Last year I decided I wanted to get more into movies. Partly for the fun and partly to help get my attention span back from my phone. This idea grew into watching all 10 best picture nominees before the 2025 oscars and it was a blast! Me and my girlfriend decided to keep it up this year and why not mix that with my review site!
Most of these reviews are coming from my letterboxd, but I’m going to condense so this post isn’t one billon words long. Please note that this will include spoilers for all films. Without further ado…
10 – F1 The Movie
The first person filming when Brad was driving was awesome and I loved the cinematography during these racing scenes. it’s incredible how fast and calculated every driver is and that tense ending scene really emphasized how even in first with no one challenging, you still have to be completely locked in.
Other than that, I didn’t care too much for the plot. There were a few surprises, but it was mostly predictable. It’s a big budget summer flick meant for the big screen. Not a best picture contender
Rating: 453/1000
9 – The Secret Agent
I was so sad I didn’t jive with this. I felt like most of the scenes didn’t mix well and I kept waiting for a Eureka moment that never came. At the same time it does a great job of depicting and making us feel for the injustice of Armando. Everything feels so real.
The ending scenes were tense and interesting. It was incredibly sad how we thought Armando was going to escape and then we found out through a news article that he was killed. The unfairness of it all being caused by that rich old man is depressing and I also found it interesting seeing how Armandos son ultimately fared. He doesn’t have much memories of his father and the way he describes not even recollecting the day he thought he was leaving with him was heartbreaking.
I ultimately wish I enjoyed the first 3/4’s as much as the last, but as with all art, I can appreciate it for what it is.
Rating: 481/1000
8 – Frankenstein
Watching Frankenstein in January wasn’t on my bingo card. However, watching every best picture nominee is, so that brings me one step closer to my name-o.
Frankenstein is divided into two viewpoints. We start off from the mad scientists POV and it was kinda a drag. Yes it’s interesting looking back now and remembering everything that led to the monsters creation. There’s some great themes about creation and living with what you make. However, it was just a bore getting there.
Then we get to the monsters POV. This was way more interesting as we get to see everything through his eyes. He’s an outcast just trying to understand his way in the world. He sees beauty in everything and then everything keeps taking a turn for the worst. He has superhuman strength, can’t die, and appears grotesque to everyone who sees him. He either just wants to find his place in the world or the peace of death. Neither is afforded to him.
The conclusion of Victor and apologizing to his creation and telling him to live was oddly beautiful. I didn’t fully get the switch-up at first, but being on his deathbed and hearing the monster recount his existence made him realize that he couldn’t run away from his work. He was a parent and he did what he could to give his son a chance at a peaceful life.
Rating: 490/1000
7 – Hamnet
This started off pretty slow and boring to me and while it picked up, it never held my interest too hard… till the end smacked me in the face. But let’s start at the beginning.
This starts off as a love story between William Shakespeare and Agnes. Right off the bat you can tell a lot of work with into the cinematography, sets, and costumes. They fall in love, have kids, and things are great. However, their daughter ends up getting a deadly disease while Will is away from home and it looks like she could be dying any day now. When it seems like curtains, their son Hamnet tries to trick death into taking him instead. Coincidentally, it kinda worked as he ends up dying sick instead.
Will arrives home too late and Agnes is pissed to no end. He wasn’t there for his family when they needed him. Curtian’s closed on that relationship while curtains open on Will’s newest play – Hamlet. The movie is pretty slow paced up to this point and I was about ready for it to end.
Agnes hears that Will’s play is about their son and has to go see it. She can’t handle them using her son’s likeness at first and then as the play goes on she gets more and more invested. Nothings really making much sense and I didn’t think I was that into it and then suddenly it hit me. Hamlet was giving some 16th century speech and Agnes felt connected to her son again. She put her hand out to the actor and the actor reciprocated. Then the entire rest of the audience puts their hands out to share in the process. It made little and absolute sense. This movie that was a two star watch suddenly elevated itself as I broke down in tears. Why am I crying? How did this movie affect me so much? Great work Hamnet.
Rating – 626/1000
6 – Bugonia
I remember reading about how certain theaters were offering free tickets to people who’d come and shave their head. That now makes sense.
Bugonia is wild. The premise is that two brothers believe a high powered CEO is actually an Adromidon. They kidnap her with the objective to get her to take them to her mothership and bargain for the survival of the human race. I couldn’t help but expect a twist of this being true, but the more the movie ran the less I believed that.
The acting was phenomenal. You could feel Emma Stone as the trapped CEO trying to strategize her way out and that was part of why I stopped believing the twist was coming. Jesse played the conspiracy theorist to perfection and any attempts by Michelle to “wake him up from the echo chamber” were met with well thought out responses.
It did drag a little in the middle, but I get how that was setup and suspense building towards the main climax. The rest of the movie was tense and I kept flip flopping on what to believe. Was Emma playing him or was it real? It was almost satirical when we see that everything Teddy believed was true down to the schematics of the ship. The theater was laughing at how ridiculous it felt.
One thing I didn’t get was why Michelle was counting down from three and backing up as if she was trying to escape while Teddy was in the closet. Maybe she wanted him apprehended so she could go back to the mothership alone? I didn’t fully understand the rationale there and I wanted to.
