I missed the chance to do this last year, but one of my favorite emerging traditions on the ol’ Antagony & Ecstasy blog was coming up with the more-or-less-or-way-less analogies between Best Picture Oscar winners of old and the current year’s crop of nominees, and then inviting all you, my readers, to tell me which among that list you wanted me to review come Oscar weekend. It was an extra challenge this year – The Shape of Water is one of the most unprecedented Best Picture nominees in history – but I finally have my list of candidates:
Nominee: Call Me by Your Name
Sexual behavior in the human male = Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Nominee: Darkest Hour
The British homefront, WWII = Mrs. Miniver (1942)
Nominee: Dunkirk
The chaos and noise of combat = All Quiet on the Western Front (1929/30)
Nominee: Get Out
Overt denunciations of U.S. racism = Crash (2005)
Nominee: Lady Bird
Mothers and daughters = Terms of Endearment (1983)
Nominee: Phantom Thread
A bullying Londoner keeps a much younger woman in his house, gives her nice clothes = My Fair Lady (1964)
Nominee: The Post
Journalism as political activism = The Life of Emile Zola (1937)
Nominee: The Shape of Water
Moral commentaries on 1950s society, with “water” in the title = On the Waterfront (1954)
Nominee: Three Billoards outside Ebbing, Missouri
Political activism and government corruption in the American South = All the King’s Men (1949)
You get two votes; voting closes in ten days, 23 February, at 10:00 PM EST. The top two titles will both be reviewed before the Oscars, and I’ll pick one from the seven that remain to review as well. Go, decide my fate!