The success of the Hollywood Reporter’s annual “Brutally Honest Oscar Ballot” feature means that other magazines and websites have started copying the idea. Next Best Picture copied the idea with their piece “Anonymous Oscar Ballots.” It’s basically the exact same thing – they identify which branch the Oscar voter belongs to and they just transcribe his or her feelings about the nominees and how they’re voting and why. NBP did three voters in one post, but only the first two voters said anything of interest. Or maybe that’s because I love that these two voters despised Banshees of Inisherin, the most overrated f–king Best Picture nominee. Here are some highlights from Voter #1, a “voter at large” in AMPAS.
On “Everything Everywhere All At Once”: I saw it at SXSW last year. I didn’t get it initially as a middle-aged white man. I recognized there was certainly a lot of movie in there, but it didn’t resonate with me. And then it was one of the craziest Q&As I’d ever seen. It turned into a sort of group therapy thing with the audience. And then I saw it twice more. And then it wasn’t until the third viewing that it finally clicked. It’s exhilarating to see a generation of films made that are not designed to speak to me as a white guy that I have to work to get into emotionally to appreciate. But I think it’s a fantastic achievement. The ability to put that movie together is something special.
On “The Banshees Of Inisherin”: I actually despise that movie. I got incensed by these two characters I totally disliked. I want to buy some therapy for both of them and call it a day. Maybe I don’t get it because it’s an Irish thing, but they’re both such jerks. I’m glad it worked for others but not for me.
Best Actor: It should be Brendan Fraser. I have some complicated feelings about “The Whale” but not about him. I thought he was extraordinary. And I’m a sucker for a good comeback story.
Best Supporting Actress: My partner and I had the most vehement disagreement over this category. He wants it to go to Stephanie Hsu. I’m voting for Jamie Lee Curtis. We’ve had some heated passionate conversations about this, and I just keep coming back to the fact that Jamie has never won. And he’s like, “How can you vote for this over Jobu Tupaki?!” Watch me! But in all honesty, I’ll be thrilled for any of these five women to win. This may be the toughest category this year.
Best Supporting Actor: It’s not even a race. Ke Huy Quan
Now, I don’t despise Banshees, but I do feel like people are pretending to like it because they want to believe it’s some brilliant allegory. It’s not. It’s just a stupidly overwrought film about Irish blokes. Now, Voter #2 is a member of the Sound Branch of the Academy and they hated Banshees as well. Some highlights:
On All Quiet & Babylon: I watched part of “All Quiet On The Western Front,” and I just decided I didn’t need to see body parts flying around, so I shut it off. “Babylon” was just so over the top, and I don’t like to think of Hollywood when I watch movies. I want to escape.
Banshees: I didn’t understand the love for “The Banshees Of Inisherin.” It was a miserable waste of time and money. Two guys used to be friends, and now they aren’t? What’s the point of that?
On Tar: “Tár” was a great film. It was extremely well done for what it was. But I have to admit; I didn’t like the premise. Cate Blanchett does a great job, as she always does. I wouldn’t say I liked that she was this predatory lesbian. And I read reviews about the real person it’s based on, and she didn’t seem to be like that. It’s engaging but depressing. I appreciated that the music was actually played live.
Best Actress: Cate Blanchett was fantastic, but I’m voting for Michelle Yeoh in “Everything Everywhere All At Once.” Andrea Riseborough is fine in “To Leslie,” but I’m very upset Danielle Deadwyler didn’t get in. I would have voted for her. “Till” was an amazing, nuanced movie that really made you feel a lot. I’m not sure what happened there. The way it handled the violence and bravery of this mother was exemplary, but she isn’t even on the ballot. Ana de Armas is ok. She’s playing a recognizable famous person, and she cries a lot. What else is there?
Best Supporting Actress: Angela Bassett for me. Though I think Jamie Lee Curtis will win. You have to ask…are people voting for the performance or that person’s career?
Best Supporting Actor: I’m voting for Ke Huy Quan. What a great performance and personal story. I also met Brian Tyree Henry, who was so nice. It’s funny how that influences my vote. People complained about Andrea Riseborough’s nomination for soliciting votes but everyone does that.
