And the Oscars (ought to) go to...
THE 90th Academy Awards are getting dished out in Hollywood on Sunday evening and, as ever, there is a divergence between who should win and who will win.
Of course, it’s all deeply subjective, but there are certain films and particular performances that really do deserve to be in the frame. 1 STARTING with the acting awards, it’s hard to look past the hot favourite, Gary Oldman, for Best Actor.
He was terrific as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour, showing the great man’s famous fortitude and lesser-known vulnerability, but I cling to my belief that breathing life into Churchill is not that huge a challenge for a wonderful actor at the top of his game, aided by all those prosthetics, all those mannerisms.
Oldman will get it; the retiring Daniel Day-Lewis should get it. I thought he was riveting as a precious Fifties couturier in Phantom Thread. 2 SPEAKING of things being sewn up, Frances McDormand (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) looks an absolute cert for Best Actress. I’d have no quarrel with that, she was magnificent, but I’d punch the air if the brilliant Sally Hawkins (The Shape Of Water) confounds her 18/1 odds. 3 AS FOR the supporting categories, Sam Rockwell (Three Billboards) seems likely to add an Oscar to his Bafta, but if there’s a surprise, I have a tiny hunch that Willem Dafoe (The Florida Project) might spring it.
The film really should have been nominated for Best Picture, and the Academy might just make up for that by anointing Dafoe. 4 HOWEVER, the juiciest story would be a Kevin Spacey backlash in favour of the 88-year-old Christopher Plummer, who replaced the disgraced Spacey as mean-spirited tycoon J.Paul Getty in All The Money In The World. 5 BEST Supporting Actress surely will be Allison Janney, for her monstrous turn in I, Tonya. She would deserve it. 6 MY CHOICE for Best Picture would be Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape Of Water. There are other fabulous and beguiling films on the list, but none so gloriously original. Three Billboards would be an immensely popular winner and is marginally the favourite, but I think The Shape Of Water might sneak it. Hollywood loves a fantasy.
I would give del Toro the Best Director gong, too, and I think he will get it.