Action (The Dark Knight/The Seven Samurai)
Candidates (in descending order)
- Ready Player One
- Black Panther
- Avenger’s: Infinity Wars
- Solo: A Star Wars Story
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
- Incredibles 2
If you like your action movies animated, then by all means look at the last two on the list. For me, though, action is best when it is live and these top four movies do the best job of that, although they all rely to a large degree on computer generated visual effects. My favorite has to be Ready Player One because it tells the best story. But Black Panther and the Star Wars movie are also worth seeing. If you’re a comic book fan, then you’ve probably already seen the Avenger’s movie, otherwise see it only if you want to know what all the fuss is about (and what a $321 million production budget gets you!)
Adventure(Lord of the Rings:/Seven Samurai)
Candidates (in descending order)
- Ready Player One
- Black Panther
- Solo: A Star Wars Story
- Avengers: Infinity Wars
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
- A Quiet Place
- Free Solo
- Ralph Breaks the Internet
- Isle of Dogs
- Incredibles 2
- Christopher Robin
- Mirai
Only the top five films on this list can even begin to compare to something as epic as Lord of the Rings. But any of these five will deliver a good adventure-movie experience – they all keep you alert for what’s around the corner. The next four are ‘adventure’ movies, but maybe in a different way. A Quiet Place is a sci-if thriller where sound is the key element, but I’m not so sure about the ‘adventure’ part. Free Solo is a documentary about climbing El Capitan at Yosemite and the last twenty minutes is true life ‘adventure’. Ralph… and Isle of Dogs are both animated features, so the Adventure component is kind to toned down, but they are both good movies. The last three are, well, best left alone.
Animation (Spirited Away/Spirited Away)
Candidates (in descending order)
- Isle of Dogs
- Ralph Breaks the Internet
- Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse
- Incredibles 2
- Mirai
I was surprisingly impressed with this year’s animated feature films. Mirai and Incredibles 2 are radically different movies, but neither one tells a story worth hearing. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is a complex movie that appeals more to MCU fans than others, but still has intriguing moments and a compelling visual style. Ralph Breaks the Internet was surprisingly good, especially with the Disney Princess references and the portrayal of the Internet. At the top, but just barely, is Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs which is certainly an adult-themed feature with dark humor and a unique animation style
Biography (Schindler’s List/Lawrence of Arabia)
Candidates (in descending order)
- Bohemian Rhapsody
- At Eternity’s Gate
- Can You Ever Forgive Me
- Mary Queen of Scots
- RBG
- Green Book
- The Favourite
- BlackkKlansman
- Vice
- First Man
This is a tough category. These movies should help me gain insight to the person – who is she or he? – and some of these movies don’t do that. Occasionally movies about one person actually become more interesting about someone else (i.e. Green Book). Other movies are considered biographical, but the story is really more about their context (BlackkKlansman, First Man, the Favourite). In the end, I think Rami Malek’s Freddie Mercury was top notch, and, while the movie as a whole was difficult, Willem Dafoe’s Vincent Van Gogh was extremely well done. Melissa McCarthy’s performance (as a writer I have never heard of) was spot on. The Mary Queen of Scots movie was not well crafted, but I learned a lot about her intriguing character. And, of course, what liberal doesn’t love Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Although this was a documentary, it was flattering. All of these movies (except maybe First Man) are good, but the ones at the top of the list are better.
Comedy (Back to the Future/City Lights)
Candidates (in descending order)
- Ballad of Buster Scruggs
- Vice
- Ralph Breaks the Internet
- Green Book
- Can You Ever Forgive Me
- Isle of Dogs
- Mary Poppins Returns
- Incredibles 2
- Christopher Robin
Comedy is a tough category mostly because, it seems, everybody finds different things funny. In ranking movies, you have the additional problem of distinguishing between adults and children – I wouldn’t dare take a child to the Buster Scruggs movie, but I’m not sure adults will find much redeeming in the bottom three movies on this list, but they are the kind you can take your grand-child to. Even Ballad of Buster Scruggs is not for everyone – Coen brothers humor can grate. Political conservatives should probably not even see Vice – the humor surrounding Dick Cheney is pretty dark. Ralph Breaks the Internet, another animated movie, is for both kids and adults, and both will find it amusing. Can You Ever Forgive Me and Green Book derive their humor from the situation more than any jokes – the unlikeliness of the circumstances are what you laugh about. Isle of Dogs is an animated feature from Wes Anderson that certainly has funny moments amidst a dark theme.