Love the hate for Ana de Armas’s performance in Blonde! There’s some consistency there – voters across the board are like “why is Ana in this category??” I’m actually dying at “I read reviews about the real person it’s based on, and she didn’t seem to be like that” – Lydia Tar is not a real person and she’s not based on a real person. There is a lesbian conductor working in Europe (who is not a predator) but Todd Field and Cate Blanchett have said repeatedly that Tar is a work of wholly original fiction. It’s bonkers that we’re on the eve of the Oscars and people are still googling “is Lydia Tar real?” and “who is Tar based on?”
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images, promotional images from ‘Tar’ and ‘Banshees’ and ‘Blonde’.
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- SANTA MONICA, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, USA – MARCH 04: Michelle Yeoh and Cate Blanchett arrive at the 2023 Film Independent Spirit Awards held at the Santa Monica Beach on March 4, 2023 in Santa Monica, Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 760477636, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Pictured: Michelle Yeoh, Cate Blanchett, Credit line: Xavier Collin / Image Press Agency / Avalon
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- ‘TAR’ Premiere In London Featuring: Cate Blanchett and Todd Field Where: London, England, United Kingdom When: 11 Jan 2023 Credit: Yui Mok/PA Images/INSTARimages.com/Cover Images **North America Rights Only**
I loved Banshees because of the simplicity and goofy Irish banter. It was a movie that stuck with me for awhile after.
Same. I don’t get the hate for it.
Agree! The simplicity of it was very impressive to me.
Banshees, I found it a complex film. I saw it as one of loss, difference and need and how those come in and out of focus as we age and grow.
Showing many things we face today but in a, on the face of it, simplistic way.
The sister whose life was beholden to family with an aching love for them whilst appreciating their limitations and her need for more.
The relationships between two wildly different men. One’s utter happiness in his space, the other’s clear eyed assessment of his mortality and push, need.
The oppressively small community detached from warring Ireland but close enough to almost touch it.
Finally the brilliant Keoghan – perfect and scene stealing in a tale as old as time.
I saw the humour as a defense mechanism from the darkness and change that was surrounding them all.
I really rated it as a film and thought it was beautifully acted directed and shot.
I’m a fan of movies that show, don’t tell which is what Banshees is for me.
Love the character driven story, love the interaction between Farrell and Gleeson.
Plus the delightfully demented humor appeals to me.
Agree on all fronts
Agreed, and i did find it to be quite emotionally affecting. And really, we can extrapolate the whole “What’s the point of that?” line of questioning to plenty of other movies on the list. A biopic of Elvis Presley? What’s the point of that? His story’s been told a million times through various mediums already! It’s a silly reason not to like the movie but I do enjoy reading these pieces and getting a peek at how people vote for these things. At least there’s consensus on Ke Huy Quan!
Agree on the simplicity, enjoyed the banter, the breathtaking scenery, the acting was great from all involved. But it was unexpectedly gruesome and I think that is what turned people off.
I didn’t hate Banshees but I thought it was so depressing. The acting was fabulous, the fact that it wasn’t a special effects-laden 3 hour slog was very refreshing, but I just couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that some critics were calling it funny (and I have a pretty dark sense of humor.)
But hey, we all like different things and that’s okay!
I thought Banshees was fantastic, and it had a lot of dark humor moments (the bit about the milk truck crash killed me), but it did take a very, very sad turn towards the end. it was so wonderful acted, and I really loved it. I wish Colin was the frontrunner.
people are obviously just voting for Jamie because they think it’s going to be her only chance at an Oscar. I love her, she was good in the film, but Stephanie’s performance was amazing and was what the movie was centered around!
It’s premier black comedy to me, using humor to offset the horror of the banal evils that surround us. I think part of what makes the ending so powerful is that you can see it coming from a mile away, but it’s so distant and vague, you don’t really come around to it being the inevitable conclusion until it’s there in front of you.
To me, it was the perfect metaphor for the circumstances that take a country to the point of civil war. There’s so many early warning signs that aren’t taken seriously that the rise of the conflict feels like it comes out of nowhere, even if it really didn’t, and it’s followed by so many places in the story where you feel reconciliation *must* happen…right up until a tipping point occurs where that becomes impossible. The conflict spirals outward into war. And as Padraic says at the end, there are some things you can’t truly get over. Ireland certainly hasn’t.