Rating: 629/1000
5 – Sinners
That one-shot music scene was peak. It invoked childlike feelings of wonder within myself. I had no idea this was going to turn into a vampire movie and all of the buildup to the party paid off big time. Michael B Jordan did great playing Stack and Smoke and the initial scene of them passing the cigarette back and forth gave me faith that the rest of the film would execute having him twice in the same scenes well.
Miles Canton as Sammie ended up being my standout character. Even at the end, he couldn’t drop that guitar when his preacher dad pleaded with him. The final scene of him being grown up, still playing music, and chatting with the two unaged vampires was really cool. He said that before shit hit the fan, that party was the best time of his life. That resonated with me as a way of saying to live your life because you never know when everything can fall apart.
Two scenes to me felt cheesy. The first was when the vampires were finally invited in and they were swarming through that door. It felt outrageous how many vampires were streaming inside versus the scenes that followed of the few humans holding out instead of being immediately overwhelmed. The second was when Smoke walked up to the clan and somehow managed to kill all of them while standing out in the open against a group of people all in cover. Badass, but it was also a trope that takes me out of any movie.
Rating: 801/1000
4 – One Battle After Another
This was a wild ride. When I first saw the runtime of almost 3 hours and it was already 8pm, I was worried. My old ass wouldn’t be able to make it. Oh how wrong that was. I was enthralled the entire runtime and the constant tension made it fly.
The movie starts with a revolution group infiltrating camps and bombing areas that are against their beliefs. One of the military higher ups becomes obsessed with one of the members (Perfidia) and impregnates her. Leo’s character is another member of the group who thinks it’s his baby and wants to stop with the dangerous missions. However, after giving birth Perfidia can’t help but continue the revolution only to get captured and eventually rat out other members of the group. Leo and his daughter flee and I’m already at the edge of my seat 40 minutes into the runtime.
I thought the film would mostly just be about Leo running, so I was surprised at the flash forward. Suddenly the daughter is 16 and you just know things aren’t going to be sunshine and rainbows. One battle after another doesn’t just apply to the people battling, it applies to everyone related to the fighters. She didn’t choose her parents, but regardless there was a ticking time bomb on her normal life as the next battle approached.
There were also so many creepy characters in this film and it was a scary watch at times. The military can just completely raid and take over a small town all because a guy is worried that his interracial baby will stop him from joining his elitist/racist secret society. They infiltrated and interrogated high school students at a dance and everyone there was helpless to resist. It was uncomfortable to watch at times and yet you couldn’t look away all the way to the credits.
Rating – 815/1000
3 – Marty Supreme
Marty McFly walked so Marty Supreme could run… wait let’s redo this intro. DeLorean blast off!
Hi there and welcome to the first sentence of my review. Marty Supreme is the ping-pong version of uncut gems. Marty thinks he’s the shit and is willing to bet everything on being the face of ping-pong in America. He doesn’t care who he has to hurt or take advantage of to get there. In his head he’s the one cursed with the gift.
I loved being on the tip of my toes and never knowing what comes next. Timothy Chalamet really shows why he deserves to be on the top of actors in this generation. I loved him playing Bob Dylan, Paul Atreides, and now the cocky Marty.
The ending was amazing. You go through the film watching Marty being a despicable, entitled, and cocky human being. Then I found myself rooting for him to beat his rival in Japan. It wasn’t even an actual game because he was banned from the tourney, but it mattered to him. Every point and rally felt intense and impactful in that game. With all the crazy twists throughout, the win felt earned because I would have just as easily been unsurprised if he lost.
Rating: 838/1000
2 – Sentimental Value
I loved this movie and the way it shows how generational trauma can affect a family. I’m Still Here was my last year pick for favorite film and the lesson there is that anytime a foreign film is featured in the best picture nominees, it’s gonna be good.
The acting was phenomenal from everyone involved. Nora Borg has become one of my favorite actresses after seeing her in this and my 5 star rated “The Worst Person in the World.” Her characters sister and father were also incredible and these three were the driving force behind everything. So many scenes were elevated by their facial expressions. For example, I loved watching the father’s (Gustav’s) reaction to Rachel Kemp practicing a scene. The cameras focused on his face and there’s incredibly subtle expressions that I could tell was him trying to make himself like it even though he knew it wasn’t right.
The Grandma randomly killing herself and then later learning about her 2 years of torture was heartbreaking. The film being made was similar to the play in Hamnet – it was Gustav’s way of coping with the loss of his mom that he’s never been able to express through words. The ending was just as beautiful as the beginning and I enjoyed never quite knowing where we would go next.
Rating: 933/1000
1 – Train Dreams
My final best picture nominee watch ended up being my favorite. It’s a film about life and a logger who got dealt card after card of bad luck. It was an absolute beauty to watch with constant eye-popping scenery and narratives about taking from the earth and connectedness.
I still heartbroken for Robert. He lived with the guilt of a race based crime he witnessed and the worst moment was obviously him being away during a fire that took his wife and daughter. He spends the majority of his life after just living in that same spot on the off chance that they’ll show back up. It hits just as hard as the Jurassic Bark episode of Futurama.
I kept waiting for some beautiful moment to happen and at the end of the day it’s him simply being high up in the sky and looking down at a world that has passed him by.
Rating: 952/1000
Conclusion:
Overall it was a fun year of watching best picture nominees. While I don’t quite get every nomination this year, it was varied enough to keep things interesting.
Average Rating: 702
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