The Hollywood Reporter – 28.02.2018

The Business

THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 88 FEBRUARY 28, 2018

The Academy

Illustration by Leon Edler

E

ach year around this time,

I sit down with an Oscar

voter who, under the warm

cloak of anonymity, spills his or

her true feelings about the cur-

rent season’s crop of contenders.

Not just who or what got his or

her votes, but also exactly why

and how he or she came to those

decisions. It’s not meant to be a

scientific analysis; it’s just the

candid, unsugarcoated opinions of

one voting member (out of 7,258)

of the most important and power-

ful movie club in the world. Below

is a lightly edited transcript of

one such conversation: This year

it was with a male member of the

524-member producers branch

who — this season, anyway — is

not associated with any of the

nominees. — SCOTT FEINBERG

Best Picture

I didn’t like Call Me by Your

Name. From what I understand,

there was less of a difference

between the ages of the young

boy and his lover in the book,

but I have to tell you, in the movie

version it looked like a 35- or

40-year-old guy was hitting on

a 16- or 17-year-old boy, and it

just seemed wrong. It would have

been wrong if they were hetero-

sexuals. With The Post, Spielberg

couldn’t get out of his own

fucking way. He gave every actor

business. [“Business” meaning

physical actions beyond deliv-

ering lines.] I felt like he saw

Birdman and said, “Let’s do that,

only I’m gonna make everybody

fiddle about with something

in their pocket or a cigarette or

whatever.” It killed me. It was

a great story with a great cast

that got over-Spielberg-ized.

Three Billboards [Outside Ebbing,

Missouri]? Nothing was honest

about that movie. The acting

was superb, but the characters

didn’t seem real and the story

seemed exactly like what it was:

a Brit’s version of America. I

don’t feel that if I went to Ebbing,

Missouri, that is how it would

be. Get Out was a great, fun, enter-

taining genre film, but I don’t

read as much into it as others do.

My Brutally Honest

Oscar Ballot

A very cranky voter sounds off on The Post

(‘over-Spielberg-ized’), Call Me by Your Name (‘wrong’) and

wishes he’d seen Spacey’s All the Money in the World

By Anonymous

Dunkirk looked great, but it was

a little confusing, there wasn’t

enough of an emotional thread,

and the drone of the airplane

through the whole fucking movie

just drove me crazy. For me it

just didn’t fully work. I liked Lady

Bird — even though it’s about a

mother and daughter, and even

though I’m a guy, there were

actually elements that reminded

me of me and my parents — but

I grew to dislike Lady Bird because

of its fucking social media cam-

paign. They pounded the drum

too much. They put a magnifying

glass on everything — like, how

they shot the scene at the airport

in one take. They shot the scene

at the airport in one take because

they fucking stole it! [“Stealing a

shot” means filming on loca-

tion without permission.] I loved

everything about Phantom Thread

— it created a world, it looked

wonderful, and Daniel Day-Lewis

is always just so commanding

to watch. In some years it might

have been my favorite picture,

but not this year. It’s funny, “best

picture” is not what it was when I

was a kid, or even 15 years ago. It

used to be about the subject mat-

ter, and a movie like The Shape of

Water wouldn’t have come within

a mile of winning — it would

have been dismissed as an exploi-

tation-genre film or something.

But we look for different things

now. That’s kind of why I didn’t

vote for Darkest Hour or Dunkirk

for best picture [in my No. 1 spot].

Part of the reason why I liked

The Shape of Water more than the

others is it’s only “topical” in that

it deals with outsiders, not racism

or sexism or anything else. [Sally

Hawkins’ character] is in love with

something different. Good for her.

I was gobsmacked by the film.

MY VOTE 1 The Shape of Water

2 Darkest Hour 3 Phantom Thread

4 Lady Bird 5 Dunkirk

Director

Christopher Nolan got involved

with a huge undertaking

[Dunkirk], but he made a confus-

ing film, so he failed. [Jordan

Peele’s] Get Out is well done, but

let’s not get carried away. Paul

Thomas Anderson made a really

good movie [Phantom Thread],

but the story is limited in scope.

[Lady Bird’s] Greta Gerwig is a

great writer and director, and

I can’t wait to see what she does

next. But Guillermo del Toro

just ruled by making a genre

film into a movie that speaks on

every fucking level — and he

did it with a limited amount of

words, which is the most impres-

sive kind of filmmaking.

MY VOTE Guillermo del Toro

(The Shape of Water)

Actor

I don’t understand why every-

one’s so crazy for [Get Out’s] Daniel

Kaluuya. Timothee [Chalamet,

of Call Me by Your Name] is a brave

little actor — I can’t say I liked

the movie, but he’s a huge talent.

Straight or gay — I don’t know his

orientation [ed. note: he’s straight]

— he did a great job. I happened

to really like Denzel Washington

in Roman J. Israel, Esq. — it was

one of the freshest things I’ve seen

him do in years — but the movie

itself just didn’t stand out. Daniel

Day-Lewis was brilliant, but

not Oscar-winning brilliant. This

one was easy: [Darkest Hour’s]

Gary Oldman was so good that I

don’t care if he hit his wife with

a telephone. [In 2001, the actor’s

then-spouse alleged that he beat

her with one.] I hate when people

use words like “transformative,”

but what they did to make him look

like Churchill and what he did in

that role can only be described as

that. He blew it out of the water.

MY VOTE Gary Oldman

(Darkest Hour)

Actress

Really tough. I didn’t like The Post

[with Meryl Streep], but the other

four all deserve to win. [Three

Billboards’] Frances McDormand

is terrific. [I, Tonya’s] Margot

Robbie is such a movie star at

every level. [Lady Bird’s] Saoirse

Ronan was so good — she was

even better in Brooklyn. But I

voted for Sally Hawkins. She was

fucking brilliant in Shape of Water

— I mean, to not say a word, but

only emote? And, on top of that,