The Wheel Award for Excellence in Motion Pictures

The Academy Awards will be given out Sunday, March 12, 2023. I've seen all the nominees for Best Picture. That means my opinion means something. Right?

I've ranked the movies in order of my preference for "Best Picture." The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science uses proportional ranked choice voting (RCV) to ensure that the winner has broad support throughout the Academy members. I wish US political elections used a similar system (or perhaps some form of proportional voting system). But that's for another post.

My personal ranked choice of the Oscar nominees is based on the grades I gave the movies immediately after seeing them. In case of ties, I ordered them by my judgment today. Note this is not my prediction of which movie will win, but how I would vote, had I a vote.

The envelope please. The winner of "The Wheel Award for Excellence in Motion Pictures" goes to...

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Rotten Tomatoes Tár (2022): Orchestra conductor's career is threatened when a former protege commits suicide. I recognize a great movie even though the music theory is over my head and the cancel culture storyline is unresolved. Cate Blanchett is brilliant as the aloof and obsessive genius. A-

Congratulations to the runners-up, in my ranked order:

Rotten Tomatoes Women Talking (2022): Women and girls in an isolated, traditional religious community are subjected to sexual abuse. They debate "Should I Stay (and Fight) or Should I Go?" Lots of talking, but it's not preachy. Anger, resignation, grief, despair, hope, all get aired. A fine ensemble cast. A-

Rotten Tomatoes Banshees of Inisherin (2022): Two lifelong friends have a falling out. Things deteriorate from there. Ireland, 1923. Loneliness. Lack of opportunity. Quiet. Slow. Both the setting and the movie. More like a short story. A mood piece. A character study. Excellent acting by all. B+

Rotten Tomatoes The Fabelmans (2022): Steven Spielberg's personal coming-of-age tale with three subplots that don't quite mesh: his early love of movie-making, his family's complicated relationships, and a school bullying incident. The family story is best. His mother deserves her own movie. B+

Rotten Tomatoes Elvis (2022): The movie is rushed only because Elvis reinvented himself many times in his short career. Col. Parker gets as much time as Elvis and Tom Hanks may get a supporting Oscar nod, but it's Elvis's movie. Hanks is a convincing con man and Austin Butler has electricity. B+

Rotten Tomatoes Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022): An Asian-American woman with a strained family life and a failing laundromat has a midlife crisis. Then at an IRS audit she gets sucked into the multiverse. Another problem or her salvation? Weird, wonderful and an hour too long. B-

Rotten Tomatoes All Quiet on the Western Front (2022): German. Life of WWI recruits from enthusiastic enlistment to weary armistice. Violent, gory, relentless madness of war. Not exciting as much as mind-numbing. Anti-war gem if not for unfortunate touches of German blame-shifting for WWII. B-

Rotten Tomatoes Triangle of Sadness (2022): Satire of social class on a cruise for ultra rich. Catastrophe strikes, roles are reversed and the real makers and takers are revealed. The satire is too blunt. The ambiguous ending is a cop out. Overall, it's too shallow to be great. But it's fun. B-

Rotten Tomatoes Top Gun: Maverick (2022): Predictable. To understand how far America has gone astray since the Cold War, replace the American pilots with Japanese pilots bombing Pearl Harbor in 1941. Would we still be pulling for them to succeed? Watch it like I did, on a plane experiencing turbulence. Extra exciting. C+

Rotten Tomatoes Avatar: The Way of Water (2022): Mashup of old stories (Moby Dick, Poseidon Adventure, war movies from the Old West to Vietnam). Characters are stereotypes (Marines are bad guys, parents are dumb, kids are plucky). But give it the Oscar for special effects. C-

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To see which movies should have received Best Picture nominations, read "Oscar Snubs".