Ranking the 2019 Best Picture Nominees

The Movie Madness Facebook group ranks the 2019 Best Picture nominees and - go figure - kind of agrees with public opinion

Because all of you asked (nobody asked), the Movie Madness Madheads have ranked the nine nominees up for Best Picture at this years Oscars. Whether or not the Academy will see things the same way we do – well, we can't both be wrong. But here’s what a few of the Movie Madness Reviewers had to say about these nine nominees, ranked by the masses.

9. Marriage Story: Noah Baumbach tells a tale that will feel familiar to the majority of couples whether you’ve never even entertained the idea of divorce or you’ve embraced and endured it, and that is because it’s the rather unremarkable tale of compromise and selfishness in one’s marriage told through the remarkable lens of Broadway and Hollywood success. As a married woman, a mom, a feminist, and as the daughter of divorced parents, I expected to feel those “yes! Sisterhood! Men can get away with so much more than women!” lines Dern and Johansson speak more deeply. But perhaps the fact that they were written for women by a man made them less relatable? If the premise of choosing oneself or one’s marriage strikes too close to your homefront, you may prefer to skip it. If not, the writing and Driver’s performance are to me what made it nomination-worthy but doubtful it takes home the grand prize tonight. 0 votes (Brett McKenzie)

8. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: If you're a fan of Inglourious Basterds and Tarantino's alt-history bent, this movie is for you. If you're a fan of over-the-top gore (after a yarn about an actor), this movie is for you. If you're a fan of Sharon Tate living her best life (sorry, spoilers), this movie is for you.

If you were born long after the Manson murders and you don’t have an emotional connection with the "golden age" of Hollywood, this movie might be tough.

The target audience is very specific. Luckily, that audience is basically the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences – the body that awards the Oscars. 4 votes (Annie Stevenson)

7. Ford v Ferrari: Matt Damon is Carroll Shelby (creator of the Shelby Cobra), charismatic driver-turned-carmaker. Christian Bale is Ken Miles, race car driving savant andmechanical poet. Miles doesn't always win, andShelby doesn't always do the right thing. But these friends have been ready to take on the world since they first sat in a fast car. Enter Henry Ford II and Enzo Ferrari – titans of industry. They are prepared to do whatever it takes to beat the crap out of each other on the track. The stage is Le Mans, a 24-hour race in France that means more to all involved than they're ready to admit. Throw in Miles's adorable young son and some corporate backstabbing, and the drama writes itself. This movie is the story of a race. But it's also a story of two men who defined motorsports for the next fifty years. 4 votes (Annie Stevenson)

6. The Irishman: The Irishman is basically the sequel to Goodfellas. And the sequel to that movie. It took me a month to watch because I could never be sure if I’d have three and a half hours free at once. But it’s Scorsese and DeNiro and Pesci and Pacino. So you know it’s quality. Pacino’s silky-smooth turn as Hoffa reminded me how taken for granted he can be. And there was a scene in there about something as mundane as trying to remember what kind of fish Hoffa’s son had transported in the car earlier that exquisitely carried the tension of the implication of a wrong answer juxtaposed against such ridiculous subject matter that if you squinted enough, you could almost hear them say “You mean funny like a clown?” And I’m all for trying something new, like releasing the movie straight to Netflix and making it two movies standing on top of each other, but when the one thing people most talk about is the length of the movie, that’s probably not a good sign. 4 votes (Dustin Fisher)

5. Joker: Not your grandma’s comic book movie! In Joker, DC’s latest intro into the plethora of comic book movies released over the last decade (looking at you Marvel) looks at the origin story of Joker, the caped crusaders most well known adversary.  While this movie is definitely not canon and is closer to Michael Douglas’s 1993 Falling Down, it gives a gritty, dark look into the events that drove the Joker to his life of crime.  A great, if utterly depressing movie, if you are feeling down or have thoughts of inadequacy or suicide, maybe pick up the Princess Bride, or Die Hard, otherwise you can’t go wrong with Joker. 9 votes (Uriah Robbins)

4. Little Women: It really must be said that when an ensemble cast is so talented that you forget for a moment that Meryl Streep and Laura Dern are even in a film, you know that the casting director has done their job. The way that Greta Gerwig has written her adaptation of the film is something that could be lifted and replicated in almost any period in time, but it works very well in its original setting and a lot of that is due to Gerwig’s attention to detail.

Don’t just take your daughters to this movie; take your sons. We begin conditioning our kids very early on to either be a part of or be a victim of a misogynist society and this movie is really the antithesis of that. Please take your sons, husbands, fathers, take your whole family to see this fantastic film – a timeless story but told freshly in a way that the world need to hear and see. 9 votes (Brett McKenzie)

3. JoJo Rabbit: This is what we used to call a Dramedy when we had our video store. Taika Watiti is able to take us on a journey that is like life – traveling through an emotional landscape from comedy to tragedy to poignancy and back again. There are scenes that just make you gasp, they are so unexpected and jarring. Then there are others that prompt belly laughs.

While there are similarities to Life is Beautiful - a young boy is protected by his parent from the horrors and truth of Hitler’s reign - one also has to give a nod to The Producers by Mel Brooks where the play Springtime for Hitler has the monster singing and dancing in silly songs.

In the end, the message of the film comes through that even in the face of unspeakable evil and cruelty, the humanity of enough people will manage, through courage, sacrifice, humor and open hearts, to restore a sense of compassionate community. It’s a message that I can use these days. 11 votes (Sherry Wack)

2. Parasite: In my pick for best picture of the year (since Die Hard is not eligible) Bong Joon Ho, gives us a cinematic masterpiece, that focuses on the Kim family, a down on their luck, lower class family that consists of the parents and their two adult aged children, as they embark on the con of a century.   What Ho presents us, at first glance, is a by the books social commentary, the 1% versus the rest of us, but upon closer inspection, what we really get is a social commentary, wrapped in a brilliantly done heist movie, that takes a turn into the unexpected!  It’s hard to discuss much without going into spoiler territory and I assure you, spoilers will ruin the experience, so get stop what you’re doing right now and see Parasite, so you can say you saw the years best picture before it was cool. 11 votes (Uriah Robbins)

1. 1917: I walked into the theater a sceptic, prepared to throw shade all over this new overrated war epic. Apparently anybody can win an Oscar if they just throw enough money at a period piece, especially one about war. Hey! Nobody’s done World War I in a while. Let’s do that one!

But Mendes made every dollar count. 1917 took the Birdman gimmick of a single 2-hour tracking shot and decided to make it about something more meaningful. Yes, war. And sure, there are probably a few places where the magic movie people are able to throw in a cut or two, and I also know Birdman didn’t invent the technique (Hitchcock and Warhol are among the more popular of yesteryear), but it did just win a Best Picture Oscar for this exact thing just five years ago. But the scope this film must have went through to create this world – the mile-long trenches that needed to be built, the number of actors and crew that needed to be coordinated, and the continuity that needed to be… continued was – dare I say Oscar-worthy. Probably Best Picture, Cinematography, Production Design, and maybe a handful of other technical awards. Unlike at least half of the epic Best Pictures from the last decade, I will rubber stamp 1917 for each little golden person it takes home tonight. Which fortunately leaves me plenty of shade to throw at Tarantino. 24 votes (Dustin Fisher)