My Best Picture Ballot

Given an Oscar ballot requires voters to rank their choices, and I have seen all of the nominees, here is how I vote and why. I think this is the weakest roster of nominees in years, with half of the nominees not deserving of a nomination.

1. Roma. Alfonso Cuaron has crafted a masterpiece. A first glance, this has the feel of an Italian neo-realistic classic such as Rome, Open City of Bicycle Thief. But the immediacy of those films was part of their merits. This is film is so crafted but maintains the illusion of immediacy, with a couple of astounding set pieces in the second half, and images I will never forget.

2. A Star Is Born. The greatest pleasures of this film are the small pleasures. When the two main characters are discussing a song being written, and the way they say "How do you hear it?" When she kind of embarrassingly says "I don't normally do this" and he responds "Good. Then we're on the same page." The editing, frequently overlapping concert sound with another scene. There are so many ways this could have gone wrong. I amazed how much went right.

3. Black Panther. Marvel has not made a better film. The pleasures of a superhero film are merged with real life political concerns. Ryan Coogler has made a film that speaks to African Americans but has a universal appeal at the same time. The Screen Actors Guild got it right: this is the best cast across the board of any film this year.

4. BlacKkKlansman. I felt the first half of the film is a little too slowly paced. However, the final half hour, which cuts back and forth between a Klan membership induction and a black students meeting is stunning. The meeting, in which an elder gentleman recalls Emmitt Till is riveting because it is Harry Belafonte giving the talk. Then the film wraps up in a way that brings it forward to today in a way that leaves the audience angry at our current society.

5. Green Book. Now we enter the undeserving part of the roster. Green Book is a pleasant buddy comedy with a dash of anger about the racism of the 60s. It is not some great statement about race relations, and it is nowhere close to as strong a film on the subject as Driving Miss Daisy (let alone Do The Right Thing).

6. Bohemian Rhapsody. The music scenes are really well done, and why I slimly recommended it. But this film does not appear to know what made Freddy Mercury tick, and the scenes of his home life way the film down. I would have preferred to see more of the band together in the studio and onstage, because that is when the film really sings.

7. The Favourite. Apparently it is really daring to show that the Queen had lesbian affairs! To me, it felt like a five year old who thinks it is the height of daring and hilarity to say "poopy" over and over. Sure, the film is well made, but what does it accomplish?

8. Vice. It is hard to believe that Adam McCay made both this and The Big Short. The Big Short had all kinds of insight as to what made the financial crises occur. Vice has no insight whatsoever as to what makes Dick Cheney tick. It is a well acted but ultimately empty exercise.