ZEJ Oscars Votes

It’s Oscars weekend, and it’s time to unveil the ZEJ team’s Oscars vote results! Check out each category below, ordered by ranked choice voting. First place votes are in parenthesis with the initial of that voter for each category.

Whereas last year we had just a single unanimous vote, this year, the ZEJ team is more in sync, with 10 of the 22 categories being unanimous, and there may have been a couple more, but with Jord’s girl’s high school basketball team winning the state tournament this year, he did miss a few movies as a result, so wasn’t able to vote on those movies. Price of being a champion, I suppose!

The ZEJ team had the most love for Hamnet with 4 wins (Best Picture, Best Actress, Directing, and Adapted Screenplay), and Sinners with 4 wins (Best Cinematography, Original Score, Original Screenplay, and Casting), followed by Frankenstein with 3 wins (Production Design, Makeup and Hairstyle, and Costume Design) and One Battle After Another with 2 wins (Supporting Actor and Film Editing).

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Best Picture

1. Hamnet (Z, E)

2. One Battle After Another (J)

3. Sinners

4. Bugonia

5. Train Dreams

6. Marty Supreme

7. Sentimental Value

8. Frankenstein

9. The Secret Agent

10. F1

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Best Actor

1. Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme (Z, J)

2. Michael B. Jordan, Sinners (E)

3. Leonardo DiCaprio, One Battle After Another

4. Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent

5. Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon

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Best Actress

1. Jessie Buckley, Hamnet (Z, E, J)

2. Emma Stone, Bugonia

3. Renate Reinsve, Sentimental Value

4. Rose Byrne, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

5. Kate Hudson, Song Sung Blue

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Supporting Actor

1. Sean Penn, One Battle After Another (Z, E, J)

2. Benicio Del Toro, One Battle After Another

3. Stellan Skarsgård, Sentimental Value

4. Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein

5. Delroy Lindo, Sinners

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Supporting Actress

1. Amy Madigan, Weapons (Z, E)

2. Teyana Taylor, One Battle After Another (J)

3. Wunmi Mosaku, Sinners

4. Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Sentimental Value

5. Elle Fanning, Sentimental Value

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Best Animated Feature Film

1. Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (Z, E)

2. KPop Demon Hunters (J)

3. Elio

4. Arco

5. Zootopia 2

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Best Cinematography

1. Sinners (E, J)

2. One Battle after Another (Z)

3. Train Dreams

4. Frankenstein

5. Marty Supreme

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Best Costume Design

1. Frankenstein (E, J)

2. Hamnet (Z)

3. Sinners

4. Marty Supreme

5. Avatar: Fire and Ash

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Best Directing

1. Chloé Zhao, Hamnet (Z, E)

2. Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle after Another

3. Ryan Coogler, Sinners (J)

4. Josh Safdie, Marty Supreme

5. Joachim Trier, Sentimental Value

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Best Film Editing

1. One Battle after Another (Z, E, J)

2. Sinners

3. Marty Supreme

4. Train Dreams

5. F1

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Best International Feature Film - (Jord barred from this category, for only seeing 3/5 films)

1. It Was Just an Accident (Z, E)

2. Sentimental Value (J)

3. Sirāt

4. The Secret Agent

5. The Voice of Hind Rajab

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Best Makeup and Hairstyling

1. Frankenstein (E, J)

2. The Ugly Stepsister

3. Kokuho (Z)

4. The Smashing Machine

5. Sinners

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Best Music (Original Score)

1. Ludwig Göransson, Sinners (Z, E)

2. Jerskin Fendrix, Bugonia (J)

3. Max Richter, Hamnet

4. Alexandre Desplat, Frankenstein

5. Jonny Greenwood, One Battle after Another

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Best Music (Original Song)

1. “Golden”, KPop Demon Hunters (Z, E, J)

2. “I Lied To You”, Sinners

3. “Train Dreams”, Train Dreams

4. “Dear Me”, Diane Warren: Relentless

5. “Sweet Dreams Of Joy”, Viva Verdi!

