2026 BEST PICTURE NOMINEES REVIEWED
It's all been leading to this.
Tonight, the 98th Academy Awards will take place, and I am so pumped. Not only because I'm such a movie buff, but also because most of the movies that got awards nominations this year feel like worthy nominees. The Academy has never been great with their selections, but over the past few years it feels like they've been getting better and better. Nowhere is that more apparent than with their selection of Best Picture nominees this year.
Not to spoil the rest of the reviews, but this is by far the best selection of Best Picture nominees they've had in recent memory. Coming off of last year's debacle with Emilia Perez, a homophobic, racist and all-around horrible movie not only getting more nominations than Return of the King, but also winning two of them, this year felt like the Academy got their shit together and nominated movies that represented the year in movies really well, with a great spread of critical darlings, international gems, and popular movies.
I won't delay this review too long, since I've been wanting to write about some of these movies for a while now, so without further ado, here is my review of all 10 nominees for Best Picture in 2026.
All I wanted to see from Train Dreams was some dreams about trains, and that's exactly what I got. Gotta love when titles are self-explanatory like that.
Aside from that, I thought this movie was pretty good. It's about this logger, played by Joel Edgerton, who spends years building a life together with his wife and kid in a cabin they built together, only for all of that to get taken from him by a wildfire. This movie is incredibly somber, even before the wildfire scene, with it being less emphasized on dialogue and more emphasized on having the story play out through its visual language and score. It's a bit of a shame that this movie probably won't win any awards because in any other year, this movie would have the Cinematography award in the bag, given how beautiful the shots of the forest landscape are and how the movie uses these visuals to get across emotions.
That's not to say the writing and dialogue is bad, though, because it's quite good in a lot of ways. Chief among them being how they develop the main character, Robert, who's portrayed as a kind, sentimental family man who can get hurt really easily, but never shows it. You can tell from his actions during and after the wildfire scene how this event just broke him, which is both owed to the directing and the performance by Joel Edgerton. I also really loved the scene between him and that kid he nursed back to health, thinking it was his daughter. It's never explained who exactly she was, but I personally don't believe it was her. I have a similar love for every scene between him and William H. Macy's character, Arn, who's also giving a really strong performance that compliments Edgerton's.
There is a very distinct problem with these scenes that I did have with a lot of the movie, though; and that's the fact that there's a running narrator that talks throughout the movie, no matter the scene. I don't believe that narration is an inherently bad thing for a movie, especially not a movie adaptation of a book. It becomes a problem if the narrator never lets you interpret the scenes how they should be interpreted or just starts saying obvious shit that's being shown on screen. Yes, Mr. Narrator, I can tell that Arn's death was an accident, it's not like the tree had a vendetta against him.
Despite its glaring issue, I still enjoyed watching Train Dreams. It is a shame that this movie isn't popular or notable enough to win any awards, but if it does, I certainly won't be mad. This is a strong, effective, 7/10 movie and that's about all I have to say.
I already reviewed Sinners back when it came out in April of last year, and since then I've seen it 4 more times. Once with my partner, once with my friends, and twice on my own, and every single time I rewatch it, it just gets better and better for me. So much so that I have to amend my score for this movie from a 9/10 to a 10/10. I just see absolutely no flaws with this movie; every scene is so well-constructed, every moment so well-acted, the score so gripping, the worldbuilding so unique and excellent, the themes of music and appropriation so well thought-out. This movie isn't perfect, but it's damn close to perfect and if there's any movie here that I would pop off for winning Best Picture, it's this one. Much like every single person on Letterboxd, I love Sinners, I've always loved Sinners, and if you haven't seen it, what are you doing? Go watch it.
