One Sentence Judgments: Oscars Edition

The Kino Club 313 writing staff is getting amped up for the 2018 Oscars! In preparation, we watched a whole bunch of trailers for Oscar nominated films and wrote our first impression responses. This list includes all films that received two or more nominations. (Yeah, yeah, yeah, we know we forgot I, Tonya...please don't hire someone to bust our kneecaps, Margot Robbie). Enjoy!

Baby Driver

Nominations: Film Editing, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing

Ian Waldie: Impressive Camera Work With Music Your Dad Likes: The Movie

Matt Linton: Edgar Wright can do no wrong.

Shelby Cadwell: Despite the fact that the trailer gives away 80% of the film, Baby Driver is still worth watching in its entirety if for nothing but the soundtrack alone.

Tristan Shaw: One of my favorite movies of 2017, but the title sounds too much like a spin-off to one of the current nominations in the best Animated Feature Film category.

Beauty & the Beast

Nominations: Costume Design, Production Design

IW: Many people don’t know this, but the VFX department simply inserted images from romance novel covers to create the ornate looking castle of the beast.

ML: Talking knick-knacks are way creepier in live-action.

SC: I never thought I'd see a more disturbing and unsettling "beast" than the Ron Perlman late 80's tv version. I thought wrong.

TS: Jean Cocteau did this fairy tale better, and without CGI, Emma Watson, and $160 million dollars.

Blade Runner 2049

Nominations: Cinematography, Production Design, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects

IW: It’s like they knew everything about this was on the nose but made it anyway because it was actually a GOOD movie.

ML: So much better than it had any right to be.

SC: Despite my fanboy anger at my precious Blade Runner getting the world's most unnecessary sequel, I will begrudgingly admit that this actually looks...good.

TS: I had mixed feelings when I saw the trailer in theaters, but the actual movie turned out to be the best sequel I never wanted.

Call me by your name

Nominations: Actor in a Leading Role (Timothee Chalamet), Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay

IW: Two non-gay actors and Suftan Stevens will admittedly make you sob.

ML: Armie Hammer is a really good actor that I forget exists between every role.

SC: Got. Damn. Getting a little steamy up in here, innit?

TS: I can only assume Timothee Chalamet was nominated here for taking what an actor can do with a peach to levels it never should have explored.

Darkest Hour

Nominations: Actor in a Leading Role (Gary Oldman), Cinematography, Costume Design, Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Picture, Production Design

IW: There haven’t been prosthetics this distracting since John Travolta played Edna Turnblad.

MW: You either die Sid Vicious, or live long enough to see yourself become Winston Churchill.

SC: Is it weird that I want to see the Winston Churchill version of Gary Oldman fistfight the Drexl Spivey (True Romance) version of Gary Oldman?

TS: From Sid Vicious to Count Dracula to Winston Churchill, Gary Oldman’s come a long way.

Dunkirk

Nominations: Cinematography, Directing, Film Editing, Original Score, Best Picture, Production Design, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing

IW: Christopher Nolan probably should have clarified those timelines a little better, huh? Nice cinematography!

ML: If there were an Oscar for Best Trailer, I’d give it to Dunkirk in a heartbeat.

SC: I'm not normally big on war films, but this is so, so beautifully shot I can't help but want to see it on a big screen (too bad I missed its theatrical release).

TS: Christopher Nolan’s first nomination for Best Director- and if the world is just- his first win.

Get Out

Nominations: Actor in a Leading Role (Daniel Kaluuya), Directing, Best Picture, Original Screenplay

IW: I love Jordan Peele.

ML: Wow, they give a lot away in that trailer.

SC: I'm so glad I didn't see this trailer until *after* I had already seen the film – it's like the trailer company was challenged to fit as many important plot points and crucial scenes into two and a half minutes as possible.

TS: “FROM BLUMHOUSE, THE PRODUCER OF THE VISIT, INSIDIOUS, THE GIFT”- Is this a boast, or a warning to stay away?

Lady Bird

Nominations: Actress in a Leading Role (Saoirse Ronan), Actress in a Supporting Role (Laurie Metcalf), Directing, Best Picture, Original Screenplay

IW: 2018: The year we all reckoned with our constant mispronunciation of Saoirse Ronan’s name.

