In the days leading up to the 90th Academy Awards, FilmBuffOnline will be offering profiles on all the nominees in the major categories. Some may be well known, others might be new to you, but if you need a refresher on these exceptional films, here is what you need to know your nominees.
Call Me By Your Name
Producers: Peter Spears, Luca Guadagnino, Emilie Georges, Marco Morabito.
Release date: November 24, 2017
Box office gross as of March 2, 2017: $29,432,427 (Domestic: $16,126,062 Foreign: $13,306, 365)
IMDB Synopsis: In 1980s Italy, a romance blossoms between a seventeen year-old student and the older man hired as his father’s research assistant. .
Number of Oscar Nominations: 4 (Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Adapted Screenplay; Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role; Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song))
Other honors for this film: Received 41 other Best Film/Picture nominations, with nine awards.
Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer: 96% (259 Positive Reviews, 12 Negative)
Rotten Tomatoes Critical Consensus: Call Me by Your Name offers a melancholy, powerfully affecting portrait of first love, empathetically acted by Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer..
Dissenting Opinion: “Compared with. . .any number of films dealing with down-to-earth sexual feelings that go wild. . .Call Me By Your Name is trite. . .Few recent films have so bluntly proclaimed moral pessimism.”–Armond White, National Review
Darkest Hour
Producers: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten, Douglas Urbanski
Release date: December 22, 2017
Box office gross as of March 2, 2017: $136,154,217 (Domestic: $54,854,217, Foreign: $81,300,000)
IMDB Synopsis: During the early days of World War II, the fate of Western Europe hangs on the newly-appointed British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who must decide whether to negotiate with Adolf Hitler, or fight on against incredible odds.
Number of Oscar Nominations: 6 (Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role; Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling; Best Achievement in Cinematography; Best Achievement in Costume Design; Best Achievement in Production Design)
Other honors for this film: Received 4 other Best Film/Picture nominations, with no awards.
Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer: 86% (212 Positive Reviews, 35 Negative)
Rotten Tomatoes Critical Consensus: Darkest Hour is held together by Gary Oldman’s electrifying performance, which brings Winston Churchill to life even when the movie’s narrative falters.
Dissenting Opinion: “Darkest Hour is proud of its hero, proud of itself and proud to have come down on the right side of history nearly 80 years after the fact. It wants you to share that pride, and to claim a share of it. But we have nothing to be proud of.”–A.O. Scott, New York Times
Dunkirk
Producer: Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan
Release date: July 21, 2017.
Box office gross as of March 2, 2017: $525,573,161 (Domestic: $188,373,161, Foreign: $337,200,000)
IMDB Synopsis: Allied soldiers from Belgium, the British Empire and France are surrounded by the German Army, and evacuated during a fierce battle in World War II.
Number of Oscar Nominations: 8 (Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score); Best Achievement in Directing; Best Achievement in Film Editing; Best Achievement in Sound Mixing; Best Achievement in Sound Editing; Best Achievement in Cinematography; Best Achievement in Production Design)
Other honors for this film: Received 37 other Best Film/Picture nominations, with two awards.
Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer: 93% (346 Positive Reviews, 28 Negative)
Rotten Tomatoes Critical Consensus: Dunkirk serves up emotionally satisfying spectacle, delivered by a writer-director in full command of his craft and brought to life by a gifted ensemble cast that honors the fact-based story.
Dissenting Opinion: “Other critics are raving about this one. Did we see a different movie? This one is terribly disjointed and you are never connected to the characters. Wanted to like it but…”–Gary Wolcott, Tri-City Herald
Get Out
Producers: Sean McKittrick, Jason Blum, Edward H. Hamm Jr., Jordan Peele
Release date: February 24, 2017
Box office gross as of March 2, 2017: $255,017,329 (Domestic: $176,040,665, Foreign: $78,976,664)
IMDB Synopsis: It’s time for a young African-American to meet with his white girlfriend’s parents for a weekend in their secluded estate in the woods, but before long, the friendly and polite ambience will give way to a nightmare.
Number of Oscar Nominations: 4 (Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role; Best Original Screenplay; Best Achievement in Directing)
Other honors for this film: Received 50 other Best Film/Picture nominations, with 18 awards.
Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer: 99% (298 Positive Reviews, 3 Negative)
Rotten Tomatoes Critical Consensus: Funny, scary, and thought-provoking, Get Out seamlessly weaves its trenchant social critiques into a brilliantly effective and entertaining horror/comedy thrill ride.
Dissenting Opinion: “Jordan Peele’s Get Out contains a fascinating idea and some intriguing social commentary, but it’s ultimately let down by bland execution and writing that never allows the idea to come to full fruition.”–Jeff Beck, The Blu-Spot
Lady Bird
Producers: Scott Rudin, Eli Bush, Evelyn O’Neill
Release date: December 1, 2017
Box office gross as of March 2, 2017: $53.,353,126 (Domestic: $47,753,126, Foreign: $5,600,000)
IMDB Synopsis: In 2002, an artistically inclined seventeen-year-old girl comes of age in Sacramento, California.
