Oscar® Nominations: 2018

It is time for one of the most prestigious film awards of the year: the list of Oscar®-nominated films has been announced! There are both surprises and expected additions, as well as some insane snubs (How The Greatest Showman got only one nomination is beyond me, and no mention of Girls Trip at all? Come on…). There will be plenty of Oscars® content to come before the award ceremony on March 4, but for now, you can form your own opinions on what will and will not take home that golden statue. To see Reeltalk’s take on nominated films, follow the links at the bottom of the page.

Trivia: The Shape of Water leads for most nominations at 13 (the same as last year’s La La Land).

Three Billboards is Uneven, but Effective

*Warning: Slight Spoilers*

I’ve always had a difficult time with dark comedies because I can’t tell what is actually intended to be funny versus what is intended to be mocked. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri tiptoes across this line very carefully, but that makes whether or not you like the movie a bit confusing. Are you actually supposed to like this character, or is it supposed to be a commentary on this job or that circumstance? But the dark comedy is what you’re meant to focus on, because this is not a movie where the attention is on the case being solved, the killer caught, and justice doled out for the girl who was murdered. That is not the point of the movie – we’re focusing on the effect of an unsolved case and a mother’s grief, not the cause of it. We don’t even witness the murder that is the center of the story; the daughter in question only appears in one scene. You watch to see the effect of the murder and billboards on the community (a ridiculously small one, apparently), and the combination of comedy and darkness sometimes works, and sometimes stutters.