ML: Fantastic movie in so many ways and I’m just now realizing how beautiful the shots are.

SC: I want my life to have the same color palette as Lady Bird.

TS: I love Laurie Metcalf’s character in Roseanne, so I automatically give Lady Bird my approval.

Mudbound

Nominations: Actress in a Supporting Role (Mary J. Blige), Cinematography, Adapted Screenplay

IW: If you aren’t rooting for Mary J. Blige to win Best Original Song AND Best Actress in a Supporting Role you’re dead to me.

ML: That looks fantastic (not as clever a comment as I’d like, but it really does).

SC: Ok, but how have I heard virtually nothing about this gorgeous film?

TS: It looks interesting, but I seriously can’t stand when period movies use modern-style music

Phantom Thread

Nominations: Actor in a Leading Role (Daniel Day-Lewis), Actress in a Supporting Role (Lesley Manville), Costume Design, Directing, Original Score, Best Picture

IW: Fabric has never looked so purty.

ML: That’s a very well-made trailer for a film that I have no interest at all in seeing.

SC: To quote my favorite fictional New Zealand folk duo, Flight of the Conchords – fashion is danger.

TS: Judging from the trailer, Daniel Day-Lewis’ intensive training for his latest role consisted of arguing with Vicky Krieps and stitching hidden messages into other people’s clothes.

The Post

Nominations: Actress in a Leading Role (Meryl Streep), Best Picture

IW: Steven Spielberg and Meryl Streep combine forces to enter-form (entertain and inform) us for one theater viewing, and then exhaust us when cable networks inevitably snatch up the broadcast rights.

ML: #FAKE NEWS!

SC: Mash-up movie idea – Jurassic Post starring Meryl Streeposaurus and Tomrannasaurus Hanx

TS: I’m greatly disappointed that Tom Hanks wasn’t cast as Richard Nixon.

The Shape of Water

Nominations: Actor in a Supporting Role (Richard Jenkins), Actress in a Leading Role (Sally Hawkins), Actress in a Supporting Role (Octavia Spencer), Cinematography, Costume Design, Directing, Film Editing, Original Score, Best Picture, Production Design, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Original Screenplay

IW: The water monster went through a grueling audition process and came out on top without ANY previous acting experience. His fish family is very proud of him.

ML: Do you like fish sticks?

SC: No wait, I changed my mind; I want my life to have the same color palette as The Shape of Water.

TS: Only Guillermo del Toro could make a love story between a woman and a merman intellectually respectable.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Nominations: Original Score, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Visual Effects

IW: Star Wars, but weirder and artier. SUCK ON THAT, HOLLYWOOD.

ML: “This is not going to go the way you think!” could be the mission statement for this movie.

SC: No green milk or thicc, shirtless Kylo in the trailer? Missed opportunities, man.

TS: Speaking as somebody who’s only ever seen Episodes IV and V, who are these people and why does Luke Skywalker look like a bitter hobo?

Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri

Nominations: Actor in a Supporting Role (Woody Harrelson & Sam Rockwell), Actress in a Leading Role (Frances McDormand), Film Editing, Original Score, Best Picture, Original Screenplay

IW: The controversy surrounding this movie probably means I will never watch it. Sorry, it’s ruined!

ML: I have never found Meryl Streep as interesting in anything as I find Frances McDormand interesting in everything.

SC: I'll watch pretty much anything with Frances McDormand in it, but man that r-word line at the end of the trailer is super cringey.

TS: The “Don’t say what, Dixon, when she comes in callin’ you a fuckhead” line alone ensures this movie will win Best Original Screenplay.

Victoria & Abdul

Nominations: Costume Design, Makeup & Hairstyling

IW: More movie trivia: Judi Dench spits out a butterscotch lozenge before every take of dialogue.

ML: What colonizer nonsense is this?!

SC: An unexpected friendship? Perhaps because the British Raj was responsible for millions of deaths in India? In the battle of movie magic vs. history, history wins.

TS: Contrary to popular belief, British colonialism was quirky, light-hearted, and considerably witty. (As apparently depicted in Victoria & Abdul anyway.)