Three Hour Runtimes: An Ode to Award Season

It’s that time of year, where I feverishly attempt to catch up with a year’s worth of important films so that I can inevitably answer the question, “What movie should I vote for for Best Picture on my workplace Oscar ballot?” There were a lot of things I thought about writing on this for this latest newsletter—which had a high bar to cross after that big Rear Window deep dive—including just straight-up giving you my thoughts on some new movies I’ve seen. But after watching Avatar: The Way of Water, Babylon, She Said, and The Banshees of Inisherin in rather rapid succession I just figured, let’s talk about Oscar movies.

Or, more specifically, let’s talk about why I feel completely adrift from this year’s Oscar movies. Part of that could be work related, as I focus on TV year-round these days and prioritize movie viewing based off what I like. But that being said, I just haven’t felt the pull to see a lot of stuff and what I have been drawn to feels very unexpected. If you asked me what my favorite movies of this year are I’d tell you Elvis, Turning Red, Bullet Train, X, and the new Puss in Boots movie. Yep, that’s my year in a nutshell. This makes sense if you know me. Baz Luhrmann musicals, action films (with a personal bias thrown in there), animated movies, and nostalgic horror films are my jam.