Lowest-Scoring Best Picture Nominees of the Past 40 Years

Mel Gibson's popular 1995 epic about the fight for Scottish independence conquered the 68th Annual Academy Awards. Nominated in 10 categories, it won five times. Actor-director-producer Gibson himself claimed two trophies, for best picture and best director. But where the Academy saw greatness, some critics saw overwrought spectacle.

"A rambling disappointment." —Desson Thomson, Washington Post

With 12 Oscar nominations and five Oscar wins, including best picture and best actor (Russell Crowe), this 2000 sword-and-sand epic is the most decorated film on this ignominious list. It prevailed over the likes of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Almost Famous, the latter of which wasn't even nominated for best picture. Many reviewers raved about director Ridley Scott's "stunning" film (Philadelphia Inquirer), but others found it big, loud and "silly" (The New York Times).

"Well, it's better than The Phantom Menace." —Ann Hornaday, Baltimore Sun

James Cameron's first sequel to his 2009 box office sensation Avatar scored 16 points lower than that groundbreaking sci-fi adventure but nevertheless matched two of the first film's achievements: receiving a best picture nomination and grossing over $2 billion worldwide. Critics thought the sequel was at least an hour too long, with little humor or intelligence to fill the gaps between action sequences.

"This movie has the greatest ratio of zone-out time to narrative comprehension I've ever experienced." —Nick Newman, The Film Stage

Recently remade as a TV series, Adrian Lyne's hit 1987 thriller left an indelible stamp on pop culture history with its story of a one-night stand gone wrong. Michael Douglas stars as married lawyer Dan, whose affair with Alex, an editor played memorably by Oscar nominee Glenn Close, triggers obsessive behavior in Alex, leading to (among other things) the boiling of a pet rabbit and an attack on Dan's wife, played by Anne Archer (also Oscar nominated). Critics generally praised the film at the time of its release, but their dislike of the film's ending prevented the Metascore from reaching loftier heights.

"Fatal Attraction is a spellbinding psychological thriller that could have been a great movie if the filmmakers had not thrown character and plausibility to the winds in the last minutes to give us their version of a grown-up 'Friday the 13th.'" —Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

An Oscar-winner for its score, this 2004 origin story about Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie (Johnny Depp) enjoyed solid support from audiences, critics and Oscar voters, who bestowed seven overall nominations on the film. Detractors, however, found it "sappy" (Philadelphia Inquirer) and "overproduced" (Wall Street Journal).

"Finding Neverland takes a big, brave leap and lands splat on the sidewalk." —Richard Corliss, Time

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

This film brings this list to a fitting end. Perhaps no modern best picture-winner has been more assailed than writer-director Paul Haggis' 2005 ensemble drama on race. Up until it upset Brokeback Mountain for Oscars' top prize, it actually enjoyed a number of glowing reviews from the likes of Roger Ebert ("four stars") and The New Yorker ("often breathtakingly intelligent"). But the view that Crash was a "well-intentioned but obvious, often clumsy picture" (Charlotte Observer) has come to dominate its narrative.

"It's too bad that the movie induces eyeball-rolling almost as much as it does armrest-clutching." —Glenn Kenny, Premiere

A winner of two Oscars for costume design and art direction, and the recipient of eight nominations overall, Baz Luhrmann's 2001 fever dream of a musical dazzled most critics, but left a good chunk wrung out. The New York Times' A.O. Scott arguably summed up both sides when he wrote Moulin Rouge! was "simultaneously stirring and dispiriting."

"Never boring, often excruciating and occasionally transcendent." —Maitland McDonagh, TV Guide Magazine

Adapted from Charles Fuller's Pulitzer-winning play A Soldier's Play, Norman Jewison's 1984 drama follows the investigation into a racially motivated murder of an U.S. Army soldier in Louisiana in the 1940s. Howard E. Rollins Jr., Adolph Caesar, and a young Denzel Washington head the cast, which also features a pair of actors (Robert Townsend, David Alan Grier) better known for their comedy work. Reviewers liked the performances much more than Jewison's direction and the film's too-straightforward approach.

"Directed rather broadly by Norman Jewison, but well acted and intelligent." —David Sterritt, Christian Science Monitor

This is the first best picture-winner on this list. The 1988 road-trip drama about a selfish man (Tom Cruise) tasked with the care of his long-lost autistic brother (Dustin Hoffman) was popular among audiences and Oscar voters, who showered it with four big wins, including trophies for Hoffman and director Barry Levinson. But some critics remained unmoved. The New Yorker's Pauline Kael called it "wet kitsch."