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Best Production Design

1. Frankenstein (Z, E, J)

2. Hamnet

3. Sinners

4. Marty Supreme

5. Avatar: Fire and Ash

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Best Animated Short Film

1. Retirement Plan (Z, E)

2. Butterfly

3. The Girl Who Cried Pearls

4. The Three Sisters

5. Forevergreen

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Best Live Action Short Film

1. Two People Exchanging Saliva (Z, E, J)

2. Jane Austen's Period Drama

3. A Friend of Dorothy

4. The Singers

5. Butcher's Stain

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Best Sound

1. Sirāt (Z)

2. F1 (E)

3. Sinners (J)

4. One Battle after Another

5. Frankenstein

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Best Visual Effects

1. F1 (Z, E)

2. Avatar: Fire and Ash

3. Sinners (J)

4. Jurassic World Rebirth

5. The Lost Bus

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Best Adapted Screenplays

1. Hamnet (Z, E, J)

2. One Battle after Another

3. Bugonia

4. Train Dreams

5. Frankenstein

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Best Original Screenplays

1. Sinners (Z, E, J)

2. It Was Just an Accident

3. Marty Supreme

4. Blue Moon

5. Sentimental Value

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Best Casting

1. Sinners (Z, E, J)

2. One Battle after Another

3. Hamnet

4. Marty Supreme

5. The Secret Agent

If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

Google lists this as as a Comedy/Drama, which is doing the viewer such a disservice, as there’s hardly a laugh to be found in this film, and so extremely stress inducing that by the end of it you feel like maybe Google is playing a prank on you? But in their defense the producers submitted it to the Golden Globes as a comedy as well, so maybe its on them. Conan O’Brien as the anti-comedic relief role is a stroke of genius casting choice though. Anyway, yes, Rose Byrne is fantastic in this, but I really can’t recommend this movie in any way, as it’s just so bleak, unless you’re nervous about having kids and want to be talked out of it, then this is exactly the movie you should watch.

-Z

In some ways, this is definitely a horror movie, which I was not expecting after Rose Byrne won the Golden Globe for actress in a comedy or musical… Her acting was excellent though, a well-deserved best actor Oscar nomination. The anxiety-inducing pacing and noise was very challenging here - I did not enjoy the experience of watching this movie and felt a lot of dread as it kept going. If this is a representation of what being a parent is like, despite the fact that there is clearly some exaggeration, the message is quite bleak. I loved the challenged expectations of having Conan O’Brien in a serious role. For what it is trying to do, I think it works really well, but the challenge of it all leaves me hesitant to recommend it widely.

-E

Z 8.0
E 7.75
J n/a

ZEJ 7.88

Sentimental Value

Sentimental Value is a very sound movie in all categories - directing, acting, cinematography, writing, etc. It’s creative and unique. But the movie arched in such a way that it seemed to be headed towards more catharses than we got, and that felt like somewhat of a letdown. Subversive, but also disappointing. E said to this point that maybe that’s more true to life, and that’s probably true, but that knowledge still doesn’t help my enjoyment of this movie. Stellan Skarsgard is amazing as always, but I thought Renate Reinsve was the standout. While I have higher rated movies this year that didn’t receive Best Picture noms, this is definitely more worthy than F1, The Secret Agent or Frankenstein. Definitely worth a watch.

-Z

A very solid film that definitely feels deserving of its best picture nomination. The acting is exceptional. The story was much more complex than what the trailer seemed to depict. I really enjoyed the family home acting as a character of sorts throughout the movie. There were several peeks back through time scattered throughout, and I honestly think there could have been more of that to really help us understand the characters. While I don’t think it overly wowed any of the ZEJ team, I’m glad we were able to see this in theaters and would recommend it!

