ScreenCrush: The Podcast! - OSCARS 2024 Guide - Everything You Need to Know + Best Picture Predictions

Episode Date: March 9, 2024

ScreenCrush Rewind tackles all the movie and TV hot topics, offering reviews and analysis of Marvel, Star Wars, and everything you care about right now. Hosted by Ryan Arey, and featuring a panel of industry professionals. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the Grandview's shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series.

Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Hey, welcome back Screen Crush. I'm Ryan Erie. And this is everything you need to know before watching the 2024 Academy Awards. Maybe you haven't seen every nominated movie and you want to sound like an expert at your Oscar party. Or maybe you just want to hear our predictions on who is going to win. And a little later, I'm going to be joined by Screencrush's Matt Singer and Breonna McClarty to get their thoughts.

And I'm going to tell you who I think is going to win Best Picture and who should win Best Picture. In my opinionation? But first, I'm going to give you a summary for all the movies that are up there. the big prize. First up, there is zone of interest. Now, this film is a World War II family drama focused on the family of Rudolf Haas, who built and ran the Auschwitz death camp. This is a stunning movie that presents the life of a seemingly ordinary family who live adjacent to a Nazi death camp, but behave like there is nothing out of the ordinary about their lives. We see the family casually dismissed the Holocaust occurring on their doorstep,

as the sounds of gunfire and extermination are casually blended in to fit in with the sound design. The film is mostly shot in wide angles, almost like a cinema verité documentary, presenting the family's mundane lives. It is a shocking, heartbreaking film that resonates for us today and makes us question how much we ignore atrocities that are happening around the globe right now. I have never seen a movie like Zone of Interest before, and it is a real dark horse for best picture, also a lock for international film. Maestro is another movie that was filmed with an almost distant static camera, and it chronicles the career in private lives of the great American composer Leonard Bernstein and his wife Felicia.

Bradley Cooper fully immersed himself into this role, directing the film and co-writing the screenplay. He gives an amazing mimicry performance where oftentimes I forgot I was watching an actor and I just felt like I was watching Leonard Bernstein. Carrie Mulligan is also nominated for Best Actress and she gives a heartbreaking performance as a wife who is well aware of her husband's affairs with men,

but she always takes care to present a refined image to the world, even when she's suffering from cancer. I don't need help. I don't need it. I don't need it. Meistro is a celebration of the man's legacy and music, but it also condemns his behavior as he struggles with drugs and his marriage vows. It's the rare biopic that is not afraid to be mundane in order to create an accurate portrait of its subject. The film truly comes alive when it breaks from the static camera format to portray music theatrically. So for a few moments, we can see the musical world through Bernstein's eyes. One of the biopics that's a favorite to win this year is probably Oppenheimer, which has dominated recent award shows.

Like Maestro, it skips through time using different film formats to tell the story of a brilliant man changed the world, but who also struggled to fit into that world that he had created. And like I guess for all time, we're going to be mentioning Barbie in the same breath as Oppenheimer, after their fortuitous joint opening weekend gave us the gift of Barbenheimer memes. But Barbie is a masterpiece all in its own. The film takes a simple concept, a toy journeys from Toyland into the real world, and expands this thought to be a commentary on sexism, patriarchy, and ultimately gives us a message of female empowerment.

Barbie also has some of the most inventive production design of the year, immersing the audience in large, practical soundstages and dance numbers meant to evoke peak MGM cinema. And I want to remind everybody here that Margot Robbie is nominated for an Oscar because she was one of the producers on this film. Next, let's talk about another movie that challenges the undercurrents of sexism and society. Anatomy of a fall. French filmmaker Justine Triett's film is a family drama about a pair of writers with a visually impaired son. Now, in the film's opening moments, the husband is found dead outside their home, and the rest of the movie is dedicated to discovering how he fell.

in an accident? Did he kill himself? Or did his wife Sandra murder him? Sandra Huller gives an amazing nuanced performance of the wife on trial, as the layers of this failed marriage are slowly pulled away. Now, the heart of this movie is a trial in a French court, with strange and baffling laws that are going to confuse American audiences. Nobody has to wait for their turn to speak, and it's more like an open forum. That's not true. I mean, his pain came from deeper place. Pardon, but it's after logic that all the problems Remind me to never get arrested in France. So as a courtroom drama, this breaks the mold of what we're used to seen in America.

