Timothée Chalamet, left, and Austin Butler in the movie “Dune: Part Two.”
(Niko Tavernise / Warner Bros.)
Sixty years ago, when Frank Herbert published his monumental sci-fi novel, the Academy giving its top prize to a studio-made epic like “Dune: Part Two” would have been an easy call. It’s “Lawrence of Arrakis,” a staggering investment in costumes and sets and shooting days that testifies to what this business can do when it funds giant swings. But “Dune” shouldn’t win simply because it costs more than half of the films on this list added together. It should win because Denis Villeneuve has packed every frame with care, craft and sticky questions about humanity’s thirst to put its faith in false messiahs. The second half of the story is twice as smart and complex as Villeneuve’s first “Dune” film, released in 2021, yet somehow it’s wound up with only half the Oscar nominations. I suspect the film’s Old Hollywood heft might be why it’s being taken for granted, but this cerebral blockbuster will still be standing tall decades from now, when films of this magnitude may no longer exist.
