Five Oscar Hits and Misses Worth Talking About

The Academy Spreads the Wealth …

In addition to the nomination hogs named above, six other films are in the running for Best Picture:  Darkest Hour, Phantom Thread, Get Out, The Post, Lady Bird and Call Me by Your Name.

That’s a pretty eclectic roster of nominees, really. Get Out, after all, is a horror flick—a genre rarely honored by Oscar. The last slam-dunk horror movie to score a Best Picture nom was The Sixth Sense, way back in 1999. The last to win? Silence of the Lambs in 1991.

And while Oscar traditionally shows little love for comedies, three Best Picture noms straddle the line. While I didn’t find Get Out particularly funny, it was nominated for Best Comedy or Musical by the Golden Globes. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, for all its scathing commentary, feels often like a dark comedy. Lady Bird tries to make you laugh as you cry.

The Academy also did better with diversity than it has in some past years, and in a variety of categories. Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out) and Denzel Washington (Roman J. Israel, Esq.) both landed noms in Best Actor. Mary J. Blige (Mudbound) and Octavia Spencer (The Shape of Water) both earned noms for Best Supporting Actress. Get Out’s creator Jordan Peele scored nominations in three separate categories—for directing, writing and naturally Best Picture. After getting snubbed by the Golden Globes, Greta Gerwig picked up her own directorial nomination for Lady Bird. (She’s the first female to earn a Best Director nomination since Kathryn Bigelow nabbed one for 2009’s The Hurt Locker.) And Rachel Morrison became the first woman ever nominated for Best Cinematography, for her work in Mudbound.

In some ways, this year’s crop of nominations show that Oscar’s not just nominating movies that feel like Oscar flicks anymore—films like, say, Darkest Hour or The Post. While I liked both of those movies quite a bit, it’s nice to see the Academy showing some love to the Lady Birds of the world.