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"Being John Malkovich" was the second most critically acclaimed movie of 1999 (in fact, it was almost first), and it wasn't nominated for Best Picture.
"The Truman Show" was the second most critically acclaimed movie of 1998 and it wasn't nominated for Best Picture.
"Braveheart" was the FIFTEENTH most critically acclaimed movie of 1995 and it WON Best Picture.
For that matter, "You Can Count On Me" is most likely the second most critically acclaimed movie of 2000 and it's not going to get a Best Picture nomination.
The Academy members certainly pay attention to reviews -- they use them as a guideline for what they're going to see. Then they vote however the hell they want. And the way they vote would normally exclude a film like "Traffic," just like they excluded "Magnolia" and "Boogie Nights" and "Short Cuts" and other complex multi-character multi- story issue-oriented movies over the past, well, forever. One thing I've learned about those guys is that much like me, they don't like to be taught lessons, and "Traffic's" screenplay was practically written on a chalkboard.
Which is something you definitely can't say about either "Silence of the Lambs" or "Unforgiven," which were both pure entertainment with a slight "higher purpose." Or at least "Unforgiven" was. To this day I haven't figured out how "Silence of the Lambs" fits into the Oscar BP scheme, other than there simply was no better movie that year. I'd also argue that I came out of both of those films "feeling good." In the end, the hero (or anti-hero as the case may be) wins. "Traffic's" ending is pretty damn ambiguous. Courageous, in my opinion, but it's not too often the Academy goes for "courageous" over pure "feelgood," and they have five true "feelgood" options available to them.
Still, as I already said, I would agree with you that if a film were going to get kicked out of my 5 guesses, it would be "Billy Elliot," not because of the reviews (which, while not as good as "Traffic's," were actually quite good -- top 10 consensus good) but because it's British ("Full Monty" aside) and because it was released so long ago that I'm already surprised that the Golden Globes and BAFTA and the SAG didn't forget it.
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