The Lowest-Scoring Best Picture Nominees of the Past 30 Years
As history—and Metascores—show, Academy Award nominations reveal best picture contenders, but not necessarily the best pictures.
We've looked through the best picture Oscar fields of the last 30 years, from the 1989 nominees through the recently announced 2018 field, cross-checked the nominees' Metacritic scores, and ranked the 24 lowest-scoring films, from the bottom to the relative top. Four of these films went on to become best picture winners—but none boasts a Metascore higher than 69.
Helen Hunt won the best actress Oscar and Jack Nicholson won the best actor Oscar for this seven-time-nominated 1997 comedy-drama. Critics were generally on board with the James L. Brooks film, and its performances. But holdouts faulted it for "schmaltz" (Mr. Showbiz) and "constant emotional yanking" (Austin Chronicle).
“Gets bogged down in sentimentality, while its wheels spin futilely in life-solving overdrive.” —Desson Thomson, Washington Post