie of 2022 so far. A-

Rotten Tomatoes Prey (2022): Prequel to six Predator films. Set on the Great Plains in 1719. Comanche girl wants to become a hunter and stalks a hostile alien. More a coming-of-age tale than a sci-fi monster movie. Amber Midthunder is fantastic as Naru. She's brave, smart, and persistent. A-

Rotten Tomatoes Amsterdam (2022): A 1930s noir comedy/mystery that gradually reveals itself to be a message film with an anti-fascist warning for today. A slow-developing, complicated plot with too many quirky characters, the critics mostly hated it, but I loved it for all the same reasons. A-

Rotten Tomatoes The Woman King (2022): Female African warriors fight European slave traders. Revenge. Tragedy. Joy. Formulaic movie with roles reversed. Ahistorical? So were all those John Wayne movies. It's time Hollywood paints Africans as the heroes. Viola Davis rules. so does Thuso Mbedu. A-

Rotten Tomatoes Cyrano (2022): Musical unexpectedly starring Peter Dinklage. A love triangle. His love is built on a lie. Her love is misplaced. Cyrano's love can't be expressed. Beautiful retelling of the classic love story. A-

Rotten Tomatoes The Outfit (2022): Tense, psychological thriller out of the 1950s. A tailor is caught up in a gang war. Like a stage play, all action takes place in one shop in one night. The story goes from slow burn to boil over several times. Mark Rylance shines. Others are stereotypes. A-