For Americans in particular, I wonder if it felt painfully prescient.
I LOVED the Banshees of Inisherin and have already watched it twice. Cinema is becoming formulaic and message-ridden. This film is ambiguous and mysterious. It will come back in different times of my life for different reasons. It is also about creativity to me, and the surroundings you need in order to produce – not about discarding people. But ultimately it is not about anything. It is a deep, funny and sad tale that will live differently through times like any good story. Like Everything Everywhere All at Once which is for me, perhaps surprisingly for some, exactly the same kind of film. Loved them both.
Wow because of this thread (and one below) I will definitely make an effort to watch it.
Same. I had low expectations but I cried a lot through it and it moved me beautifully. Incredible movie
I loved Banshees. Collin Farrell gave a performance that broke my heart. All the actors did a stand out job. The story was quiet and beautiful.
I’m glad all of you liked it as well. I thought it was a great film. It was dark and depressing, but also funny and interesting!
I grew up w Irish immigrant grandparents. I get the movie in a way culturally that’s almost unexplainable.
I haven’t read anything about the movie, so I’m not sure how accurate the description ‘predatory lesbian’ is, but that trope needs to die a thousand fiery deaths.
Loathed Banshees, and I thought the allegory was clumsy AF. Mr TigerMQ loved it. We’ve decided not to discuss it lol.
Same. my husband loved it. i could not sit through it for the life of me. and i tried twice!
I loathed it too and I actually loved the directors previous movie Three Billboards. That movie’s not everyone’s cup of tea either but it had more heart for me. Banshees was just pure awful… and stereotyping the Irish in a really bad way? I didn’t get it and I’m European lol
Banshees Of Inisherin really got to me, and I though Colin Farrell was extraordinary. I loved the thought of what is truly more important? Creating something beautiful and lasting and being remembered for it – but at the expense of being a decent human being, or simply being a good person in the here and now with no regard for being anything more than that. Ego vs empathy maybe?
Barry Keoghan was also f-ing incredible. Having lived in Ireland for a large part of my life, he nailed that certain character that I have met many times in Dublin. He is shockingly talented and I’m really going to enjoy his career.
And I truly loved the slice of life of Achill island in that time.
Of course, I’m Irish born and that very likely affects my opinion.
Farrell was outstanding. The character could have easily been caricature if performed by a less skillful actor.
^^^Exactly this!!! I found it to be a deep and poignant meditation on the tension between wanting to leave behind a legacy that will outlast you and being a kind and giving person in the present. My theory is that people were expecting something more bombastically violent from McDonough and were therefore disappointed but I loved it.
Finally a compelling comment about the Banshees! It really is about someone who is deeply emotional and creative, with a tendency for despair, and the radical attitude they need to have to create. The landscape and the animals are what make Farrell’s character, he is part of his surroundings and at one with them whereas the other one is unsatisfied. Coming from a small country I have sympathy for Gleeson’s character (which the director ended up finding in himself as well) but Padraic really is the most beautiful soul, and the most devastating in his contentment and anger for the person who could not share this happiness with them, preferring to dedicate their life to music. It is such a poignant film and the humor is so Irish, you either get it or you don’t, on a visceral level. It can be sort of cruel but so clever.
Padraic is a beautiful soul. The scene where he is in bed speaking aloud to his sister (I don’t want to spoil it) bring tears just thinking about it. It was a very moving film. I don’t understand how anyone would not like it.
Yes! All the comments in this particular thread are giving me life! Without repeating, just wanted to add that I wholeheartedly agree! As a woman of Indian descent who happens to love Ireland and Irish literature, music, and humor, this movie was beautiful and emotional, and it left so much to think about thereafter. Farrell was absolutely amazing, and he utterly broke my heart.
Barry was really fantastic. the way he sold “well, there goes that dream” just completely annihilated my heart.
Thank you. I thought it was an excellent study, and for a nothingburger premise, I felt it was a deep dive into day to day norms and mores. The acting was exquisite and I forgot I was watching a movie. If you know anyone like these characters, it’s a home run.
If Tar was based on a real person, wouldn’t it be a man? I’m sure I’ve heard Cate say it was originally written as a male character?
