The Oscar-nominated 2023 films in a nutshell

Here is a very brief guide - which won't really guide you at all - to all 53 nominated films. 

20 Days in Mariupol: Devastation, up close and personal, as Russia invades Ukraine. You will be haunted by some image forever; for me, it's the simple pet turtle. 

American Fiction: It seems like the type of people who stand up to applaud at the reading of We's Lives In Da Ghetto are in charge of a lot right now. 

American Symphony: Mostly forgettable documentary that tells two stories and doesn't quite strike the chord I think it wants to. Jon Batiste is fascinating but do I need to watch him lie around and have talk therapy sessions via phone? I think no. 

Anatomy of a Fall: Maybe she did, maybe she didn't, I'm straight trippin' about that dog, though! 

Barbie: Feminism for Absolute Beginners, but to make it palatable to the mens we'll let the interminable Kens sequence go on and on and on for 50 times longer than a snippet of Closer to Fine plays 

Bobi Wine: The People's President: If you weren't already thoroughly demoralized by politics in your country, try becoming thoroughly demoralized about Uganda's instead! 

El Conde: Manic pixie dream exorcist

Elemental:  The main character is named Ember which is what I call Emma the Cat, and that is not the only reason I rather liked this!

Flamin' Hot: I was definitely the first one on my Awards Season block to see this. I am, simply put, a changed woman when it comes to the Flamin' Hot Cheetos. 

Four Daughter: Another documentary, another devastating experience, this time in Tunisia. 

Godzilla Minus One:  **completist minus one -- this isn't showing anywhere and I can't watch it** 

Golda: I could watch Golda Meir and Henry Kissinger banter all day. This is likely not the correct takeaway from this film. 

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: I find the GotG films refreshing and funny and thoroughly entertaining and was NOT prepared for an animal experimentation torture plot. What the. Come on, Marvel. Escapism? Please? 

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny: Time travel has never ever ever made sense in movies so why should it start now? 

Invincible: (SHORT)  Powerful performances, although the title is technically a lie, spoiler alert. 

Io Capitano: More powerful performances, man's inhumanity to man, a series of terrible events, and my goodness I am so into international human rights tragedy films. Why are they my type. 

Island in Between: (SHORT) Probably more interesting for me for the nostalgia/hey-I-used-to-live-around-there factor than the doc itself. 

Killers of the Flower Moon: More humans? More terrible things done to other humans. This is one of the most meticulously researched, planned, and well-executed pieces of filmmaking ever, but the pros made it look too easy. 

Knight of Fortune: (SHORT)  The quirky tug-at-your-heartstrings short. 

Letter to a Pig (SHORT): The beyond-quirky avant-garde quietly bizarre and profound short.

Maestro: The scene with the family where the grown kids put on the record and dance nostalgically and joyously seems to represent so much. Your hard work was worth it, Bradley. 

May December: Off the charts fucked-up humans and so delicious to watch them all self-destruct. 

Mission:Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One: Adrenaline x 1,000,000

Nai Nai & Wo Po: (SHORT) For me it's a hard pass on the fetishizing of grandmas. 

Napoleon: Batshit crazy Napoleon! Really makes me want to re-read War and Peace soon. 

Nimona: Woe is me no one understands me alas but I can't explain anything or answer a question because then I'd have to maybe stop whining?  #1 pet peeve alert. 

Ninety-Five Senses: (SHORT)  What does it in fact mean to be alive? This will sneak up on you with that question. 

Nyad: Pitch perfect performances from Annette and Jodie as they depict Diana Nyad's quest to swim from Florida to Cuba. 

Oppenheimer: Manly male humans blowing up the world, 'cause they can

Our Uniform: (SHORT) LOL @ the disclaimer to avoid offending people who like being forced to wear a hijab. 

Pachyderme: (SHORT) There is always a creepy one in the bunch. Leave the elephants out of it, you wicked humans. 

Past Lives: Writer things, Korea things, what to do with my life things, all my favorite things. Bonus for Nobel AND Pulitzer prize discussion plot points. 

Perfect Days: Also my kind of movie. And it takes my life's work of not defining people's lives by their work to the next level.     

Poor Things: The less said about this monstrosity the better, but it's basically a bunch of men using a woman's body and with a baby's brain to take advantage of, to boot! Easily the one of the three P___ ____s nominees that needs to gtfo. 

Red White and Blue: (SHORT)  My favorite live action short, which is about abortion and pulls off what it sets out to do perfectly. 

Robot Dreams: Past Lives, but for dogs who befriend mail order robots. 

Rustin: This year's flying-under-the-radar performance that will stump trivia players in future years trying to remember who else got nominated for 2023.  (Except the Obamas; they'll remember.) 

Society of Snow:  I have always been and do remain #TeamEatTheHumans

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: I still think multiple Spider-Man movies have the same titles but I found this one to be snazzily animated and engaging, if a bit heavy on the WOULD you just TELL him already plot drivers. 

The ABCs of Book Burning: (SHORT) Predictable, hot topic, but occasional bursts of awesome like the mullet kid who just likes to read and know about stuff. 

The After (SHORT): This year's oddly pointless little film with drama, violence, and a confusing ending. 

The Barber of Little Rock (SHORT): Non-profit community development is my jam! And also this guy's jam. He's good at it! 

The Boy and the Heron:  Definitely not short. As a Miyazaki heretic, I can only say: This finally ended. 

The Color Purple: Adaptation of an adaptation of an adaptation. Fantastic production and dancing. The songs themselves leave a bit to be desired. 

The Creator: In the great war with A.I., who is the real enemy?  The whole A.I.-getting-smarter/emotional thing, much like time travel, never ever ever makes sense, but we're probably never ever going to stop having people try to write these plots anyway. 

The Eternal Memory: The personal is political. With a bonus cat! Who shows up at least 3 times! 

The Holdovers: The Mormon church does not send parents of minor children on missions, so I couldn't get into this film until that plot hole flew away on a helicopter. After that: Misfit Friends Story for the win. 

The Last Repair Shop (SHORT): My favorite documentary short. A random slice of life, surprisingly touching human stories, art, making a difference, giving everyone a chance, L.A., all the good stuff is in this one.   

The Teachers' Lounge: I may still be decompressing from the teaching career I never wanted and too fragile to love this. 

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar: (SHORT)  Wes Anderson knows that he should really only have ever been making short films, right? 

The Zone of Interest: Bizarrely uninteresting film - because it's actually a conceptual art project - that manages to take a Martin Amis novel's premise of all things and make it even more male as it mansplains that well, ACTUALLY, what happened was, the Nazis were people who smugly carried on living their lives while being responsible for evil; you know, some people don't know that. 

To Kill A Tiger: No actual tigers appear in this film. It's a metaphor! 

War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko:  (SHORT)  And produced by the dollars of Sean and Yoko. But I liked it. War Is Over? As someone said about Life Is Beautiful back in 1998: "Would that it were."