If we're being real, the hardest thing I've ever had to experience--and, by proxy, surely one of the hardest things you'll ever have to experience--is that I'm just no good at being fun and compelling while writing about all the big, flashy movie categories--acting, directing, and writing. Now I've won a Pulitzer (and expect a Nobel, as well as some modest property on Mars) for the wild epiphanies I've had about, say, what the fish sounds in Avatar mean for human civilization or why the big collars on the costumes Eiko Ishioka designs are the most important invention known to humanity (yeah, vaccines are cool, I guess, but have you ever seen a bird wearing a hat designed by Eiko Ishioka? It'd rearrange your priorities too). And if you want to be here to watch me collect my Nobel/deed for my tract of land on Mars, to which I am only inviting Eiko Ishioka's birds, then feel free to pop in tomorrow where I'll be writing all about the movies crafts I dug during the 2023 cinematic year.
But alas, we find ourselves stuck in today, which means I am gonna continue my newfound love of (sort of) streamlining. I'll do quick writeups for the best of the year in acting, directing, and writing, and with any luck, both you and I will get some kind of respite from the hours-long punishment of yesterday's best of the year post. Hooray! Looks like that double hand transplant I was planning on will have to wait for another day (...probably Thursday).
So without further ado (I ran out of ado days ago and honestly don't know where to get more), let's dive in!
Note: I'll include some clips for the acting categories, but there won't be any rhyme or reason to who gets them or why--just whatever I feel like, whatever can be found on youtube, whenever I feel like it.
Best Actress
5. Margot Robbie-Barbie
4. Greta Lee-Past Lives
3. Carey Mulligan-Maestro
2. Sandra Hüller-Anatomy of a Fall
1. Lily Gladstone-Killers of the Flower Moon
Honorable mention: Emma Stone-Poor Things
Strong lineup, totally defined by balance: Margot Robbie embodying an ideal and a real person in Barbie, Greta Lee wanting the past and not wanting it at the same time in Past Lives, or Sandra Hüller keeping her thoughts to herself, until she doesn't in Anatomy. I don't have any love in my heart for Maestro, but who am I to deny the perfect 50/50 split of enthusiasm and weariness that Carey Mulligan brings to it, every moment in that movie worth watching belonging to her? It was tempting to give Hüller the top spot for any one of her broken silences, frustrated stares, or quiet (and loud) defenses, but this year has to belong to Lily Gladstone, who can say more with the slightest movement in her face or hands than most performers could shout.
Actor
5. Barry Keoghan-Saltburn
4. Colman Domingo-Rustin
3. Leonardo Dicaprio-Killers of the Flower Moon
2. Gael Garcia Bernal-Cassandro
1. Andrew Scott-All of Us Strangers
Honorable Mention: Cillian Murphy-Oppenheimer
Came this close to having Murphy in the top five, but what can I say? I can never turn down whatever wacky goblin antics Barry Keoghan has cooked up for us. Domingo carries his entire movie in his fast and fluid hands, elevating a pretty paint-by-numbers biopic, and Dicaprio gives arguably the best performance of his career as a particularly stupid and violent bulldog who can't quite wrap his head around his own ugliness. It was extremely tempting award the top spot to Bernal for the career-defining joy, energy, and blank-screen hurt of his eyes in Casssandro. Still, the right choice is Andrew Scott's (literally) haunted work in All of Us Strangers, a man (and performer) constantly thrown into impossible situations and doing his best to pretend that they don't matter that much.
Supporting Actress
5. Da'Vine Joy Randolph-The Holdovers
4. Taraji P. Henson-The Color Purple
3. Rosamund Pike-Saltburn
2. Rachel McAdams-Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.
1. Julianne Moore-May December
Honorable mention: Jodie Foster-Nyad
Absolute treasure trove of a category, with Foster or Catalina Saavedra in Rotting in the Sun or Hong Chau in Showing Up or Scarlett Johansson in Asteroid City all worthy contenders that could have easily cracked the top five in a weaker year. But I'm pleased with these choices, from Randolph's too strong and too brittle by half work in The Holdovers, Henson's brass and verve, as though ported in from a different universe, in The Color Purple, to Pike committing to the bit way harder than anyone else in Saltburn, to absolutely ridiculous results. McAdams is stellar, exuding this lived-in warmth and a tinge of regret that's head and shoulders above anything else in her(already great) career. But the top performance here (and probably my performance of the year) has to be Julianne Moore--a totally impossible, upsetting, infantilized and infantilizing chimaera of a woman, hiding behind a pastry or a pair of sunglasses.