I don't know what I expected from The Secret Agent, but it certainly wasn't the movie I got. It's about Armando (under the fake name Marcelo) trying to flee persecution in 1977 Brazil from this asshole millionaire since they butted heads years ago due to political differences. This story isn't really told until about halfway through the movie, so most of the movie is spent trying to figure out why exactly Armando needs to hide in a refugee house from hired assassins. I'm not opposed to this sort of storytelling choice; it adds a sense of mystery and tension and it'll make a rewatch more interesting, but I'm not sure how I feel about it. Half the movie feels incredibly repetitive, just making it so the characters are just constantly waiting for something or some explanation to happen that wasn't coming anytime soon. It's cinematic edging and I just needed to safeword.
While we're on the topic of pacing, there are these scenes interspersed throughout that show that this story is being listened to through tapes by a university student in the present day, and at the end of the movie, she visits Armando's son and asks him about his father. I liked that final scene, but I don't think it was necessary to have the student pop up throughout the movie, especially since all those scenes consist of is just her repeating information we just watched. It's another instance of the writing being repetitive and it weighs the movie down a lot since the payoff is just a 5-minute conversation at the end. These scenes also show a newspaper clipping that reveals that Armando died off-screen and it's incredibly jarring to witness. To quote the AVGN for a second, what were they thinking?
Despite all this, none of it detracted from the experience too much because I found the movie to be really compelling. It draws a lot on the political turmoil of the era and makes a movie that is both incredibly tense throughout with hints of hope, optimism, and whimsy sprinkled throughout. My favorite aspect of the movie is how great the character writing is. Every single character is interesting and well-written, with the performances bolstering how great they are. I really like Sebastiana and how they wrote her both as a charmingly goofy old lady and a wise protector for refugees who's been through a lot. Claudia, Elisangela, and Theresa Vitoria are all endearing characters, Bobbi, Augusto, and Vilmar are all strong antagonists whose presence is felt throughout the entire movie. And goddamn, Hans only had that one scene, but I still can't get him and his monologue out of my head.
Unsurprisingly, my favorite characters throughout the entire movie were Fatima and Armando. Fatima doesn't get a ton of screentime throughout the movie, but similar to the Borbas, her presence on the story is unforgettable, and she gets my favorite scene in the whole movie, where she tells off Armando's boss for being a piece of shit during a dinner between them. Alice Carvalho's performance in this scene is electric and I absolutely adored it. However, the man of the hour, Armando, is what the entire movie is centered around, and for a damn good reason. Armando is such a compelling protagonist, being a man who opposed the wrong person at the wrong time and is now accused of being a communist, an incredibly hot-button issue at the time. He is incredibly sympathetic the more we get to know his backstory and he's a great character to anchor ourselves in throughout the movie. It also goes without saying that Wagner Moura's performance is incredible, with him not only playing Armando, but also his son Fernando in the present-day scenes, which I thought was inspired. Shoutout to Moura for being the first Brazilian to be up for the Best Actor award.
The big question is which Brazilian Best Picture nominee do I like more: The Secret Agent or 2024's I'm Still Here? Tough call between the two, since they're both similar in subject matter and quality, but I'd say I prefer this movie due to its stronger cast and lighter tone. Both still incredible movies, so I'll give The Secret Agent the same score I gave I'm Still Here last year, a strong 7/10.
Sentimental Value is a pretty good movie. That's about all I have to say.
I find it difficult to write about this movie, since all of its best qualities are so immediately obvious that I have trouble adding my opinions onto it. This movie is about an aging movie director, played by Stellan Skarsgard, trying to reconnect with his daughters by offering one of them a role in his movie, even going so far as to stage it in the family home. I really liked Gustav in this movie and how he was written, deeply regretting his treatment of Nora and Agnes and doing everything he can to try and mend that relationship, even though he knows it's too late. I also really love how passionate he is for the art of film, and like most people, openly hates Netflix. Skarsgard's performance is great in this movie, I'm so glad that he's up for awards this season.
Same goes for every member of the cast. Renate Reinsve and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas do an incredible job portraying Nora and Agnes, respectively. I also think that Dakota Fanning was such an inspired choice to play the seemingly ignorant American actress coming in to play Nora's role in the movie. I love how Rachel and Nora don't resent each other for this, they instead try and understand Gustav's perspective. The movie is written in a very grounded, realistic way, and I appreciated that.