I’ve only heard that Todd Field wrote it for her. And that if she didn’t take the role, the movie wouldn’t have been made because he only wanted her.
After a number of years having his screenplays rejected, Todd Fields was asked to make a film about a conductor. The rest was him, he imagined the character female and a lesbian, which is unfortunate because his character is abusive and terrifying apparently, whereas the real life women conductors would never have the power he seems to have imagined for Tár. This is what a real life lesbian conductor has highlighted, Alsop, and no one rally listened. The whole idealization of music, and the figure of the conductor (I have only seen the trailer as I don’t have 3 hours of my life for Todd Fields at the moment, but will probably hate- watch, but in it the way she is filmed is so stupidly grandiose it irks me; it’s just someone guiding an orchestra, she is not saving a life) seem pretty childish and the premise of a super powerful female conductor a naive reverie. The film was written with Blanchett in mind and she (re)learned how to play music and talks about Mahler’s compositions in a convincing way, like only Blanchett can, bypassing the obvious issues with Tár’s universe.
Lydia Tar is set up to be a villain and the story is how she became mentally haunted and how she unraveled, a modern day Lady Macbeth. Lydia Tar is pretentious and grandiose, it makes her a villain and the fall that much bigger. At least one male conductor (wrongly imo) say it was based on Marin Alsop and cmon, it’s fiction.
As someone who divorced her first husband, who was a band conductor, because of his predatory behavior and infidelity with young women in his ensemble, I already know that Tàr is utter fiction because there are professional consequences for the main character. you’d be amazed how many conductors and music educators abuse young women in their ensembles and nothing is ever done!
Woody Allen. The person he is alluding to is Woody Allen.
Team Everything Everywhere All At Once!
(Hey that award looks like…. (later in the movie) erm yeah ok I was right I guess)
Michell Yeoh & Ke Huy Quan for the win, I also like Jamie Lee Curtis!
Oh man, I loved Banshees. It was such a kick in the teeth to me, a painful reflection on the brutality of civil war, a knife that a country is continuously turning on itself. If there’s anything to criticize, it’s that the metaphor was so unsubtle. You’re literally hearing the war going on in the background in several scenes. This being said, I definitely came out of it feeling the story either spoke to you or it didn’t. I’m not surprised it’s controversial as a pick, which is probably a good argument for it not winning Best Picture.
If there’s a movie that doesn’t belong on there, it’s Blonde. It’s just an embarrassingly bad piece of pro-life propaganda that exploits the life of a woman who, even in death, still has to deal with men destroying her legacy.
I didn’t know going in to Banshees that it’s an allegory. I might not have been so f-ing miserable watching it had I known.
As a female conductor, I am excited to finally see Tar.
fwiw, the character of Lydia Tar is *loosely* based on the woman conductor Marin Alsop. So maybe that’s who the Oscar voter was refering to?
Yep. I think it was the NYTimes that first speculated it was based on her and she is none too pleased about it. We LOVE Marin Alsop here in the Baltimore-DC area. My friends who have played under her baton also love her. I saw her once when I was out walking my dog and I fan-girled like a teenager at a Justin Bieber concert (or whoever the kids are into these days). The documentary on her is fantastic and worth your time.
I have also heard it was based around Woody Allen, but made it a lesbian woman because if they didn’t it would maybe be a bit too on the nose and it would hurt his feewings
I loved Banshees. The dark humor was excellent and loved the story it told.
Of course these voters are tripping over themselves to make sure a majority of minority actors don’t take the top four prizes. That is the only reason they are voting for Jamie. I said what I said.
And as far as Banchee, are they missing the point that the main characters are suppose to be unlikable. Have they never seen a Martin McDonough film.
Lol that is absolutely not the only reason. So many people think that JLC (like Angela Bassett) is overdue after a long, storied career. Based on precursors, I think it’s between JLC and Bassett, with Kerry Condon in a close third.
If we are voting for an actor’s whole body of work I cannot understand how Angela Bassett is not going to win. The Oscars are always a crap shoot, emphasis on crap. They’ve been getting it wrong for so long I don’t like to watch but Angela Bassett is the one in this field who is overdue.
As I said above I really loved Banshees. I think that what may be going against it is that the Irish humor is gruesome and at times cruel and not for everyone. But that is a superficial level. Deep down, it may feel untimely as it deals with war and the friendship of two men, which can be seen as quite patriarchal, not feminist enough. I don’t agree with this take and found it to be poignant, as someone living in Europe with a war going on at the other end of it, like in the film. The role of the sister is also important, she is the reader and the one with a modern compulsion for a life that suits her more than the Inisherin one.
Moreover, it bring us back to two forms of idealized rurality: the bucolic idea of the poet / musician and the one who totally belongs to a place we now consider to be of the past. There is no technology, only togetherness, which makes it the weird Irish cousin of Friends and perhaps not as compelling regarding our modern times and preoccupations for Oscar voters. However, modernity is beyond the island, where Padraic’s sister moves to, but it remains unseen. That is why, I think, the film is so unsettling, and, in my opinion, compelling.
Some fascinating comments in this whole thread about Banshees, possibly the most surreal being your description of it as ‘the weird Irish cousin of Friends’! I now feel I must see it.
And there is a witch-death character too 😉
Can’t wait.
I have avoided seeing “Banshees” because I read about the gruesomeness. Also, I saw “The Lieutenant” live in the theater and I can’t say I enjoyed it. It definitely stuck with me, though. To this day, when my husband and I find something endlessly frustrating, we say “Will it never fecking end?!” to each other in (probably bad) Irish accents and laugh.
That said, I LOVE Colin Farrell. He never disappoints. So now having read some of the comments on the film here, I think I’ll give it a try. Thanks, Celebitches!
Same. Just not interested.
You will therefore be unsurprised to know that my husband and I also have a sentence from Banshees we keep repeating when we get upset with each other: “are we rowin'”? “Yeah, I think we’re rowin'”. It actually can at times stop the row 😉
Omg the rowin comment. We quote the same line.
Tár isn’t a real person but Marin Alsop is and the character (minus the sexual harassment) has more in common with Tár than could ever be considered coincidental. Alsop hates the film and that or other articles about the similarities between her and Tár is what the Oscar voter is talking about. https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2023-01-11/marin-alsop-tar-cate-blanchett-conductor-statement-interview
Guess who was a real person, though?
Mamie Till-Mobley.
As more and more people see ‘Till’ as time passes, it will become clear that not nominating Danielle Deadwyler was one of the biggest snubs in Oscar history.
You’re absolutely right. I haven’t watched Till yet but I am really looking forward to it. From what I’ve seen it is an outstanding and difficult performance, just like Yeoh’s. I have lost a lot of love for Blanchett for playing the tired and at the end of the day, mysoginistic trope of the “”Muse”” (Fields made the film FOR her) and for bypassing the problematic aspects of the film.
Agreed. Deadwyler deserves a lot of upcoming projects behind this nonsense.
When I read the premise of Banshees, I was like nope. Same with Blonde. I plan to watch Whale when the streaming price goes down. Everywhere was perfection. I didn’t hate Babylon thought it was not good. But I love Justin Hurwitz, the composer and I felt something when I watched it. I haven’t watched Tar. It just doesn’t sound interesting but I probably will at some point.
“You have to ask…are people voting for the performance or that person’s career?”
This is my sentiment towards people wanting Michelle Yeoh to win over Cate Blanchett. I get it that this may be her one and only chance to win, all things considered. But it seems this time they want the actor’s legacy to do the talking when his/her performance in a competing year is supposed to be the one to give him/her the edge. At least that’s the feeling I’m getting from Twitter and other comments online. Now, I saw EEAAO last week and while I found it entertaining and understood its message, I couldn’t connect with it emotionally as most people did. I haven’t seen Tár and I plan to do so this weekend prior to the ceremony in order to compare. So yeah, sorry for not sharing everyone’s devout love for Everything Everywhere. Fortunately we all have different tastes so while I’m in a clear minority it’s how I think about the subject.
I don’t really agree with this. I think Cate was fantastic in Tar but, to me, it was Cate Blanchett playing a character — she’s a great actress, but I always see the token Cate Blanchett-isms in her acting. I think Michelle Yeoh’s role in EEAAO was much more nuanced and, in addition to be a very physical role, is one that required her to convey so many different emotions: regret, judgment, sadness, optimism, catharsis. I think Michelle is just as deserving as Cate based on the performance alone. Her body of work is just an added benefit.
What??? Michelle played 3 different characters and nailed every single nuance. She was amazing. I get wanting to award someone who is due but she deserves this on performance alone.
I mean you’re entitled to your opinion but I couldn’t disagree more
Despite perhaps her best ever movie performance, I think Cate will be left clapping and smiling for the cameras on Oscar night. After the SAG win, all the Oscar buzz is around Michelle. It’s a pity two wonderful, stand out performances coincided in the same year. Michelle will be a worthy winner but as an Aussie fan of all things Cate, I ‘ll never stop believing she was robbed of an Oscar. Not this year but back in 1999, when Ms Paltrow’s fluffy, whiny performance in Shakespeare in Love outvoted Cate’s Elizabeth.
Banshees looks so depressing. I don’t need more sadness.
Fan of Colin, will still not watch it.
Blonde was a garbage show, zero need to be made, just more exploitation of MM and a money grab. AdA did a good job for what she had to worked with but, this should not even have been nominated.
Jamie Lee Curtis has had a solid career, I like her better in comedies.
She is lobbying so damn hard for this Oscar, it puts me off. And the “Give an Oscar to reward her career” is BS.
I despise that. The Best Acting Award should go to the best current performances, not as an overall “nice career” award.
Pacino should have won an Oscar for Godfather, Godfather II, or Dog Day Afternoon, not that Scent of a Woman “Woo-Aaah” shouting trash.
Give her an award for her whole career should go to Angela Basset if we are going down that road and I say that as a Jamie Lee Curtis fan. I grew up watching Jamie Lee Curtis but Angela Basset has never received as many flowers as she deserved.
I always think of Pacino when I think of the Oscar for the career issue rather than that particular year’s performance. He should have one for any one of those three you mentioned–or more than one!– over Scent of a Woman. And Angela Bassett should have one for What’s Love Got to do with It. Jamie Lee? Eh, this might be her best performance.
I enjoyed Banshees and was impressed by Colin and Brenden’s skill with the material. The isolated island, the civil war, the damaged people trying to do something (anything) meaningful with their lives set a specific and narrow tone for Colin and Brenden to navigate and be believable. They were so good! The silly falling out between the main characters and what it leads to was baffling though. And I cannot bear to watch anything that even hints at animal death. So while I applauded the film and understand why it got many noms, I wouldn’t vote for it for best picture.
I’ve seen 7 of the 10 BP nominees (renting Women Talking tonight!). Banshees and EEAAO are two of my least favorite films I’ve ever seen. Truly. Banshees is a wildly messy allegory that translated terribly, and EEAAO is like if the TikTok algorithm made a movie. The same “wouldn’t it be hilarious if *this* happened?” joke over and over. Good performances, but a godawful movie. My favorite of what I’ve seen is, by a mile, Tár.
My votes would be:
Best Picture — Tár
Best Actress — Cate Blanchett
Best Actor — Austin Butler
Best Supporting Actress — Angela Bassett
Best Supporting Actor — Ke Huy Quan
I’m def a big fan of Jamie Lee Curtis, but I don’t think she should win for her role in EEAAO. Her accent was part-time, which annoys the hell out of me. I was taken out of the fantasy when she was on screen. Pains me to say this as a lifelong fan. (side note: Michelle Yeoh, who is NOT good on Star Trek Discovery, totally deserves an Oscar for EEAAO. She carries that movie brilliantly).
EEAAO was incredible. Just so creative! And I was not prepared for the last 45 minutes. Michelle and Ke were so amazing, the ability to string these timelines together cohesively and believably was an incredible feat. Yes, Cate was great in Tar. I loved Tar, but EEAAO was a much much more difficult film to do.
Hopefully, the shit that was pulled for Andrea Riseborough, whom I love as an actor, and definitely will have nominations in the future, will stop. Pushing out Danielle D was bull.
Banshees was beautifully made (except for the crappy CGI fire) but it annoyed me til the last frame. I didn’t give a crap about those two idiots and would’ve preferred to follow the story of any of the other characters.