And I'm actually shocked this was not nominated for Best International Film. Next up, let's talk about one of my favorite films of the year, Poor Things, which I think is going to surprise a lot of people on Oscar night. So Poor Things on the surface is a retelling of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, except the monster is an attractive woman who learns to fully incorporate herself into society. It's more like a reverse Frankenstein. We actually have a video coming out about this movie tomorrow if you want a more end-down. breakdown. But the TLDR is this is a coming-of-age story about a woman who has the developing

brain of an infant placed into her body. Throughout the film, as she evolves mentally, the film evolves, taking us from distorted fish-eye black and white into vibrant steampunk collars and old Hollywood sets that recall films like The Thief of Baghdad and DeMills Intolerance. Even if you haven't seen the movie, you've probably seen this scene on TikTok. Emma Stone puts on an incredible performance as an adult-sized infant who moves through childhood and adolescence, while the film also guides us on a journey through different historical periods, such as the Enlightenment and romanticism all through the Victorian era. It is a layered, complex film, and I think a strong outsider pick for Best Picture. The film Past Lives is another

story about a woman grappling with her place in the world. It takes place over about 20 years of the life of Nora, a South Korean woman who left her homeland as a child, but still has fond memories of her childhood best friend, Hay Sung. Years later, as Nora is working hard to become a writer in New York, the two old friends reconnect. And even over sky, you can feel the romantic tension. The film is about the immigrant experience and how it feels to leave a piece of yourself behind in a different world.

Which also brings us to American fiction, another film about a non-white writer struggling with how they fit into a predominantly white society. This is the Oscar film I think I enjoyed the most, or at least it's the one that I want to watch again first. It's a dark comedy about an intellectual writer, Thelonious Monk Ellison,

played brilliantly by a nominated Jeffrey Wright. Now, no one is interested in publishing Monk's work until, as a joke, he uses a pen name to write an over-the-top hack-need that exploits the black experience. It's got deadbeat dads, rappers, crack, and he gets killed by a cop in the end. I mean, that's, that's, that's black, right?

The book becomes a sensation, and suddenly he has to balance his two lives, his home life where he has a new girlfriend and he cares for his dementia-suffering mother and his new public life, where he poses as a fugitive on the run, writing books that make the white establishment feel good about themselves. I just think it's essential to listen to black voices right now.

I don't know if American fiction is like the best film of the the year, but it's one of my favorites. It's funny, it's sweet, it's tragic, and its ultimate message is, who gets to tell the stories of a culture? Is it the writers who are actually from that culture, or is it the white establishment who are trying to sell sensationalized stories to a white public? And that same theme of who gets to tell the story is present in the final best picture nominee and the very strong favorite killers of the flower moon. 80-year-old Martin Scorsese tells the real-life story of the 1920s Osage Tribal Massacre. The Osage were wealthy, affluent people things to oil discovered on their land. The film details how a white landowner, William Hale,

directed his family members to marry Osage women and then to slowly murder their families so he would inherit the land. The story begins its focus from the point of view of the tribe, but then slowly shifts onto Molly Burkart, played brilliantly by Lily Gladstone, as she falls in love with Hale's nephew, Ernest, played by Leonardo DiCaprio. Now, even though these two really do love each other, the movie slowly reveals that Ernest is his uncle's trigger man, who's actually committing a lot of these murders. Gladstone puts on an amazing performance, as her health suffers and she is helpless to save her tribe. And this paralyzes the audience as well,

making us feel just as helpless as the Osage that Hale is massacring. And we actually have a video coming out soon about the ending of this movie. And trust me, this is a film you don't want to miss. So I want to talk to Matt and Brianna about this. Matt, I know you've got pretty strong feelings on, you know, the best picture of the year. I want to get to the best picture in just a little bit. But first, I want to get a couple things from you guys.

