From Barbenheimer to Poor Things, these are the 2024 nominees for Best Picture, ranked from worst to best.
Early this morning (like, perversely early, as is tradition), Zazie Beetz and Jack Quaid presented a bleary-eyed America with the nominations for the 96th Annual Academy Awards. There were few big surprises among the 10 films selected to compete for Best Picture — it was an expected lineup that had solidified into gospel over the past few weeks. By nominations day, we usually have a pretty good idea of what movies we’re going to hear named.
Maybe that inevitability would be more disheartening if this weren’t a fairly solid crop of contenders. There are no true follies competing for Best Picture this year. And at the top, there are two near-masterpieces — including the best movie of the year, which happens to be the frontrunner, too. The lineup also covers a spectrum of budgets and definitions of success, with the year’s biggest sensations going toe-to-toe with smaller international fare (including an unprecedented three films entirely or mostly in a language other than English).
Of course, these 10 movies also constitute a spectrum of quality, too. And we’re here to run them down from worst to best, while also pointing readers to the ways they can see each to make their own personal ranking.
Need more Oscar recommendations? Check out how to watch the 2024 Oscars for free, 2024 Oscar predictions, 10 biggest Oscar snubs ever, 10 best Oscar-winning movies ever, 10 most Oscar-nominated movies ever, and 5 great Oscar-winning movies on Amazon Prime Video.10. Maestro
Impeccable craft in service of … what, exactly? That Bradley Cooper immersed himself in the life and work of Leonard Bernstein — laboring for years to get every detail right, behind and in front of the camera — is readily apparent. Maybe too apparent. A biopic as lavish vanity project, Maestro conducts its own internal For Your Consideration campaign, pleading for viewers to admire the showboating elegance of Cooper’s filmmaking and the equally fussy precision of his impression (aided by that most Academy-friendly accessory, a prosthetic nose). What the movie never offers is the suggestion of a perspective on its revered subject beyond a superficial interest in the contradictions of his love life as a queer philanderer still smitten with the woman he married. No critique of this handsome tribute to one man’s artistic ambitions (guess which man) could compete with the conclusions of Bernstein’s son, Alexander: “I do know that I learned a lot about Bradley Cooper.”9. American Fiction
American Fiction is two movies awkwardly smashed together — one a warmly observed portrait of Black American life, the other a cynical lit-world satire. There is, to be fair, some rhyme and reason to the bifurcation of writer-director Cord Jefferson’s debut feature: The scenes focused on the family and love life of struggling author Thelonious “Monk” Ellison (Jeffrey Wright) present a nuanced alternative to the stereotypical poverty porn he parodically parrots with his accidental bestseller. Unfortunately, the former material is so thoughtful — thanks in large part to the terrific performances of Wright, Sterling K. Brown, Tracee Ellis Ross, and more — that it can’t help but throw into sharper relief how broad the showbiz critique is. How outdated, too. In adapting Percival Everett’s 2001 novel Erasure, Jefferson selects a literary target way past its expiration date, to say nothing of how social media would make Monk’s lie so much harder to hide today. While the like-minded Bamboozled ruffled feathers in its day, American Fiction goes down smoother, never threatening to genuinely discomfort the audience that applauded it on the festival circuit.8. Barbie
The year’s biggest hit — a bona fide phenomenon that saved movies, if the headlines are to be believed — is among the most self-conscious blockbusters ever made. How do you sell a live-action Mattel playset without selling out? Greta Gerwig plainly poured that struggle into Barbie, a brightly irreverent studio comedy locked in constant, exhausting conversation with itself.
