While entertainment writers and the obnoxious movie guys at The Ringer spent the week lauding this year\u2019s Oscar slate, Russo torched the winning film as overhyped garbage and used it as the perfect example of everything wrong with the Academy Awards right now.<\/p>\n
READ: Oscars Ratings Are Even Worse Than Reported. Is The WBC To Blame?<\/a><\/p>\n “Who came up with the idea that now we\u2019re gonna have 10 possibilities for Best Picture of the year?” Russo barked on Wednesday\u2019s First Take. “It used to be five. Now they\u2019ve got 10?\u00a0<\/p>\n “So in other words, then, there are 10 movies that are qualified as an Oscar Award winner?” Russo asked rhetorically. “No, they\u2019re not.”<\/p>\n WATCH:<\/p>\n The Academy expanded the Best Picture field to 10 nominees under the guise of broadening the field, but what it has really done is water down the honor and make room for films that would have never sniffed the award back when the category actually meant something. Then came the knockout punch.<\/p>\n Russo zeroed in on “One Battle After Another,” the film that somehow walked away with Best Picture.<\/p>\n Paul Thomas Anderson and Sara Murphy with cast and crew accept the Best Picture award for “One Battle After Another” onstage during the 98th Oscars. (Photo by Kevin Winter\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n “The movie stunk. It was stupid. It didn\u2019t make any sense,” Russo groaned. “Sean Penn has an incredible car accident, and he walks out alive, and then they kill him with some vents… I don\u2019t care about the spoiler. You don\u2019t want to see it.”<\/p>\n That\u2019s the beauty of Mad Dog. While everyone else is afraid to offend the Letterboxd crowd or the “cinema is supposed to challenge you” crowd, Russo is perfectly willing to say the obvious: just because a movie is chaotic, dark, artsy, or self-important doesn\u2019t make it good.<\/p>\n And he didn\u2019t stop there.<\/p>\n Russo also brought up last year\u2019s heavily praised “Anora,” another critical darling that left him cold.<\/p>\n “I said it last year, the movie was even worse,” Russo said. “That was about the Russian oligarch, the stripper \u2014 that movie stunk on ice.”<\/p>\n RELATED: Kevin O\u2019Leary\u2019s Menace In ‘Marty Supreme’ Proves Mr. Wonderful Deserves An Oscar Nom<\/a><\/p>\n While the Academy pats itself on the back with marathon telecasts and self-congratulatory montages, Russo is wondering what happened to actual moviemaking.<\/p>\n “Where is \u2018From Here to Eternity,\u2019 for crying out loud? How about \u2018The African Queen?\u2019 How about \u2018The Apartment\u2019 with Jack Lemmon?” Russo asked. “That\u2019s moviemaking. That is \u2018The Godfather,\u2019 calling out and killing people and getting tired, that\u2019s what you want to see.”<\/p>\n Instead of legendary storytelling, viewers now get a six-hour ceremony built around films most Americans have never seen and, judging by Russo\u2019s review of “One Battle After Another,” probably wouldn\u2019t want to.<\/p>\n “You\u2019ve got to sit there for six hours while they show you highlights of the 10 movies,” Russo lamented. “It\u2019s two o\u2019clock in the morning, I\u2019ve watched sports all day… and I\u2019m sitting here trying to figure out what\u2019s this or that or what?”<\/p>\n “Let\u2019s do away with that,” Russo concluded. “Five movies!”<\/p>\n He\u2019s right.<\/p>\n If “One Battle After Another” is what passes for the best movie of the year, then the problem isn\u2019t the audience. The problem is the Academy.<\/p>\n Send us your thoughts: alejandro.avila@outkick.com<\/a> \/ Follow along on X: @alejandroaveela<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/gettyimages-2266739891-594x594-1.jpg\")
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