-E

TBD

-J

Z 8.5
E 8.5
J n/a

~ZEJ 8.5

Sirât

I’d never heard of the concept of Islamic concept of Sirāt (the bridge over which every person must cross in order to enter heaven) prior to this movie, and the little explainer for it at the beginning of the film I kind of ignored until the end of the movie, but the movie can’t be understood without viewing it through that lens. If you’re of any form of faith, that lens will probably improve your appreciation of this film. If you’re not, that lens will probably decrease your appreciation of it. Regardless, when this movie began to go into the metaphorical phase, it became a worse movie, but did become a lot more tense. The soundtrack and sound design is absolutely peak though, and my vote for best sound, for which it was nominated.

-Z

The word that comes to mind here is “visceral.” What an experience! Incredible soundtrack. Otherworldly visuals. But such a bleak, gut punch of a plot that left me feeling pretty down afterwards. I know there are some layers to the plot here and certainly it is meant to be more metaphorical, but I’m just not sure I fully get it. The nomination for sound though, absolutely deserved!

-E

Z 8.5
E 8.25
J n/a

~ZEJ 8.38

The Ugly Stepsister

I told our friend Austin T, after we watched The Ugly Stepsister that I had no notes, and a few days removed, I still have very little. That isn’t to say it’s a masterpiece, because one could say some elements are derivative, the scope is limited, and the ending did feel a little haphazard. But there are many more good things to say about it than bad. The modern synthy soundtrack was amazing, the creative fairy-tale revamping was really clever, and the body horror was truly gut-wrenching at points. Had the Academy not nominated it for Best Makeup and Hairstyling, we probably would never watched this, so very glad they did, and for recognizing horror the horror genre in back-to-back years. As E says, if you’re not queasy, big recommend.

-Z

Similar to The Substance in its fun-yet-gory body horror aspects, I really enjoyed this! A creative, fresh take on the Cinderella story with strong acting and such a cool spooky vibe. My main gripe is the ending - it felt like a bit of an incomplete thought and I was needing a bit more closure to feel satisfied. If you can steel your stomach through a few brutal scenes, this is a great watch that left me thinking about it for days afterward. I wish it had gotten more of a theatrical release in the US so it could have gotten more attention here!

-E

Z 8.5
E 8.5
J n/a

~ZEJ 8.5

The Lost Bus

Wow. Jord’s point’s about Jurassic World: Rebirth is even more poignant with the Lost Bus. The Academy will just nominate anything in the Best Visual Effects category, won’t they? The Lost Bus feels like a made for TV movie, and features some of the worst acting I’ve seen for an Oscar nominated movie since… Jurassic World: Rebirth, in a movie that includes Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey and Oscar nominated America Ferrera. Whomever greenlit this film needs to rethink their choices in life, as it was truly a disaster. And yet, the true story aspect of it somehow gives the critical reviews for it somehow just below average (64 Metacritic currently). And call me a hater, but the visual effects weren’t worthy of being in the same category as Avatar, not by a long shot.

-Z

Oof. This was just so bad. The writing was truly terrible in many parts. The plot became so overly dramatic it was comical instead of the tense thriller this movie thinks it is. I do not understand how this was turned into a movie and how on earth Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera signed on. I can only imagine that the positive reviews are coming from people who lived through this wildfire (or one like it) and are appreciating seeing the representation on the screen. A tough one to get through. How did enough people watch this for it to get an Oscar nomination?

-E

Z 5.5
E 4.0
J n/a

~ZEJ 4.75

Avatar: Fire and Ash

Ugh. On the one hand, Avatar: Fire and Ash is a better movie than the second Avatar. On the other hand, it’s a complete rehash of the second. The same characters, the same conflict. Like what?! What are you doing to us, James Cameron? The only human protagonist in the last two movies is Spider, whose acting is often just one-note and wrong, and James Cameron has decided to make him the focal point of the entire conflict. I left this movie torn, as I love the Avatar universe, the visuals are still insanely impressive, and this movie had better dialogue and script than the prior, but it’s so repetitive and long that you also want to pull your hair out.

