My take on the merits of some of my favourite films of 2018.
Best Picture: Lady Bird — Scott Rudin, Eli Bush and Evelyn O’Neill
Tiptoeing into a class of diverse cinematic acclaim, full of big names and even bigger productions, Lady Bird has become a front runner for best picture as a refreshing coming-of-age story full of verve and wit. The female-centric nature of Lady Bird and its success in the Academy Awards is no small feat, but celebration is also due for Greta Gerwig’s creation of heartfelt characters, that just feel so, for lack of another adjective, real.
Lady Bird is a story told with such frankness and understanding of the modern adolescent adventure and familial dynamic that it leaves both teenagers and their parents with the same undeniable need for contemplation. Gerwig’s first directing endeavor has resulted in a kaleidoscopic piece of cinema, colorful and ornate, familiar yet perplexing, shining with youthful charm. Each and every one of the characters in Lady Bird tell its own sincere and affable story, all of which are parts of a beautiful Gerwig collage of a tempestuous narrative.
Best Director: Jordan Peele — Get Out
Charged on an inexorable mission to spell out a critique on American race relations is first time director Jordan Peele. An ingenious but over-the-top satire that oddly feels plausible because of the scorching topicality of its commentary, Get Out is a film in which Peele has woven ideas of race of both present and past into a new type of fabric that subverts storytelling with a horror, thriller hybrid of an unprecedented fashion. Peele subsumes his audience with a tenebrous reality while offering them a chance to get out with an ending that, albeit emotionally crumbling and ambiguous, carries a faint sliver of hope. Already a master of pacing and suspense, Peele is someone I’m sure we will see a lot more of.
Best Actor, Leading Role: Timothée Chalamet — Call Me by Your Name
At first glance, Timothée Chalamet’s Elio in Call Me by Your Name is merely a reflection of his character, Kyle, in Lady Bird: an insouciant hipster defined by the literature he reads and the music he listens. Elio’s tightrope walk across forbidden desire and self-doubt that encapsulates an idiosyncratic romance is told by Chalamet with candor; a vulnerability that finds perfect chemistry with the poise of Armie Hammer’s Oliver. As Elio faces the crackling fire to reminisce the transient but profound love experienced in the summer warmth of Northern Italy, Chalamet is possessed with emotion; for a newcomer to evoke so powerfully the wistful nostalgia and misery that makes this film so surrendering for a full scene lasting four minutes is exceptional.
Best Actress, Leading Role: Sally Hawkins — The Shape of Water
Constricted only to the use of facial expression and gesticulation, Sally Hawkins still phenomenally gifts us a performance where not a single line of dialogue could have made more convincing the portrayal of a compassionate and earnest mute. A romance between a mute janitor and an exotic sea creature — both of whom speak only through sign language — seems utterly implausible, yet when we feel Hawkins’ sincere love and care towards the human amphibian all our doubts instantly vanish. The endearment that Hawkins expresses is more intimate and nuanced than words could articulate. Dialogue takes a backseat when Hawkins assumes the stage; every wrinkle, every squint, every jitter is intentional in a performance where every movement is worth 1000 words.
Best Cinematography: Roger Deakins — Blade Runner 2049
Taken from my piece on Blade Runner 2049.
The world of cyberpunk was meant for cinematography, and director Denis Villeneuve thankfully knows this, always allowing scenes to linger for a few moments more to bask on the Silver screen. Roger Deakins shows us once again why he is the most formidable loser of the Academy Awards, gifting us solemn and expansive imagery whose emphatic colors were crafted vividly only with natural light. With Blade Runner 2049 set in a world where artificial light from screens and billboards are ubiquitous, Deakins manages to create the most magnificent interior in the entire film with only the natural elements of water and light.
Best Writing, Original Screenplay: Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri — Martin McDonagh
The art of screenwriting manifests in the economics of screen time: how and how much should a character be presented. Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboard outside Ebbing, Missouri is an epitome of that balance of screen time, precisely juggling a great sum of character arcs within this film. The stories of McDonagh’s characters are developed with such devotion and truth that we admire characters like Mildred and Dixon in the end as much as we hated them in the beginning. And Chief Willoughby, Red, Robbie, James, supporting characters that McDonagh is too skillful to use only as foils to the main players, propel the plot directly through their genuine depictions of townspeople caught in the crossfire between a vehement woman searching for answers and the local police.
