Despite the virulent, virtue-signal-laden discourse in the wake of their announcement, this year’s crop of Oscar nominations is the strongest in many years (at risk of giving too much credit to the Academy, this was also a stronger year of movies). Thankfully, there are still plenty of fuckups for us to correct (though perhaps not the ones you’re thinking of). So, without further ado, welcome once again to:
THE COULDA WOULDA SHOULD-AWARDS!
For those of you who missed our previous installment, the CWS-Awards are a chance to recognize a few alternative favorites from the 2023 movie season, given the Academy’s continued tradition of dropping the ball. This year we’re getting out in front of things and tapping in post-nominations, but pre-Oscar’s, so you can hold us accountable for our picks. For the sake of everyone’s straining eyesight, we’ll limit things to the Big Ten topline categories, kicking off with Best Score:
Note 1: An * next to an Oscar nominee reflects Nate’s personal selection amongst nominated contenders.
Note 2: Though spoilers are limited, a few plot details for nominated films will appear below, so consider this your official spoiler warning.
BEST SCORE
2024 Oscars Nominees:
- American Fiction (Laura Karpman)
- Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (John Williams)
- Killers of the Flower Moon (Robbie Robertson)*
- Oppenheimer (Ludwig Göransson)
- Poor Things (Jerskin Fendrix)
Nate’s Coulda Woulda Should-Award Nominees:
5. Oppenheimer
4. Killers of the Flower Moon
3. Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse (Daniel Pemberton)
2. The Boy And The Heron AKA How Do You Live (Joe Hisaishi)
And The Winner Is: May December (Marcelo Zarvos)
In many ways emblematic of the year in film itself, the scores of 2023 were as diverse as they were indelible; from modern master Ludwig Göransson’s balance of tension and grandiosity in Oppenheimer, to longtime legend Joe Hisaishi’s latest triumph of melancholic intimacy in partnership with Hayao Miyazaki; Daniel Pemberton’s continued musical innovations in the second Spider-Verse installment, and Robbie Robertson final (RIP) swampy-yet-sweeping backdrop to Killers of the Flower Moon.
I would argue that no score was both as unforgettable and as essential to the narrative and tone of its film as Marcelo Zarvos’ hyper-melodramatic composition for May December. In lockstep with its pathologically-self-serious “protagonists” (to use the term very loosely), Zarvos’ Lynchian score batters listeners with artificial tension, hilarious and unsettling in its commitment to the overwrought bit. And much like with the characters at the film’s center, we’re constantly forced to wonder how in on the joke it is.
Honorable Mentions: Master Gardener, Godzilla Minus One (and retroactively Pharoahe Monch), Anatomy of a Fall, Beau is Afraid
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
2024 Oscars Nominees:
- El Conde (Ed Lachman)
- Killers of the Flower Moon (Rodrigo Prieto)
- Maestro (Matthew Libatique)*
- Oppenheimer (Hoyte van Hoytema)
- Poor Things (Robbie Ryan)
Nate’s Coulda Woulda Should-Award Nominees:
5. The Iron Claw (Mátyás Erdély)
4. Leave The World Behind (Tod Campbell)
3. Asteroid City (Robert Yeoman)
2. John Wick 4 (Dan Laustsen)
And The Winner Is: Maestro
The Iron Claw captivates with the grace and degradation of its subjects’ lives inside and outside the ring. Leave The World Behind inverts and disorients in a constant escalation of tension. Wes Anderson’s all-too-often frigid meticulousness warms to the perfect temperature in Asteroid City, offering us a visual feast without freezing its emotional core. The stylish kineticism of the John Wick franchise ascends to a neon-washed apex in its fourth installment.
And above the rest is Maestro, a film burdened by multiple inane controversies, but uncontroversial in its visual brilliance. From moments of claustrophobic intimacy to its showstopping Mahler sequence, it’s an exceptional piece of cinematography that plays an essential role in translating what made Bernstein so brilliant, without demanding an exposition dump to get the point across.
Honorable Mentions: Oppenheimer, The Creator, Barbie, Saltburn, The Killer, Beau Is Afraid, Magazine Dreams, The Holdovers, How To Blow Up A Pipeline
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
2024 Oscars Nominees:
- American Fiction (Cord Jefferson)
- Barbie (Greta Gerwig, Noah Baumbach)*
- Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan)
- Poor Things (Tony McNamara)
- The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer)
Nate’s Coulda Woulda Should-Award Nominees:
5. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Christopher Miller, Dave Callaham, Phil Lord)
4. How To Blow Up A Pipeline (Daniel Goldhaber, Ariela Barer, Jordan Sjol)
3. Barbie
2. The Killer (Andrew Kevin Walker)
And The Winner Is: Killers of the Flower Moon (Eric Roth, Martin Scorsese)
The truest snub of this Oscar season, the Academy’s inability to recognize the towering achievement of Eric Roth and Martin Scorcese’s (and allegedly Paul Thomas Anderson in phantom script doctor form) Killers Of The Flower Moon reimagining, is baffling. The decision to shift focus away from the formation of the FBI and the true crime mystery and on to the intimate devastation wrought upon the Osage by their conspiratorial neighbors is a triumph of adaptation in the truest form, rendering the essential components of the original narrative clearly, while brilliantly (and essentially) reimagining the lens through which the story was told.
