Movies by Year, 2010–present

Leonardo DiCaprio as Margaret Thatcher is a movie I'd watch!

Big-budget movies of years past generally were better though. This phenomenon and the reasons for it are well-documented, but in short, just look at the Best Picture winners. You used to have movies like Gladiator and Forrest Gump, which had *both* big budgets and artistic vision behind them. This is rarely the case now. The money is all poured into pre-sold franchises, superhero movies, and reboots that are designed entirely to maximize profitability, usually at the expense of creativity. So you can choose between Iron Man 7 on a $300 million budget or Nomadland, which is borderline emotional abuse made on a really meager budget. The old "movie magic" is pretty much only available in Tom Cruise movies now. Look at the Best Picture winners from the '80s and '90s, then compare them to the last ten winners, and tell me you don't notice the difference. It's undeniable.

I will add that a notable exception--and probably the reason the media made such a preposterously huge deal about them--was last year's dual threat of Barbie and Oppenheimer. Both movies had a ton of money behind them and lots of creativity, and, wouldn't you know it, people showed up in droves to see them. Christopher Nolan is one of a very small group of current directors who gets to do original things on a big budget. Barbie felt like a perfect storm, and hopefully Greta Gerwig will be given the money and freedom again to match her talents. Hopefully it turns the tide, at least a little.

I agree the Academy often picks the wrong winner (although CODA and maybe Green Book aside I think they've been pretty good choices in the last few years) but that's different to saying everything the Academy nominates is bad. It's one of the only ways interesting films get decent publicity and it would be a shame if they stopped trying to highlight them in favour of highest box office.

I'm going to make a prediction based on my comment from 2022. The Tom Hanks film "Here" features Tom Hanks and Robin Wright being digitally de-aged. It also is filmed with a single fixed camera. In 2024, this is an incredibly novel filmmaking technique. While the movie has thus far been panned by moviegoers, my prediction is that it STILL gets a nomination for best picture. It may even win. Strictly because of the use of a novel filmmaking technique. The film SCREAMS Oscar bait and I won't be surprised if the Academy takes it.

Yes, but that's because "The" is often dropped when discussing titles. People will say Lord of the Rings, Godfather Part II, Wizard of Oz, etc., even though all those actually begin with "The." The word is also dropped when alphabetizing titles (otherwise the "T" section would be massively overcrowded, and you'd end up going by the next word anyway.

Les Misérables, though, doesn't fit either of these. Since the title isn't translated into English, it's always said in its entirety (or shortened to Les Mis.) No one ever calls it just Misérables, and you'll definitely find it under "L" in title listings.