The most glaring omission is the old-fashioned, feel-good blockbuster – “Top Gun: Maverick.” Why would snooty cinéastes laud a film that not only got Americans back into theaters after a devastating pandemic but also grossed over $1.4 billion globally?
Why would they want to include a film that got two Golden Globe nominations, as well as the selection of “best film” by the National Board of Review, the non-profit group of New York City area film buffs whose awards are often a harbinger of films that will take home Oscars?
Why would they mention a movie whose box-office superstar, Tom Cruise, insisted that it open in theaters, saying that a streaming-only premiere was “never going to happen”? Cruise prevailed, though the film’s debut was postponed four times before finally arriving in theaters last May.
The Times was not the only major newspaper to diss the year’s top-grossing film. TG:M did not make the top ten lists of critics at The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, and New Yorker. (Atlantic magazine gave it “honorable mention.”) But among the nation’s leading newspapers, only the Washington Post’s Ann Hornaday chose it as the year’s best film. Calling it “a blockbuster in the best sense of the word,” Hornaday wrote that it is a “big, old-fashioned movie-movie that outclassed the first movie in its smart writing, canny casting, authentic emotion (still crying, Iceman) and bold, beautiful production values.”
As Sonny Bunch writes: ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Should Win Best Picture. “Some will argue that Top Gun: Maverick doesn’t ‘deserve’ the Oscar, that it wasn’t the ‘best’ movie of the year. I’d, frankly, agree with that. It’s not even at the top of my own list, and it’s likely to be up against the movie I do think is the best of the year (“Tár) in the best picture category. But to quote another Oscar favorite: Deserve’s got nothing to do with it. This is a moment for self-preservation, pure and simple, not just for a Hollywood struggling to retain relevance in an increasingly niche-ified entertainment universe but also for The Academy Awards themselves, which have seen ratings decline year after year and can’t expect the rousing triumph of Coda to remind people that, hey, the Oscars are a thing.”