The Business
THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 90 FEBRUARY 28, 2018
The Academyshe was great in another movie,
Maudie, which was one of my
top five movies of the year, but
nobody else saw.
MY VOTE Sally Hawkins
(The Shape of Water)
Supporting Actor
Christopher Plummer didn’t break
any new ground in All the Money
in the World. I’d be really curious to
see [Kevin] Spacey’s performance.
Richard Jenkins was so good in
Shape of Water. [Three Billboards’]
Woody Harrelson is always good,
and Sam Rockwell — bravo to him,
I can’t say anything against him.
But [The Florida Project’s] W i l lem
Dafoe was my favorite. Sometimes
the hardest thing to do is just be
a guy, without any bells or whistles,
and he felt like the guy who took
care of stuff at that motel, who was
the yes-man for the owner,
who dealt with that goofy fucking
whacked-out bitch [the mother
of the child protagonist, played by
Bria Vinaite] and all of that. Man,
that movie got fucking screwed.
Little Brooklynn [Prince] is so bril-
liant, I would have nominated her.
A lot of people just found it too sad,
but I didn’t feel that way myself.
MY VOTE Willem Dafoe
(The Florida Project)
Supporting Actress
Octavia [Spencer, of The Shape
of Water] and Mary [J. Blige, of
Mudbound] were good, but they
were sort of one-dimensional
and were the first to come off my
list. [Lady Bird’s] Laurie Metcalf
was really good, with a razor-
sharp edge. [Phantom Thread’s]
Lesley Manville was fantastic
and felt super-real. But Allison
Janney was on a slightly differ-
ent level. I saw I, Tonya three
times, and I know it was kind
of campy, but the fact that I have
even one ounce of empathy for
her character is a testament to
her performance.
MY VOTE Allison Janney (I, Tonya)
Adapted Screenplay
As you know, I didn’t like Call Me
by Your Name. I couldn’t really
laugh at The Disaster Artist because
only so many thoughts to go
around, you know.
MY VOTE The Shape of WaterAnimated Feature
My least favorite was The Boss
Baby. Ferdinand was uninterest-
ing. I didn’t like the style of
The Breadwinner. The coolest-
looking animation was Loving
Vincent. But Coco ticked all
the boxes: It was well made, and
it was just goddamn good enter-
tainment. There’s a movie that
addresses social issues in a way
that didn’t feel heavy-handed:
I didn’t mind a lesson about how
to be good to my Latino neigh-
bors and how to deal with death.
MY VOTE Cocointo trying to tell another one.
Still, I’m not totally comfort-
able with what’s happening with
Netflix [which is behind Icarus
and Strong Island] — their films
don’t really play properly in movie
theaters, and that bothers me
because I never thought I was in
the business of making movies
for television, or laptops, or tab-
lets or smartphones.
MY VOTE IcarusForeign-Language Film
Loveless [f rom Ru ssia], On Body
and Soul [Hungary] and The Square
[Sweden] didn’t really grab me
in any way. The Insult [Leba non]
was brilliant. What The Insult did
was it showed, in an entertain-
ing way, with great acting, how
little it takes to make hatred run
amok. But I fell totally in love
with [Chile’s] A Fantastic Woman.
I didn’t know anything about it
going in. This will make me sound
completely daft, but I didn’t know
it was about a transgender guy
[actually, a transgender woman]
until very far into that film. It
helped me, a straight guy who’s
pretty open-minded, to really
understand what it must be like in
the LGBTQ world. It was honest. I
loved it. To me, that was one of the
most powerful movies I saw all
year. I’m surprised someone’s not
trying to remake it in English.
MY VOTE A Fantastic Woman (Chile)Animated Short
I immediately ruled out Dear
Basketball. My God, that was
weird. It was really well done but,
to me, it was just a self-serving
love letter — what a narcissistic
thing for Kobe Bryant to make a
Valentine to himself. All of the
others had kind of a dark vibe to
them. I really loved Garden Party
— the animation was so good —
but fuck, I didn’t expect El Chapo
to show up at the end. Negative
Space I liked until it gets to the
coffin. Lou was a bit too much of a
morality play. I voted for Revolting
Rhymes. I liked the pig running
the piggy bank. I mean, that guy
was such a pig.
MY VOTE Revolting RhymesI’ve encountered too many of
these fuckers in the business —
these guys [Tommy Wiseau and
Greg Sestero, played by James
Franco and Dave Franco, respec-
tively] wasted people’s time
and got famous because of it.
Mudbound was fine. I loved Logan
— to me, it’s the best Marvel
adaptation yet. Most Marvel
things don’t keep my interest too
well unless they’ve got Margot
Robbie. [Suicide Squad is actually
a DC Comics film.] But I voted for
Molly’s Game [by Aaron Sorkin]
because I loved the character and
her story, which I was totally
unfamiliar with, and I loved the
whole milieu.
MY VOTE Molly’s GameOriginal Screenplay
I liked something about all of
them. Even though it had a big
heart and was entertaining,
The Big Sick was my least favor-
ite. I then eliminated Three
Billboards. After that it was hard.
Get Out was the best genre script
you could imagine, and Lady
Bird was really good, but I don’t
see either as a best screenplay.
They don’t stand up to Shape of
Water, which is so imaginative.
The director of Delicatessen says
it ripped him off, but that didn’t
deter me. I loved Delicatessen,
but more than one person can
have the same idea. There areDocumentary
I just couldn’t take Last Men in
Aleppo — it’s so sad it becomes
unwatchable. I wasn’t blown away
by Abacus [Small Enough to Jail].
I don’t think they made a strong
enough case with Strong Island.
I’m sorry the filmmaker’s bro-
ther was killed, but I’m not sure
there was a miscarriage of justice.
I hate to say it, but the brother
trespassed and was clearly com-
ing after the other guy. Faces
Places is inspirational. But Icarus
is on another level. [Filmmaker
Bryan Fogel] fucking lucked out,
stumbling onto that story [the
Russian doping scandal] a year