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Ranking 2017 Best Picture Nominees

Unlike last year which was very strong, this year is unfortunately quite weak when it comes to the Academy Award for Best Picture. The year of 2017 was great, but unfortunately most of the movies they nominated are far from the year’s best. Half of these are very weak and only two are great. It is the worst slate since that very bad 2015 slate. So here is my ranking of all nine of the nominees.

9. Phantom Thread

Phantom Thread is not only the worst nominee, but also my least favorite film of the entire year. Vicky Krieps is excellent, but other than her, the film has nothing to offer. At first, the film is very dull and uninspired, but later it becomes ridiculous in its ludicrous twist which makes no sense whatsoever and is just there for the shock value. The movie has nothing to say and its characters are not only highly unlikable, but also weakly developed. It’s another pointless bore from Paul Thomas Anderson.

8. Darkest Hour

This mediocre biopic is one of the worst biographical films ever nominated for an Oscar. Gary Oldman’s performance is very baity and the entire film is a shameless Oscar bait as its intentions and goal are clear from the get-go. The film is also very poorly made with bland cinematography and it’s filled with typically inspirational monologue after monologue. The Academy should be blamed much more for nominating such bland films instead of excellence such as ‘I, Tonya’ and ‘Molly’s Game’.

7. The Post

How is Spielberg nominated again? How is Meryl nominated again? I’ll tell you why – because the Academy is both of theirs puppet. Meryl is good here, but undeservedly nominated in a year where you’ve got unrecognized Jessica Chastain. As for Spielberg, his direction is such a rush job – bland and pretty weak. The movie has a good third act and is well acted, but it’s so incredibly boring to watch and the director never lifted this material in any possible way leading to another head-scratcher of a nomination.

6. Dunkirk

I really did not like Dunkirk and the fact that it’s not the last place on this list just goes to show how weak this nominations slate truly is. Dunkirk is a great case of style over substance as the film is gorgeous to behold with terrific cinematography, it has phenomenal score and is very well made across the board. But the script is pretty bad, the characters are non-entities and the movie is just your giant action film in blockbuster clothing with no strong anti-war statement or strong themes or plot anywhere to be found.

5. Lady Bird

Now we leave the weak and come to the solid films. Lady Bird has an excellent central performance from Saiorse Ronan who’s actually better here than she was in ‘Brooklyn’. Some scenes are touching and the mother-daughter relationship is the highlight of the film. However, the overall story is far from great and just your regular teen flick. The film is weakly directed by Greta Gerwig and it’s overall a very overrated coming-of-age film which is much weaker than unrecognized ‘The Edge of Seventeen’.

4. Call Me by Your Name

This is another baffling place as the fourth slot is too high for this film which left me in the cold, but again a showcase of the entire slate’s weakness. Yes, this gay romance is incredibly overrated. Timothee Chalamet is outstanding in the main role, the film is beautifully shot and it has its moving scenes with the father talk being simply wonderful, but the movie is, like so many films on this list, extremely tedious to watch, slow, overly artsy and too pretentious. I did not feel any true romance here and thus the film was a failure in my opinion.

3. Get Out

Get Out is a good film. It features a couple of excellent old-fashioned thrills, it favors storytelling instead of cheap jump scares and is well acted and overall very well made. Its plot is very original for a horror film, the dialogue is terrific and the film mixes contemporary and traditional in its approach stupendously. But it is far from the year’s best films as that third act is just overly bombastic as the once clever, subtle film turned into a typical genre bloodbath. Plus the twist is somewhat silly.

2. The Shape of Water

The first really good film on the list, but still not ending in my top ten for the year, The Shape of Water definitely is flawed owing to too much gore and not enough romance in it, but it features terrific performances from its talented cast and del Toro’s signature trademarks such as weird, oddball characters, charmingly presented historical period and gorgeous set design and cinematography. Its characters are the highlights for me as they are so well developed and all are memorable and interesting. It’s a very good film, but it’s also no ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ and although I am glad that he finally won an Oscar, he did win it for the wrong film.

1. Three Billboards

And of course the best nominee is actually the best film of the year which is this fantastic drama/black comedy. Three Billboards is superbly acted by Woody Harrelson, Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell and phenomenally directed by Martin McDonagh. It has a lot to say thanks to its thematically rich storyline, while also having fantastic dialogue and terrific humor. It’s a full package with an emotional ending as well as an unconventional approach to telling its story full of unexpected twists and turns. It is easily the finest film of 2017, a film I’ve watched three times by now, and I intend to watch it more, and such a shamefully ignored film. Yes, it was nominated, but it should have won as it is so much better from the actual winners and miles better than any other overrated nominee.