"Though it's well directed, written and performed, Rain Main still slips irreversibly into the so-what category." —Dave Kehr, Chicago Tribune

This 1991 adaptation of Pat Conroy's novel about an abuse survivor (played by Nick Nolte) and his therapist (played by Barbra Streisand, who also directed) captured seven Oscar nominations. But Streisand neither fully won over Academy members, who snubbed her in the director category, or critics, who complained her film was too glossy.

"This movie is long and full of pain, and it's driven by the most syrupy musical score I can recall." —Bill Cosford, Miami Herald

This 1989 film scored seven Oscar nominations, including ones for Gene Hackman and Frances McDormand. It ultimately won a statuette for cinematography. But reviews were mixed for the Rob Reiner-directed Civil Rights-era drama.

"Mississippi Burning is visually splendid. Director Parker and his crew have created a film that is unquestionably watchable. As a history lesson, however, it's laughable." —TV Guide

Genre movies rarely get trotted out on the Oscar red carpet, but M. Night Shyamalan's 1999 thriller was different: a breakout, box-office hit that scared up six nominations, including a best supporting actor nod for Haley Joel Osment. Still, some critics enjoyed the twist ending more than the movie itself.

"Because the movie never fully engages us, it never quite manages to allay our queasiness about watching the boy's distress." —Charles Taylor, Salon

This 2022 biopic about rock icon Elvis Presley (played by Austin Butler) ended a nine-year hiatus for director Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge!). Critics actually loved Butler's performance (which also earned him an Oscar nomination); what they didn't like so much, among other things like the film's length, was Tom Hanks—and his odd choice of accents—as Presley's manager Colonel Tom Parker. Elvis was a modest box office hit, grossing just under $300 million, enough to make it one of the most successful music biopics of all time.

"When Elvis is good, it's quite good, in an awful sort of way. When it's awful, it's quite awful, in an entertaining sort of way. The movie can't make up its mind if it's chronicling a struggle for the soul of America (spoiler alert: bye-bye Beale Street, hello, Vegas) or it's just a tabloid schlockfest." —Mark Feeney, Boston Globe

While Variety, the Los Angeles Times and other outlets were charmed by this 2000 romantic drama starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp, the Christian Science Monitor found it "more sugary than satisfying." Still, the Harvey Weinstein-era Miramax pushed the film to five Oscar nods. And while it went 0-for-5, Esquire's Michael Tedder wrote in 2017 that the fact "Chocolat was even nominated for best picture is just straight-up, goddamn embarrassing."

"The movie is barely sufferable." —David Edelstein, Slate

Director Tom Hooper's 2012 adaptation of the hit musical about revolutionary-era France won three Oscars (including a best supporting actress triumph for Anne Hathaway), and was nominated for eight awards in all. But critics who weren't caught up in its "emotional wallop" (Los Angeles Times) really, really hated it. Said Time's Richard Corliss, "This is a bad movie."

"I screamed a scream as time went by." —Anthony Lane, The New Yorker

A three-part comedy set in part on a luxury yacht, The Square director Ruben Ostlund's latest satire represents his English-language debut, and it won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2022 prior to receiving a best picture nomination. But reviews were relatively tepid compared to Ostlund's past work, with some critics finding the satire overly broad and disappointingly superficial.

"Triangle of Sadness definitely looks like money. But it feels like a luxury item, a picture whose payoff isn't as grand as you might have hoped. Östlund's gifts are dazzling. If only he knew when to stop giving." —Stephanie Zacharek, Time

When it came to this 2011 Civil Rights-era drama, critics universally praised stars Octavia Spencer (who won the best supporting actress Oscar) and Viola Davis, but split on whether the film was "deeply touching" (Rolling Stone) or "more condescending than the prejudice it aims to remedy" (Boxoffice Magazine). Audiences made it a hit; the Academy nominated it for four awards overall.

"The Help is a high-functioning tearjerker, but the catharsis it offers feels glib and insufficient." —Dana Stevens, Slate

This Rob Reiner-directed, Aaron Sorkin-scripted 1992 military-courtroom drama, starring Tom Cruise and Jack Nicholson, was a showy best picture contender that earned four overall nominations. But its Metascore suffers for the film being judged as only "passably entertaining" by the likes of the Wall Street Journal.