-Z

Z and I put this off as long as possible, but it became clear we needed to venture to the theater 2 months after its release to see it in time for the Oscars. And it was just as disappointing as I figured it would be. This feels more like a cash-grab follow-up than what we are meant to believe is a carefully planned part of a 5-movie series. The plot is far too similar to Avatar 2, it could have easily been an hour shorter, and there were some pretty cringey writing moments. The visuals are still great though, and watching in 3D did save the score a bit. I just have a hard time imagining this series will turn things around in the next two movies.

-E

Z 7.75
E 7.25
J n/a

~ZEJ 7.5

Kokuho

E and I weren’t really sure what to expect from Kokuho, a 3-hour Japanese film that had 4 total critical reviews upon it’s release in the United States, but it’s Makeup and Hairstyling nomination spurred us to take advantage of it coming to theaters, and so glad it did, as it was awesome! Telling the story of a modern kabuki actor, which is an ancient form of Japanese theater, it both is educational of the beauty and skill of kabuki as well as an epic story of the journey of this actor’s life. The only sticking point is the length, as this could have certainly been cut down 30-45 minutes, and had it been, I think it would have been a lock for an international nomination. If subtitles don’t scare you, Kokuho is a must watch!

-Z

A surprisingly captivating story despite the length (which is my biggest complaint). I didn't know much about the Kabuki theater tradition and found that this did a great job getting everyone up to speed without too much over explanation. The acting was very very solid. Would have loved to see this get an international picture nomination, but I'm glad the makeup & hairstyling nomination led Z & I to the theater for this one!

-E

Z 8.5
E 8.5
J n/a

~ZEJ 8.5

Little Amélie or the Character of Rain

While the animated nominations are a weaker group this year, I think Little Amélie or the Character of Rain is the strongest. It’s hard to root against K-Pop Demon Hunters for how fun that is, but Little Amélie is a better movie, with much stronger writing, and a beautiful story. The characters are thoughtfully crafted, and Amélie’s attitude and spunk is infectious. I particularly loved the grandmother as well. The animation is very good and yet another celebration of French animation! Worth a watch, no doubt.

-Z

What a delightful animated movie! Beautiful design. The story is funny but also touching without being too cheesy. I rarely say this, but with such a short run time, this could have been expanded a bit to explore more of the characters and the world here. Kind of surprisingly, this gets my vote for best animated film of the year!

-E

Z 8.5
E 8.25
J n/a

~ZEJ 8.38

Song Sung Blue

Musical biopics have become ZEJ’s most dreaded to watch genre, and while Song Sung Blue isn’t a traditional superstar musician biopic, we still lumped it in that category, and put off this watch for a long time. And to E and I’s surprise, we enjoyed Song Sung Blue quite a bit. The lesson? Never doubt Hugh Jackman. While it’s not a perfect movie, and has some pacing and storytelling issues, it has a lot of heart, good dialogue, and the way the love story between Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson’s characters unfolds is so adorable that you can’t help but get swept up in it. Always love when a movie surpasses your expectations. I can also confirm Kate Hudson is completely deserving of her nomination in this, she’s amazing in it.

-Z

The previews for this mostly left me rolling my eyes, so I did not have much hope when we learned we had to watch this for Kate Hudson's acting nomination. But despite the feel-good energy that comes with a Christmas Day release, this was a solid story that wasn't as over the top as I feared. The plot is a little too convenient and coincidental at times for this to rise above an 8 for me, but I do have to admit that I'm glad I had a reason to watch it!

