Here are the nominees...
Each fall and winter seasons bring with them a spate of movies vying for Academy Award recognition. Some years are better than others for the quality of the films, just as some years are better than others for the quality of the nominations. It’s all subjective, but there are always films that seem like they don’t quite belong, and others that can feel robbed of deserved appreciation.
2017 was a terrific year in film, and 2018 has brought together a very good group of nominees. I’ve seen all of the Best Picture nominees this year, and with the Oscars taking place this weekend, I thought it was only appropriate to put together a rundown on each major film nominated.
In descending order by number of overall nominations, the nominees for Best Picture are:
The Shape of Water (13 Nominations)
Guillermo del Toro’s monster-movie-meets-fairytale-romance is a handsomely crafted and fairly charming story of a mute janitor, Elisa (Sally Hawkins), at a government research facility who falls for an amphibious creature (Doug Jones) being held captive by the stern Col. Strickland (Michael Shannon). Del Toro fills his film with beautiful imagery and gives ample time to each of the supporting players, who include Richard Jenkins and Octavia Spencer (both nominated this year alongside Hawkins and del Toro), never allowing their stories to get lost. Hawkins is excellent, finely tuning her performance to communicate everything she can through a look or the intensity of her signing by hand. Jones is to acting under heavy makeup what Andy Serkis is to performance capture: simply the best. My one complaint about the film is that the central romance never quite took hold for me. Elisa’s sympathy for, and bond with, the fish man as a mute outsider is strongly felt, but there was something missing for me that allowed their relationship to work beyond friendship; their love seemed to blossom too quickly. Don’t let this thought stop you from seeing the film. At the time of this writing, del Toro looks poised to win the Best Director Oscar, and based on the technical aspects of the film alone it would be merited. There is so much to appreciate in The Shape of Water that, even if you find it comes up short, you won’t regret having spent your time with it.
Dunkirk (8 Nominations)
Christopher Nolan’s WWII epic is pretty much a masterpiece. It’s a film that is astonishing in its technical execution, from visual effects and sound design to cinematography, and almost overwhelming in its effect on viewers. It’s also a film that, depending on what kind of flavor you like in your war movies, you may never revisit once you’ve seen it on the big screen*. Nolan keeps the character work very stripped down to give the audience a visceral experience of living through the evacuation of Dunkirk from three vantage points: soldiers on the beach, pilots in the air, and civilian sailors crossing the English channel. To keep things interesting, each thread is presented on different timelines (one week on land, one day by boat, and one hour in the air) that converge at the film’s conclusion. Though the personal elements of the story are kept to the minimum, they’re not missing entirely, and the film’s rousing ending really hits home after enduring the soldiers’ strife. The downside of making a film so perfectly designed for the big screen—full-sized IMAX 70mm is Nolan’s preferred format for the film—is that it’s not an experience best replicated on television (something I haven’t done yet), but it’s one you won’t soon forget if you see it as big as you can.
P.S. If you avoid films like Saving Private Ryan due to blood and guts, know that Dunkirk is PG-13, so while the sights and sounds of bullets and explosions will put you right in the middle of the chaos, there is no gore.
*Dunkirk is currently playing in a few theaters again to get a little post-Oscar nomination boost to its box office gross, so if you haven’t had the chance to catch it in theaters, do so while you still can!
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (7 Nominations)
This saga of police violence and vigilante vengeance has been interesting to watch move through awards season. British-Irish writer/director Martin McDonagh’s film plays with issues of rape, violence against African Americans, and racism in general. Despite all that heft it’s injected with a fair bit of comedy, an effect not dissimilar to what the Coen brothers bring to their films. The terrific cast—which includes nominees Frances McDormand, Woody Harrelson, and Sam Rockwell—is given a bounty of great moments to play, but at times the film does feel a bit aimless. Without going into detail, its ending leaves things somewhat up in the air, which can be both thematically appropriate and a little unsatisfying at the same time. The film’s tackling of racism never feels fully resolved; though its most racist character (Rockwell’s dim police officer) is given an arc that the actor plays well, his evolution in the story doesn’t quite line up morally with his conduct in the first two acts. All in all, I think Three Billboards is absolutely worth seeing (my impressions walking out of the theater were that it was great), but, like me, you may want to revisit it after reading some thoughtful criticism of where the film falls down for many that have seen it.
