UNDERRATED

Jonny Greenwood’s “Phantom Thread” score:

The Radiohead guitarist, whose work has also been heard on Paul Thomas Anderson’s films “There Will Be Blood,” “Inherent Vice” and “The Master,” is a welcome new face on the Oscar ballot amid the usual suspects like Hans Zimmer and John Williams. Even if all you know about “Phantom Thread” is that it involves a prickly Daniel Day-Lewis and some aggravatingly buttered toast, Greenwood’s score stands on its own with its sumptuous mix of piano and strings that on the one hand draws a dotted line from the vivid orchestrations on “A Moon Shaped Pool” from Greenwood’s day job but on the other sounds like a swooning yet unexpectedly rich homage to the classical-informed movie scores it aims to evoke.

“The Breadwinner”:

Destined to be overshadowed in the animated feature category that’s traditionally dominated by Disney/ Pixar, this moving film now streaming on Netflix deserves greater notice regardless of Sunday’s outcome. At times recalling the lush and affecting 2010 Oscar nominee “The Secret of Kells” (produced by the same Irish studio), “The Breadwinner” follows 11-year-old Parvana as she is forced to disguise her gender to provide for her family on the streets of Taliban-ruled Kabul, Afghanistan. With that kind of setting, the film needs to have as a steady hand with horror as humanity, and although it faithfully — even necessarily — depicts the cruel realities of its world, it isn’t overwhelmed by it either, thanks to a beautifully rendered love of storytelling that spans any imagined culture divides.