Just sharing a few thoughts as I saw most of the most nominated films this year (though not Avatar, Triangle of Sadness, or Whale).
Best Picture: First, Everything Everywhere is deserving. I guess it depends what you're looking for in a Best Picture. Do you want the movie that is the most entertaining (Top Gun), the movie that you feel the most (Fabelmans), the one that is the most seemingly simplistic but actually brilliant (Banshees), or the most emotionally moving (All Quiet). Personally, I may have voted Fabelmans, but I loved EEAAO.
Best Actor: I didn't see the Whale because I don't think I'll enjoy it, so I can't speak to the performance. I am glad Butler didn't win for Elvis. I'm not on board with impersonations winning acting awards. I really like Farrell in Banshees, and with what I saw, would've voted him.
Best Actress: Couldn't go wrong with Michelle Yeoh. I probably would've gone Blanchett, but I had no qualms.
Director: The Daniels. I agreed. Deserving, well done.
Best Supporting Actor: Here is where I have an issue with a lot of acting awards. How hard did Ke Huy Quan really act? I loved the movie, but it seemed it was just him being him. This is kind of like Christoph Waltz' acting awards. Like Quan, I loved his performances in Inglorious Basterds and Django, but eventually I realized there isn't all that much acting going on, that's just him being him, which, while incredibly entertaining, isn't necessarily tremendous acting.
Best Supporting Actress: I though Stephanie Hsu should win, but I didn't see Black Panther or the Whale. Still, I thought Hsu's performance in EEAAO was better than Curtis'.
Other thoughts:
I'll admit I may not know enough to sound off on this, but what exactly is cinematography? I ask because I don't know if it's production, direction, or cinematography, the first 30 minutes of Babylon should win something there. It won production design, but what I'm talking about are those single shots running through and all around the party. Regardless of what you think of what was happening in that sequence, or the movie overall, the ability to capture what they did in a single shot was completely breathtaking to me.
Top Gun: The Oscars just miss on things like this. It was just a great movie. The most entertaining movie of the year to me. Incredible technical accomplishment, really good acting, and yet...1 award. I'm not sure what the answer is, but when the movies people love receive no true acknowledgment, film has an issue.
Salma Hayek. When will she stop being the hottest thing at the show? I know she's aging at the same rate as me, but I would like to spend an evening with her as much if not more than I did 24 years ago at the release of Dogma.
Never one to intentionally commit penalties, for flag purposes:
