My Top 5 Films of 2018

Well, there goes another year drifting off into the distance like an unsecured dinghy being swallowed up by the ocean. 2018 has somehow simultaneously gone way too quickly and dragged on forever at the same time. I'd hesitate to say it was a good year, fine perhaps sums it up better. At the very least, it's been a year of milestones: I finally passed my driving test, I got my first part-time job (well, it's temp stuff but you know), rented my first flat and even organised my first holiday without my family. On the more creative side of things, I've written my longest screenplay yet (27 pages, soon to be topped) and directed my longest and most ambitious film yet, Heartbreaker (link here) which while still needs work, has been a massive learning experience for me.

But enough about my personal life, you're here for my annual top 5, aren't you? And while the blog has been pretty much dormant this year, I couldn't miss my New Year's tradition, and I have been watching a fair few films this year. Sadly not as many as I'd have liked: between heavy uni work, the usual cruel UK release schedule and the fact I literally just forgot to go to the cinema this last term has led to my film intake being a little lower than last year. Suffice to say there'll be a lot of catchups for next year, but in the meantime, here's my top 5 of 2018.

Updated Top 5 of 2017
5. Baby Driver
4. Logan
3. Star Wars: The Last Jedi
2. Dunkirk
1. Blade Runner 2049

5. Hereditary - Ari Aster
Well, I started writing out my thoughts on this film like I normally would for one of these entries, but it quickly became a fucking wall of text, so you know what, Hereditary is getting its own post early next year because I want to go in-depth with this mother. For the time being though, my opinion is essentially thus: this film was nearly at the Number 1 spot, it shaped itself up to be one of the most powerful, subversive and maybe even revolutionary horror films of the decade, and a personal favourite of mine, only for it to completely ruin itself in the final act and undo all of its hard work. Again, further details to follow, but consider this Number 5 spot an honorary place for the film this nearly was. 8/10, High Recommendation

4. Deadpool 2 - David Leitch
About the only Marvel character I have any care for at the moment, both movies have made it into my top 5s of their respective years which is pretty impressive really. I'd say this is an improvement on the first film: it's the same trademark brand of intelligently childish and self-aware humour but this time around, everything's been ramped up a notch, from the action scenes to the characters and jokes and even the overall theme of the film is darker and more nuanced. Yeah, it's not really as high brow as some of the other choices on this list but you know what, this was a barrel of laughs from start to finish and I enjoyed it immensely. 8/10, Medium Recommendation

3. A Quiet Place - Josh Krasinski
Look everyone, it's our good old friend the Avatar effect, where a good film is praised and enjoyed by everyone only to be inexplicably shat on by everyone from seemingly nowhere because someone must have decided that it had enough praise. I understand films being overrated, and even receiving backlash after an initially good reception, but Jesus people, no one was comparing it to Citizen Kane. Luckily for me (I suppose?) I made a point of seeing it as soon as I could after first hearing of it so as to minimise the hype effect, and probably achieved some kind of personal best in the process: I first heard if it on a Monday morning when I checked my Letterboxd rushes, was convinced to check it out by Monday afternoon and saw it Tuesday evening. And you know what, it was pretty damn good. Yeah, fine, it wasn't a masterpiece but you can't deny it was at least a unique breath of fresh air from our usual horror offerings. As you'd expect from something like this, the sound design is impeccable, and you really felt every single noise and the dread that each brought. I also really liked the attention to detail and world-building in terms of the methods the family had to eliminate noise such as the sand pathways and felt-lined board game pieces. And finally, can we just take a moment to appreciate the building of tension, with the stair nail if nothing else. Probably one of the most agonising Checkov's guns I've seen for a long time, from the moment it was set up I could not stop thinking about it until it's eventual payoff, and while in the end it felt a little disappointing, they say it's about the journey rather than the destination, and what a hell of a journey. 8/10, High Recommendation