-E

Z 8.0
E 7.75
J n/a

~ZEJ 7.88

Jurassic World: Rebirth

E and I’s dino journey is finally over. And it couldn’t come fast enough. While we finally got rid of the tired Chris Pratt and company cast, and get to see some fresh faces, they’re given just as questionable a script as the last two movies, and while they do their best with it, many scenes feel phoned in. This is certainly the worst movie I’ve ever seen Mahershala Ali in, as up until now, he’s had a fairly impeccable track record for picking high quality movies. While Rebirth gets some things right, namely narrowing the prevalence of dinosaurs to a small geographical region, the things it gets wrong are an absolute abyss. The film has this premise that people are getting tired of dinosaurs, and with that in mind leads us to this island where there are hybridized and deformed dinos, and oh wow, aren’t these abominations much cooler to see in action than real dinosaurs?! No, they aren’t. You’ve turned this from Jurassic Park to Alien. What are you doing? Who is making these decisions? And yet, despite the poor reviews, this movie made nearly a billion dollars, so there will be no accountability in the near future I’m afraid.

-Z

At last, we come to the movie that gave Z & I a reason to rewatch this series. And while the visual effects were…fine, I don’t think they were really enough to earn an Oscar nomination. The plot feels like a “rebirth” in terms of bringing in new characters with a storyline that does feel new, but it has a myriad of issues that do not make me hopeful for the inevitable new trilogy of films this might be starting. So many of the characters just do and say the most confusing and unnecessary things. The dinosaurs also become true monsters here, and I’m not sure how I feel about that progression.

-E

I don't know, Academy. I don’t see how this deserves a nomination. All in all I know it is a visual award and the dinosaurs were looking as good as ever, but doesn’t there have to be standards on the movie itself? I mean, Z and E will have to confirm but all they are trying to do is take iconic parts from the original and throw it in this film. I know its 2026 and original concepts are out the door, but I was frustrated with that and the ‘Netflix Action Movie’ aspects that this film is filled with. I don’t think this needs to be watched and dread the trailer for the newest one that will probably come out in a few years.

-J

Z 6.25
E 6.0
J 6.5

ZEJ 6.25

Jurassic World: Dominion

And it gets worse. The only thing holding Dominion up from being a sub-5 rating is the fact that they somehow convinced Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Sam Neill to join this hot pile of garbage, and for all of their too little screentime, they were fantastic. But the plot and logic of this film is an absolute mess. They introduce some cool new dinos but it’s by this film that you realize the excessive hyper aggressiveness of every single dino they encounter gets grating. Never more so is this obvious than when they run into therizinosaurus, which is a herbivore, but you’d never know that from the film, as it acts like any other carnivore. But logic left this franchise a few movies back I’m afraid. One more to go…

-Z

This feels like rock bottom for the Jurassic franchise. While the reappearance of the original Jurassic trio definitely adds something here (and helps my rating a bit), this movie felt very unsatisfying and confusing. The Mission: Impossible-esque rescue mission feels a bit cheap. There are a lot of pieces to the plot and none of them are really answering the question that the movie feels like it is trying to answer - how can dinosaurs and humans coexist? And at this point, really, after 6 movies, we should know the answer: they cannot.

-E

Z 6.0
E 5.75
J n/a

~ZEJ 5.88

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Despite my love for Jurassic Park, I intentionally skipped this movie after seeing its reviews upon release, and therefore are entering uncharted territory. Seeing the first half of this movie, I kind of worried I had made a mistake, as it’s about as good and fun as Jurassic World, but the second half is so bad that it’s not even laughable. It’s just sad. 2018 was before the advent of large language models, but the plot and dialogue feel like that’s how it was written. Up until this point, we’ve had fun with this franchise watch, but with two movies to go, have we hit rock bottom or can it get worse?

-Z

In the first new-to-us Jurassic movie, we definitely take a step back in terms of logic and writing. Parts of this movie felt downright bad. The villainous characters are so cartoon-like, I’m not sure if we are meant to take them seriously or not. I will say, the first half of the movie is much stronger than the second, and the movie overall was still a fun watching experience, but it is sad to see the franchise start to really take a turn for the worse here.