Supporting Actor
5. Jacob Elordi-Saltburn
4. Jamie Bell-All of Us Strangers
3. Charles Melton-May December
2. Robert De Niro-Killers of the Flower Moon
Honorable mention: Josiah Cross-A Thousand and One
Weirdly hunky category this year. I love Elordi's gormless and brutal niceness in Saltburn, and the fact that I'm arguably the biggest Jamie Bell fan in the world (hopefully) doesn't change the fact that the tenderness he brings to All of Us Strangers transforms every scene he's in. It's deeply stupid that Charles Melton--former Riverdale hunk, current star on the apparent rise--was left off the Oscars shortlist, but I'm not gonna make that mistake. De Niro is great (something he has rediscovered how to do in the past few years, which is neat), but come on, is any of that (k)enough to take #1 from Ryan Gosling? One of the funniest and most creative performances we've all seen in a hot minute.
Director
5. Andrew Haigh-All of Us Strangers
4. Greta Gerwig-Barbie
3. Takashi Yamazaki-Godzilla Minus One
2. Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson-Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
1. Martin Scorsese-Killers of the Flower Moon
Honorable mention: Justine Triet-Anatomy of a Fall
Lots to love and admire here: Andrew Scott making the simultaneously loveliest and queasiest family reunion movie you've ever seen, Greta Gerwig marshalling actual armies, finding a way to make a Barbie movie tonally plausible while still intentionally ridiculous, and Takashi Yamazaki conjuring the scariest Godzilla (and the most effective cast) in 70 years. It would have been make me-related awards history by giving this award to an animated movie for the first time--and the Spider-Verse crew would have deserved it for bringing a movie of that scale and ambition over the finish line at all, much less with as much pep and panache as they managed. But Scorsese crafted a real work for the ages--a three and a half hour long movie that never makes the audience feel its weight, a movie about deeply evil men that never lets the audience tire of them or misunderstand them, an immaculately crafted epic that never forgets its own sense of scale.
Original Screenplay
5. Rotting in the Sun
4. Anatomy of a Fall
3. Barbie
2. May December
1. Asteroid City
Honorable mention: The Holdovers
Totally bizarre and unique array of movies here, being rewarded for their camp and their hideousness (May December, Rotting in the Sun), their high-concept buffoonery and wirework world-building (Barbie), or the labyrinths they build out of tension and suspicion (Anatomy of a Fall). But hey, why not give it to Asteroid City, a movie that does camp, high-concept buffoonery, world-building, labyrinths, and some real beauty to go along with it?
Adapted Screenplay
5. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
4. All of Us Strangers
3. A Knock at the Cabin
2. Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.
1. Killers of the Flower Moon
Honorable mention: Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
The Turtles return! Cannot tell if my awards have gone a little wonky this year because I missed most of the indie/international fare, and as such am filling the lists with what I readily get online, or if the big mainstream stuff this year just hit all the right marks. Either way, I'm happy to see Turtles, Knock, and Margaret represent the kind of adventurous and interesting studio fare that should still be getting shot out of Hollywood like cheap merchandise out of a t-shirt cannon. And I suppose Killers qualifies as well, in some regard, if only because a not-studio (Apple) shelled out an incredible amount of money to support something as thoughtful, quiet, and inquisitive as this.
And that's that! Once again, my promises of brevity were horrible, horrible lies. Honestly, I've been doing this for about 15 years now--at this point, if I tell you that I'm going to write something quick and streamlined and you believe me, that's as much on you as it is on me. Next year, one of us should probably hire someone to sit on top of my computer until I've cried myself to sleep and the possibility of posting movie lists is long gone. But in the mean time, what are your thoughts? I'll be back tomorrow to wrap up the best of lists with the crafts categories, and then again on Thursday to run through my Osar predictions.
Greta Lee was special
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