"Slick, overly deliberate and brimming with hammy performances." —Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle

Adam McKay's target audience might just be Academy members. Three McKay-directed films have been nominated for best picture, and two of those were in spite of lackluster critic reviews. The first of that pair is this comedic 2018 biopic about former vice president Dick Cheney, played by Christian Bale after he gained 50 pounds for the role. Amy Adams, who previously starred with Bale in American Hustle and The Fighter, plays Cheney's wife Lynne. Many critics didn't like McKay's humorous approach to the material, deeming the result shallow and off-putting.

"Apart from one initially funny (but ultimately over-extended) gag involving a fake credits sequence, the material is mostly glib and second-rate—and, when it comes down to it, about as dry, oversimplified, and under-dramatized as a class presentation." —Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, A.V. Club

This 1999 prison drama, starring Tom Hanks and then-newcomer (and best supporting actor nominee) Michael Clarke Duncan, went into Oscar night with four nominations. But critics, who'd rallied behind filmmaker Frank Darabont's earlier The Shawshank Redemption, weren't necessarily cheering it on. Film.com called The Green Mile "a case of severe overreaching."

"Three hours of overstatement and schmaltz." —Edward Guthmann, San Francisco Chronicle

The Godfather was perfect; it literally boasts a Metascore of 100. The Godfather: Part II was likewise acclaimed. Both are best picture winners. Then there's The Godfather: Part III. When it arrived in 1990, it was called "lumbering" by The New Yorker. Adding insult to insult, it didn't make good on one of its seven Oscar nominations. But a re-edited version of the film, released in 2020 as The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone, scored much higher with critics.

"One of the most frustrating films of 1990, an epic without epic scope, a muted, strained, unnatural affair that never comes into dramatic focus." —TV Guide

Also (somehow) a Venice Golden Lion winner, this controversial 2019 comic book movie from director Todd Phillips depicts the origin story of Batman villain The Joker, played by Joaquin Phoenix. Joker became the highest-grossing R-rated film in history on the way to collecting 11 Academy Award nominations (with only Phoenix and composer Hildur Guðnadóttir converting those nominations into wins). While some critics loved the film, quite a few did not. The naysayers found it grim with little to say.

Despite that yellow Metascore, it wasn't quite the lowest-scoring best picture nominee in 2020. ...

"A calculatedly combustible concoction, designed, like its chaos-creating character, to cause a stir. To provoke and distort. I wish it was as radical as it thinks it is." —Jake Coyle, The Associated Press

The second Stephen Daldry movie on this list, this 2008 drama about an affair between an ex-Nazi concentration camp guard (best actress winner Kate Winslet) and a German teen (David Kross) was called "the shallowest 'serious' film ... reeling this year" by Film Threat. With Harvey Weinstein's Miramax in full-on Oscar mode, however, The Reader was rewarded with five total nominations.

"The Reader feels weighty, all right; but it's an unsatisfying kind of weight." —Stephanie Zacharek, Salon

Slate's David Edelstein said writer-director-star Roberto Benigni's 1998 tale of a father who, for the sake of his son, pretends their stay in a Nazi concentration camp is a grand adventure "made me want to throw up." But others were charmed, and Weinstein's Miramax machine would not be denied. The film triumphed with seven Oscar nods, and three big wins for best foreign-language film, best original score, and best actor (Benigni).

"Life Is Beautiful is funny (kinda) and even tasteful (sorta). But in its fantasy of divine grace, it is also nonsense." —J. Hoberman, Village Voice

In the past four decades only one best picture slate had more than one nominee with a yellow Metascore. That would be the 2020 field when Joker was joined by another divisive and controversial film: Taika Waititi's Holocaust satire Jojo Rabbit. The film is set in Germany during WWII and follows a young boy whose imaginary friend is Adolph Hitler and whose mother (Scarlett Johansson) is harboring a Jewish girl in their home. Also a TIFF People's Choice winner, Jojo was dismissed by some reviewers as tame and pointless.

"Jojo Rabbit's script isn't emotionally complex enough to address the cruel realism of its world, and as the bleakness continues, the jokes fall flatter and flatter." —David Sims, The Atlantic

The Kevin Costner drama earned three Oscar nominations, played well at the box office, and is now regarded as one of Hollywood's great baseball movies. Back in 1989, however, critics complained the movie mucked up its cornfield with too much sap.