-E

Z 6.0
E 6.25
J n/a

~ZEJ 6.13

Jurassic World

E and I’s JP marathon continues and alas we arrive at the first of the new trilogy - Jurassic World. Unfortunately, it has aged poorly. The dialogue and story are much weaker than my memory of watching it in theaters. While the new dinosaur designs are cool, and a fully realized version of the Jurassic Park dream is cool to see in its full glory, the movie is just barely teetering on the line of being plain bad. This is the last movie we watched in the franchise, and while the reviews get worse from here on out, I fear for what’s to come.

-Z

I remembered this movie being much more funny and clever than it was upon our rewatch. While it is exciting to see how this movie continues the legacy of the original trio, not nearly enough explanation is given for why no one has learned their lesson about humans and dinosaurs existing in the same space. While there are definitely some eye roll moments (namely, almost all aspects of Bryce Dallas Howard’s character), the story overall is pretty strong and compelling, and I have to admit I’m continuing to enjoy our rewatch marathon more than I thought I would!

-E

Z 6.5
E 7.0
J n/a

~ZEJ 6.75

Jurassic Park III

With Jurassic World Rebirth being nominated for an Oscar, E and I decided we’re going to continue our Jurassic Park watch all the way through to #7, and next up, #3. While the dinosaur animation is a bit jankier than the first two, particularly the Spinosaurus and T-Rex fight, and there’s a few roll your eyes moments, there’s also a lot of good in the finale of the original trilogy, and a lot they got right. Sam Neill was always my favorite part of the original and maybe that makes me unfairly biased towards JP3, but I think he’s as fantastic as ever in this. It’s been a while since I had revisited the JP trilogy, and I’m so glad I did, because I think it’s aged fairly well. Jurassic World movies on the other hand… yikes.

-Z

This iteration of the original Jurassic trilogy feels more like a horror movie than an adventure story, which I actually really liked. There are definitely still a few plot holes and awkward dialogue, but this was a much better story compared to The Lost World. And we finally got a child actor who didn’t drive me nuts! While this series is ultimately just not quite my cup of tea, this movie makes me look forward to completing it - the movies are just undeniably fun.

-E

Z 7.5
E 7.5
J n/a

~ZEJ 7.5

The Lost World: Jurassic Park

Having just finished the book the Lost World, I understand why Spielberg strayed so heavily from it, but there are some bizarre choices. Making Kelly Ian’s daughter, whose acting is so poor that it makes her every scene standout and not in a good way. That’s a choice. Making the entire movie feel 1,000 times faster, and an action survival flick, where literally every scene is just one more impossible close escape to get to the next impossible close escape. That’s a choice. We never get a chance to really sit in the wonder of the dinosaur’s existence like we do in the first movie. And yet, despite all it’s flaws, I still love it. It has some iconic moments, and there’s a lot of Spielberg magic in there.

-Z

It is wild that I have practically no memory of watching this movie, but Z claims that we did. The writing and characters suffer a bit here compared to the original, and several story elements feel pretty “copy & paste.” However, I can’t deny that this series is incredibly fun. Take out the questionable choice for Ian Malcolm’s daughter to tag along for the ride and this would have been better, but there still aren’t enough moments for the story to slow down and let us appreciate the visuals.

-E

Z 7.5
E 7.0
J n/a

~ZEJ 7.25

Arco

Arco is a wildly inventive story and world that at the same time falls a little bit flat. The ceiling of this movie could have been a 10/10, but I think the whole ZEJ team felt letdown by the end result once the credits rolled. It’s a little slow, a little less humorous than it could have been, and as Jord says, kind of has this “Studio Ghibli” morale tale that isn’t as satisfying after you’ve seen it multiple times over and over. Though it’s a French film, it does also carry much of the Studio Ghibli aesthetic as well, and is very anime coded in general. Enjoyed it, probably deserves its animation nomination, but there was some missed potential here and that makes me excited to see what director and animator Ugo Bienvenu, who is just 38 years old does next!