2. Incredibles 2 - Brad Bird
After the rather disappointing and unnecessary Finding Dory, the phrase 'Pixar sequel' was one of dread to my ears, and while the upcoming Toy Story 4 still has me screaming 'no', I'm now a little happier that at least one of them has had a reason to exist. Incredibles 2 was not only a very fun and well-made continuation of the story, but really explored and developed its characters and their relationships in new depths, and even managed to tackle contemporary societal and familial issues without feeling preachy or getting in the way of the story or its entertainment value. With some spectacular action setpieces that surely trump the original's and the expansion and development of the world it created, Incredibles 2 aims to be bigger and better than its predecessor, and for the most part, succeeds. While both have strengths in different areas, I found myself getting more engaged in this one than the first, but a lot of people still prefer the original and I can completely understand why. Either way, it's hard to deny that this was an incredible (ayy) film and a shining example of how to do a sequel right. 9/10, Medium Recommendation


1. Isle of Dogs - Wes Anderson
I've always had a bit of an awkward relationship with Wes Anderson. Like basically every other even remotely hipster film student, I really love Anderson's visual style: his approach to symmetrical composition and pastel colour palettes, but I've rarely enjoyed the films themselves. That is except for two, one is The Grand Budapest Hotel and now the second one to join these ranks, Isle of Dogs.  I really was not expecting to love this film as much as I did, but everything about it just worked so perfectly and hit me in all the right spots. Firstly, I have a big ol' soft spot for animation, stop motion especially. And the animation in this film is absolutely fantastic and bursting with energy and creativity. Of course, Anderson brings his trademark compositional style and colouration, but this time it combines with a feudal Japanese art style to make a visually breathtaking film where every frame's a painting. The plot is suitably tongue-in-cheek but still surprisingly complex with multiple threads running at once and all of them work well off each other. And finally, a shoutout to one of my favourite details: considering the film is set in Japan with mainly Japanese characters, all the human dialogue (where applicable) is spoken in Japanese, only being translated where it makes sense in-universe (such as a TV translator during a broadcast). As a result, there are several scenes with the human characters where Anderson relies on old fashioned silent film techniques for conveying information to the audience, utilising both the scenery and character gestures and expressions to get the important details across. It's an unusual choice but it absolutely pays off and really adds to the rich cultural immersion of the film. 9/10, High Recommendation

And so we enter 2019, the year where flying police cars patrol the smog-covered, urban jungle of LA if Blade Runner is to be believed, or where biker gangs battle it out amongst the neon streets of Neo-Tokyo, according to Akira. Well, who knows, a lot can change in a year. I'm expecting to bring the blog back in the new year, as hopefully once I finish uni I'll be able to get back into writing these posts again: there's plenty of old, unfinished drafts kicking around and plenty more new stuff to discuss. Until then, I wish you all a happy and prosperous new year!

Oscar Results 2018

Well, here we are again at the end of awards season. Another round of actors and filmmakers have claimed their golden statuette and as usual, I plan to briefly run through my thoughts on the results. But before we get to that, it's time for...

Catchup Reviews

Lady Bird
I'm still struggling to fully articulate my thoughts on Lady Bird. It was definitely a good film, I enjoyed it a lot. But I'm also not blown away by it the way a lot of other people seem to be. Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf were both fantastic in their roles, their mother-daughter relationship providing the emotional core and (the closest thing to) the central narrative thread of the film: both nominations are deserved. As you may have guessed from that slight parenthetical jab, this film is a little loose narratively. Its main plotline is Lady Bird's desire to go to a good university despite the derision and scepticism of her mother and other authorities such as the school. However, this doesn't really take much precedence and stays very much as a background element. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and I don't think it's the problem I have with the film. But when I reached the end credits, I did feel ever so slightly underwhelmed, just a touch, and I'm just not sure what it is. This film is hilarious, heartfelt, relatable, very entertaining and has some great performances, so why am I not as infatuated with it as others have been? This may just simply be a case of classic overhyping, since the Letterboxd community has been going wild over this film over the last few months, and I was getting pretty excited to see it. It's happened before, and it's one of the many problems I have with the annoyingly late release dates of the Oscar contenders over here, but alas, c'est la vie. By the way, just so there's no confusion, this is in no way a bad film, far from it, and I'm definitely not condemning any part of it, I just think I might need to give it a rewatch to truly work out how much I like it. But don't think it's leaving here without a good score.
8/10, High Recommendation