The biggest problem I have with this movie, though, and what prevents me from saying it's a great movie, is that it just generally doesn't look the best. The cinematography and environments are fine, it's just the color palette and lighting that lets it down a lot. I get that it's trying to go for a more dour, realistic atmosphere, but to me, that's not an excuse for a movie to look washed-out. Plenty of movies on this list are dour and more realistic, but they don't sacrifice good lighting and pretty visuals to do it. It's especially apparent in the scene where they give the house the landlord special and paint it the most life-draining shade of white imaginable. Can you get the ick from a house?
Overall, this movie is pretty good, with a few notable flaws that, for me, hold it back from being pretty great. When in doubt, give it a 7/10 and move on.
F1 was the movie I was looking forward to the least out of all the Best Picture nominees, mostly just because I wasn't into sports movies. Even though people said this movie was good when it came out, I didn't watch it then, and I wasn't expecting it to be up for Best Picture because I thought the blockbuster nominee would've been Wicked: For Good or Avatar: Fire and Ash. After watching it, I can confidently say that this sure was a movie I watched.
On a technical side, this movie goes pretty hard. Yes, the editing can be a bit incomprehensible at times, but this movie is at its best during the racing portions. The races are exhilarating to go through, with good sound design and great direction accompanying them. Joseph Kosinski of Top Gun: Maverick fame directed this movie, and you can see a lot of parallels between the two in how he directs action and quick-moving sequences, keeping the focus on the action and using techniques like slow-mo or cutting off sound to emphasize important moments to the audience. In this instance, I'd say he's pretty damn successful at that.
The problem is that these racing scenes are the only times I was actively paying attention to the movie, because the writing is not nearly as good as the racing. I wasn't too big a fan of the main character, Sonny Hayes. He's a typical aging "bad boy" athlete who cares very little about the rules and wants to prove he's the best of the best, speaking primarily in quips and one-liners. He's fine, I suppose, but I wasn't interested in him because I've seen that kind of character before over and over again. A good example is, ironically, Maverick from Top Gun: Maverick. There, he filled the same role as a rule-breaking, older hotshot, but the difference between him and Sonny is that Maverick actually has a character outside of that. He's a grieving, lonely man who uses that hotshot front as a facade to mask his sorrow, which is compelling to watch and makes me root for him and the mission all the more. They try to achieve that with Sonny by giving him a tragic backstory of being a prodigy who fumbled his last big F1 race, but they don't focus on that as much as I would've liked, making him a flat character as a result.
The interesting thing is, as I was going through the movie, I began to realize that this story shouldn't really be about Sonny at all, despite him being the main character, because his partner, Joshua Pearce, is far more interesting and far more important to the story than Sonny was. I actually connected with Joshua's desire to prove himself out of necessity because of his rookie status, and he has some great scenes with him and his mom. Hell, Joshua is the one who gets into the big crash and he's the one who sets Sonny up to win F1, so I don't understand why they didn't just make Joshua the main character and have Sonny be a strong supporting presence. I can easily see a world where Sonny gets a role similar to Tom Hank's character in A League of Their Own, where he's the uncaring mentor figure who learns to play as a team and guide the younger players to victory. But alas, Brad Pitt wanted to play a badass race car driver, and who's to stop him from doing that?
Speaking of, there are a ton of great actors in this movie who aren't given good dialogue to work with. Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem, all great actors who are wasted on half-baked characters. Kerry Condon plays a generic "strict no-nonsense" female character who, of course, gets with Sonny by the end because godforbid a movie not have a hetero romance in it. I like the scene where she forces Sonny and Joshua to play poker together, but aside from that, nothing about her interested me. Javier Bardem's character is in a similar boat, who just plays the friendly coach of the group who doesn't get much outside of that. It also doesn't help that a majority of the movie's dialogue is quipping. Quips can be a good way to add life to a scene, but when it's done throughout an entire 2.5 hour movie, it gets old really quickly. Sometimes, it's welcomed, but sometimes, I just want the characters to talk like normal people.
