OVERRATED

The academy’s weakness for itself:

Guillermo del Toro’s ability to wring an engaging romance and nearly $100 million at the box office from what superficially sounds like a ridiculous fish-out-of-water love story testifies to his skills as a filmmaker and set “The Shape of Water” along its way as an Oscar favorite. But what really gives it the inside track are swooning moments that pay homage to the magic of classic movies, which for all its earnestly delivered intent occasionally have the distracting effect of watching a mirror dance with itself. While “La La Land” proved last year that fealty to the memory of old Hollywood maneuvers doesn’t guarantee overwhelming awards-night success, “The Shape of Water’s” Oscar chances are surely given a bit of a boost by making space for more than one celebration of self-love.

The conventional wisdom of “The Post”

:If you could build an Oscars fantasy team, this movie’s lineup would probably be disallowed for unfairness: Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep and Steven Spielberg in a timely look back at one of the defining eras in journalism for a film released at a time when newspapers have redefined their worth as investigative entities. And yet, its greatest cultural impact has been adding a bit of fuel to the friendly rivalry between the Washington Post and the New York Times, which is fun to watch but probably not the ultimate goal. Maybe the new blood among academy voters has the Oscars more eager to recognize new faces, or perhaps 2017 was just too unpredictable and harrowing to be satisfyingly reflected in another look at the past.