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Oscars 2023: Our critics rate the best picture contenders
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Oscars 2023: Our critics rate the best picture contenders

We review the 10 nominees for Hollywood’s top prize, from Everything Everywhere All At Once to Top Gun: Maverick.

9 stories
Does Oscar favourite All Quiet on the Western Front deserve the hype?
★★★½

Does Oscar favourite All Quiet on the Western Front deserve the hype?

The battles in this powerful and harrowing war movie are full of confusion, terror and deadly luck.

  • by Paul Byrnes
Surreal, hectic: Everything Everywhere All At Once is not for the faint-hearted
★★★

Surreal, hectic: Everything Everywhere All At Once is not for the faint-hearted

Michelle Yeoh’s character is full of regrets in Everything Everywhere All at Once.

  • by Sandra Hall
Elvis is a tedious fever dream at times, but more compelling than Gatsby
★★★

Elvis is a tedious fever dream at times, but more compelling than Gatsby

Baz Luhrmann’s take on Elvis may well be his nearest approach to a heartfelt love story, with apologies to Romeo+Juliet stans.

  • by Jake Wilson
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Avatar: The Way of Water’s 
action-packed climax puts Marvel to shame
★★★½

Avatar: The Way of Water’s action-packed climax puts Marvel to shame

If James Cameron truly believes in anything, it’s the power of big-screen spectacle, and more than ever he’s determined to give us the works.

  • by Jake Wilson
Blackly comedy in Banshees of Inisherin; Triangle of Sadness is all bile and guile

Blackly comedy in Banshees of Inisherin; Triangle of Sadness is all bile and guile

Three Billboards director Martin McDonagh gives us another bucolic tragicomedy, while Sweden’s Ruben Ostlund offers degradation and depravity.

  • by Paul Byrnes, Sandra Hall and Jake Wilson
The Fabelmans is Steven Spielberg’s most personal movie yet
★★★★

The Fabelmans is Steven Spielberg’s most personal movie yet

In The Fabelmans, Steven Spielberg takes his own story and puts it on the screen, with a thin veneer of fiction to separate it from real life.

  • by Sandra Hall
Cate Blanchett sets the screen ablaze in the one-of-a-kind Tar
★★★★½

Cate Blanchett sets the screen ablaze in the one-of-a-kind Tar

Blanchett has already won a Golden Globe for immersing herself in every aspect of her character, and deserves the award success.

  • by Sandra Hall
It’s still cheesy, but Top Gun: Maverick has heart – and an older, wiser Tom Cruise
★★★½

It’s still cheesy, but Top Gun: Maverick has heart – and an older, wiser Tom Cruise

Once again, egos feature prominently in the film’s storyline, which centres on the edgy relationship between teamwork and competitiveness.

  • by Sandra Hall
Claire Foy is ferocious in the high-stakes drama of Women Talking
★★★★

Claire Foy is ferocious in the high-stakes drama of Women Talking

There’s a dreamy quality to Sarah Polley’s Oscar contender, which is based on a best-selling book inspired by sexual assaults in a religious colony.

  • by Sandra Hall
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Original URL: https://www.smh.com.au/culture/movies/oscars-2023-our-critics-rate-the-best-picture-contenders-20230309-p5cqv3.html