It's that time of the year again.
After the Golden Globe, The Oscar
nominations in all 24 categories have been announced in a two part live
presentation on January 23. And as I was expecting, three of my favourite films
from last year are on the lists. The mesmerizing cinematographic adaptation on
André Aciman's critically acclaimed novel Call Me By Your Name is
nominated for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay, as well as Best Actor
for its young lead, Timothée Chalamet, and Best Original Song for Mystery of
Love ,which I've been obssesed with lately, by Sufjan Stevens, who wrote three
songs for the film.
Shot on location in Crema, Lombardy,
the film tells the story of Elio, a 17-year-old American boy living with his
parents in northern Italy, who has a summer romance with Oliver, a grad student
who comes to work with his academic father. The movie is full of light,
breathtaking landscape and unstoppable beauty that will make you want to vist
Italy and spend a whole summer vacation in a rural area there.
The second film which is a
romantic fable about a janitor who falls in love with a sea creature, has won
13 Oscar nominations, leading a field of films with an unexpectedly strong
British showing. Yep, I'm talking about Guillermo del Toro's Shape Of
Water. The cold war-era fantasy was nominated for best picture, best
director and best actress for Sally Hawkins, who plays the mute cleaner, as
well as in 10 other categories, part of a bumper haul on Tuesday just one
nomination shy of the record for the most in Academy Awards history.
Lady Bird ,which has got me extremely
emotional when I first saw it, received best picture and best original
screenplay nominations. The film’s star, Saoirse Ronan, was nominated for best
actress, while Laurie Metcalf was nominated for best supporting actress. The
director Greta Gerwig received a best director nod, becoming only the
fifth woman ever nominated in that category.
The endearing coming-of-age portrait might not have made it out of urban art houses and into the mainstream multiplex if it hadn’t been for some new math. The indie, with its modest budget and a first-time director, made national news when it achieved a rare and coveted 100% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the popular movie review aggregation site. This officially surpassed big-budget blockbuster Toy Story 2 (1999), which also had a 100% rating but from slightly fewer critics.
The endearing coming-of-age portrait might not have made it out of urban art houses and into the mainstream multiplex if it hadn’t been for some new math. The indie, with its modest budget and a first-time director, made national news when it achieved a rare and coveted 100% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the popular movie review aggregation site. This officially surpassed big-budget blockbuster Toy Story 2 (1999), which also had a 100% rating but from slightly fewer critics.
To conclude this post, I've decided
to rate each of the three movies out of 10:
Call Me By Your Name: 9/10
The Shape Of Water: 8/10
Lady Bird: 8.5/10