Crime (The Godfather)
Candidates (in descending order)
- Shoplifters
- Can You Ever Forgive Me
- BlackkKlansman
- Border
None of these movies can top the benchmark in this category (and perhaps the greatest movie ever made) The Godfather. In two of these movies, the crimes are really incidental and are not key elements of the movie. In Border, there is a murder and maybe some customs violations, but it is such a strange theme that the crimes are really irrelevant. Similarly, in Shoplifters, there is an obvious criminal act, but that is so incidental to the true meaning of the movie that even putting it in this genre is a bit of a stretch. BlackkKlansman is a first rate movie and the criminal acts here or not really portrayed but rather implied. Still it is the threat of those criminal acts that provides the importance to the story. Only Melissa McCarthy’s Can You Ever Forgive Me do we see the crime from its beginning motivations through the planning and on to the execution. The crime isn’t a violent one but we still get to see the thoughts and actions of the criminal mind on full display. Both of the top two movies are good choices in this genre.
Documentary(Stop Making Sense/Hoop Dreams)
Candidates (in descending order):
- Minding the Gap
- Free Solo
- Hale County This Morning, This Evening
- Of Fathers and Sons
- RBG
Judging documentaries is complicated by the fact that the viewer might have prejudices towards the topic of the documentary that end up influencing their opinion of the movie itself. That came across to me most clearly in reviewing Free Solo. The climb documented there is entirely worthy of a movie. But is it so compelling and so interesting that anyone can make a successful movie of it? For similar reasons, I was ambivalent about the RBG movie – I’m predisposed to like it, because I like Ginsburg, but that doesn’t mean the movie was really very good. In fact, I thought it went overboard in portraying her as some kind of superwoman without exposing more human flaws and foibles. The other three movies required huge investments in time and risk. Of Fathers and Sons required the filmmaker to live with an Al Qaeda terrorist and hide from them the fact that he was making a movie for westerners – that’s risky. In Hale County, the filmmaker spent more than ten years filming the black lives of an Alabama county. And in Minding the Gap, a skateboarder tells the tale of his best friends as they struggle to grow up in a rust belt Illinois city. None of these were terrific movies, but there is something to learn from each of them.
Drama(Shawshank Redemption/The Godfather)
Candidates (in descending order)
- Roma
- If Beale Street Could Talk
- BlackkKlansman
- Green Book
- Never Look Away
- Cold War
- Bohemian Rhapsody
- Ballad of Buster Scruggs
- Vice
- Can You Ever Forgive Me
- The Wife
- The Favourite
- Capernaum
- Isle of Dogs
- A Quiet Place
- First Reformed
- At Eternity’s Gate
- A Star is Born
- Isle of Dogs
- Mary Queen of Scots
- First Man
- Mirai
Nearly two-thirds of the movies fall into the Drama category, so picking the best in this category is like picking the best of all of them. If Drama is the same thing as stirring emotion, then something like the ranking above comes close to my rankings. Some of the lower ranked movies (like Isle of Dogs) have non-dramatic components that make them worth watching, so this ranking doesn’t match exactly what I wrote about in my 2019 Review.
Family(Spirited Away/Wizard of Oz)
Candidates in Descending Order:
- Ralph Breaks the Internet
- Mary Poppins Returns
- Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse
- Incredibles 2
- Christopher Robin
- Mirai
The criteria for choosing the best Family movies is based on the suitability for an entire family, especially one with young children. Most of the movies not in this category will appeal primarily to adults or teenagers, but something like Ralph Breaks the Internet has strong appeal for both kids and parents – there’s a lesson about friendship to teach the kids, but still all kinds of delightful references and images exploring how The Internet works and our Disney Princess heritage. Mary Poppins Returns is not a bad movie for kids, but adults will get little value. Spider-man may be too intense for younger children, while Incredibles 2 is a little less active, action movie. Christopher Robin is kind of creepy with the animals, but some children might find them cuddly. Mirai is in this category, but I’m not sure exactly who the audience should be.
Fantasy(Lord of the Rings/Wizard of Oz)
Candidates in Descending Order:
- Isle of Dogs
- Border
- Ralph Breaks the Internet
- Mary Poppins Returns
- Mirai
- Christopher Robin
Fantasy is sort of like Science Fiction, except there is less technology involved and more just plain imagination. In that regard, though, you still have to distinguish between movies for adults and those appropriate for kids. Isle of Dogs and Border are definitely adult themed and I would not recommend screening them for kids. The last four, however, are entirely appropriate for family viewing (see the Family genre comments.)