The Shape of Water
Furries, rejoice! Guillermo del Toro has made bestiality not only popular, but socially acceptable, at last. There's a side of me (an admittedly quite childish side) that finds it inherently amusing that a film that is, let's face it, about a woman wanting to fuck the creature from the black lagoon, has become a critical darling with thirteen Oscar nominations: just one less than the record held by La La Land and All About Eve. In its defence though, there's a lot more to this film than just fishy fornication. For one thing, it does a surprisingly good job of essentially normalising the interspecies love. None of the characters really question it and the behaviour of the creature is close enough to human, with enough chemistry and humanity, that it pretty much gets away with it. Of course, combined with the time period and a couple of other moments between side characters in the film, as well as the notion of the creature being taken from some jungle in South America, there is a clear parallel here with interracial relationships that thankfully isn't distracting and slips quite nicely into the background to be examined after. The film itself isn't mind-blowingly good or anything, but it is a very well made and enjoyable film that does nearly everything you'd want out of it (sadly absent is the hardcore sex scene we all clearly wanted, but there is instead an amusing discussion of Captain Nemo's retractable penis). Maybe the most disturbing thing about the film is its inspiring of a new dildo based on the creature. Not only that, but apparently they sold out. Make of that what you will.
8/10, Medium Recommendation
EDIT: It's finally dawned on me why the creature is so familiar. It's almost identical to the Mirelurk Kings from Fallout

Phantom Thread
Call me a peasant or a noob or a poseur or whatever snobbish title you give to the people who don't have the apparent mental capacity to process high art like you do, but I just do not get this film, or the hype around it. One of the slightly more perplexing cinema experiences of recent memory, I was left waiting for some kind of plot point or conflict or anything to actually give the 'story' some kind of purpose, and it never came. Recently, I've been noticing and attempting to define something in storytelling which I have dubbed 'the point' of the story. It's difficult to describe fully, but it's probably closest to the dramatic question, specifically on an overarching, macro scale. The closest thing Phantom Thread has to a point is the relationship between Alma and Woodcock, but not only is it a mess that doesn't really go anywhere, it feels like there should be some bigger point to it all that their relationship would somehow play into and change the outcome of, but it never happened, and I was left at the credits wondering what the point of the last two hours really was. The best way I can see for them to improve it would be with Woodcock's clothing company. A lot of focus is put into it and it's a central element, yet has really nothing to do with anything: the business could be changed to anything else and not much would really change. The dress being made for that princess's wedding? That went absolutely nowhere. Where was the resolution? Daniel Day-Lewis was good in his role, I suppose, although Woodcock did start to feel to me like a posh British version of Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory more than anything else as the plot went on, which soured my experience somewhat. Maybe I'm wrong. I do seem to be the only person who did not like this film. Maybe I really just don't 'get' this film and there's something magical here that everyone else has found. Fine. I'll just add it to the pile along with All About Eve and Raging Bull.
5/10, Medium Recommendation

And now, on to the Oscars themselves!

Results

To be honest, it was kind of underwhelming the results this year: not many surprises, no sweeps, only really one little controversy, which we'll get to in due time. It all just seemed a little deflated this year for whatever reason.


Best Production Design
Despite my love for Blade Runner 2049's design, I have no real qualms with The Shape of Water winning this one. I quite like the aquamarine-ish colour scheme and grading (which for some reason keeps reminding me of those avocado-coloured baths that used to be around when I was younger) and there was a lot of care taken towards capturing the aesthetic of the 50's that really gives the film a bit of visual flair.

Best Animated Feature
Had a bit of a look at previous winners: of the seventeen winners of best animated feature, twelve of them were Disney. Now I'll admit, it wasn't quite the monopoly I was expecting: there's even years where a Disney/Pixar film loses to another studio. Even still, Disney or Pixar have been on a winning streak since 2012 and really anyone who thought Coco wasn't going to win this award, especially against the likes of Boss Baby and Ferdinand, was smoking something. To be fair, The Breadwinner I've heard is pretty good, but again, it's up against Pixar. There was just no hope. Still haven't seen Coco, just by the by. But I'll get to it eventually, don't worry.

Best Visual Effects
Blade Runner 2049 was once again victorious, and deservingly so. In my previous post I said how I was pretty much satisfied with all the choices, and that still absolutely stands, although my additional love for Blade Runner in all its forms (and 2049 is definitley growing on me more and more every time I think about it) makes me particularly satisfied with this win. It's also worth pointing out that the other nominees on this list are well established, well-performing franchises, whilst Blade Runner was a little riskier and a little artsier, and especially considering its underperformance at the box office, is at risk of being labelled as some kind of failed experiment by the studio. It's in our best interest to encourage more films, especially more sequels and reboots, to be like 2049 rather than something like the 2016 Ghostbusters, and this means reassuring studios that 2049 was not a failure. It may be small, but maybe 2049's Oscars might just help contribute to that reassurance. I don't know, sometimes I like to be optimistic.

Best Sound Editing/Mixing
I just don't get it. The same films got nominated, the same film won both, why are these separate categories? At uni we are learning all about post-production processes and in a month or so's time will be embarking on this ourselves, and I promise you, they may be different steps but sound mixing is a part of sound editing. And even if not, what's the point in splitting it into two separate Oscar categories. This would be like splitting best film editing into editing and colour grading, and even then that's a more understandable split than sound editing and mixing. I'm just slightly baffled. Oh, and congrats Dunkirk.

Best Cinematography
At last, the promised day has come. Mr Roger Deakins, the man behind the camera of: Skyfall, Fargo, Sicario, The Shawshank Redemption, No Country for Old Men, Prisoners, O Brother, Where art Thou? and several others, has finally won his long overdue Oscar for cinematography. And what a film to win it for. Blade Runner 2049's cinematography is orgasmically good. Every shot in that film (a film that's nearly three hours) is masterfully composed and executed, and as a burgeoning cinematographer myself, just looking at this film was a kind of inspirational bliss. Far and away, this was the most deserving win of the year and I'd say the best thing to come out of this awards season. What more can I say?

Best Supporting Actor
Sam Rockwell got it, and quite deservingly. My opinion on this category hasn't really changed since last time, and I haven't really got much else to add without repeating myself. So.....yeah. Move along.

Best Supporting Actress
I can't comment on Mudbound, but all the other nominations here seemed perfectly valid picks, and Allison Janney definitely impressed with her performance in I, Tonya. While I finally have a chance to talk about this film, it's definitely worth a watch. It's a lot of fun and the acting is truly superb, Margot Robbie in particular really made this film her own, with Janney providing an excellent antagonist as Tonya's cold-hearted mother. It's a bit of a shame that the film hasn't received much more recognition besides this one win, but hey, means it did better than Lady Bird.

Best Actor
It kinda annoys me still that this works: just throwing together an Oscar bait period piece with the specific intent of getting a revered actor an Oscar. To be fair, Gary Oldman is a longstanding favourite actor of mine and many others, who has done so many fantastic roles over the year, that if this is what it takes to finally get him his little statuette, then I suppose it's a necessary evil.

Best Actress
Frances McDormand was the winner here, no surprises, although the rest of the nominated performances were all very deserving upon finally seeing them. Well, maybe not Streep. I'm glad that The Post didn't get any Oscars whatsoever this year, foiling its literal only purpose in life other than to give Spielberg something to do. To the deep depths of obscurity with ye! May you only return as an obscure answer in a pub quiz in twenty years time.

Best Directing
This does slightly scupper my theory from a couple years ago about best directing being essentially runner-up to Best Picture. Guillermo del Toro won, and not that he isn't deserving or anything, but personally, at least, I wanted Nolan to win this one for Dunkirk. Set aside the fact that Nolan still hasn't won an Oscar despite making some of the best films of the last two decades and being nominated five times, I feel the complexity and ambition of Dunkirk, especially with its non-linear parallel plotlines, lack of a single central protagonist and ability to strip off the layers of war to get to the survivalist heart of the story, executed as perfectly as it is, is the sign of an incredibly talented director, and one who definitely deserves an Oscar. But then, this leads us nicely to our one controversy of the night...