That's a lot of complaining coming from someone who thinks that this movie is good overall, and I really do think it is a good movie. When this movie stops trying to be something it's not, it's an incredible, pulse-pounding sports movie, but when it's not, I struggle to care about it. It's a solid 6/10 and pretty easily the weakest movie on the list, and that's not a bad thing at all. When the worst Best Picture nominee is a movie that I would describe as "fine, I guess," that's how you know this was an exceptional year for movies.
Bugonia is the most normal movie Yorgos Lanthimos has ever made and it's still weirder than 90% of movies. It's about a conspiracy theorist, Teddy, and his neurodivergent cousin, Don, kidnapping Michelle Fuller, a CEO that they think is an alien, played by Emma Stone. Despite Stone being everywhere in the marketing, getting top billing, and being the only actor in this movie up for an award, this movie isn't really about her. It is about her, since she is trying to escape her confinement, but the main character is undoubtedly Teddy, expertly played by Jesse Plemmons.
Teddy is such an interesting character in this movie, being a conspiracy theorist who 100% believes in said conspiracy because it's all he really has left. His dad's out of the picture, his mom is sick due to Michelle's company and their negligence, all he has left is Don and the belief that Michelle is an alien who's maliciously destroying the Earth and his life on purpose. It's a strikingly honest and empathetic portrayal of how people buy into conspiracy theories and believe they're doing the right thing, spreading this belief to their friends and loved ones. I also just have to say, I felt really bad for Don. My man just wanted to help his cousin out with the bees and he got pulled into a weird-ass conspiracy, got his body mutilated, aided in a kidnapping, and all he got in the end was the belief that putting a shotgun in his mouth and pulling the trigger was the right thing to do to combat Michelle's manipulation. Poor guy, we need justice for Don.
Despite the dark subject matter, one of my favorite elements of the movie is that it's just really funny at times. That entire dinner scene alone goes to show how funny this movie is, as is every scene of Teddy explaining the supposed Andromedan lore with how ridiculous it gets. i also love the scene where Teddy and Don kidnap Michelle, because they initially get their asses kicked before successfully tackling her to the ground. But by far the funniest part of the movie is when it's revealed at the end that not only was Teddy right about Michelle being an Andromedan, but he also made a perfect model of the ship they reside in and they kill every human on Earth because their experiment failed. I was dying laughing during the montage of all the lifeless bodies throughout the world, that was fucking peak.
I haven't said it at all in this review, but it goes without saying that Emma Stone's performance is really good. She is so commanding every second she's on screen, and her taking her situation seriously is what grounds the audience in this movie's world and lets them take this premise seriously. Like I said, I do think Stone should've been up for the Supporting Actress category because even though she's not the main character, it's still a great performance.
There's not really much else to say about Bugonia, it's a fun, well-made movie that has a strong emotional core and strong themes. I wouldn't mind if it took an award home, especially the Adapted screenplay award. 8/10
Hamnet is not the best movie on this list, I don't even think it's in the top 3 best movies on this list in terms of sheer quality. However, it is the one I connected with the most and the one I'm rooting for the hardest, because I absolutely adore this movie.
This movie is about William Shakespeare, played by Paul Mescal, and his family, most notably his wife Agnes, played by Jessie Buckley, and his kids, including the titular Hamnet, who dies halfway into the movie from the bubonic plague. Despite the assumption that this movie would be focused more on William due to his presence in theatrical history, this movie is moreso focused on Agnes and the kids, the bond they all share, and how that bond was severed by Hamnet's sudden death. More than anything, this movie is about love, loss, and how storytelling can help with both of those. I love how Agnes is wooed by William with him telling her about the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice and how that foreshadows his reaction to Hamnet's death being to lose himself in his writing, not looking back at Agnes until his play at the end of the movie. I love every scene involving the twins, especially the scene after the timeskip where they try to trick everyone into thinking that they're the other twin, and how that foreshadows Hamnet tricking death into taking him and not his sister. Most everything in the first half of the movie foreshadows something that comes later on in the movie, and that's such a smart writing decision to keep every scene, no matter how inconspicuous, feel important.
