Listen.

I’ve seen six out of the nine nominees for Best Picture, which is a lot more than I can usually say I’ve seen. And I have lots of Opinions.

But if I get too much into that, we’ll be here for days, and I’ll just get angry all over again (ha), so what I’m going to do here is go down the list of nominees and give you flash reviews and tell you whether or not you should see it. Let’s not waste time and get right to it.

9. The Darkest Hour, directed by Joe Wright

N/A, haven’t seen it, don’t plan on seeing it. I love Joe Wright as a director, and I’ve heard it’s a well done movie, but I’ve also heard it doesn’t really tread any new ground as far as biopics go. Also Winston Churchill has been done, and also I am. Not a Gary Oldman fan, to say the least. So. Moving on!

8. The Post, directed by Steven Spielberg

N/A, but this is one I do want to see before the Oscars, because I’ve heard from trusted sources that it’s great. And who doesn’t love Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks? Also, it’s the third movie of the season that Michael Stuhlbarg is in, and I want to be 3 for 3.

7. Phantom Thread, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson

N/A - this is the last one that I haven’t seen, but I do really want to see it. Paul Thomas Anderson is an incredible filmmaker, and I love Daniel Day-Lewis and fashion, so I think this will be great, and right up my alley.

6. Dunkirk, directed by Christopher Nolan

I saw this ages ago, when it first came out, so forgive me if this isn’t the most detailed of flash reviews, but I do remember really loving the film. It’s very intense, and almost claustrophobia-inducing, because of the nature of the camera work and how in the experience it puts you, but it’s extremely well done. And even though most of the young men in the movie aren’t super distinguishable as characters, the ensemble on the whole is incredible (Harry Syles was great, and that’s not even because I’m biased), including Mark Rylance, one of my favorite actors, as a citizen and not a soldier, who goes off in his boat to do what he can.

5. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, directed by Martin McDonagh

This film is one of the more contentious in this category - apparently, either you love it or you hate it, there’s no in between. I find that not to be the case, personally. I had a few issues with the script, and one character in particular, but overall, I thought it was a really well done film, with a truly incredible acting ensemble that, for the most part, deserves all the awards (Frances McDormand!!! Queen!!!). The real stand outs for me in it were Caleb Landry-Jones as an advertiser who gets mixed up in Frances McDormand’s plan, and Woody Harrelson as a terminally-ill police chief who acts as the moral and emotional center of the story. Even though parts it felt like very much like a white guy trying to talk about racial tension, I thought it was an interesting exploration of how hate begets hate, and how love is really the only way to stop that cycle - but that whether or not you act on that is up to you, and you alone.

*Up until now, this has actually been in order of desire to see/actual enjoyment of the movie, but going forward, it’s less actual ranking because I literally love all of them deeply, for some different and some same reasons, and more a feelings dump about how amazing and incredible these films are.*

4. Get Out, directed by Jordan Peele

Guys. I don’t like horror movies, like, at all. So I was on the fence about seeing this movie - I love Jordan Peele, but do I really want to be scared out of my mind? But I feel like that also gives me particular license to tell you that this is not your typical horror movie. Yes it is scary, and yes it is a horror story about the black experience in America, but it’s sensibility is more that of a thriller or suspense movie, which, you know. I can deal with. And I’m so glad I did, because it’s one of the best directed and best acted films of the year (can Daniel Kaluuya just win Best Actor like he rightfully deserves?? Please??). And I also don’t remember the last a film gave us something as immediately iconic or culture-shaking as the Sunken Place.

3. Lady Bird, directed by Greta Gerwig

I feel like this film did a really hard thing and pulled it off in a huge way - Gerwig made something so incredibly specific to an experience like Lady Bird’s, and her own, and yet so universal that nearly everyone who has seen this movie has said that they know Lady Bird like they know themselves. I grew up just north of NYC, and am Jewish to my bones - truly, my life could not be more different from Lady Bird’s - but I walked out of that movie theater feeling like I had been totally, completely seen and understood in a way I haven’t felt before because of a film. Also, shoutout to another truly incredible ensemble cast, especially Laurie Metcalf, Lucas Hedges, and Beanie Feldstein (Kenwood pride!). There’s another actor I’d like to shout out, but I’ll be singing his praises in another two seconds, so I feel like that may be a waste of time. Instead, I’ll just say that if Metcalf doesn’t win that Oscar, I will cry.

2. The Shape of Water, directed by Guillermo del Toro

This film is a straight up fairytale. Everything from the costumes (yes, the fish man is a costume) to the set design to the music to the cinematography is like a technicolor dream that completely transports you into this world of both political intrigue and romance. The performances from Sally Hawkins and Doug Jones are two of my favorite things from this year in film, and Michael Stuhlbarg, as always, gives an incredible performance as a character that I don’t want to spoil for people who have not yet seen the movie. Richard Jenkins, as the narrator and main character’s best friend, gives one of the most touching, heartfelt performances of the year, and of the Best Supporting Actor nominees, I hope he wins. (He won’t, but I wish.) At its heart, the film is about how love and compassion for each other will ultimately take down those in power who exploit and abuse people, and I left the theater with tears still in my eyes.

1. Call Me By Your Name, directed by Luca Guadagnino

I saw this at a movie theater about half an hour from my apartment, and literally the whole subway ride back I think I may have been in a Sufjan Stevens-induced fugue state. This film, guys. Everything from the visuals to the soundtrack to the acting is a feast for the senses, giving the viewer a sensual, sumptuous, and, in many ways, nostalgic ode to Northern Italy and to love itself. Timothée Chalamet delivers what is probably one of the most emotionally open and vulnerable performances I’ve seen from a male actor his age (he was 20 when he filmed it), and the last scene, totally silent save for the Stevens-penned song “Visions of Gideon,” is a revelation for the guy, who has definitely proved he will have a long career in Hollywood. His co-star, Armie Hammer, delivers an equally nuanced and impressive performance, and has always been, to me at least, a criminally underrated actor. But the actor who utterly steals this film in one simultaneously heart-renching and heart-healing scene is, once again, Michael Stuhlbarg. (Honestly, I’m gonna be angry until the day I die that he wasn’t nominated for Best Supporting Actor, but whatever.) One of the most remarkable things about this same-gender love story is that the only villain is time. I am queer, so this movie resonated very deeply for me (I’m still thinking about it almost two weeks later), but it’s also the simple story of a first, true love - anyone who goes into this movie will come out of it relating or understanding in some way to the characters.

If I absolutely had to pick a personal favorite, you can probably tell that would be Call Me By Your Name. But honestly, I love all of the nominated films that I’ve seen this year in one way or another. I feel like there was a period of five-ish ten years where filmmaking was kind of… boring, and it reflected in the nominees for awards (I barely remember what the nominees were from 2010 to 2015). But in the last two years, I really think that there’s been a renaissance of sorts in how people are approaching filmmaking, or perhaps some overdue credit is being given to independent auteurs, and it shows. Truly, I’d be happy with any of the last four films on this list winning - they are all remarkable feats of what good movies can do for their audiences.

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