-Z

I really enjoyed the imaginative story here and seeing two different created versions of the future. There was just something about this that felt a little unfinished - a lot of questions left unanswered. More development of the story and characters would have helped this feel a little more complete, but maybe I’m missing the point of the simplicity of it all. I think there are some larger messages present here, but I didn’t really enjoy it enough to keep thinking about it very long after the fact. The three brothers characters, who definitely steal the show, are giving this rating a bit of a boost!

-E

I just don’t know. After the film I didn’t know and a week later I still don’t know. It was animated well and had some cool color pops along with visually being unique, but I just did not enjoy the story. I think there is more there than I got out of it, but it also seems to be a PG film for young children so it is hard to know if there is a deeper meaning or not. I also think the dubbing was a bit distracting. I think this is a testament to a weak animated category this year, but still worth a watch if you like animated films!

-J

Z 8.0
E 7.5
J 7.5

ZEJ 7.67

The Voice of Hind Rajab

While the heartbreaking true story of Hind Rajab’s final moments is an important story to tell, the depiction of the call center felt seriously over-dramatized in a way that came off as unrealistic. As E states, stretching out this one story into a single movie felt thin. While it’s obviously a hugely relevant film to current geopolitics, No Other Choice was a much better movie and more deserving of the International nomination than the Voice of Hind Rajab.

-Z

I’m just not quite sure there was enough content for this to be a movie. An exploration of a Palestinian Red Crescent call center, where this is just one of the stories, might have worked better in several respects, but I understand that wasn’t the point here. The story just felt very repetitive and, I hate to say, overly emotional to the point where it just felt unrealistic. However, the way they wove in some original footage and sound was very well done, which boosts my rating a bit here.

-E

As time has gone on with this film, the more I seemed to appreciate it. I know it has some different parallels to other true stories doing the real within the fictionalization, but I think this film did a really good job of it. Also, the acting was great along with obviously a horrific story. I do believe this deserves to be nominated, but I do not think it is the best film, but will most likely win. If you are a cinema watcher who likes foreign films, you definitely need to see this.

-J

Z 7.25
E 7.5
J 8.5

ZEJ 7.75

Elio

Man, Jord must have been GRUMPY on his watch of Elio, because I had a lot of fun with it. E and I were laughing quite a bit. There’s some Pixar cheesiness, undoubtedly, but there’s a lot of heart and it’s a well written story. Loved the Carl Sagan tie-in that bookends the movie. While not every Pixar movie deserves an Oscar nomination, I’m not upset this received one.

-Z on 1/25/2026

Fun characters, fun worldbuilding, fun plot - a really fun watch! Had I read more about the plot when this was in theaters, I probably would have made a push for us to see it that way. Absolutely deserves its Best Animated Picture nomination. A little over the top/predictable at times, which wasn’t surprising, but might be the reason I’d still pick Kpop Demon Hunters as the best animated movie of the year overall.

-E on 1/25/2026

I forgot that this came out this year. I put my girlfriend on movie duty, and this is what we landed on. A surprisingly depressing start to the movie and feeds off it throughout most of the film. They really were trying to hit the heart strings, and maybe mine are out of tune. The movie looked great and had a few fun parts, but this may be one of my least favorite Pixar movies that have come out. I am sure it’ll be nominated, so in that sense I am glad I watched it, but overall I would say this film was just fine.

-J on 10/20/25

Z 7.75
E 8.0
J 7.0

ZEJ 7.58

Blue Moon

Echoing E’s thoughts exactly. Ethan Hawke is tremendous, as he always is, and as far as one-room play style movies, this is an intriguing but not revelational at all movie. Really loved Andrew Scott’s performance. This one’s for the cinema nerds.

-Z

So. Much. Dialogue. Ethan Hawke does an excellent job in this film and absolutely deserves his Best Actor nod, but the overall story just didn’t quite do it for me. I appreciated the play-like style of setting and dialogue, but I found myself getting bored at several points. This one may have been better enjoyed in a dark theater, but I still think it just wasn’t that strong of a movie.

-E

Z 7.75
E 7.5
J n/a

~ZEJ 7.63