We're going to go through just a few categories, screenplay actor, director, etc. And I want to hear who you think's going to win. and if it's a different choice, who you think should win? Matt, can I start with you? We've got Best Adapted Screenplay, American Fiction, Barbie Oppenheimer, Poor Thing, Zone of Interest. Who's your favorite there? If it was up to me in this category, I probably would also pick Oppenheimer.

I mean, I haven't read the book that it's based on, but Christopher Nolan managed to take this incredibly lengthy biography of this very complicated figure and condensed it down into this still long movie, but digestible and, like, complex without being too complicated. And the way that he wove in through different timelines, I think it's a really impressive work not only of writing, but of, like, adapting a biography into a film that feels like you're getting insight into this person, but it's also, like, interesting and exciting, even though it's about, like, a scientist and a teacher. And all of that, I think, is very, very difficult to do. Yeah, I always look at adaptive screenplay,

and I look at it from the perspective of a, well, are you know, what's your metric for a good adaptation? Is it the creativity in adapting the source material? How well they adapted it to a new medium. For me, I kind of, if you're gonna put Barbie in that category, I think the idea of like a doll that girls play with and then deriving so much meaning from it, that's my choice.

Brianna, what about you? I personally would also choose Barbie for kind of the opposite reason of Oppenheimer, where Oppenheimer had so much source material, and it is really impressive that he managed to make such a good movie out of that. However, I think there is something special about Barbie where she took something that, obviously it's an adaptation,

but it's not really like a adaptation in the way we usually think about it. It's not just like coming from a book, for example. And she crafted something that I think really got to the, like that touched so many people and really kind of got the essence of Barbie, which is weird, to say because of Barbie is a doll and she managed to do that and I think that is really

really difficult to do you look at original screenplay and it's it's a tough pick anatomy of a fall the holdovers maestro May December which I have not seen and past lives Brianna what's your favorite of those I don't think this will win but I loved May December I really did and I thought it was such a cool movie and I think for me the writing of specifically Natalie Portman's character and sort of taking her from like this figure that seems almost altruistic or just like a fly on the wall, not altruistic, but like a fly on the wall basically. And then you just realize how kind of nefarious and just kind of dark her character is and how voyeuristic she is. And you just leave that movie, in my opinion, being like, okay, there was no good guy. Like there's a victim

and that's pretty much the only thing you can ascertain. And I just thought it was really, really well constructed. And I thought the acting was phenomenal. But even like with the best acting performances. I always think, like maybe it's just because I really like writing. I always think that has to come from the script. Matt, how about you original screenplay? What did you like out of this bunch? My personal favorite in this category, I would vote if I had a vote for past lives, which was one of my two favorite movies of last year, a beautiful movie. Another really well-written movie, although certainly also well-directed, but just kind of chronicling these characters' lives, and doing so in a way that made you reflect on your own life and your

own choices in life. It was a, like, I would say it's a screenplay that felt really true to, like, experiences, but also very kind of universal. Like, it sort of reflected these things that you could relate to, even if you hadn't had the exact experiences that were being depicted in this film. So, again, like, a lot of really good choices, but if I had to check one on my own ballot, that's what I would pick. See, it's interesting because, you know, the Oscars really, a lot of the time do boil down to a popularity contest, like a couple of categories we're going to talk about in a second.