History (Schindler’s List/Lawrence of Arabia)
Candidates (in descending order):
- Never Look Away
- The Favourite
- Cold War
- First Man
- Mary Queen of Scots
In the history genre, we have two movies looking at British monarchs in two radically different ways; two movies looking at Nazi Germany, World War II, and Cold War East Germany; and a look at the life of Neil Armstrong..
None of these movies look at their subject matter with the gravitas or historical sweep of the benchmarks (Schindler’s List and Lawrence of Arabia) so if that is the kind of movie you are looking for, you’re not likely to find it in this year’s crop. The Favourite paints an unflattering portrait of decadence and queenly intrigue. Mary Queen of Scots might be historically most interesting, but it is a movie that leaves a lot of threads unconnected and is ultimately unsatisfying. Cold War is more of an ‘artsy’ movie portraying a romance as it moves through Poland of the forties, fifties, and early sixties. And First Man tries to find a heroic picture in a story that is largely such a collaborative effort that there are no heroes. Of the five candidates, I think I liked Never Look Away the best and that was not because of its enlightenment of history, but more for the effective portrayal of how history can impact the development of individuals who live it.
Horror(Psycho/Psycho)
Candidate:
- A Quiet Place
Horror movies rarely make it onto the Oscar nomination lists, but this one deserves the nomination it received and probably should have won the Oscar. Sound Editing is the art of creating a soundscape that matches the images on the screen and this movie succeeds admirably. In a world where every single sound can have momentous significance, the sounds created here are appropriately, and successfully, horrific. In the vein of the Alien movies, this film will scare you. You’ve been warned…
Music(Whiplash/Some Like It Hot)
Candidates (in descending order):
- Bohemian Rhapsody
- Green Book
- A Star is Born
- Cold War
Just about any movie I’ve ever seen has music in it, so that isn’t what this category is about. It is also different from a ‘Musical’ which is where songs are used to actually tell the story. Instead, these movies are those where the making of music is actually a key part of the story. Bohemian Rhapsody, my top choice, is a movie about Freddie Mercury, his life, and how important songs and his band, Queen, were in his life. Compared to the benchmarks, I am looking for movies which accurately and compellingly tell the story of how important music is to the people in the story. In Green Book, a black classical pianist uses his innate talents to challenge the Jim Crow rules in the Deep South. Music is a tool for him in a politically, and deeply personal, way. A Star is Born, told many times, is about how fragile romance is in the music world where changing popular choice, and raw talent, can dramatically change a relationship. Cold War, a Polish foreign language nominee, is about a difficult romance spanning the Cold War years in Poland. All of these are fun movies, although the Polish flick is probably the most difficult to absorb.
Musical (Lion King/Wizard of Oz)
Candidates (in descending order):
- Ballad of Buster Scruggs
- Mary Poppins
There are only two musicals in this year’s crop and the first one is a Coen Brothers film and so is difficult to classify anywhere. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs has a lot of singing in it and is genuinely and absurdly funny. But it is also extremely violent and is certainly not a family-style movie. I enjoyed it immensely, but not exactly for the songs – they are really incidental to the story and not in the tradition of the benchmarks. On the other hand, Mary Poppins attempts to be a full-fledged musical, but the problem is that the music simply isn’t good enough. If your family is really eager for a musical, and you’ve already seen the classics, then go ahead and do this one – kids will love the fantasy scenes. But if you want a date-night movie that will provoke lots of discussion then you can’t lose with Buster Scruggs
Mystery (Se7en/Psycho)
Candidates (in descending order):
- First Reformed
- Ballad of Buster Scruggs
To be honest, I don’t think either of these movies belong in this category. Certainly they do not generate the same emotional effect as the benchmarks. Buster Scruggs is a compendium of six different short vignettes, a couple of which might have elements of ‘Mystery’ (in the sense of discovering ‘who did it’), but to suggest that Mystery was the dominant gestalt in that movie would be wrong. Similarly First Reformed is much more a metaphysical story. It might be appropriate in a ‘horror’ categoy but the placement there is even kind of confused since the tension generated is much more of a mental effect than an element of fear. Don’t get me wrong, both of these are good movies, I just don’t think they are very ‘mysterious’!