Best Picture
...or at least, my personal controversy. I haven't seen too much on the internet in outcry over The Shape of Water winning, although every friend I've discussed it with at uni has agreed with me. Look, it's not that The Shape of Water is a bad film. I mean, just look at the review at the top of the post; I like it. It's a good film. But that's it. It's just good. It's not really that special, it's not had any major impact, it's certainly not even close to the best film of 2017 (although how often are the best picture winners the true best of the year?). It just seems like an odd pick: nearly every other film on the list seems more deserving. Well, ok, not The Post, Darkest Hour or Phantom Thread. But all the others were. Having seen a few more of the best picture candidates, I ponder once more which of them I would have picked, and I'm still not sure. My literal favourite of the bunch is still Dunkirk, at least until I get around to rewatching it, but I don't think any of the others really come close to usurping it. Thinking more from the Academy's shoes, I'd most likely have gone for Three Billboards, which I'd also say is my next favourite of the roster. Well, at the end of the day, all I can say is it's a good thing I didn't place any bets on the winner like I was considering, because I certainly wouldn't have guessed this.

And there we have it, the end of the Oscars for another year. The blog will unfortunately be returning to its hibernation for the next few months while I continue with other projects. My book Chrysalis, annoyingly, is not much closer to completion, as it got slightly dogpiled by my uni coursework, which is particularly heavy this year, but work on the book and other projects such as last year's short Dead Tired will continue once my coursework starts to wind down, and there will be undoubtedly some kind of new content available in the summer, including potentially a new post (besides the regular summer updates, that is). Thank you all for reading, and happy viewings. I'm going to bed...

Oscar Nominations 2018

Awards season isn't complete without my annual Oscars sum up, so once more I shall interrupt my hibernation and give you all my thoughts. As always, I'm only really going to talk about the categories I have something to say about, so assume any category I don't mention I have either no or neutral opinion on.

Best Picture

Call Me By Your Name
Indie film that did well on the festival circuit? Check. Overwhelming critical praise? Check. No sign of a release date in the UK in the near future, certainly not until just after the awards ceremony? Double Check with a cherry on top. Frankly, it wouldn't be the Oscars if this wasn't the case. Regardless, Call Me By Your Name appears to be the latest in a trend of LGBT Oscar films, following on from the likes of Moonlight and The Danish Girl, all of which have seemed to do very well with critics and audiences, and are often some of the stand-out films of their respective years. I'm definitely excited to see it, despite the late release, and I have a gut feeling that this will be one of the Academy's top choices.

Darkest Hour
Well, it ain't the Academy awards unless there's a biopic shoved in for good measure, and Darkest Hour is this year's representative. While it's not impossible for Oscar biopics to be successes (The Imitation Game, for example, was fantastic), I get the impression this probably isn't one of them. It may be a decent enough, well-made film, but I can't see this film being remembered for long after awards season, and I certainly can't picture it winning the award.

Dunkirk
I've already mentioned my thoughts on Dunkirk in my previous post, and it's no surprise to see it turn up in this category. Technically, out of the best picture films I have seen (currently three), Dunkirk is my favourite so I suppose it's my default choice for the win. Will it win? Probably not, but still a very worthy choice.

Get Out
Jeez, was it only last year this film came out? It feels like so long ago when I first saw the trailer for Get Out. And it's been quite the sensation. I remember going to see it and being told that the screening had sold out, something that has never happened to me before, and was especially impressive for an indie picture. Indeed, the reception for Get Out has been phenomenal, being loved and praised by audiences and critics alike: it's already become a case study for one of the modules on my uni course, and it's not even a year old yet. As a result, and also considering the racial edge and social commentary, it seems a lot of people are rooting for Get Out to win best picture. Personally, I can't see it happening. Not because it's a bad film, I think it's great, but the Academy has never been particularly favourable with the horror genre, and it just doesn't feel like the kind of pick they'd go for. If it does win though, it's definitely deserving.