Darkest Hour (6 Nominations)
Director Joe Wright’s account of Winston Churchill’s rise to power amid mounting trouble for the United Kingdom during World War II is a movie made to be nominated for Best Picture (and I mostly mean that figuratively). It’s a period piece set during the War, with a committed performance, under heavy prosthetic makeup, by a veteran actor who has yet to win an Oscar. That’s prime Oscar bait, but it’s also a fine movie in its own right. Gary Oldman is terrific as Churchill, and the makeup looks 100% real. A talented supporting cast is assembled around Oldman, though not always used to their fullest potential, and Wright fills the film with some playful visuals, though he keeps things pretty restrained overall. The story is interesting, particularly to viewers who’ve seen Dunkirk, as it builds toward the evacuation operation portrayed on the ground in Nolan’s film. Darkest Hour will likely feel a bit stodgy to anyone not fond of British political dramas, but if that kind of thing is in your wheelhouse, you’re almost certain to enjoy it.
Phantom Thread (6 Nominations)
If you had heard of writer/director Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film before its premiere and subsequent Oscar nomination, you probably heard it in this context: it’s Daniel Day-Lewis’ final performance. Whether or not this turns out to be Day-Lewis’ last go around—he’s notorious for taking long breaks between roles as it is, so hopefully this turns out to be the same—he turns in a phenomenal performance, if not one as chameleon-like as those he gave in Lincoln and There Will Be Blood (his last collaboration with Anderson). His commitment to his craft is evident playing a notable (fictional) fashion designer, Reynolds Woodcock, in 1950s London who obsesses over each creation. The story finds him falling in love with Alma (Vicky Krieps), who wants to be a part of his life but must find a way to fit into it. Krieps, an actress from Luxembourg, holds her own in every single way with Day-Lewis and Lesley Manville, who plays Reynolds’ sister and associate. The story goes to some unexpected places, but no matter what you think of the narrative, it’s all so immaculately crafted and performed that you’ll walk away with positive impressions of one kind or another. I’ve seen Phantom Thread twice, and both times I’ve found different things to marvel at and be absorbed by. If Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood doesn’t win the Best Original Score award, it will be a true act of robbery.
Lady Bird (5 Nominations)
This is one of my favorites. Actress and writer Greta Gerwig made her solo-directorial debut on this semi-autobiographical story of a teenage girl navigating her way through her senior year of high school and all the ups and downs that entails (love, heartbreak, the school play, and applying to colleges). The film feels incredibly personal, and yet universal, with Saoirse Ronan playing the moody, clever teen we all aspired to be (well, the clever part at least), right down to giving herself a new name (Lady Bird). The entire ensemble is excellent, even the actors who pop up for just a scene or two, but the real scene stealer, next to Ronan, is Laurie Metcalf as Lady Bird’s mother. She’s tough but sympathetic, constantly struggling to grasp why her daughter doesn’t seem to see the life she’s provided as enough. Metcalf and Ronan have a beautiful dynamic together, and like the best onscreen dysfunctional families, their relationship can be as funny as it is mean. Don’t get me wrong, Lady Bird and her mother are not cruel to each other, but the gap between them is palpable, sometimes painfully so, and Gerwig walks a tightrope of making their sparring entertaining and authentic in equal measures. Lady Bird is yet another coming of age high school dramedy, but its pitch-perfect execution elevates it far above the rest the genre pack.
Call Me By Your Name (4 Nominations)
This film is the freshest in my mind, as it was the last of the nominees that I saw. Director Luca Guadagnino and writer James Ivory’s adaptation of the novel of the same name is handsomely crafted and perfectly cast. Relative newcomer Timothée Chalamet plays Elio, a 17-year old whose professor father has invited Oliver (Armie Hammer), a college student, to spend the summer with Elio and his parents in Italy. The film, which is set in 1983, follows the love story between Elio and Oliver, the former seeming to discover his sexuality for the first time while the latter is a little more seasoned, and cautious. Michael Stuhlbarg plays Elio’s father, and is simply a delightful presence on screen (he also gets a quiet yet powerhouse moment near the film's conclusion). What’s refreshing about the film is that no part of the characters’ homosexuality feels threatened in a traditional way. There’s no character looking to torture Elio and Oliver for the crime of being gay in 1983, and the storytelling doesn’t punish them either (no last-minute, accidental death or tragic lynching). The reality of the time they live in is felt, but whatever pain is derived from that feels natural, rather than a dramatic concoction. The film as a whole feels properly restrained along these lines, letting the characters’ interactions be the main draw, but for some, like me, this approach may not fully connect. The film’s themes of love are universal regardless of age and sexuality, and the filmmakers don’t falter in delivering the text and subtext of their story. This is just an instance in which I wasn’t enthralled by the film, and yet I don’t have a clue as to what I’d change. It’s a beautiful film, and deserves to be seen. If I ever revisit it, I hope to get as much out of the experience as the many folks who’ve named it their best film of 2017.