Romance (Forest Gump/Casablanca)
Candidates (in descending order)
- If Beale Street Could Talk
- A Star is Born
- Cold War
- Never Look Away
- Border
- Ballad of Buster Scruggs
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs is a mash-up of six different tales, one or two of which sort of include a romantic angle. You might want to watch it for other reasons, but romance is not the main one. Border, on the other hand, is clearly a story of two people who experience attraction and are certainly involved with each other. But neither of them are ‘people’ you would really identify with and so the ‘romance’, while intriguing, isn’t the kind of relationship one normally puts in that category. Never Look Away is a big, complicated movie and it certainly involves an artist and his girlfriend. But the focus of the movie is on his development as an artist. The relationship plays an important role, but is not central to the story. The top three movies listed are all clearly romances and are all good films. Cold War portrays a relationship between two people who fall apart and return to each other so often that it is difficult to keep track of things. A Star is Born is at least the third remake of this story and while Lady Gaga is a powerhouse singer, she isn’t a terrific actor. (And Bradley Cooper can act, but can’t sing! So exactly why was this movie made?). If Beale Street Could Talk is my favorite movie in this category and the relationship is portrayed with a tenderness that belies the difficulties the couple faces.
SciFi (Inception/Metropolis)
Candidates (in descending order)
- Ready Player One
- Black Panther
- A Quiet Place
- Solo: A Star Wars Story
- Avengers: Infinity Wars
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
- Isle of Dogs
- Incredibles 2
I was kind of surprised that Isle of Dogs made it into the Sci-Fi genre, but it really is a difficult movie to classify, so maybe it belongs here. It had some good points, but clearly wasn’t the best. Incredibles 2 has, unfortunately, been outdated by the release of 18 movies in the Marvel Comic Universe between the first one and this sequel. The Star Wars film, the Avengers entry, and the Spider-Man animated feature were all fairly predictable and are worth a visit if you seen all the better Sci-Fi flicks. And those would be the top three. A Quiet Place is really a different movie that uses sound as one of its most important tools. Black Panther is, in my book, the best of the comic-book movies so far. And Ready Player One does the best job of combining action, visual effects, lots of nostalgic cultural references, and good old story-telling.
Sports(Senna/Rocco and his Brothers)
Candidates (in descending order):
- Free Solo
Free Solo is the only ‘Sports’ movie in this year’s Oscar nominees. Additionally, since I am not exactly a Sports aficionado, I don’t have a whole lot to say about the category and am unfamiliar with the benchmarks. Still, Free Solo, seems to me to have all the necessary ingredients for a good sports movie including the grueling preparation, the setback at one point, and, ultimately the glorious win. So enjoy this movie – it will fill the need.
Thriller (Dark Knight/Psycho)
Candidates (in descending order):
- First Reformed
- A Quiet Place
- Border
- Never Look Away
A Quiet Place is a sci-fi movie that also contains all the elements of a good thriller. The most interesting thing about this movie is how it uses sound to achieve so much of its thrilling character. First Reformed has thrilling aspects and is very well written, but it doesn’t keep you on the edge of your seat quite as much as A Quiet Place. Border is such a strange movie that it is difficult to find a genre home for it – ‘Thriller’ works, I suppose, but it doesn’t exactly excel there. Never Look Away is a long, complex, look at the life of a German artist. I suppose it contains some thrilling aspects, but probably no more than most people’s lives.
War(The Mountain II/Saving Private Ryan)
Candidates (in descending order):
- Of Fathers and Sons
Only one movie made it into the ‘War’ category, and it is also a documentary. It is kind of tough to think of a documentary as a candidate for a war movie because, especially if you look at the benchmark movies, there is a lot of bullets flying and heroes in the making in a good war movie. It is also made difficult by the fact that aside from the unusual perspective here – told from within an Al Qaeda members family – this doesn’t succeed very well even as a documentary. So if seeing a film about a real live terrorist and his family fits your notion of a ‘war’ movie than see it. But don’t hold your breath for the heroes.
Western (The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly/Treasure of Sierra Madre)
Candidates (in descending order):
- Ballad of Buster Scruggs
There’s only one western in this year’s Oscar nominees, so there isn’t much contest. On the other hand, this is a strange western and certainly doesn’t fit the mold of the benchmarks. This is part musical, part western, part comedy, and part just a regular old Coen Brothers film. The music is country western in style, and the stories in this collection are set in the old west. But, in a lot of ways, this is more like something from the Twilight Zone. Having said all that, I enjoyed the movie quite a bit.