Well, once again I’ve spent hours watching about 30 movies nominated for Academy Awards for movies shown in 2024.
Why do I do this?
I think Hollywood and other film makers need to do a much better job in the movies they produce. Although there are some great movies among the Academy Award nominees shown in 2024, way too many are violent and mediocre.
For many years, I’ve written about how violence in the media is harmful to children.
Researchers found there’s a significant association between exposure to media violence and aggressive behavior, aggressive thoughts, angry feelings, and physiologic arousal. The American Academy of Pediatrics or AAP recommends the elimination of gratuitous portrayals of interpersonal violence and hateful, racist, misogynistic, or homophobic language or situations in the media.
Despite these research findings and AAP recommendations, movie makers continue to produce violent movies, and, the violence seems to get 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.
Update: The winners are marked with ***.
Best picture
*** “Anora” – A sex worker marries the son of a Russian oligarch. Part of it was hard to watch due to violence.
“The Brutalist” – A Hungarian Jewish immigrant tries to become an architect in America. A well-done movie, it’s long at three and half hours, with an intermission.
✓ “A Complete Unknown” – An excellent movie about how Bob Dylan got started in his musical career. I loved it and the music.
“Conclave” – A very good movie about the selection of a new pope with a twist at the end.
“Dune: Part Two” – A science fiction movie about revenging the death of family on a desert planet inhabited by huge underground worms and a powerful drug with its psychotropic properties and its time-alerting abilities is mined. Like “Dune: Part One,” it’s very violent. However, I did think Timothee Chalamet did a good job as lead actor.
“Emilia Pérez” – In a musical, a cartel leader gets help from an attorney to change his life. To me, the cartel violence and the music weren’t a good match.
“I’m Still Here” – I didn’t see it.
“Nickel Boys” – Two teens deal with harsh conditions in a brutal reformatory in the Jim Crow south. It’s a well done movie. The camera angle from the main characters viewpoints took a few minutes to get used to.
“The Substance” – A horror movie about a TV star who takes a drug to become young again. It’s an awful movie.
“Wicked” – Two students meet in at a university in the Land of Oz and become Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West. A well done movie that I liked more than I thought I would.
Best director
Jacques Audiard, “Emilia Pérez”
*** Sean Baker, “Anora”
✓ Brady Corbet, “The Brutalist”
Coralie Fargeat, “The Substance”
James Mangold, “A Complete Unknown”
Best actor
*** ✓ Adrien Brody, “The Brutalist”
Timothée Chalamet, “A Complete Unknown”
Colman Domingo, “Sing Sing” – Prisoners take part in a theater group that helps them in many ways. It stars formerly incarcerated actors. A very good film worth seeing.
Ralph Fiennes, “Conclave”
Sebastian Stan, “The Apprentice” – About how Donald Trump met Roy Cohn in the 1970s and learned cutthroat techniques from him. Sad to watch as these techniques are now being used on the American people.
Best actress
Cynthia Erivo, “Wicked”
Karla Sofía Gascón, “Emilia Pérez”
*** Mikey Madison, “Anora”
Demi Moore, “The Substance”
✓ Fernanda Torres, “I’m Still Here”
Best supporting actor
Yura Borisov, “Anora”
*** ✓ Kieran Culkin, “A Real Pain” – Two Jewish cousins visiting the Hungarian town their grandmother came from. One has an unusual way of stirring up embarrassing situations. A well-done film.
Edward Norton, “A Complete Unknown”
Guy Pearce, “The Brutalist”
Jeremy Strong, “The Apprentice”
Best supporting actress
Monica Barbaro, “A Complete Unknown”
Ariana Grande, “Wicked”
Felicity Jones, “The Brutalist”
Isabella Rossellini, “Conclave”
*** ✓ Zoe Saldaña, “Emilia Pérez”
Best original screenplay
*** “Anora”
✓ “The Brutalist”
“A Real Pain”
“September 5” – About the broadcasting of the taking 11 Israeli hostages at the 1972 Olympics. A very well done movie, but very sad.
“The Substance”
Best adapted screenplay
*** “Conclave”
“A Complete Unknown”
“Emilia Pérez”
“Nickel Boys”
✓ “Sing Sing”
Best animated feature
*** “Flow” – Animals who don’t speak caught adrift in a small boat during a tsunami. A good movie for kids, but slow for adults.
✓ “Inside Out 2” – A new emotion comes up in Riley’s head now that she’s in middle school – anxiety. I liked seeing a nonviolent movie for kids.
“Memoir of a Snail” – A sad story about a woman in Australia who has a lot of problems, rated R, so it’s for adults. However, spoiler alert, it has a happy ending.
“Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” – A claymation animation movie with cops chasing robbers. A good movie for kids.