All that is nothing compared to the last act of the movie, which is by far my favorite part, where Agnes sees that William's new play that he's been neglecting the whole family for was about Hamnet. He did misspell "Hamnet" as "Hamlet," but that can just be because Billy is such a quirky guy like that, so I'll give it a pass. From the moment Agnes entered the theatre to the moment the movie ended, I was in tears at how beautiful everything was. From the audience getting so wrapped up in the play, gasping at character deaths and certain lines and cheering during the action setpieces, to Agnes getting up to the front of the house and slowly piecing together that the entire play was William and Hamnet losing each other, to the most iconic scene in the entire movie, where after Hamlet's final lines, Agnes reaches out towards the actor like she did with William when they first met, moving everyone else in the house to do the same, as both William and Agnes smile for the first time since they lost their son.
I haven't mentioned the acting yet, but every single performance is absolutely incredible, some of the best I've seen from every actor on screen. Paul Mescal's portrayal of William is incredibly interesting, especially since he's absent a lot of the movie, Jessie Buckley, despite how much I don't like her as a person, is still a great actor and delivers my favorite performance of hers I've seen. But shockingly, the best performance in this entire movie doesn't come from any adult on screen, it comes from Jacobi Jupe, who plays Hamnet. It's honestly one of the best child performances I've seen in a long time, and I hope he and his brother, Noah (who plays the actor who plays Hamlet at the end of the movie) all the best in their careers going forward.
What really cements this movie as one of the best in the category, though, is that this movie is so damn beautiful. The cinematography is immaculate, especially how it paints both the landscapes of the forest and the performance of Hamlet in such mesmerizing, awe-inspiring ways. I also love how the film uses lighting, especially during the scenes in the dark or at night. I also have to give a shoutout to the sound designers for the scene where William is keeping Agnes up at night with the obnoxious quill scratching against his paper. Very annoying, masterful work. The score is excellent, and the directing is especially top-notch. I haven't really enjoyed the other two Chloe Zhao movies I've seen, those being Nomadland and The Eternals, but with this movie, it's clear that she is a truly unique and visionary director, and I was just unfamiliar with her game. For that, I truly apologize.
I absolutely love this movie. It is an incredible work of art and really hope that it gets some recognition in terms of awards praise. Even if it doesn't, being one of only 10 movies to represent the best the medium of film has to offer is praise enough, and everyone working on this movie should be proud they made such a phenomenal movie. 10/10, maybe Buckley should treat cats with the same grace she treated her hawk. Just an idea.
I was incredibly excited for this movie, mostly because I was just excited to see what a Guillermo Del Toro version of one of the best classic novels of all time looks like. I knew going into it that it wasn't going to be faithful to the source material because hardly any of his adaptations are, but as a fan of him, I wanted to see what he could do with this story. Suffice to say, he did a damn great job of it.
One thing I was excited to see going into the movie was how GDT's signature gothic style looked in the story of Frankenstein, since it seemed like such a good match. I love the visual language of this movie, how the sets and machinery look both unreal and practically-made at the same time, how the costumes look straight out of painting, how the inhuman makeup job on the Creature looks so different than any other version of it in the past. I also love the kinda-terrible looking CGI Angel of Death statue. Every time it showed up, it looked like a PS3 game and I thought it was really charming. You can tell that GDT had a disctinct vision for this movie, and I'm surprised by how much of it didn't seem to be compromised by Netflix.
