PERFECT MATES
The academy’s choices nicely blend the old and the new
respect for craft. Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk” received eight nominations, second only to “The Shape of Water,” and “Blade Runner 2049,” which, though dismissed by audiences, got the five nominations it deserved.
More of a surprise, though a gratifying one, were the six nominations for Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Phantom Thread,” a film that was given short shrift by other groups and prognosticators. Though its romantic plot is a bit twisted, “Phantom Thread” is impeccably made from top to bottom, and that clearly carried a lot of weight with the academy.
Overall, the 2018 nominations revealed a Motion Picture Academy not radically transformed but, rather, in the process of change.
Like an enormous oceangoing tanker, which it often resembles, this group alters direction slowly and with difficulty, but change was definitely visible this year.
On the one hand, several films that would not have been considered Oscar material in the past, like the heist movie “Baby Driver” (which received a trio of sound and editing nods) were smiled on this year.
The biggest beneficiaries of that change were Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” and Greta Gerwig’s “Lady Bird.”
While an earlier generation of social commentary genre films like “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” were not awards season players, “Get Out” came away with four key nominations, including Peele for writing and directing, star Daniel Kaluuya for lead actor, and best picture.
The outcome was similar for “Lady Bird,” an emotional knockout that might have seemed too small-scale in previous years but got five nominations this time, including for best picture, costars Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf, and a rare female directing nomination as well as a writing nod for Greta Gerwig.
Still, the traditional oldschool aspects of the academy refused to go quietly into the night. “Darkest Hour,” for instance, a Dunkirk-themed dinosaur enlivened only by Gary Oldman’s performance as Winston Churchill, came away with six nominations, including best picture.
Not surprisingly, the films that did best this year were the ones that adroitly threaded the needle between modern and traditional.
This group included “Dunkirk,” which used an unusual time structure to tell an old-school World War II story, and “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” filled with wicked twists that upended conventional expectations.
No film did that threading better than “The Shape of Water.” By telling a recognizable genre story with spectacular craft and modern “the monster gets the girl” unconventionality, it established itself as the favorite. Victory is far from inevitable — the Oscars never are that simple — but it is definitely the one to dream on.