Oscars 2020: IGN’s Reviews of the Best Picture Nominees

The 2020 Oscar race has begun and it's a momentous one for comic book fans as Joker leads the pack with 11 nominations, including Best Picture. If you need a refresher on which films earned the Academy's recognition, the Best Picture nominees for the 2020 Oscars are:

• Joker
• 1917
• Parasite
• The Irishman
• Little Women
• Jojo Rabbit
• Marriage Story
• Once Upon a Time In… Hollywood
• Ford v Ferrari

This year's Best Picture contenders reflect many of our own nominees for the Best Movie of 2019, a list which included Joker but ultimately saw Parasite win our top honor. Joker, meanwhile, was voted by IGN readers as the People's Choice Winner. Yet for all its newfound Oscar luster, it must be noted that Joker was not universally beloved by critics, with the film only holding a 69% critical aggregate score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 59 on Metacritic. By comparison, The Irishman has a 96% on RT and a 94 on Metacritic. While we gave Joker a rave review, our critics weren't as enamored with some of the other films the Academy nominated as Best Picture this year. So let's look back at what our team of critics thought of this year's crop of Best Picture candidates. You can scroll through the slideshow below or read on for their scores and verdicts. It should also be noted that all these reviews were done using our former 100-point review score scale, which we dropped at the start of 2020 in lieu of a simplified 10-point review scale. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=oscars-2020-igns-reviews-of-the-best-picture-nominees&captions=true"]

Joker - 10

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/08/31/joker-review"] READ THE REVIEW: "Joker isn’t just an awesome comic book movie, it’s an awesome movie, period. It offers no easy answers to the unsettling questions it raises about a cruel society in decline. Joaquin Phoenix’s fully committed performance and Todd Phillips’ masterful albeit loose reinvention of the DC source material make Joker a film that should leave comic book fans and non-fans alike disturbed and moved in all the right ways."

1917 - 9.5

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/11/25/1917-review"] READ THE REVIEW: "1917 is an expertly crafted and emotionally exhausting thrill-ride behind enemy lines. Gloriously shot, deftly paced, and striking in its gruesome recreation of the time and place, Sam Mendes’ 1917 wisely never loses sight of the smaller, intimate elements in a fast-paced story with immense scale and action. 1917 firmly places the emphasis on what is "human" in such a dehumanizing environment. It’s one of the best films of the year."

Parasite - 9.5

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/12/20/igns-best-movie-of-2019"] READ THE REVIEW: "Parasite is a film that sneaks up on you. The first hour is a dark screwball comedy that’s filled with funny characters and silly situations. Then a sudden about-turn changes everything that’s come before, and funny becomes serious, before just as quickly segueing into tragedy. There are no heroes and no villains in this story. Instead, it’s a heartbreaking tale of why the haves and have-nots will stay that way, crafted by a virtuoso director at the very top of his game."

The Irishman - 9.2

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/09/30/the-irishman-review"] READ THE REVIEW: "Martin Scorsese’s revisionist take on the gangster genre he helped define is a story of epic proportions that benefits from subtly brilliant special effects and three knock-out performances from Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino. The master filmmaker has made an introspective, thoughtful, even somber film that manages to be just as entertaining as his classics, even while diving deep into the darkest souls and finding some semblance of a heart."

Little Women - 8.8

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/08/13/little-women-trailer-1"] READ THE REVIEW: "Gerwig mostly plays it safe with this adaptation but a stellar cast and her impressive directorial eye mean that it's a total joy to watch. Ronan, Pugh, and Chalamet are standouts in an impressive lineup, and Gerwig once again marks herself out as a contemporary powerhouse. Those looking for a radical departure from the source material or a more contemporary take on the world of the Little Women may be disappointed but if you want a cozy period piece about strong women, love, and family then you'll be delighted with this sumptuous reimagining of Alcott's beloved book."

Jojo Rabbit - 8.5

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/09/13/jojo-rabbit-review"] READ THE REVIEW: "The concept of a kid’s imaginary friend being Adolf Hitler is as unpalatable as it is potentially funny, and every last laugh is wrung from the scenario before the film gets serious. And make no mistake, when the laughter stops, Jojo Rabbit is filled with genuine horror. Taika Waititi nevertheless strikes just the right balance between comedy, tragedy, and drama, the result being a very funny WWII film that nevertheless carries an incredibly important message about the here and now."

Marriage Story - 8.0

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/10/10/marriage-story-nicole-teaser-trailer"] READ THE REVIEW: "Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson give their all to Marriage Story, a smart exploration of the emotional intricacies of divorce and how they can rip love to shreds. As characters, they’re a little too extraordinary in their careers to be as relatable as the film wants them to be, but that doesn’t get in the way of the sheer power of the writing and acting on grand display."

Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood - 7.8

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/07/26/once-upon-a-time-in-hollywood-review"] READ THE REVIEW: "Quentin Tarantino doesn’t quite deliver a grand slam with his penultimate feature film Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood, a languid but interesting exploration of a particular time and place and a loving ode to the pop culture that informed his particular sensibilities as an artist. But it also doesn’t always land as viscerally or emotionally as it could have, and it never quite develops Sharon Tate as more than an idea. Still, the respective performances of DiCaprio and Pitt and the film’s meticulous attention to period detail are all great and keep you invested in where this cruise around Tinseltown will ultimately take you."

Ford v. Ferrari - 6.0

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/09/12/ford-v-ferrari-review"] READ THE REVIEW: "Like a race car without an engine, Ford v Ferrari looks good on the surface, but fails to motor for its 150-minutes. There’s fun to be had watching the Ford executives clash, and the driving scenes are shot with real artistry and skill, but they’re interspersed with scenes of true inertia; of Ken Miles listening to the radio while fixing his car, or having yet another argument with his wife. So while Le Mans might be the most exciting race on the planet – as we’re told over and over again, ad infinitum – a film about that race is a very different proposition, with Ford v Ferrari lacking urgency and thrills, and instead simply chugging along in underwhelming fashion." [poilib element="accentDivider"] The 92nd Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, Feb. 9th on ABC. It will be the second year in a row that the ceremony's broadcast will be without a host. For more Academy Awards coverage, find out what this year's biggest Oscar noms snubs were!