As for the story, a lot has been changed from the original version, in particular, Victor's relationship with the Creature has been given a dramatic overhaul. Instead of Victor immediately disowning the creature like he does in the book, instead he tries being a father to the Creature, which makes their relationship even more strained than it was in the book, ironically. Victor is straight-up not a good person in this movie, and that fact enhances the story by making the Creature's empathetic demeanor that much more striking. I also love seeing Oscar Isaac hamming up his asshole performance more and more as the film goes on, what a guy.
Speaking of the performances, it shouldn't be shocking that Jacob Elordi's performance of the Creature is outstanding. I love not only his physicality, but the nice touches in his voice that changes as the film goes on, growing from hoarse growls to a more refined, confident speaking voice once he's on the boat. I especially love the twinge of smugness he puts on the word, "Elizabeth," once Victor decides to burn him and his lab to the ground. It's just so refreshing seeing the favorite to win the Supporting Actor category being an actor performing in full-body makeup.
Like I said, this is a very different, unique take on the Frankenstein story that I enjoyed a lot. I wouldn't say it's better than the original book, moreso a sidegrade to it, an interpretation that can stand alongside it as a worthy successor. 9/10, we owe a debt of gratitude towards Warner Bros.' Dark Universe for failing so spectacularly that they made so many great movies with the classic monsters as an apology.
Out of every movie on this list, the one that most people predict will win Best Picture is One Battle After Another, and that's for a lot of reasons. It's topical, it's a great movie, it's popular, and Paul Thomas Anderson is someone who's been up for the award plenty of times, but never won it. Even though a lot of people prefer movies like Sinners and Marty Supreme and would rather they win the award, nobody is objecting to the prospect of this movie winning, and that's because this movie is just really damn great.
This movie is nonstop excitement from minute one, fitting for a movie about revolutionaries on the run. I was initially thrown off by the choice to have a huge chunk of the movie be one giant flashback to the French 75 in their prime, but I see that it is important in establishing each character and their dynamics with each other. How out of his depth Bob is in this group, how selfish but endearing Perfidia is, how obsessive and maniacal Colonel Lockjaw is. It sets the high stakes for the rest of the movie, since we see how horrible the fates of the rest of the French 75 are and what awaits Bob and Perfidia's daughter, Willa if they get caught by this madman.
Laying out all the plot beats on paper, this movie seems insane and it shouldn't work. The daughter of a far-left revolutionary a racist colonel is on the run because the colonel wants to kill her in order to join a white supremacist group that worships Santa Claus like he's Satan? Maybe Ben Shapiro was right, maybe this movie is stupid. The magic that PTA performs, however, is how every single thing seamlessly connects to each other in a way that makes sense. Since Lockjaw was turned on by Perfidia at the start of the movie, it makes sense that he'd develop an obsession with her and her daughter. It makes sense that he'd want to kill Willa in order to join the Christmas Adventurers. It makes sense that Bob gets into all sorts of hijinks and fails constantly since he's the most inexperienced member and he's a shell of his former self thanks to all the drugs he's been doing. It makes sense that Willa would be more than capable of defending herself on her own because of what Bob has taught her over the years. This movie is so tightly written in that regard and I love it so much.
But of course, the thing most people remember from this movie is not just the writing, but the nonstop kinetic action. It kinda feels like the inverse of Hamnet in a way; instead of a bunch of slow scenes between a parent and their child leading a big emotional climax, this movie has a bunch of explosive, quick scenes between a parent and their child leading to a big emotional climax. Much like the writing, every single setpiece naturally leads into the next. From the raid at the dance and the house to the immigration dojo to Bob's arrest and escape, to Willa going to the convent and getting kidnapped by Lockjaw, it all flows so effortlessly and is exciting throughout. This is not only enhanced the amazing cinematography and directing (shoutout to that one shot of Willa and Tim driving in those hills, gotta be a top 5 scene in any movie from 2025), but the score driving home this sense of urgency. Shockingly, Johnny Greenwood is a great composer. Who knew?
