I am not one for awards shows in all honesty. I don’t typically agree with any of the choices but this was the first year where I actively paid attention and watched most of the movies nominated. Because of that, I have some thoughts about the winners. Just a heads up, I did not watch much television this year so don’t expect many bad takes there.
Best Picture, Drama: The Fabelmans
Beating out: Avatar: The Way of Water, Elvis, Tar, Top Gun Maverick
I can’t really complain here. The Fabelmans was a fantastic watch with outstanding performances by all involved. Avatar was phenomenal though and I would not have been upset if James Cameron’s work was recognized here.
Best Picture, Musical or Comedy: The Banshees of Inisherin
Beating out: Babylon, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Glass Onion, Triangle of Sadness
My first real gripe is here. Everything Everywhere All at Once was the best movie of the year in my opinion. It made me laugh, cry, smile, frown, and all the other emotes. Banshees was a great movie with a good score and some funny black comedy, don’t get me wrong, but Everything was just on another level.
Best Director: Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans)
Beating out: James Cameron (Avatar), Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere All at Once). Baz Luhrmann (Elvis), and Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin).
It makes sense that if the Fabelmans won best picture, Spielberg would win best director. While I might’ve preferred Kwan and Scheinert or Cameron, The Fabelmans was truly a love story to the art of film making. Without Spielberg’s direction, I don’t know if we get the elite performances out of the main stars and an authentic story.
Best Screenplay: The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh)
Beating out: Tar, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Women Talking, The Fabelmans
See the pattern? I don’t want to make it seem like I don’t think Banshees deserved the acclaim it received. But the unique concept of Everything Everywhere All at Once should have received more love here. The story was as wild as it was well-constructed and with the performances by Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan (which I’ll discuss later), this should have been enough to claim this award.
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama: Austin Butler (Elvis)
Beating out Brendan Fraser (The Whale), Hugh Jackman (The Sun), Bill Nighy (Living), and Jeremy Pope (The Inspection)
This is the one you’re probably waiting for. All respect to Jackman, Nighy, and Pope but I hadn’t seen their movies. This is tough. I understand the real messed up reason Fraser wasn’t going to win this award which really sucks. Fraser’s performance in The Whale was nothing short of perfection. He was able to act the hell out of this role while literally being weighed down by a near 300-pound fat suit. But Austin Butler as Elvis was also something to behold. Elvis as a movie was really weird, but Butler literally became Elvis Presley. There were so many stories about how he didn’t lose the Elvis voice well after the movie wrapped and was released. While Fraser’s performance was great, I am not upset that Butler won. It was also nice that Lisa Marie Presley was able to attend before she tragically passed a couple days ago.
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama: Cate Blanchett (Tar)
Beating out: Olivia Colman (Empire of Light), Viola Davis (The Woman King), Ana de Armas (Blonde), Michelle Williams (The Fabelmans)
I don’t have much to say here. Michelle Williams was great in The Fabelmans but Cate Blanchett’s performance in Tar is the only thing I know about that movie.
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy: Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
Beating out: Lesley Manville (Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris), Margot Robbie (Babylon), Anya Taylor Joy (The Menu), Emma Thompson (Good Luck to You, Leo Grande)
They nailed it. Thats it. Thats all.
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy: Colin Farrell (Banshees of Inisherin)
Beating Out: Diego Calva (Babylon), Daniel Craig, (Glass Onion), Adam Driver (White Noise), and Ralph Fiennes (The Menu)
Once again, they nailed it. Farrell’s performance in Banshees was so natural. As an Irish actor, he got to just be himself. I once read that it’s an actor’s job to convince the audience that they’re not acting and nothing embodied that quite like Farrell’s performance here.
Best Supporting Actor: Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All at Once)
Beating out; Brendan Gleeson (The Banshees of Inisherin), Barry Keoghan (The Banshees of Inisherin), Brad Pitt (Babylon), Eddie Redmayne (The Good Nurse)
Alpha Waymond made the multiverse make sense to me better than any Marvel actor could. They absolutely nailed it here. While Everything should have had more success in the more general awards, I’m happy the main actors got the love they deserved in the individual awards.
Best Supporting Actress: Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever)
Beating out: Kerry Condon (The Banshees of Inisherin), Jamie Lee Curtis (Everything Everywhere All at Once), Dolly De Leon (Triangle of Sadness), Carey Mulligan (She Said)
I haven’t seen Black Panther: Wakanda Forever yet but the one clip from the trailer of her yelling how she’s lost her entire family was all I needed to see to know she was doing some Capital “A”- Acting.
Best Original Score: Babylon
Beating out: The Banshees of Inisherin, Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Women Talking, and The Fabelmans
I’m not nearly qualified to talk about this but this won best score at our Film Box Awards show (check it out) so they aniled it.
Best Picture, Non-English Language: Argentina, 1985 (Argentina)
Beating out: All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany), Close (Belgium), Decision to Leave (South Korea), RRR (India)
I didn’t watch any of these but all I’ve heard was how good RRR was so for Argentina, 1985 to win, it must have been great.
Best Original Song: Naatu Naatu (RRR)
Beating: “Carolina” from Where the Crawdads Sing (Sony Pictures) — Taylor Swift, “Ciao Papa” from Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (Netflix) — Alexandre Desplat, Roeban Katz, Guillermo del Toro, “Hold My Hand” from Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount Pictures) — Lady Gaga, BloodPop, Benjamin Rice, “Lift Me Up” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Marvel Studios) — Tems, Ludwig Göransson, Rihanna, Ryan Coogler
Like the score, I don’t feel like I have much to say with any of these.
Best Motion Picture, Animated: Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Beating: Inu-Oh, Marcel the Shell With Shoes On, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Turning Red
GDT’s Pinocchio was fantastic. Stop motion is and will always be one of my favorite animation styles and for Pinocchio to look and feel so real really stood out to me. The story was also just incredible, it was absolutely worth remaking the original.
That was it for the film awards. As I said I didn’t watch much new television this year so I’m not going to go through those awards. All I will say is I’m glad Jeremy Allen White won best Actor for a Musical or Comedy with The Bear. I love shows and movies about chefs and what happens in the kitchen and it was one of my favorite watches of the year. I look forward to season 2 coming out sometime this year.
