Oh, BTW... the Oscars

For Best Picture:

Call Me By Your Name
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Get Out
Lady Bird
Phantom Thread
The Post
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

The rest.

Wow, where to begin?

I'm no longer as hung up on the Oscars as I used to be, so when I saw The Post last week (my post on The Post, as it were, is coming, promise), I was convinced it would dominate the nominations. I forgot how gaga everyone was over Water, which I thought was just good, not great, and besides, genre movies never get anything but technical nominations, right?

The definition of "Oscar movie" is changing big time. That's something I'm still getting used to, but ultimately it means now there's room for movies you wouldn't ordinarily think would get a place at the table.

I still underestimate stuff, though. I passed on Get Out because it looked like a Crash rip-off; I passed on Call Me By Your Name and Phantom Thread because they looked boring to me; Dunkirk was boring; I thought Lady Bird wouldn't get anything more than a screenplay nod, and while I certainly thought Sally Hawkins was a legit contender, I thought Water would settle for below-the-line nods.

So you can imagine how surprised I am right now.

Seriously, though, it's good that we're getting new blood in the ranks; films I had never even heard of, nominees with names I can't pronounce; it's exciting in that sense. Will it entice me to follow the Oscars again? Ask me in about five years.

So I guess Netflix is no joke, huh? I'm still unsure why they qualify as Oscar-caliber movies instead of well-done TV movies, but I guess that's how it is now, so... yay Dee Rees for this movie Mudbound. I'm sure it's quite good. I knew she had the right stuff after I saw Pariah years ago.

No Andy Serkis for Best Actor? Oh well, that was always a long shot anyway — but I still say a performance-capture acting nomination is a possibility, sometime in the future.

I guess Mother! was too polarizing to get any recognition, which is certainly understandable, though I think Darren Aronofsky should have gotten a Director nomination anyway. It will be very interesting to see how this movie is regarded in twenty years or so.

I finally saw Logan, a few weeks ago, and I did like it; it felt quite different from the usual long underwear fare and was a fitting farewell to the character (though I'm sure they'll find a way to revive him somehow). Kudos to James Mangold and his partners for the Adapted Screenplay nod.

Yay for Greta Gerwig for joining a very exclusive (for now) club. Yay for Loving Vincent for the Animated Feature nod. I sure hope it wins. And yay for The Disaster Artist for their Adapted Screenplay nod. If ABC is smart, they'll get Tommy Wiseau to be a presenter!