If you're not already convinced this movie is great, first of all, what the hell, and secondly, this statement may convince you: this is one of the funniest movies of 2025, hell, this may be PTA's funniest movie to date. Every single joke and goofy bit lands for me, from the scene where Bob doesn't know the French 75 secret code, to the scene where Sergio kicks Bob out of his car, to every single scene with Lockjaw being a goofy menace. This is partly to do with everyone's performance lending them so well to both comedy and tense action. I adore Benecio Del Toro in this movie; I love how he's so beloved in his city that every single person in the city is willing to help Bob out because he's friends with Sergio. Leonardo DiCaprio is, of course, great as Bob, him playing the stupidest revolutionary alive and somehow surviving by the skin of his teeth is something I can watch for hours. Also little known fact: Sean Penn isn't even acting; he's just like that.
I honestly didn't need to write about this movie that much, since it's so obvious why this movie works so well. It's funny, it's well-acted, it's brutal, it's fast, it just excels in most categories. Could it be a bit shorter? Sure, but I'm not gonna complain. If this is what gets PTA his flowers after so many years of circling an Academy Award win, then there's no better movie than one of his best. Easiest 9/10 I've ever given.
Our last movie of the docket is quite possibly the most insane movie of 2025, Marty Supreme. I saw this with my friends in the theatre around when it came out, and from the moment the movie's opening credits played over a montage of Timothee Chalamet's sperm going into a uterus, we knew that we wouldn't forget this movie for as long as we lived.
In this movie, Chalamet plays Marty Mauser, a competitive table tennis player in the 1950s, who lies and schemes his way into going to Japan to beat a Japanese table tennis player who beat him once. What makes this movie so great is just what levels Marty takes to prove himself in Japan. He starts an affair with a washed-up older actress so he can steal money and goodwill from her and her husband, him and his friend try to hustle some people out of money with table tennis, which leads to those people blowing up in a gas station when they eventually catch onto Marty's scheme, Marty gets a hotel, accidentally drops a bathtub on an old man and his dog, takes the dog, and tries to use the dog as a bargaining chip for the old man to give him money, unaware of the fact that the old man is a mob boss, and Marty only gets to Japan because he lets Kevin O'Leary from Shark Tank humiliate him at a party by spanking him with a ping pong paddle. From all of this, you'd think that Marty would be a stympathetic protagonist following his dreams of table tennis superiority, but the reason why all this bad stuff happening to him over and over again works is that Marty is an asshole, and all of this is just the consequences of his actions catching up to him. Marty was the one who treated his peers like garbage, so in turn, they treat him like garbage back. Despite taking place in the 50s, this is a surprisingly poignant commentary on hustle grindset bros and how they erode their relationships with their loved ones in pursuit of some meaningless goal. The most damning thing is that Marty does have the skills to back up his massive ego. In another world, Marty could very well be a respected table tennis player, much like Endo, his Japanese rival, is.
It also helps that the performances throughout the movie are exceptional. I don't know if this is a hot take or not, but I believe this to be easily Timothee Chalamet's best performance. He is so good in this movie, being so conniving and sleazy, but hiding that under a mountain of charm. Kevin O'Leary is also amazing as a character that is almost as reprehensible as he is in real life (same goes for Chalamet and Marty tbh), that vampire line is something me and my friends couldn't get out of our heads after the movie was done. I also loved Gwyneth Paltrow, Tyler the Creator and Odessa A'zion; both have similar roles in this movie as people who enable Marty because they're so enamored by him, and I really liked both of their presences in this movie. I really hope this movie wins Best Casting, because this would be such a good cast to christen that category with.
I don't know what else I can say about this movie because it's such a larger-than-life movie. The best thing I can say about it is that it's more than worth your time to watch. It is gripping from minute one and one of the best movies of the whole decade so far. 9/10, I'm so glad the puppy made it out alive, he is too good for any of these people.
Overall, a great selection of nominees. All of these movies deserve awards attention in one way or another, and like I said, they represent the year well. Here's hoping we get some good wins tonight, and that next year's ceremony can be even better.
Also, if I had to rank all of these movies, here's how I'd rank them from best to worst:
