Here’s what we think about the Oscar nominees for Best Picture

On Sunday, Feb. 24, 2019 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will award the highly coveted Oscar for Best Picture to one of eight nominees. This year’s field is wide open—no one really knows who will walk away with the golden statue. But don’t worry, we brought in our best experts to weigh in. Father Eric Sundrup sat down with John Anderson of the New York Film Critics Circle, our culture columnist Bill McGarvey, and Eloise Blondiau, a producer here at America, to discuss each of the best picture nominees.

For more of America’s coverage of the year’s best films check out these reviews below:

Olga Segura includes "BlackKklansman" in her roundup of movies that embraced diversity this year.  

In “Why ‘Black Panther’ is the movie Hollywood—and America—needs” Daniel Jose Camacho writes that it complicates the personal morality of its characters and highlights larger political tensions at work.

Bill McGarvey writes that, “‘The Green Book’ is a sweet lullaby when what is really needed is a wake up call” in his review: “‘The Green Book’ and the stories Americans like to tell ourselves.”

In “Lady Gaga shines in a brilliant and intimate ‘A Star is Born’” John Anderson praises Lady Gaga’s performance as Ally, “She is endearingly natural, innocent, petulant, wary. She is real.”

John Anderson tackles one of the years more controversial films, “‘Bohemian Rhapsody’: A martyr’s tale for the classic rock set,” writing “for all its energy and uplift, it seems to be a movie in conflict with itself.”

To put it bluntly, John Anderson did not like “Vice.” On our podcast, he put it even more bluntly, “it’s an affront to good taste.” Read his full review of the film here: “War, Dick Cheney and U.S. politics take center stage in ‘Vice.’”

“Roma” is one we seemed to universally love here at America. John Anderson gushed over it his review, “‘Roma’ is a sumptuous tribute to a serene and holy caregiver.”  

In “‘The Favourite’: a delicious period tale of women and power,” Anderson writes that Olivia Coleman’s Queen Anne is “something else, in every sense of the phrase. And so is “‘The Favourite.’”