Incredibly dry romance. The only interesting note really is that this is one of Greta Garbo’s earliest talking roles, but it’s not even her strongest film of the 1930 ceremony!

Nancy Carroll is actually surprisingly good here as a gold digger who (lamely) finds her interesting aspects reformed as she falls for a strait-laced man with no inspiring qualities. It’s very generic and not particularly memorable, but it takes place at the Grand Hotel, which proves the existence of the GHCU (Grand Hotel Cinematic Universe).

The first 45 minutes of this are really solid. Greta Garbo commands the screen and seems to be one of the few actresses to not only effortlessly transition to sound, but also to arguably act better than their silents. Then, Anna Christie's co-star enters the film, being equal parts rapey and gross, and this film falls to become just another misogynistic romance film. There are still moments of greatness here, but it's unfortunate that a good story was undone by a cliche trope best left in 1930.

Fairly run-of-the-mill melodrama, but made stronger by being Gloria Swanson’s first talkie as well as being anchored by a very strong performance by her. This is pretty much her second most famous talkie after only Sunset Boulevard.

Not very good... at all. This is the first ever sound film directed by a woman, though, as well as the first film ever nominated for an Oscar directed by a woman. In of trivia notes, it's interesting, but not much more beyond that. Interestingly, Ruth Chatterton plays a mother in her second consecutive year of being nominated for Best Actress. I think she's much better here than she was in Madame X, but Chatterton was probably a better pilot than actress.

The zeppelin scene was great, but this is pretty much a giant mess of nearly unprecedented proportions, and there's really nothing worth ing here other than the wild production stories surrounding the filming. I was much more entertained reading about the film than I was watching it.

Our third Best Picture winner is a huge, clear step up from years past. So many future war films were born from All Quiet. I’m finally starting to watch the films from the third Academy Awards, and they look to be on the whole much better than ceremony 2.

The Academy clearly loved Richard Barthelmess in these early ceremonies. I can't possibly understand why, though, as I consistently find myself unimpressed with him. On another note, I have finally finished watching every film nominated at the second Oscars, and I can start editing my breakdown of the ceremony! If you missed my first episode on the 1927-1928 ceremony, check it out here: youtu.be/HY-g_CF0Avc?si=l_9U-XJckWSw_x5f

Really creaky early talkie that is cool if only because it was directed by renaissance man Lionel Barrymore. Beyond that, there isn't much of note here.

Jeanne Engels was really great, and there's rarely a posthumous nomination that doesn't add a sense of tragedy to the film. Engels died way too young, but I'm glad she had a great showing here that proved she was a great early talent.

The first 'all-talking picture' that actually sounds good. Music and diegetic sound effects make this the earliest film I've seen that uses score to enhance the story. Apparently, most directors lamented the introduction of sound as they worried it would make film too theatrical. Josef von Sternberg was the first to really embrace the medium, and the result is my favorite film of 1929 (or, at least, my favorite of the films nominated).