Although there were some great movies among the Academy Award nominees shown in 2023, once again, violence was too often a theme

Again, I’ve completed another movie marathon for Academy Award nominated movies.

Again, the movie industry produced many violent, mediocre movies in 2023. However, there were some very well done movies among those nominated.

I take the time to write about the “best movies” because most movies fall short since they focus so much on violence. For many years, I’ve written about how violence in the media is harmful to children. Despite this finding, movie makers continue to produce violent movies, and, the violence gets worse every year.

In this list of the Oscar contenders, my picks are shown in bold. At the end of the article, you’ll find my recommendations listed, along with those I suggest readers don’t miss.

Best movie

✓“The Holdovers.” Excellent. About three real people at a boy’s school, together for Christmas break.

✓“Oppenheimer.” A very well done movie. About the development of the Atom bomb, the rise of fascism in Germany also was central to the film. It wasn’t lost on me that fascism is on the rise again, even in the United States.

✓“Killers of the Flower Moon.” Terrific. Leonardo DiCaprio does a masterful job playing a complex character.

“Maestro” – Good, not violent. It’s sad Leonard Bernstein being bisexual caused his wife so much pain. The movie wasn’t clear that he fell apart after his wife died of cancer.

“Past Lives” – O.K. Slow, about a woman who meets her grade school love again as an adult, but at least no one got murdered.

“Barbie” – I’m not a Barbie fan. Although much is being made about Greta Gerwig’s feminist take on the movie, I thought the movie was just more Hollywood, for example the Kens fighting.

“American Fiction.” Really good. The main actor, Jeffrey Wright, was great. Stirling K. Brown, not so much. His persona seemed the same as a failing minister in another movie.

“Poor Things.” Skip. Although the premise of a women who committed suicide getting a child’s brain implanted and who needs to relearn things is interesting, the movie is gross in a number of ways.

“Anatomy of a Fall.” Good, although it’s another movie where a female lead is given the characteristics of a man then criticized for it.

“Zone of Interest.” Skip. The movie, to show how the commandant of Auschwitz and his family lived next to the concentration camp in a nearly "normal" family life while thousands of people were being murdered next door, failed and was disjointed.

Best director

✓Martin Scorsese, “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

Best actor

✓Cillian Murphy, “Oppenheimer”

Colman Domingo, “Rustin.” Good. About civil rights leader Bayard Rustin who organized the 1963 March on Washington.

Best actress

✓Lily Gladstone, “Killers of the Flower Moon”

“Nyad” – Great. It’s about Diana Nyad’s spectacular swimming performance to go from Florida to Cuba. Wonderful to see a movie about an older woman.

Best supporting actor

✓Robert De Niro, “Killers of the Flower Moon”

Best supporting actress

✓Jodie Foster, “Nyad”

“The Color Purple.” Good. At first the musical was a bit jarring, but as the story developed, it was O.K.

Best original screenplay

✓“The Holdovers”

“May December” – Disturbing. An actress comes to interview a woman who had sex with a 12-year-old boy about whom she’s acting in a movie.

Best adapted screenplay

✓“Oppenheimer”

Best animated feature

✓“Elemental.” Very good. No violence or war. About fire and water, as characters, who couldn’t mix, but they kept working on the relationship and they could connect.

“Nimona.” Another typical violent animated movie from Hollywood for kids. Nimona is a shapeshifter who the kingdom has been afraid of for centuries. But, she’s not a monster and isn’t really bad.

“The Boy and the Heron.” Skip. Just another animated kids film with lots of violence.

“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.” Very violent, with an unimaginative plot. Although it was two plus hours, it ended with “To be continued.”

I didn’t see “Robot Dreams.”

Best documentary feature

✓“20 Days in Mariupol.” A must see movie. The violence is actually about something that’s currently happening.

“Four Daughters.” About a mother in Tunisia who loses two of her daughters to an extremist group.

I didn’t see “Bobi Wine: The People’s President” or “To Kill a Tiger.”

Best international feature

✓“Perfect Days,” Japan. A man is content with his job as a toilet cleaner in Tokyo and enjoys simple pleasures.

“Society of the Snow.” Distressing. About the 1972 airplane crash in the Andes, where for 72 days, 16 people survived, dealing with extreme cold, starvation, and dehydration.

I didn’t see “The Teacher’s Lounge,” Germany or “Io Capitano,” Italy.

Best cinematography

✓“Oppenheimer”

Best original score

✓“Oppenheimer”

“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.” I like Indiana Jones movies even though they have a lot of violence.

Best song

✓“It Never Went Away” (“American Symphony”). About the life of John Batiste and his wife, Suleika Jaouad, who is fighting cancer.

“The Fire Inside” (“Flamin’ Hot”). A Hispanic janitor makes it big developing spicy food products that reminded him of the food he grew up with.

Best sound

✓“Oppenheimer”

“The Creator.” Terrible. About the final war between humans and the machines, with lots of violence.

I didn’t see “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One.”

Best editing

✓“Oppenheimer”

Best production design

✓“Killers of the Flower Moon”

I didn’t see “Napoleon.”

Best costume design

✓“Killers of the Flower Moon”

Best makeup and hairstyling

✓“Golda.” Helen Mirren did a good job playing Golda Meir during the Yom Kippur War.

Best visual effects

None. I only saw “The Creator,” and I wouldn’t recommend it for anything.

Documentary short

✓“Island in Between.” Good and educational. About an island belonging to Taiwan that’s very close to China. Historical, Taiwan talked about winning over the mainland, but dropped that effort and slogan.

Best animated short

None. I only saw “Ninety-five Senses,” and although the animation was well done, it was a disjointed story.

Best documentary short

✓“The Last Repair Shop.” O.K. The film profiles four people who repair instruments in the Los Angeles school system and students whose lives have been enriched by the repair shop’s work.

“Nai Nai & Wai Po.” Sean Wang documents the lives of his maternal and paternal grandmothers who live together.

I didn’t see the other nominees.

Best live-action short

✓“The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.” A very rich man learns something that enables him make piles of money and he helps people.

“Knight of Fortune.” A man’s wife dies and he has trouble lifting the coffin lid to look at her, but a gadfly whose wife drowned lurks around the hospital helping people.

“The After.” An executive loses his wife and daughter to violence and works on his survival.

I didn’t see “Invincible,” “Knight of Fortune,” or “Red, White and Blue.”

My recommendations: “The Holdovers,” “Oppenheimer,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “American Fiction,” “Maestro,” “Rustin,” “American Fiction,” “The Color Purple,” “Elemental,” “20 Days in Mariupol,” “The Eternal Memory,” “American Symphony,” and “Golda.”

Don’t miss: “The Holdovers,” “Oppenheimer,” “Killers of the Flower Moon,” “American Fiction,” “20 Days in Mariupol,” “The Eternal Memory,” and “American Symphony.”

Comments

[Carol Cassara]

I loved the Holdovers so much. I am afraid I'd get too upset at Flowers....saw Oppenheimer, excellent but so long.

[Rita]

Yes, "Killers of the Flower Moon" was hard to watch. But, the history is so important.