Number of Oscar Nominations: 5 (Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role; Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role; Best Achievement in Directing; Best Original Screenplay)
Other honors for this film: Received 38 other Best Film/Picture nominations, with ten awards.
Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer: 99% (296 Positive Reviews, 4 Negative)
Rotten Tomatoes Critical Consensus: Lady Bird delivers fresh insights about the turmoil of adolescence — and reveals writer-director Greta Gerwig as a fully formed filmmaking talent.
Dissenting Opinion: “Just like its title character, Lady Bird is quirky and sentimental but despite best attempts, never really defines itself into anything meaningful.”–Alachia Queen
Phantom Thread
Producers: JoAnne Sellar, Paul Thomas Anderson, Megan Ellison, Daniel Lupi
Release date: December 25, 2017.
Box office gross as of March 2, 2017: $33,8340,164 (Domestic: $19,534,164, Foreign: $14,300,000)
IMDB Synopsis: Set in 1950’s London, Reynolds Woodcock is a renowned dressmaker whose fastidious life is disrupted by a young, strong-willed woman, Alma, who becomes his muse and lover.
Number of Oscar Nominations: 6 (Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role; Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role; Best Achievement in Directing; Best Achievement in Costume Design; Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score))
Other honors for this film: Received 12 other Best Film/Picture nominations, with two awards.
Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer: 91% (239 Positive Reviews, 23 Negative)
Rotten Tomatoes Critical Consensus: Phantom Thread‘s finely woven narrative is filled out nicely by humor, intoxicating romantic tension, and yet another impressively committed performance from Daniel Day-Lewis.
Dissenting Opinion: “It’s a more literate, better acted, more tastefully presented version of “Fifty Shades of Gray,” all lush settings and the “sub is truly the dom” dynamics.”–Nell Minow, Huffington Post
The Post
Producers: Amy Pascal, Steven Spielberg, Kristie Macosko Krieger
Release date: December 22, 2017.
Box office gross as of March 2, 2017: $146,354,969 (Domestic: $79,454,969, Foreign: $66,900,000)
IMDB Synopsis: A cover-up that spanned four U.S. Presidents pushed the country’s first female newspaper publisher and a hard-driving editor to join an unprecedented battle between the press and the government.
Number of Oscar Nominations: 2 (Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role)
Other honors for this film: Received 14 other Best Film/Picture nominations, with three awards.
Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer: 88% (279 Positive Reviews, 38 Negative)
Rotten Tomatoes Critical Consensus: The Post‘s period setting belies its bitingly timely themes, brought compellingly to life by director Steven Spielberg and an outstanding ensemble cast.
Dissenting Opinion: “A pile of muck (old muck, too) with no rake, Steven Spielberg’s National Board Of Review-approved Nixon-era newspaper drama The Post lacks the exact thing it glorifies: a reporter’s instinct for story.”–Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, AV Club
The Shape of Water
Producers: Guillermo del Toro, J. Miles Dale
Release date: December 22, 2017
Box office gross as of March 2, 2017: $113,950,189 (Domestic: $55,993,976, Foreign: $57,956,213)
IMDB Synopsis: At a top secret research facility in the 1960s, a lonely janitor forms a unique relationship with an amphibious creature that is being held in captivity.
Number of Oscar Nominations: 13 (Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Achievement in Directing; Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role; Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role; Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role; Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score); Best Original Screenplay; Best Achievement in Cinematography; Best Achievement in Costume Design; Best Achievement in Sound Editing; Best Achievement in Sound Mixing; Best Achievement in Film Editing; Best Achievement in Production Design )
Other honors for this film: Received 34 other Best Film/Picture nominations, with six awards.
Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer: 92% (308 Positive Reviews, 26Negative)
Rotten Tomatoes Critical Consensus: The Shape of Water finds Guillermo del Toro at his visually distinctive best — and matched by an emotionally absorbing story brought to life by a stellar Sally Hawkins performance.
Dissenting Opinion: “From the world’s most over-rated A-list director, Guillermo del Toro, comes yet another visually distinctive, tonally flat work of glum fantasy…As usual, Del Toro’s acolytes have promptly fallen into line praising this overlong pseudo sci-fi pap.”–Jim Schembri, 3AW
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Producers: Graham Broadbent, Peter Czernin, Martin McDonagh
Release date: December 1,2017
Box office gross as of March 2, 2017: $123,286,274 (Domestic:$50,770,189, Foreign: $72,516,085)
IMDB Synopsis: A mother personally challenges the local authorities to solve her daughter’s murder when they fail to catch the culprit.
Number of Oscar Nominations: 7 (Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role; Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (2); Best Achievement in Film Editing; Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score); Best Original Screenplay).
Other honors for this film: Received 39 other Best Film/Picture nominations, with 11 awards.
Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer: 92% (289 Positive Reviews, 25 Negative)
Rotten Tomatoes Critical Consensus: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri deftly balances black comedy against searing drama — and draws unforgettable performances from its veteran cast along the way.
Dissenting Opinion: McDonagh works way too hard to inject nearly every scene with his patented solution of acid wit and dark-roast comedy… It’s jarringly effective until it starts to feel like shtick, at which point it works only as a numbing agent. –Matthew Lickona, San Diego Reader