2018 Oscars Best Picture Nominees Ranked
3. Lady Bird
Lady Bird Review
An honest portrayal of the melodrama of our teenage years, Lady Bird is a film unconcerned with the satisfaction provided by informing its audience of everything that is taking place in its universe and is instead entirely tied to its protagonist, Lady Bird, as played by the fantastic Saoirse Ronan, Oscar nominee. Ronan’s character’s relationship with her Mother (fellow Oscar nominee Laurie Metcalf) is absolutely the anchor of a movie that is perhaps the most well put together coming of age drama for a decade, a deserving screenwriting, actress, supporting actress, director and Best Picture nominee.
Recommended for you: Greta Gerwig – The Essential Collection
2. The Shape of Water
The Shape of Water Review
The favourite to win Best Picture in a year with many reasonable contenders, The Shape of Water is a mesmerising and transfixing fairytale unlike any other, its themes and hopefulness entirely encapsulating of the anti-abuse trend that has become the mantra of Hollywood in the aftermath of 2017’s sexual abuse revelations, its story altogether more encompassing of the hope we wish to feel amongst the fear, hatred and divisiveness so prevalent domestically and internationally at this time. An ode to cinema as an industry as well as classic cinema as an art form, Guillermo Del Toro orchestrated a timeless quality in his fantasy romance that is sure to live a life beyond that of this year’s ceremony and transcend into the public consciousness in the same way only the truly memorable Oscars nominees seem to do.
Recommended for you: Guillermo Del Toro Movies Ranked
1. Call Me By Your Name
Quite how Luca Guadagnino managed to capture the essence of infatuation and each of our first loves with his European-based coming of age romantic drama is anyone’s guess, for what was presented by the Italian born filmmaker was undoubtedly the film of the year, and easily one of the most sincere and beautiful love stories put to film this century. The imagery, visual poetry (both of actual and metaphorical meaning), the acting, pacing of the editing, screenwriting and of course the now iconic monologue, were all brought together as individually phenomenal aspects of the film by a director set on having his production overwhelm your senses and bleed into your bones, the effect of which was simply moving, and the deserving Best Picture winner.
In what was a tough field to define by quality as each release was so clearly a product of phenomenal filmmaking that seemed to excel in different ways, we felt that Call Me By Your Name just outshone The Shape of Water in terms of its overall quality, though we’re sure there’ll be many who disagree. If you do, leave a comment! Film is an art form, much of which is of such a moving and/or beautiful quality and depth that we get a selection as strong as this when judging which films should be considered the best, and if we all felt the same way about everything, film would surely be a whole lot more boring.