"The movie may steal a base here and there, but there are no homers." —Desson Thomson, Washington Post

Passed over for the Godfather movies, Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon and more, Al Pacino finally won the best actor Oscar for this 1992 drama about a blind Army retiree (Pacino) who hires a prep-school helper (Chris O'Donnell). The film, which divided critics, rode the Pacino wave to three overall nominations.

"The movie...is a crock." —Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Director Roland Joffé's period drama follows a Jesuit missionary (Jeremy Irons) on an eventful trip to bring Christianity to the people of South America in the mid-1700s. Robert De Niro, Aidan Quinn, and Liam Neeson (in one of his earlier roles) also star. The Mission was nominated for seven Academy Awards including best picture despite flopping at the box office and receiving mediocre reviews from critics who were bored by the film's two-dimensional script.

"Roland Joffe has directed an earnest and well-meaning film but the crushing inevitability of the climax makes it a less than rewarding experience." —Bob Thomas, The Associated Press

With this 2009 drama, Sandra Bullock won near-universal acclaim (and the best actress Oscar) for playing a well-off white Southerner who aids a homeless black teen and football prodigy. But the film fell short with critics who faulted its "blinkered middle-class pandering" (Time Out).

"A facile, feel-good fable that substitutes cliché for reality at nearly every turn." —Marc Mohan, The Oregonian

Critics were cool toward this 1988 adaptation of the Anne Tyler novel about a grieving father who is emotionally rescued by a dog trainer (Geena Davis). The San Francisco Chronicle called it a "ho-hum-er." But the film landed with the Academy, where it notched an Oscar win for Davis, among four overall nominations.

"I found Tourist hell to sit through." —Pauline Kael, The New Yorker

Time's Richard Corliss was perhaps more right then he knew when he opined of this 1990 film, "[Ghost is a] bad movie that a lot of people will like." Indeed, despite lukewarm reviews, the supernatural love story was a box-office hit that charmed Oscar voters. The film scored five nominations and won two awards, including a best supporting actress statuette for Whoopi Goldberg.

"There's something relentlessly superficial about the movie." —David Sterritt, Christian Science Monitor

The second Adam McKay-directed comedy to land on this list and the sixth Netflix film ever to receive a best picture nomination, Don't Look Up is an apocalyptic dark comedy about a pair of "low-level astronomers" who discover that a comet is on a collision course with Earth but who then have difficulty convincing the population of the impending disaster. Despite an incredible ensemble cast that includes Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Cate Blanchett, and Timothée Chalamet, the film disappointed critics who found the comedy irritating rather than funny.

"The biggest problem with McKay's stuff is that he thinks he's the next Paddy Chayefsky, bringing down untold wisdom from on high and proclaiming disdain at the blinkered, media-soaked vagaries of our world. Unfortunately, he's bought too deeply into his hype as a vivid truth-teller of society's ills, and that smugness has infected too much of his films' fabric." —Clint Worthington, Consequence

The highest-grossing music biopic in history, 2018's Bohemian Rhapsody chronicles the legendary rock band Queen, with Rami Malek starring (and winning a best actor Oscar) as frontman Freddie Mercury. Director Bryan Singer was fired from the project toward the end of production (and replaced by Dexter Fletcher), but nearly $1 billion in grosses proved to be the ultimate cure for any production problems. As for critics? They mainly saw a shallow and cliché-filled film that did nothing to illuminate the life of Mercury or his bandmates.

"The movie, despite its electrifying subject, is a conventional, middle-of-the-road, cut-and-dried, play-it-safe, rather fuddy-duddy old-school biopic, a movie that skitters through events instead of sinking into them." —Owen Gleiberman, Variety

This 2011 drama assembled Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Max von Sydow, and director Stephen Daldry (Billy Elliot) in the service of a September 11 tale adapted from Jonathan Safran Foer's novel. Though the film looked on paper like a surefire awards-season favorite, critics found it manipulative, and its Oscar hopes were all but shot when it received a best picture nod and a best supporting actor nomination (von Sydow) but nothing else. It's the worst-reviewed best picture nominee of the past four decades--and, quite possibly, even longer.

"Yes, you may cry, but when tears are milked as they are here, the truer response should be rage." —Manohla Dargis, The New York Times