Ladybird
Indie film that did well on the festival circuit? Check. Overwhelming critical praise? Che-
Ok Ok, you know where I'm going with this. Lady Bird at least appears to have a release date before the ceremony. It's like the week before and I'm probably gonna struggle to squeeze in a viewing before the ceremony but, oh well. Out of the best picture noms, this is the one I'm most interested to see. The trailer, for once, was actually pretty great (out of all the trailers I saw at my last cinema trip, Lady Bird's was, in fact, the only one that actually made me want to see the film it was advertising). Like Call Me By Your Name and previous nominees like Moonlight and Boyhood, Lady Bird is another coming-of-age film, which while may be a tad overdone, are generally very good and heartfelt films, offering up unique, highly personal and relatable stories, and Lady Bird  looks like it'll have a lot of those qualities. This seems to me like the one the Academy will go for, or at the very least one of the frontrunners.

Phantom Thread
I was unimpressed by the trailer; in fact, I couldn't believe it when the Phantom Thread title card appeared, a title that I'd heard many good things about. Of course, trailers are very rarely any good, as mentioned above, and I doubt (or at least hope) it'll be indicative of the final project. Teamed up again are Paul Thomas Anderson and Daniel Day-Lewis, the same superstar team who brought you There Will Be Blood, an often-cited and praised classic of the last decade, and judging by the initial scores, Phantom Thread is a case of lightning striking twice. Supposedly it'll be out next week and I'll certainly give it a look, but I get the impression this won't be the one for the Academy. We shall see.

The Post
This year marks a special achievement, as we have for the first time managed to combine the annual Spielberg historical Oscar bait and the arbitrary Meryl Streep appearance into one uninspired and uninteresting grey sludge of a film. I guess that's efficient? Now as always, it's not like it's going to be a bad film, it's just going to end up being very average and unnoteworthy and leave next to no impact whatsoever. Here's a test, do you remember Bridge of Spies? From 2015? No? Hasn't that film really left such an impact on the landscape of film? Won't that film be remembered for years to come? Oh, but it had the world's most famous film director behind it and a really good actor in it. Because that's what makes the difference. You wanna know what films from 2015 stick out the most to me? Mad Max: Fury Road, Ex Machina, Victoria. You know, films that actually have a point to them, and a reason to exist outside of a shallow, nearly half-hearted attempt at grabbing a golden statue. And it's not like The Post is the only film to do this, it's just something about the trailer seemed so dull and lifeless and by the numbers that it almost seemed factory produced, and something about that just really riled me up. In many ways, this film is on the same level of sin as the likes of Marvel and their constant, insipid money-making output with little in the way of originality or creative flair or anything to make them stand out.
Ahh, nearly forgot how satisfying it was to write these kinds of rants.

The Shape of Water
Or: 'Fifty Shades of Grey meets Creature from the Black Lagoon', as I once described it. Guillermo del Toro's film about a woman fucking a human-shaped sea creature sounds like the kind of thing that would attract only a cult following, but much to my surprise this has become quite the critical darling: ask me from two or three months ago whether this would get a best picture nom and I'd have definitely said no. Maybe the Academy have misunderstood the interspecies romance as interracial and have nominated it on political grounds. Either way, it's certainly a film that's grabbed my attention, and while I still can't see it winning best picture, I'm definitely curious to check it out.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
The final film of the roster that I've seen, Three Billboards definitely was not a surprise to see in the list of nominations. A pitch-black comedy that seemed to strike a perfect balance between its humour and its more horrifying moments, and supported by a great script that constantly keeps you guessing and some spectacular performances. It's probably not quite enough to crack my top 5 from last year, but it's certainly a great film and well worth a watch. I'm not sure I'd be willing to place money on it winning, but I certainly think it will be one of the top contenders.

In summary, I think it's going to be a battle between Call Me By Your Name, Lady Bird and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. My money's probably on Lady Bird, but the Academy has certainly surprised me before. While others like Dunkirk and Phantom Thread are also plausible wins, I'd be surprised if it wasn't one of these three.