Get Out (4 Nominations)
This film, along with Lady Bird, would be my personal pick for Best Picture. I was bowled over by Jordan Peele’s incredibly sharp social thriller/horror directorial debut. It tells the story of a young black man (Daniel Kaluuya) going with his girlfriend (Allison Williams) to meet and stay with her parents for the weekend in upstate New York. Peele’s years as a comedian and satirist working with Keegan-Michael Key have clearly honed his skills as an observer of relevant cultural issues, because while Get Out tackles racism, Peele smartly zeroes in on liberal racism as a cornerstone of the story. When Kaluuya’s Chris arrives at the Armitage family compound, there’s a sense that something is off, and his girlfriend’s father goes out of his way to tell Chris how much he loves Barack Obama. Though there’s certainly something more sinister going on than meets the eye, early in the film Peele tackles this under-discussed form of discrimination, where rich white people wear their votes for a black president like a badge of honor that earns them a spot in some special club. This is all a long way of saying that I think something special that Get Out does is put you in the shoes of a young black man in modern day America while delivering a thrilling genre yarn. The two elements aren’t contradictory; in fact, they enrich each other.
Another microcosmic example to leave you with: Every horror film has a scene where help may be on the way as our hero fights his or her way out of the clutches of some evil force. In this case, it’s a black man fighting off affluent white people, and for the first time watching this kind of thriller, I thought to myself, “this won’t look good when the police get here.” That may seem obvious given the context, but Peele doesn’t hit his viewers over the head with messages, and coming to the realization that regular movie rules don’t apply here because of the main character’s race, was mind blowing.
The Post (2 Nominations)
The last of the Best Picture nominees on this list is a curious one. The story of Katherine Graham coming into her own as publisher of The Washington Post as Ben Bradlee pushed to have the paper publish the Pentagon Papers, all in the face of an unfriendly Nixon administration, sounds like a slam dunk for the current political climate. Add in Meryl Streep as Graham, Tom Hanks as Bradlee, a murder’s row of excellent character actors, and direction from Steven Spielberg, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for Oscar glory. And therein lies the problem. The Post trips itself up by being too on the nose, both in its technique and in its profile as Oscar bait. I still think the film is very good, and the Oscar bait thing doesn’t really bother me (for some it makes movies like this a non-starter). I genuinely believe that as much as Spielberg and company wouldn’t mind some additional hardware on their shelves, they really were inspired by this story and its urgent relevance to our current political situation. Streep turns in an excellent performance as Graham, one that is at its best when she does the least. There’s a moment in the film where Graham must make a big publishing decision, and the way Streep plays it is a knockout of understated acting (it’s a moment that would have been played much bigger in less capable hands). Hanks is scrappy as Bradlee, and he fills the role of the dogged newspaperman well, though some who actually remember Bradlee, or Jason Robards’ portrayal of him in All the President’s Men, may not agree. Spielberg’s direction is often top-notch throughout, though a handful of moments in the film hit the nail on the head a bit too hard in communicating the film’s themes, and those things help keep The Post from really singing like Lincoln and Bridge of Spies. It’s a solid triple for a master who’s hit more home runs than most.
Before I wrap this piece up I wanted to share a bit of personal news: I recently completed a long-planned move to Los Angeles from my native Oakland, and as such I’ve been a little preoccupied with things other than movies. I’m mostly settled in now, so I’m hoping to catch up on recent releases like Alex Garland’s Annihilation and the Jason Bateman comedy Game Night. In addition to seeing and reviewing those films, I’ll have an additional Oscar piece up later this week where I’ll do what the pros do and tell you what and who I wish had been nominated. That was originally going to happen here, but like the Academy Awards broadcast itself, I try not to go on too long.