Ranking the Oscar 2017 Best Picture Nominees
The 2017 Academy Awards air in less than a week and this year’s pack of movies is as good as ever. Three nominees landed in my personal Top 10, and four more would have cracked my Top 25. This whole week I will be doing a lot of Oscar-themed lists and to kick it off I am going to do a list ranking the Oscar 2017 Best Picture nominees. I can say that every movie on this list is, in some way, deserving of its nomination. Do I feel some films got snubbed? Sure, but that’s the Oscars for you. Here is my personal ranking of this year’s Best Picture nominees.
9 – HIDDEN FIGURES (Theodore Melfi)
Hidden Figures is a pure delight. Led by a strong, stellar cast telling an incredible true story, this is the feel good movie and story of 2016. This was a movie that came out of nowhere and surprised everyone in its quality, box office, and recent Screen Actors Guild win for Best Ensemble, which set the film firmly on the awards path. This is the feel-good movie of 2016 and the underdog story of Oscar 2017.
8 – MOONLIGHT (Barry Jenkins)
Look, I know I am lower on this movie than literally everyone else in the world. Barry Jenkins’s raw, intimate look at a child trying to find his place in life while living in the tough Miami projects is one of the most powerful movies of 2016. I feel that the acting is first-rate and the first two acts, Little and Chiron, are masterpieces. But, the third act, Black, just didn’t hit me as emotionally as I wanted. This is still a great movie and one that I have immense respect for.
7 – FENCES (Denzel Washington)
Fences should be called The Denzel Washington Show. This is Washington’s third directorial effort and it is his best. It is a pitch perfect adaptation of August Wilson’s legendary play with two of the very best performances of 2016 from Viola Davis, who is a sure-fire win in the Best Supporting Actress category, and Washington himself, who gives one of the best performances of his career and one he could win his third Oscar for. This is a riveting, beautiful family drama.
6 – LION (Garth Davis)
Lion is one of the few movies in 2016 that gave me the feels. Garth Davis’s incredible true story about a young Indian boy who gets lost at a bus station and goes on an incredible, 20-plus year journey to find a home and find his family again. This is an epic movie in scale and scope, telling a decades long story with constant emotion and moving character development. Led by Oscar nominated turns by Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman, Lion is one that will pull at the heartstrings.
5 – HACKSAW RIDGE (Mel Gibson)
Welcome back, Mel Gibson! Hacksaw Ridge is a powerhouse, explosive film and the best war movie since The Hurt Locker (2009). Gibson is in top form here, perfectly balancing a character-driven story with the horrors of war. Oscar nominee Andrew Garfield is stellar and solidifies his status as a Hollywood leading man. This is the best direction of Gibson’s career and a return back to the Oscar club.
4 – HELL OR HIGH WATER (David Mackenzie)
This is a movie that has ran the gauntlet in 2016. It made its debut at the Cannes Film Festival, did incredibly well in a limited box office, survived the awards circuit, and now, is nominated for Best Picture. This is a slick, tension-builder with classic Western tropes mixed with new twists. Jeff Bridges is sensational and rightly earned his Oscar nomination, as were co-stars Chris Pine and Ben Foster, both of whom could have been nominated. This indie smash is one of the finest Westerns of the 21st century.
3 – MANCHESTER BY THE SEA (Kenneth Lonergan)
Similar to Hell or High Water, Manchester by the Sea also ran the 2016 gauntlet, starting it’s cinematic life at the Sundance Film Festival in January and running the table since then. The only difference is, we knew from the get go Manchester was going to be a smash and it is. This is an emotionally crushing tour-de-force about forgiveness and family. Casey Affleck gives the best performance of 2016 and Michelle Williams gives a performance that rips your heart. Kenneth Lonergan has created a beautiful, nuanced American film.
2 – ARRIVAL (Denis Villeneuve)
Arrival is science fiction at it’s absolute best. Denis Villeneuve, who has proven time and time again, with Prisoners (2013) and Sicario (2015), that he is one of the best directors working today has created a masterpiece. In Arrival, he gets a stellar lead performance from the criminally robbed Amy Adams, gives us astounding visuals, and deep messages that resonate to the societal issues of today. This is a film that pushes the science fiction genre to a new level, elevating the film language as we know it.
1 – LA LA LAND (Damien Chazelle)
There is a reason this is the frontrunner. It is a movie I fell in love with from the very first scene. This is a bright, colorful, dazzling throwback to classic musicals of the 1950’s. Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are to die for as the couple on the Hollywood grind. Chazelle’s direction is so impressive, you could never tell this is only his third feature film. This is a movie that makes you smile from ear to ear the entire run time. It is the best movie of this year’s Best Picture nominees and the best movie of 2016.
What are you favorite Oscar 2017 Best Picture Nominees? Comment below or hit me up on Twitter and Instagram, @kevflix, or on Facebook by searching Kevflix.