Best Actress
What a surprise, guess who's been nominated? Again? You guessed it, it's Meryl Streep! By this point, my opinions on Streep's constant unnecessary nominations are well documented, so I shan't dwell as not to sound like a broken record, but I would also like to take a moment to talk about Frances McDormand. My god. I actually couldn't believe this was the same actress who played Marge Gunderson in Fargo, almost the complete polar opposite of her character in Three Billboards. McDormand plays Mildred, a jaded, divorced mother who becomes the scourge of her town after she challenges the police over the lack of progress on the case of her daughter's rape and murder. But she is not the kind of person who takes criticism lightly, vehemently defending herself both physically and verbally, generating some of the greatest yet foul-mouthed retorts you could imagine (a rant against the church is a particular highlight). She's the very definition of no-nonsense, taken to the extreme albeit, and incredibly persistent. McDormand's portrayal is truly mesmerising to watch and is the unpredictable highlight of the film. I think she's got a strong chance: the other nominated performances will have to have done something really special to beat this.

Best Supporting Actor
While we're talking about Three Billboards,  both Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell were also fantastic in their roles. Sam Rockwell's character was one of the most fascinating characters I've seen in a while, starting out as a violent, racist idiot that you can't help but hate, and yet he goes through a redemption (not even a particularly big one) and somehow becomes one of the heroes of the story. And each of these beats was portrayed so convincingly by Rockwell that by the time he's throwing a guy out a window, you want to do just the same to him, only to find yourself cheering for him at the film's climax. Woody Harrelson's police chief was also fantastic, playing off France McDormand's character perfectly, creating a real depth to their relationship of deep respect and friendship, despite what each is putting the other through. I can't comment on the other nominations, but these two at least are both well deserving of their statuette.

Best Cinematography
Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins Come on Deakins*

*Dunkirk also deserves it just for those Spitfire scenes alone but...you know, Deakins

Best Animated Feature
Ferdinand? Really? What looks like a somehow worse version of Home on the Range (which even my dumb 6-year-old self wasn't interested in) with a trailer boasting fart jokes. I mean, yeah, of course it ain't going to win: Coco came out this year, and Pixar will win the Oscar as they always do, so it's practically not worth nominating any other films. But Ferdinand? Fart jokes are Oscar-worthy now?

Best Original Score
"Academy?"
"Yes?"
"So, Best Original Score..."
"Yes."
"You know what I'm going to say, don't you?"
"Errrr...."
"Come on, you read my Top 5 post."
*blank stare*
"Fair point. But you must know what I'm about to ask."
"...'Where's Blade Runner 2049?'"
"Where's Blade Runner 2049?"
"Well, um, we just thought, you know, there were other films-"
*tuts*
"Look, we nominated it for Sound Editing and Mixing!"
"Yeah. Against Dunkirk and Baby Driver. You know that's a losing battle."
*sheepishly looks at the ground*
"It's not the same, Academy. Not the same."

Best Visual Effects
Well damn. Not a bad lineup at all. I think my choice on this will probably come down to biases since these are all well-realised, effects-heavy films. So, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is out because it's Marvel, and Kong: Skull Island just doesn't seem very Oscar-y. While I've yet to see any of them, the new Planet of the Apes films makes fantastic use of motion capture technology which, while not particularly new, has been practically perfected by this point. The Last Jedi had some great practical effects alongside some truly stupendous CG space battles, and Blade Runner 2049 had some fantastic work too, particular mention going to the holographic Joi, the breathtaking cityscape of Los Angeles and the nuclear wasteland beyond the city limits. So yeah. They're all deserving. May the best film win.

Best Production Design
On a similar note, Blade Runner 2049 is my definite pick for production design. Not that Dunkirk or The Shape of Water don't have good designs or anything, on the contrary. But I just can't pick anything other than the beautiful cyberpunk aesthetic of Blade Runner 2049. Keep in mind, the original is one of my absolute favourite films, and a big part of that is for its production design, so anything that can even come close to that kind of aesthetic is going to win me over, especially when it's as fantastically done as it is here. Both replicating and adding its own touch to the original's design, 2049 really couldn't have done it any better.

And that about does it. I think I've finally settled on a consistent format for these (at last), so I'm glad that only took four years to work out. Make sure to tune in in a month-or-so's time for the results post!