Shameless sincerity is breaking down barriers for blockbuster movies

polygon.com:

It’s rare for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — or any critical body, for that matter — to take blockbuster films seriously. James Cameron’s original Avatar was successfully recognized at the 2010 ceremony with nine nominations, and won three, for Visual Effects, Cinematography, and Art Direction. The Lord of the Rings: Return of the Kingfamously won Best Picture in 2004, and even the 2010 ceremony saw Avatar joined by the likes of Inglourious Basterds, District 9, and Pixar’s animated movie Up. But more than a decade removed from that moment, few of the big, populist movies that dominate an average year’s box-office top 10 have achieved similar recognition.

So what made 2023’s Oscars so different? While the comparatively small A24 movie Everything Everywhere All at Once took the top honors, two of the year’s highest-grossing films, Avatar: The Way of Waterand Top Gun: Maverick,were unusually well represented across the Academy’s 24 categories. The Way of Water nabbed four nominations, while Maverick had six. While they only collectively nabbed two awards — Best Sound forTop Gun: Maverick, while Avatar 2 of course won Best Visual Effects — both films clearly managed to break through that tricky barrier between popular movies and acclaimed ones.

What connects these blockbusters with previous Oscar-nominated blockbusters? The creators treated their stories with the utmost sincerity. And when filmmakers take their most outsized impulses seriously, audiences do too.

Just about every genre film is deeply silly in its own way. But the great ones embrace that absurdity, with the creators injecting a much-needed integrity. Up earns its swashbuckling adventures through South America by first grounding viewers