I love cinema. Like many children of the 1980s I saw amazing films arguably at too young an age. One of the first films I remember watching was Brian De Palma’s classic Cuban gangster movie Scarface (1983) starring a menacing Al Pacino and resplendent Michelle Pfeiffer. I didn’t see it in theaters, but it still blew my mind. The film is like a thrilling, bloody, epic Greek tragedy. I was listening to a podcast the other day and the hosts, who are about 10-15 years older than me, were discussing how in the 1970s and 1980s there were many amazing films to see in theaters. Parents often consented to kids watching some rather mature subject matter. But one host made the point that although it’s more taboo today to present kids with mature films, it didn’t really scar us or anything, but it made us learn to appreciate excellent filmmaking and mature storytelling. It was like a gateway into the fantastical realism of adulthood. In the late 1970s and 1980s films began to target children more and the studio fixation with blockbusters (movies that are very popular and rake in a lot of cash) increasingly became the norm peaking with the Marvel cinematic universe. But on the flip side the quality of cinema diminished, or rather, our collective appreciation of quality cinema diminished as we gobbled up a spam diet of predictable stories, characters and themes. This year feels different. This year I think we found our way back to appreciating a diverse constellation of filmmaking that includes “unusual” blockbusters and arthouse masterworks alike. Here are a few films I saw that are nominated for the Oscars in 2024.
Share this post
A Year of Oscar Worthy Films & Performances
Share this post
I love cinema. Like many children of the 1980s I saw amazing films arguably at too young an age. One of the first films I remember watching was Brian De Palma’s classic Cuban gangster movie Scarface (1983) starring a menacing Al Pacino and resplendent Michelle Pfeiffer. I didn’t see it in theaters, but it still blew my mind. The film is like a thrilling, bloody, epic Greek tragedy. I was listening to a podcast the other day and the hosts, who are about 10-15 years older than me, were discussing how in the 1970s and 1980s there were many amazing films to see in theaters. Parents often consented to kids watching some rather mature subject matter. But one host made the point that although it’s more taboo today to present kids with mature films, it didn’t really scar us or anything, but it made us learn to appreciate excellent filmmaking and mature storytelling. It was like a gateway into the fantastical realism of adulthood. In the late 1970s and 1980s films began to target children more and the studio fixation with blockbusters (movies that are very popular and rake in a lot of cash) increasingly became the norm peaking with the Marvel cinematic universe. But on the flip side the quality of cinema diminished, or rather, our collective appreciation of quality cinema diminished as we gobbled up a spam diet of predictable stories, characters and themes. This year feels different. This year I think we found our way back to appreciating a diverse constellation of filmmaking that includes “unusual” blockbusters and arthouse masterworks alike. Here are a few films I saw that are nominated for the Oscars in 2024.