I really wanted to go see The Shape of Water after work tonight, but it's not showing on my side of the straits. Pout.

It is probably more obvious this year because (for once) female-led films are more prevalent among the nominees in general.

t nods Both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories this year have much more interesting and varied performances than the respective male counterparts. Which is GREAT.

On a non-Oscar news, the adaptation of Nick Hornby's Juliet Naked just premiered in Sundance and it's reportedly great, which makes me happy: [link]

It's been eons since I read the book, but the casting seems spot on. I mean, Chris O'Dowd and Ethan Hawke - OF COURSE. And I love Rose Byrne when she plays comedy.

Also, nothing for Wonder Woman? Not costumes, even?

I'd like to have seen noms for Wonder Woman in Production Design (I thought its was clearly better than Dunkirk's) and Cinematography. All of the Costuming contenders are really good in that respect though, so I'm not sure whether or not it deserves one of the slots.

I also feel like Patty Jenkins ought to get some sort of special award for swimming upstream against the waterfall of DCEU crappiness and MRA backlash with an excellent, uplifting movie on her shoulders.

I just saw Phantom Thread and the best part was seeing my friend and drama school comrade Jane in a bit part near the end.

I feel like The Darkest Hour was perfectly solid but not exceptional? I mean, Gary Oldman would probably win Best Actor and I'd be OK with that, but his performance is the only remarkable thing about it.

This was what I expected before seeing it, but I have to say that I thought it was a fresh take on that genre. Lots of interesting camera angles and great sound work. Good score too. As I said to the Math Greek just now, it is still my third favorite Dunkirk movie of 2017 but it's not that far down the list. (And it makes a great companion piece to the others.) I'm not sure I would have given it costume, but I have no quibble with it getting six nods.

I'm seeing Shape of Water tomorrow evening. Most years I don't tend to see all the best picture noms, and it doesn't look like this year will be different. Still, it looks like I have a lot of good stuff to look for on Netflix, eventually.

Lots of interesting camera angles and great sound work

Joe Wright is fond of showy camera work - I still think of that continuous take of the beach of Dunkirk (geez, another one) in Atonement. Nothing quite as audacious as that in The Darkest Hour but I remember going oooh at that overhead shot of the squadron about to be bombed.

The scene of Churchill meeting up with the common folk in the tube though - I thought that was super cornball.

Re: Phantom Thread. Not quite as bad as Three Billboards, but reactions to the movie are turning out to be quite divisive. I was listening to PCHH podcast this AM on the movie and and gang mostly did not care for it.

I kind of feel like I need to see that one if it's going to be Daniel Day Lewis' last movie, though I'm not particularly interested in it aside from that factor.

I'm definitely going to The Post soon, and I want to see The Darkest Hour and Lady Bird before the Oscars.

Joe Wright is fond of showy camera work - I still think of that continuous take of the beach of Dunkirk (geez, another one) in Atonement. Nothing quite as audacious as that in The Darkest Hour but I remember going oooh at that overhead shot of the squadron about to be bombed.

I think my favorite shot was how he made Parliament look the bowels of a troop ship in the opening. But it was mostly just little things that made me think "interesting" and "How much does he storyboard?" from time to time.

The scene of Churchill meeting up with the common folk in the tube though - I thought that was super cornball.

Agreed. While watching I was [insert Get Out "no no no" GIF here]. I was listening to the "Best of 2017" episode of Fighting in the War Room last night (Katey had put TDH in her top ten) and both Katey and Patches talked about how much they loved that scene. I was stunned. It was the one scene that screamed "historic bio-pic" to me. Not that historical bio-pic is bad, but I otherwise thought the movie felt very fresh.

Re: Phantom Thread. Not quite as bad as Three Billboards, but reactions to the movie are turning out to be quite divisive. I was listening to PCHH podcast this AM on the movie and and gang mostly did not care for it.

This does not surprise me at all. PCHH is not my favorite. They are what I call a back scratcher podcast. Lots of book podcasts are like that. I just don't I find them very discerning. I was glad when I finally discovered Slate's Culture Gabfest for that sort of thing.

ETA: I should note that I loved what Joe Wright did with Anna Karenina so it's not really surprising I would like his approach here. YKMV.

Just made up my Oscar spreadsheet. 44 feature length films.

I've seen 7. 7 I have no interest in seeing at all. 3 more that I won't pay any money to see,

That leaves me with 27 to prioritize.

Shape of Water is the top of the list by my interest, but I'll probably see Mudboubd first since it's on Netflix.