For that reason, I kind of think Maestro would be the favorite to win because I don't see Bradley Cooper winning for Oscar or director or Best Picture. I do think they would say, we love you, here's your Oscar, just for that category. My pick is Anatomy of a Fall. That's the one I don't know if it will win. I think Meister will, but Anatomy of Fall is my pick. It's just an incredible screenplay that really is like, layers of an onion where we're trying to figure out what happens just as much as the courtroom

judicial system is. Actor in a supporting role, we've got Sterling K. Brown for American fiction, Robert De Niro Killers of the Flower Moon, Robert Danny Jr. Oppenheimer, Ryan Gosling, Barbie, and Mark Ruffalo from Poor Things. Personally, my pick for who I'd like to see is Mark Ruffalo from poor things. It was so much fun to get to watch him play against type in this like almost 1930s film Lethario character. It was really fun to see him embrace that. And I think a lot of movies the academy always overlooks comedies and comedic roles but i think it's it's i think robert downy junior's a lock briana i think robert downy junior would get it i want mark

ruffalo to get it because i thought his character was so funny and so grounding in a movie that is actually like very outside of like it's such an elevated just kind of outside of this world movie and then he has this one line uh you're gonna you're gonna have to believe it but he it's like when he goes who are you You don't know what bananas are. You've never heard of chess, and yet you know what empirically means. Like, it's just so he acts as this, like, very funny, but very grounding presence in the movie that I think he did an amazing job with, and I just, like, I love seeing it.

I also just think he kind of portrayed, like, a man that, like, couldn't actually deal with a woman who had a lot of autonomy really well. Like, he just unravels in this kind of marvelous, very funny, but, like, kind of real way. I really would love if you got it, but I do think it's going to be Robert Downey Jr. He did a good job, but I think it is a little bit more of like a lifetime nomination thing than just based on that one performance. Because I also think Robert De Niro did a great job. And I think personally, I think he did a little bit of a better job than I would say

Robert Downey Jr. did. I personally would probably pick Ryan Gosling. I think that was the supporting performance of the year that stayed with me the most, at least from these five. You know, like singing, dancing, the comedy, you know, in some ways he was almost like more of a lead, you know, like kind of a co-lead. I could have seen him in the best actor category. But, I mean, that's a whole can of worms of like who winds up in which category where and

why is kind of insane and silly to me. I think you can really go wrong with any of these actors. I like Sterling K. Brown and American fiction also. I thought he was very good, yeah. He was great in that movie, too. There's not a bad performance or a bad choice here. If I was ranking them one to five, it's very possible I might put Robert Downey Jr. like last, even though I also liked him, but I do think he's going to win.

All right, actress in a supporting role. We're looking at Emily Blunt and Oppenheimer, Danielle Brooks in the color purple, American Frere Barbee, Jody Foster, Nyad, and Divine Joy Randolph in the holdovers. If I was picking, for me, I might pick Danielle Brooks. from the color purple. You want to be my maid or not. Hell, no. You know, not a movie that I thought was fantastic, but I thought her performance was incredible. If you haven't seen that movie, she, like, brings this incredible burst of energy to that movie when she shows up on screen.

And it is more of a supporting performance. She's not in a ton of the movie, but every time she shows up, that movie just kind of comes to life. And as I was watching it, I was like, this is one of the best supporting performances I've seen this year, actor or actress, whatever. And I was like, there's no way she doesn't get nominated for an Oscar. And sure enough, here she is, even though that movie, again, didn't get a ton of other support from the Academy at Large. Which, to me, is kind of, like, one of the great parts of, like, the supporting categories of the Oscar is when someone kind of, you know, gets a small, you know, like, like in sports terms is like comes in as the sub and hits the home run pinch hitting and you're like who is this and i've seen her before but wow like i didn't know she could do this and suddenly

they're like on your radar in a big way and that was daniel brooks for me from uh color purple brianna who's your pick i kind of think america frere is going to get it not really yeah not because i necessarily think her performance was outstanding though i think it was really really good But I kind of feel like because Greta Gerwig got so snubbed, and so did Margot Robbie. I feel like the Academy is going to kind of rally around her specifically, even more than Ryan Gosling, because Ryan Gosling getting snubbed was a little, I mean, getting nominated was a little bit of a thing. So I kind of think she'll win it. I would be happy with any of them winning.

