Gonna work my way backwards because I have so much more to say about Emilia Peréz than anything else.

Elton John: Never Too Late secured the nomination for the ending theme, "Never Too Late".

As far as the song goes it's fine? It's not exactly a banger, not gonna be a top ten hit or anything, but it's not unpleasant to listen to.

The documentary itself however was very good, very interesting. If you know Elton John's story you know some of the topics contained within and it was basically him retelling stories and reminiscing about his time in the 1970s on the eve of his final concert/during his final tour

As much as I loved Rocketman, it was definitely fictionalized, whereas he gets into answering some of the questions people had floating around after that film

It's also building up to a massive achievement in his career and it was very good.

I think it could've been a contender for the best documentary this year were the Academy not married to war docs and depressing us at every turn

There's quite a few docs I know of I would rather watch than another one about Ukraine, but that's not the direction they went in

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl: What a cute movie.

I mean this was my first W&G film because while it's been nominated in the past this is only the third year I've talked mom into watching the animated features

The plot was pretty good, nice and action packed but what caught my interest was the use of cinematography in the animation as well as things like lighting, there were a few scenes that kind of took my breath away at the end and I totally get the nomination

Is it good enough to topple the front runner? I don't know yet, I haven't seen it XD

There was also the animating of different textures, including a wool suit which I thought was particularly impressive. I'm fairly certain they're doing this all on CG these days, unlike another nominee coming up which I think was still clay/stop motion, but I could be wrong about that

Alright. Emilia Peréz, our third foray into the Best Picture category

The story of Emilia Peréz is actually very good, very interesting and engaging. This movie however is not served by being a musical.

I didn't like the majority of the songs at all, nor the synth-like back tracks in the soundtrack, the random rapping, it was more like the song was a total interruption to what was a good story I wanted to know more about

(Wallace and Gromit is claymation, there was a bit of conversation about the fact that the factory they've always bought their clay from closed and they had to buy up the last of the stock, there was apparently only enough left for this one last film)

The only production of a song that I found memorable and I liked - better than the song - was when Rita was singing to the donors at this corrupt dinner and the choreography was a lot more geared towards a traditional musicial and it was a bit more of a showstopper in that regard - to that end though

hydok: Oh I stand corrected, thank you!

Neither of the nominated songs resonated with me, although I'll appreciate I thought about Mi Camino as being a much better use of Selena Gomez's singing chops than the one she was singing previously

Also, I think the best actress/supporting best actress nominations should be switched - the entire movie totally hinged on Rita, Zoe Seldana got the top billing as well it's a really bizarre choice to go this route nomination wise

Both Zoe and Karla gave outstanding performances though, I would have no qualms with them being nominated in the reverse. It's bizarre not to think of Rita as the main character though

Is it best picture material? I think if they didn't go the musical route it very well could've been. It was definitely better than Wicked and Dune, but I really think the musical aspect kind of hurts this film. I think it's probably going to get music awards (because the Academy doesn't always agree with me) it's too early for me to decide on

the acting and best picture awards but we'll see.

30 films to go + 3 shorts compilations.

Oh yes, Emilia Peréz picked up a nomination for Cinematography - that's a big no from me.

There were many scenes that were just way too dark to see so I'm sure it could've been a nice set and all but if I can't see it that kind of defeats the purpose

Also too soon to call the International Feature - except it will win most likely despite the fact I'm Still Here was also nominated for Best Picture.

Props to them for doing that so it wasn't an automatic 'we all know who wins here'

Flow could also be a contender, I don't know I haven't seen it yet, but I'm always rooting for animation to step outside the box

Still hating on 2023 for refusing to consider animation legit because at least two of those movies if not three were way better than some of the best picture nominees

If you're gonna make me suffer then I get to complain about your anti-animation bias

It all stems back from Beauty and the Beast. It was so good that it almost actually won Best Picture, and it scared the old studio guys back then

Oh I know, but I think it's very shortsighted of them

Considering all the anime I watch, it's not surprising I'm all over the animation

I love Wallace and Gromit the Curse of the Wererabit myself. I haven’t seen Vengeance Most Fowl just but I should give it a try

mariscorner: It was super cute, very fun. It's clearly a follow up to another movie, but they explained it at the beginning so it's not required viewing whatever it is.

It's a sequel to The Wrong Trousers (which won Best Animated Short 1994). They knew what the people wanted and it's more evil penguin.

Oh nice, I am so looking forward to see it even more

A Complete Unknown was pretty enjoyable and all about the beginning few years of Bob Dylan's musical career

also interesting to see what the folk music culture was like and hilarious that songs like "This Land is Your Land" were controversial

Coincidentally, that's one we have to venture out to a movie theatre for so it has to wait a few days