As I’m sure you can piece together, I am super excited for the Oscars. Ever since I was a little girl, this was my family’s Super Bowl. It was the one night a year that my parents allowed my sister and me to stay up past our bedtimes and boy did we love the glamor of the films we liked getting rewarded for their hard work. Now that I have a blog and have seen every Film nominated for Best Picture this year, I decided to compare which ones I like in the order that I like them. Keep in mind that this is a special year because I did not dislike any of the nominated films; there were just some that I liked more than others. So without further ado, I give you my rankings for the nine films nominated for Best Picture at the 90th Academy Awards, from least good to phenomenal.
9) The Post: I don't know if it was because of the plot or the gray, overcast cinematography, but this film reminded me a great deal of Spotlight, the 2016 Best Picture winner at the Oscars. I am not saying this film is a rip off as it told a new story from another piece of history, but I am saying that the themes were similar portraying the importance, and even risk, that comes with journalism. Personally, I found that a little bit distracting; still it was not enough to deter from my recommendation of the film. It was a story I had never heard of before, the history seemed accurate based on the research I did afterward and the reactions of the real families, and the performances were good particularly from Streep because she brought something to the role despite having little to work with. For these reasons, I would classify this film as the least good Best Picture nominee, but far from a bad film. Check it out if you get the chance and/or know nothing about the Pentagon Papers.
8) Lady Bird: I enjoyed Lady Bird for reasons that felt personal to me. It was possibly because it seemed autobiographical to the writer/director Greta Gerwig. It did not try to romance the nostalgia of adolescence which in turn led to some great comedy. And the characters were teenagers in that they were frustrated and experimental, grounding it in further reality. But in the realm of movies nominated for Best Picture, this one felt like a subjectively good Movie, and an objectively competent movie. I can easily see someone turning it off with a shoulder shrug, but I personally liked it and nodded my head in approval upon hearing the news of its nomination.
7) Darkest Hour: Let's face it, this film had me at "Churchill". I know a modest amount about the man but what I knew going in, I was intrigued. You want to talk about a leader who was thrust into his position during a raw deal of a current political and economic climate, Churchill is the best one you can discuss. And to this film's credit, they acknowledge that the position was overpoweringly stressful for him to take on. I love when biopic films acknowledge when their lead characters had actual anxiety and fears regarding the differences they were trying to make in the world. Selma did this spectacularly, and now Darkest Hour has. While I’m still debating the necessity of the Lily James character and could have picked up the pace a bit, I still am all right with this film’s nomination.
6) Call Me by Your Name: For some scenes, this is not a film to watch with the parents, but it is far from exploitative. The lead romance in this film was the center of the lead character, Elio’s, growth into intellectual and emotional manhood. Call Me By Your Name has proven that gay romances have come a long way in Hollywood, putting the character-writing first, romance second, and the fact that they are gay is a happenstance rather than a plot point. It is a rare gem that made me feel like I caught a glimpse into the life of someone I might have known at one or many points in my life, if not nostalgic for a time when I was on the fence between carefree and heart sick. Not to mention the beautiful cinematography. Call Me By Your Name is a great balance between art-house and character study, and I recommend it to any fans of cinema, especially those this year who liked Lady Bird.
5) Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri: Of the films nominated for Best Picture, this one definitely had the most unpredictable writing (in fact, I think it will win Best Original Screenplay and Best Picture). I admit that the film was too distorted from reality for me to completely suspend my disbelief particularly within the boundaries of the characters. On the other hand, maybe I could not get into it because the idea of someone getting murdered following rape is unfathomable to me, but I have seen movies with equally heinous of subjects that felt more like I was watching real people. On the other hand, the Sam Rockwell character was so irritatingly dumb that I think Barney Fife would have looked like Clint Eastwood by comparison. On the other hand, he came through in the third act. On the other hand…I’m running out of hands here. So this film, I personally could not get that into, but I recognize objectively that it is still good and should be seen. For the objective opinion, I put it at Number 5, for the subjective opinion, I probably would have ranked it lower on this list.
4) The Shape of Water: It’s Guillermo del Toro. Of course this film was going to be good. Everyone, including me, flocked to the theatres to see it long before even the Golden Globes were announced. His atmospheres and visuals are masterful, creating new worlds for characters who are not unlike Alice from Alice in Wonderland to explore. What sets The Shape of Water apart from his other films is the fact that the “Asset” is the Alice character, but not the lead. We fell in love with the lead characters, especially Sally Hawkins, first for the fact that they were products of their already established environments rather than newcomers. Come to think of it, it makes sense that a project like this would be in Guillermo del Toro’s hands given that the Cold War seems so distant in the past that it feels almost like it happened in fiction rather than in fact. Shape of Water is beautiful on multiple levels and I recommend it thoroughly (and advise once again that you do not watch this with your parents).
3) Phantom Thread: I know that this might be controversial, putting a Daniel Day-Lewis film above a Guillermo del Toro film, but please hear (or I guess read) me out! The Shape of Water is a film where the characters are made by their environment, while Phantom Thread was about an environment born through the main characters. The lifestyles, the musical score, the scenery, and most importantly the costumes all act as masks - no - faces for these characters. As though the dresses that Day-Lewis' character creates are not just an extension of himself, but his entire being. On top of an intriguing trio of main characters, this film surprised me the most on the list. I expected to be bored out of my skull, but I found the characters engaging. I expected the costumes to be the only good aspect to the film rather than the best aspect. And I expected to think that the actors would be half-assing it, but saw nothing of the sort from where I sat. Maybe this isn’t the greatest film of all time, it was still great and that is no small feat for the year we’ve had with movies.
2) Get Out: The trailers made it look like a preachy thriller. The chanting of everyone and their mother telling me that it was the greatest thing since sliced bread repelled me further. I love it when I'm wrong about a movie in a good way. Get Out offered something new to the conversation of modern day racism. It was symbolic but shoved nothing in the face of the audience, even providing subtlety in some of its visual humor (an image of a main character eating a bowl of dry Froot Loops with a glass of milk comes to mind). For most horror genre movies, the question the audience gleefully attempts to answer is "Who's going to die?". But in this case, the question I and my friend were gleefully trying to guess the answer to was "What is happening and why?" which we genuinely wanted to know the answer to. This was a pleasant surprise and therefore high in my personal ranking of the Best Picture nominees.
1) Dunkirk:I know that Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri is most likely going to get the Oscar. It is objectively a good movie and it just seems to be the year that people want to raise more awareness about violence against women in any way they can (which is more than admirable, please don’t get me wrong). But if it were up to me, the film I would give the award to would be Dunkirk. Why? Because the experience was so grippingly intense, that I saw it twice in one weekend. I know that may not sound significant right off the bat, so let me explain. I barely have the budget to see one IMAX film in a month, let alone twice in one weekend. And even if it were not IMAX, I have only gone to see the same movie twice in one weekend at two other times in my life (Deadpool and The Walk). This movie taught me some historical facts about dates and locations, but its biggest lesson was what it was like to be a soldier on the beaches of Dunkirk. It was about as close as I could get to being on the ground with those brave men without going back in time, and based on the reactions of some of the real veterans, that opinion is warranted. It captured why waiting is said to be the worst part of war, and that in turn inspired the happiness of the ending as high as it could go. I could go on, but to put it shortly, Dunkirk is not only my favorite to win Best Picture, it is one of my favorite war movies period.