Barbie remains pound for pound the funniest adaptation of the year and The Killer’s metatextual meditations and unreliable narration elevate an already taught thriller. Spider-Verse ascends a level from its already excellent predecessor and How To Blow Up a Pipeline stylishly modernizes the heist movie formula for our contemporary moment of eco-panic. Yet none fully achieve the synergy of impact and innovation of KOTFM.
Honorable Mentions: Oppenheimer, Godzilla Minus One
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
2024 Oscars Nominees:
- Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet, Arthur Harari)*
- The Holdovers (David Hemingson)
- Maestro (Bradley Cooper, Josh Singer)
- May December (Samy Burch)
- Past Lives (Celine Song)
Nate’s Coulda Woulda Should-Award Nominees:
5. The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki)
4. Asteroid City (Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola)
3. Bottoms (Emma Seligman, Rachel Sennott)
2. May December
And The Winner Is: Anatomy of a Fall
The brutal satire of May December had a stranglehold on this category until, in the final moments of 2023, I was finally able to see Justine Triet’s brilliant, polyglottic, temporally-hopscotching courtroom drama Anatomy of a Fall. On degree of difficulty alone, the Anatomy script is a masterwork, both in its trilingual construction and the essential role its metatextual exploration of the limitations of multi-lingual dialogue plays in its broader narrative and commentary (reminiscent of 2021’s Drive My Car).
But if we’re being completely honest, this category was a wash the second Triet decided to center her murder mystery around a steel drum cover of “P.I.M.P.”
Honorable Mentions: Beau Is Afraid, Passages, Past Lives, Maestro, Showing Up
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
- Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer)
- Danielle Brooks (The Color Purple)
- America Ferrera (Barbie)
- Jodie Foster (Nyad)
- Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers)*
Nate’s Coulda Woulda Should-Award Nominees:
5. Pom Klementieff (Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One)
4. Julianne Moore (May December)
3. Tilda Swinton (The Killer)
2. Hong Chau (Showing Up)
And The Winner Is: Nikki Amuka-Bird (A Knock At The Cabin)
Often, a film or performance from early in the calendar year suffers the unfortunate consequence of fading into the half-remembered ether come Oscar season. But as I looked back on the year in supporting performances, it was impossible to shake the haunted conflict at the heart of Nikki Amuka-Bird’s performance as “Sabrina,” one of the four acolytes in M. Night Shamalan’s pretty-good-not-great maybe-apocalyptic thriller, A Knock At The Cabin.
Though David Bautista rightly earned a good deal of acclaim in the early months of ‘23 for his against-type performance in the film, Amuka-Bird’s portrayal was ultimately the most memorable; a masterclass in rapidly shifting expressivity.
Honorable Mentions: Rina Sawayama, Adéle Exarchopoulos, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Scarlett Johannson, Parker Posey, Havana Rose Liu, Ruby Cruz, Kate McKinnon
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
2024 Oscars Nominees:
- Sterling K. Brown (American Fiction)
- Robert DeNiro (Killers of the Flower Moon)
- Robert Downey Jr. (Oppenheimer)*
- Ryan Gosling (Barbie)
- Mark Ruffalo (Poor Things)
Nate’s Coulda Woulda Should-Award Nominees:
5. Marshawn Lynch (Bottoms)
4. Robert Pattinson (The Boy and the Heron)
3. Swann Arlaud (Anatomy of a Fall)
2. Charles Melton (May December)
And The Winner Is: Donnie Yen (John Wick 4)
A few scattered thoughts:
- Marshawn Lynch has entered the funniest athlete alive conversation.
- There is very little that is as much fun to watch (or listen to) as R Patt going for it.
- Sexy Defense Attorney is the new Hot Priest
- Melton is too good and too inhumanly attractive to not be back at the awards soon, but boy did he deserve a nom for this one.
Four brilliant, award-worthy performances. None of which stood a chance against this.
Honorable Mentions: Ben Wishaw, Robert Downey Jr., Daniel Kaluuya, Matt Bomer, Ryan Gosling, Milo Machado Graner, John Magaro, Dave Bautista, Robert DeNiro
BEST ACTOR
2024 Oscars Nominees:
- Bradley Cooper (Maestro)
- Colman Domingo (Rustin)
- Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers)
- Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer)*
- Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction)
Nate’s Coulda Woulda Should-Award Nominees:
5. Bradley Cooper (Maestro)
4. Franz Rogowski (Passages)
3. Teo Yoo (Past Lives)
2. Leonardo DiCaprio (Killers of the Flower Moon)
And The Winner Is: Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer)
Best Actor is one of the few categories of the year where there is a decent shot at an Oscar’s/Coulda-Woulda-Should Awards crossover. A Cillian-devotee since the early days, it’s been wonderful to see the most beautiful pair of eyes in the business finally get the role, and the recognition, they’ve long deserved.
