20 Worst Best Picture Film Nominees Since 2010

Here we are, back at the 2012 Oscars again with yet another mediocre Best Picture nominee.

One thing The Help does benefit from a lot is the absolutely fantastic acting. It does give you an opportunity to see several of America's finest working actresses - Viola Davis, Emma Stone, Octavia Spencer, Alison Janney, Jessica Chastain, Bryce Dallas Howard and even Sissy Spacek - in one film and all of them kill it but even so, this film isn't really worth seeing.

Of course, this movie has faced a ton of criticism for its thoroughly inadequate handling of racism (to the extent that Viola Davis has openly expressed regret for being in the film) and such criticisms are wholly justified, but even when you take that out of the equation this is still a hard movie to recommend.

More than anything else, The Help is dull. It's not very moving or insightful, it drags out across a completely over-inflated run-time and Tate Taylor's direction is very flat. This seemed like an odd Best Picture nomination at the time, since it was solidly popular but not beloved, and in the wake of all that controversy what once seemed odd now seems downright inexplicable.

It speaks a lot to the inadequacies of the film's screenplay that not even its roster of great performances can save the film from being an unbridled 'Meh'.