20 Worst Best Picture Film Nominees Since 2010
5. Vice
Vice is a terrible Best Picture nominee on every level conceivable.
It's a smug, shallow and soulless vacuum of a movie that looks at some of the most important history of the 21st century without the slightest bit of depth, pathos or insight. Instead, all it does is show off the quirky film-making and storytelling techniques that were seen in Adam McKay's previous film, The Big Short.
That movie, while not outstanding, worked very well because it used its weird presentation to tell a heartfelt story and pull viewers in, but with Vice there's no real meaning beneath the flashy surface and it falls so completely flat. Worse still, whenever Vice does come upon an interesting historical event, it's usually just on-screen text or part of a montage.
The quirky visuals and writing can be entertaining and the cast do an OK job with their rather under-written roles, but otherwise Vice is a scattershot, meaningless affair and the worst film in what was already a ghastly Best Picture line-up.
Out of the 2019 line-up, the only films where one could convincingly argue for their nominations are Roma, Black Klansman and A Star is Born. In a just world, the other five (this, Green Book, Bohemian Rhapsody, Black Panther and The Favourite) would've been replaced with the actual best films of the year, like First Reformed, Into the Spider-Verse, Infinity War, Leave No Trace, Shoplifters, Fallout or Widows.
What a joke.