I love Emily Blunt. I think she's a great actress. I don't think she should win for this role. And I mainly don't think she should win for this role because I just don't think the character is very well written. and I think there were better performances with better characters in this category. And so as much as I love her, I just, I do hope it goes to somebody else. Okay, so let's move on to the heavies. We've got actor in a leading role, Bradley Cooper, oft-snubbed Bradley Cooper for Maestro,

Coleman Domingo for Rustin, Paul Giamatti for the holdovers, Killian Murphy for Oppenheimer, and Jeffrey Wright for American Fiction. I you know the buzz on the street is that Paul Giamatti and Killian Murphy I think are the two like Paul Giamatti you have the legacy guy who's been around forever typically a supporting role but then Killian Murphy just you know wiping the floor at all these other award shows Matt what do you think I would probably vote for Paul Giamatti if I had a ballot I thought he was terrific in the holdovers a movie I really really loved and I mean so much of the movie is built around his performance and his character.

And he really carried the whole thing in this really lovely, funny, sad way. I think he has a shot to win. I think it's kind of, it's a two-person race in this category to me, Killian Murphy and Paul Giamatti. And if I had to pick, it'd probably be a flip of a coin. I do think, again, Killian Murphy being in, you know, in Oppenheimer. And I feel like Oppenheimer is going to win, not just. spoil the next couple categories, but I do think Oppenheimer is going to be the big winner.

So I would probably lean towards Killian Murphy about who will win, but yeah, if it's up to me, I mean, Paul Giamatti, great performance and a great actor, and it's a good chance to honor him and his whole kind of body of work as well. You know, one metric I try to use a lot is could someone else have done this role, right? There are certain roles you see people in, you go, nope, that was the person for that role, and no one else would have done it like that. And that's sometimes my metric. So with that metric, I would go with Paul Giamatti.

He's the person I would pick in that role. That being said, I did watch Maestro, and I just kept forgetting I was watching an actor playing Leonard Bernstein. I mean, partially because of the makeup, but also just because he disappeared into that man. Brianna, what do you think? Who should win Best Actor? I think Paul Giomati, personally. I think, I just think he did an amazing job.

I think he made me like a character that I think very few actors could have made me like, even like with the arc. I think it would have been really easy for me to. to find this character to still be, like, kind of pompous. And he just made me kind of fall in love with character, and I really enjoyed him, so. He was all alone at Christmas. I thought the kid should see his father. Fingers crossed.

I think he deserves it. All right, looking at actress in a leading role, we have Annette Benning and Nyad, another legacy pick who hasn't won an Oscar before, but has been nominated in the past. Lily Gladstone for Killers of the Flower Moon. Sandra Hewler, Anatomy of a Fall, who also is in Zone of Interest, Carrie Mulligan, Maestro, Emma Stone, Poor Things. Incredibly strong category. You know, Emma Stone, probably the favorite in that, you know, from the buzz I've seen.

You know, Matt, who do you pick? Who's your favorite performance there? This is the one category where I feel like my pick, and I think we'll win, it kind of lines up, and that's Lily Gladstone from Killers of the Flower Moon. But I thought that was a really incredible performance, a very complicated role, a very complicated person. Killers of the Flower Moon was my favorite movie last year. We haven't talked about it too much, but like, you know, she really was the center, maybe not the most screen time, but really like that character, the Molly character, and her wants and desires and her frustrations

and her tragedies really were at the kind of the heart of what was going on in that movie. I can't fault anyone for voting for Emma Stone. I just, again, if it was up to me, I would cast my ballot for Lily Gladstone. Yeah, and again, I agree with you. I think Lily Gladstone will win and should win when I was watching that movie. I thought, oh my God, they poisoned this poor woman for this role. She was just being, like, it's heartbreaking, and you're watching her be helpless. And, like, it really pulled me in a way that no other performance did out of these five.

