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