“The Wild Robot” – A robot gets washed up on a forested island and helps the birds and animals. A very good movie for kids.
Best documentary feature
“Black Box Diaries”
*** “No Other Land”
“Porcelain War”
“Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat”
✓ “Sugarcane” – About the abuse of children at a residential school run by the Catholic Church for native American children in Canada. It’s an excellent film.
I only saw “Sugarcane.”
Best international feature
“Emilia Pérez,” France
“Flow,” Latvia
*** ✓ “I’m Still Here,” Brazil
“The Girl With the Needle,” Denmark
“The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” Germany
I only saw the first two.
Best cinematography
*** ✓ “The Brutalist”
“Dune: Part Two”
“Emilia Pérez”
“Maria” – Maria Callas in her later life as she struggles, with a lot of difficulties, to make a comeback. It’s a sad but well-done movie.
“Nosferatu” – I didn’t see this film. A violent vampire movie.
Best original score
*** ✓ “The Brutalist”
“Conclave”
“Emilia Pérez”
“Wicked”
“The Wild Robot”
Best song
*** “El Mal” (“Emilia Pérez”)
✓ “The Journey” (“The Six Triple Eight”) – A platoon of Black women go to Europe during World War II to sort millions of pieces of mail with many saying they couldn’t accomplish the task. An excellent movie that I wish had received more nominations.
“Mi Camino” (“Emilia Pérez”)
“Like a Bird” (“Sing Sing”)
“Never Too Late” (“Elton John: Never Too Late”)
I didn’t see the last movie.
Best sound
✓ “A Complete Unknown”
*** “Dune: Part Two”
“Emilia Pérez”
“Wicked”
“The Wild Robot”
Best editing
*** “Anora”
“The Brutalist”
“Conclave”
“Emilia Pérez”
✓ “Wicked”
Best production design
✓ “The Brutalist”
“Conclave”
“Dune: Part Two”
“Nosferatu”
*** “Wicked”
Best costume design
“A Complete Unknown”
“Conclave”
“Gladiator II” – I didn’t see this movie. Another violent gladiator movie.
“Nosferatu”
*** ✓ “Wicked”
Best makeup and hairstyling
“A Different Man” – I didn’t see this.
“Emilia Pérez”
“Nosferatu”
*** “The Substance”
✓ “Wicked”
Best visual effects
“Alien: Romulus” – A group of young people escape from a planet where they’re forced to work in a mine like their parents, but the space ship is inhabited by alien monsters. It’s a violent, awful movie. I’ll never watch another alien movie again.
“Better Man”
*** ✓ “Dune: Part Two”
“Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” – I didn’t see this one. Another violent Planet of the Apes movie.
“Wicked”
Best animated short
“Beautiful Men”
*** “In the Shadow of the Cypress”
“Magic Candies”
“Wander to Wonder”
“Yuck!”
I didn’t see any of these.
Best documentary short
✓ “Incident” – Footage from different sources shown as a synchronized, split-screen montage of the killing of a Black man by police in Chicago. Well done, but upsetting and sad to see as no charges were filed for the killing.
“Instruments of a Beating Heart” – An excellent story about first graders who are learning “Ode to Joy” to play for incoming first graders.
*** “The Only Girl in the Orchestra” – About double bassist Orin O’Brien, the first woman to become a full-time member of the New York Philharmonic. Excellent.
“Death by Numbers”
“I Am Ready, Warden”
I didn’t see the last two.
Best live-action short
✓ “Anuja” – A smart young girl who works in a clothing factory with her older sister gets a chance to go to school, but it would separate her from her sister. A well-done short that you need to decide how it ends.
*** “I’m Not a Robot” – A woman who’s shocked when the computer says she’s not human. A good short.
“The Last Ranger”
“The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent”
I only saw the first two.
My recommendations:
“The Brutalist,” “A Complete Unknown,” “Conclave,” “Nickel Boys,” , “Sing Sing,” “Wicked,” “A Real Pain,” “September 5,” “Inside Out 2,” “Incident,” “Sugarcane,” “The Six Triple Eight,” “Instruments of a Beating Heart,” “The Only Girl in the Orchestra,” “Anuja,” “I’m Not a Robot”
Don’t miss:
“The Brutalist,” “A Complete Unknown,” “Conclave,” “Nickel Boys,” , “Sing Sing,” “Wicked,” “A Real Pain,” “Inside Out 2,” “Incident,” “Sugarcane,” “The Six Triple Eight”
Final thoughts
Support nonviolent movies by watching them in the theater or online. Join groups that are working to reduce violent images in the media and in gaming.
Update
I got seven out of 23 Oscar winners correct, about a third. But, then, I'm not trying to guess what the Academy is going to vote for. I’m recommending and advocating for the most nonviolent movies that I think will be best for kids and adults.