I would bet significant money on the Academy’s disregard for Leo’s turn as Ernest Burkhardt aging horrifically, and continue to be baffled by the narrative that it is bad that Bradley Cooper tries hard at acting, and wish we lived in the sort of cinematically engaged world that celebrated performances like those we got in 2024 from Teo Yoo and Franz Rogowski, but I’m thrilled by Cillian’s front-runner status and am sincerely hoping it holds.
Honorable Mentions: Kamiki Ryunosuke, Zac Efron, Michael Fassbender, Jason Schwartzman, Joaquin Phoenix, Joel Edgerton, Mahershala Ali, Chris Pine, Paul Giamatti, Denzel Washington
BEST ACTRESS
2024 Oscars Nominees:
- Annette Bening (Nyad)
- Lily Gladstone (Killers of the Flower Moon)************************
- Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall)
- Carey Mulligan (Maestro)
- Emma Stone (Poor Things)
Nate’s Coulda Woulda Should-Award Nominees:
5. Ayo Adeberi (Bottoms)
4. Natalie Portman (May December)
3. Carey Mulligan (Maestro)
2. Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall)
And The Winner Is: Lily Gladstone
Certain Women heads will not be surprised, but Lily Gladstone’s work in Killers of the Flower Moon is pantheon-worthy stuff. Acting opposite two of the most titanic names in Hollywood history, Gladstone delivers a truly gravitational performance – a constantly evolving cocktail of charisma and rage and desire and anguish bubbling beneath a stoic exterior.
Not only is this noteworthy, it’s essential; in the hands of a lesser actor, Killers becomes a film about the titular Killers or the lawmen who brought (some of) them down. The movie would be all the worse for that, just another in the long line of stories about the trauma inflicted on indigenous people rather than about the indigenous people themselves. Gladstone makes that impossible, demanding the frame each time she enters it and making us feel her absence desperately each time she leaves.
Honorable Mentions: Cailee Spaeny, Hailey Steinfeld, Kaitlyn Dever, Greta Lee, Kitty Greene, Rachel Sennot, Michelle Williams
BEST DIRECTOR
2024 Oscars Nominees:
- Justine Triet (Anatomy of a Fall)*
- Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon)
- Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer)
- Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things)
- Jonathan Glazer (The Zone of Interest)
Nate’s Coulda Woulda Should-Award Nominees:
5. Hayao Miyazaki (The Boy and the Heron)
4. Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer)
3. Chad Stahelski (John Wick 4)
2. Justine Triet (Anatomy of a Fall)
And The Winner Is: Martin Scorsese
Chris Moltisanti said it best.
Honorable Mentions: Bradley Cooper, Todd Haynes, Takashi Yamazaki, David Fincher, Wes Anderson, Greta Gerwig, Daniel Goldhaber, Emma Seligman
BEST PICTURE
2024 Oscars Nominees:
- American Fiction
- Anatomy of a Fall
- Barbie
- The Holdovers
- Killers of the Flower Moon
- Maestro
- Oppenheimer
- Past Lives
- Poor Things
- The Zone of Interest
Nate’s Coulda Woulda Should-Award Nominees:
10. Bottoms
9. How To Blow Up A Pipeline
8. The Killer
7. Maestro
6. May December
5. John Wick 4
4. Anatomy of a Fall
3. Oppenheimer
2. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
And The Winner Is: Killers of the Flower Moon
In the wise words of my dear friend and co-podcaster Zach Phillis, “just shut the fuck up and pee your pants like an adult.” A movie does not need to be long to be great. But some great movies need to be long. Condemning the runtime of Killers of the Flower Moon as a prestige play or an underbaked edit (watch your mouth when you’re talking about Thelma Schoonmaker) misses the fundamental point that this story should not be easy to swallow.
Scorcese’s late-period masterpiece is many things: a reminder of the trauma that is an essential component of a capitalist society; an investigation of the banal process by which that trauma is inflicted; a long overdue telling of a long overlooked national horror; and an admission of the complicity involved in telling that story in a medium of entertainment. It is a film aware of its own burdens that never allows itself, or its viewers, to become comfortable with them. It is one of the best films of the decade thus far; one of the best in the celebrated director’s cannon; and most importantly… the 2024 Coulda Woulda Should-Awards Best Picture.
Honorable Mentions: The Boy and the Heron, Asteroid City, Past Lives, Barbie, Godzilla Minus One
You can find Nate’s complete 2023 film rankings here
