2018 Oscar's Best Film Category

[peter]

Call Me By Your Name
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Get Out
Lady Bird
Phantom Thread
The Post
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

[High Lord Tolkien]

I just saw Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri last weekend.
Loved it.
Very simple but also very complex personalities onscreen.
I never knew which direction they were going with the movie and I found that outstanding.
If a movie keeps me thinking about it a few days later I rate it highly.

[peter]

Three Billboards is high on my list of want to see's, along with The Post and The Shape of Water.

I've seen Dunkirk and Darkest Hour.

Of the others Get Out I've seen the poster for and heard that it's good, the rest I've no knowledge of. I try to see all of the contenders for this category each year and mostly they are worth the effort. Of the two I've seen, Dunkirk would get it.

[wayfriend]

I've only seen Three Billboards. It was great. But not as funny as the trailer leads you to believe. I see a Best Actress in it, maybe Best Actor, but not a Best Picture.

I want to see some of the others but haven't.

If Shape wins Best Picture it will shake Hollywood to the core. Get Out even more. But it will go to Thread because that's how the Oscars roll.

[Avatar]

Wasn't that impressed by Dunkirk I'm afraid.

--A

[peter]

It was a definite 'cinema' film for me Av - and I doubt it will win, just marginally better than Darkest Hour. But I did like both films however - good rather than great which should be what we expect from a Best Picture winner.

[I'm Murrin]

Just based on the way people are talking about it, it's most likely going to either Three Billboards or The Shape of Water; Lady Bird also has a chance. I've seen none of those, so far (damn UK distributors, saving almost every Oscar-bait film until January or February). Get Out is incredibly good, though.

It definitely won't be Darkest Hour, Dunkirk, or The Post, I can say without even seeing those films.

[peter]

The Post was being bigged up big time, but then I read a review saying that while good, it had little to offer over and above other 'newspaper' story films like Spotlight or All the Presidents Men. Shame - I'd have thought Speilberg would have brought his own distinctive colour to it.

[peter]

Saw The Post last night and, while it is a serviceable contender for the category, agree with Murrin that it ain't top spot material. The review mentioned above seems to have pretty nailed it. Hanks and Streep do 'their thing' and are always watchable, the film ends just where you would expect it to and the story is engaging if not gripping. A contender, OK - a winner, nah!

Spoiler

It occured to me today that Spielberg must have had in mind the current poor relationship between the Trump administration and the media when deciding to make this film (I can be slow to catch on at times ) The final result where the quote is given from the presiding judge when finding the Post has no case to answer, that America is a country whose very freedom is enshrined in the liberty accorded to the press to print what it will, cannot but be intended to be a reminder to those who would potentially be browbeaten into submission by a hostile Presidency, of the importance of the role they serve in the national interest.

[peter]

Saw The Shape of Water last week [see dedicated thread for my thoughts] meaning I have now seen over half the films in the category. No clear leader as yet, bu I'd lean toward Three Billboards [not because it was my favourite, but because I think it comes closest to what the panel of judges would be looking for]. Of the ones remaining left for me to see Get Out most appeals to me but who knows, there could yet be a surprise waiting for me amongst the others!

[peter]

It's results morning and top spot goes to The Shape of Water for Best Picture. Frances McDormand and Gary Oldman get best female and male actors, and Sam Rockwell gets best supporting male. Allison Janney gets best female supporting actress ( I Tonya) and del Toro gets best director for SoW.

I question the Gary Oldman result - as I have observed elsewhere, it is hard to see how he could have played the role badly - but the rest are much as might have been expended. All in all it's been a year where it was all about the categories as a whole rather than the individual winners, and in the main there has been some pretty passable stuff. Not the best year on record - but not the worst either.