The Power of the Dog is set for Oscar glory, but critics and audiences have a different view of this year’s best picture. The Jane Campion movie, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, has already won best picture at the BAFTAs, which is often a good indicator of which film will be chosen by Oscar judges.
It has also won 193 awards so far at ceremonies across America and the rest of the world - twice as many as the next highest nominee, Dune, which has 95 wins. So it is not surprising that The Power of the Dog is the 4/5 favourite to claim the Oscar, ahead of CODA (13/10) and Belfast (14/1).
However, according to online movie aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, it may not be quite deserving of the title of 2021’s best film. The site’s “Tomatometer” measures positive reviews against negative ones to give an overall rating of “fresh” or “rotten”.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, and the critics, The Power of the Dog is worthy of a 94% approval rating. But that high score is only enough to rank the western in third place among this year’s Oscar nominees, behind Japanese movie Drive My Car (97%) and Sian Heder’s drama CODA (95%) which follows the story of a child of deaf adults.
Rotten Tomatoes also collates scores submitted by cinema audience members who regularly visit the site. The Power of the Dog was not a favourite among them either, with only a 76% approval rating from armchair critics. But with fewer than 50 “verified users” of Rotten Tomatoes bothering to submit their marks, it seems hardly any have watched The Power of the Dog.
By contrast, King Richard - the Will Smith movie about the Williams sisters and their path to tennis glory - scored an approval rating of 98% after being reviewed by more than 5,000 verified audience members. This year the Dolby Theatre at the Hollywood and Highland Centre plays host to the 94th Oscars awards ceremony.
The very first awards ceremony took place on May 16, 1929 at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel’s Blossom Room, two years after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded. Since then more than 3,000 Oscars - the nickname for the 13½ inch gold statuettes - have been presented to winners.
The very first movie to be named best picture was Wings, a silent war film starring Clara Bow, Charles Rogers, and Richard Arlen and directed by William A. Wellman. The most recent winner at the 93rd Oscars ceremony was Nomadland, the Chloé Zhao movie about the nomadic life of seasonal Amazon workers, starring Frances McDormand.
These 10 movies have all been nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. But which one is your favourite? You be the judge and tell us which film is most deserving of the Oscar - then see how your score compares with other movie buffs’ ratings?