Personally, I loved Lily Gladstone, but my pick would be Emma Stone, and a lot of that's due with the physical acting. she did kind of aging from mentally a toddler to like a full-grown woman, just seeing the way that she moved and the way that she walked, the way her posture changed. I just thought it was like phenomenal. And I was thinking about it later and I was just like if they had, if she hadn't nailed that,

if she hadn't like really nailed all of the physicality of that character, the movie itself, in my opinion, would have like fallen apart. It would have come across as cheesy. So for me, that would be my pick. It's a great pick. Let's talk about, but just before we get to Best Picture, let's talk about Best Director. We have Jonathan Glazer, who also wrote the screenplay for Zone of Interest,

Yargo Slanthamos for Poor Things, Christopher Nolan Oppenheimer, Martin Scorsesey Killers of the Flower Moon, and Justine Triett for Anatomy of Fall. Brianna, who was the best director of last year? Oh, God, that's a tough question. I think I honestly have to go with Jonathan Glazer. I really, that movie made me feel nauseous. That movie, like, I was watching it, and I was just horrified and just, like, stuck there.

And I think it's really hard to do banality of evil well. I think a lot of times it comes across as uncaring, but there was something about his, like, static shots where you could just see the smoke in the background that was, like, absolutely horrifying to me in a way that really got under my skin and just made me feel like, even, like, talking about it. I'm like, oh, my God, I feel like I'm trapped in that movie again. So I think for me, in terms of, like, what emotion. emotionally impacted me the most, it would be Jonathan Glaser. I think I go a lot off of my emotions, to be fair,

and what makes me feel things really strongly. But that would probably be my pick. To me, this is another category with like five really good choices. Five, you can't really go wrong kind of choices. If it was me picking, I, again, I said, Killers of the Flower Moon was my favorite movie of last year. So to me, it's like the best director is the guy who made the best movie in this case, which would be Martin Scorsese for me.

Um, I just, uh, I, you know, I haven't stopped thinking about that movie and, you know, as this kind of summation of this guy's career, um, kind of returning to so many of the themes and ideas that he's, uh, explored in past movies, but doing it in this new way, in this new setting, um, and kind of this epic scale. Uh, I just thought it was incredible. Uh, I don't think he's going to win. I do think, uh, Christopher Nolan will probably win for Oppenheimer. and I'm not upset about that. It's kind of wild that he does not have an Oscar. I think that probably will be a factor.

And, you know, again, I don't fault anyone for saying Christopher Nolan was the best director of the year. He's been the best director of a lot of years, and he did a heck of a job directing Oppenheimer. So there you go. Well, by that same token, my pick for director is also my same pick for Best Picture, Yargos Lanthamos, for Poor Things. Same thing you said, the movie's just stuck with me. I can't stop thinking about it. And I look at these movies and I go, you know, which one really struck me is something? What was a movie I'd never seen before?

And most of these are, they're all movies I've never seen anything quite like that. They're all perfectly distinct. But that movie, to me, stood out. So that's my pick for Best Director, Best Picture of the Year. Brianna, how about you? Best Picture of, I actually have my Best Director and Best Picture of the Year are separate. it. So actually, I think my best picture of the year would also be poor things. It's, I just think that movie was so creative and I think so many things came together

perfectly to make that movie super unique. And I obviously, I'm so scared, I'm going to butcher his name. Obviously, Jorgo Lanthamos was a huge contributing factor. I think he's an amazing director. I still personally prefer Jonathan Glazers the way he filmed. But I just think that movie was, it was just, it was beautiful. I've never seen anything like that. And I was, I have not liked all of his work. I actually had really liked one film and really hated another. So going into this, I was like, could go either way. And I just, I was enchanted by it. And from the cinematography, the CGI, the acting, the script, the score, it was just such a great film. And I just think it was so weird and so daring. And it just, it worked. It was, I really enjoyed that film. It's almost

it's like hard for me to vocalize it because it's just so cool it's i wish we saw more films that weird kind of get that braided yeah but again i don't think there's a single wrong answer here and the idea of like using a competition to celebrate art is silly but it does get people to watch these movies which is something pretty great and hopefully we've been able to like walk you guys through what you can expect on oscar night but i want to hear your thoughts what do you think should win in these categories tell us your predictions down in the comments below or at me or Matt or Breonna on any of our socials you can find listed in the description. And if it's your first time here, please subscribe and smash that bell for alerts.

For Screen Crush, I'm Ryan Erie.