 Hey everyone, this is Jack. I hope you're all doing well. Today I wanted to make a bit of a special video. I wanted to talk about the 2018 Academy Awards which are going to be held tomorrow night. This is going to be a bit of a longer video, so I don't want to waste any more time, so I will quickly say there's a special announcement at the end of the video, so make sure you tune in for that. Let's start by looking at these snubs. Overall, I was pretty happy with what were nominated. There were a lot of really great movies that came out in 2017, so obviously not all of them are going to be nominated. With that in mind, there were a few that I felt like should have been. I would have liked to have seen Baby Driver get a lot more than just the technical nominations. As discussed in my video on the movie, I thought Wright did a lot both with a pen and behind the camera to really help tell an effective story. In terms of impressive direction, this movie is definitely up there with the year's best. There are a lot of moving pieces both figuratively and literally, and obviously a lot was stitched together in post, and I'm glad it got editing nominations, but there are also scenes like this that you're watching right now that could only be done on set. The choreography is great, and a lot of what makes this movie so great and so memorable was Edgar Wright's Direction. The same goes for Blade Runner 2049. This is still my favorite movie of the year. It's one that I've just been returning to and thinking about non-stop. It had a great screenplay, and of course Denny Villeneuve did a great and perfect job directing as he always does. The Florida Project was the movie that impacted me the most emotionally. I was literally crying by the end of the movie, and it was the only movie this year that made me do that, so it was just so well-written and an amazing child performances. This movie definitely would have gotten a lot more nominations if I were in charge of the Academy. In terms of movies that didn't get any nominations that I felt like should have, the biggest one is Killing of a Sacred Deer. Absolutely wonderful cinematography and a pretty great performance from Colin Farrell that definitely could have gotten some more recognition. This movie is a combination between Eyes Wide Shut and The Exorcist, and I think that 15-20 years from now it'll go down as cult status. Mother was definitely a controversial movie, but I thought it was very well done. It wasn't as great as some of Aronofsky's previous works, but it was still a very good movie, and I would love to have seen it be nominated for something, or at the very least just not have it be nominated for the Razzies. In terms of documentaries, I definitely need to see more of the nominated films. I've seen Icarus and Abacus and didn't love either. One of the most surprising documentaries that I saw was Gilbert. It's about Gilbert Godfrey, who I'm a big fan of his comedy, and his documentary was a good mix in between laughs and really emotional, hard-hitting moments. I also would have loved to have seen Spielberg, the HBO documentary nominated. He did a great job just going through his life and the relationship that he's had with film and how one has impacted the other. I went into knowing a lot about Spielberg just because I'm a huge fan of him, obviously, and came out knowing so much more. On that note, the post was surprisingly absent. It got picture and actress nominations, I think. If I had to guess, it was probably number six, just on the edge of getting nominated for actor, director, and screenplay. I personally loved the movie. Probably Spielberg's best film since Munich. It's a shame that it wasn't nominated because I thought it was great. I'll also say that Taylor Sheridan's Wind River deserves some recognition too. It was also one of the most emotional movies of the year. It had a great screenplay. He's three for three in my eyes. I made a video talking about what makes him so great, and I would have loved to have seen him get a little bit of recognition for it. But let's move on and take a look at some of the movies that were nominated for best picture and start off with the ones that I liked the least and moved up to the ones that I loved the most. I will say I have not seen Call Me By Your Name or Phantom Thread because they weren't playing near me, which really annoys me as soon as I see them. I'll be leaving my review on social media in the description, so check back if you're interested in those by the time I do get the chance to see them. The darkest hour I thought was just fine. It definitely wasn't a bad movie. I thought it was a good movie, but it's hard to call it one of the year's best. A lot of historical biopics like the King's Speech, The Theory of Everything, the Imitation Game, it just played it really safe and by the books and just wasn't very interesting in my eyes. Now, don't get me wrong, Gary Oldman was fantastic in it, as was the makeup department. I mean, he was unrecognizable in his performance, both literally and like unrecognizable. He was incredible. I had to double check to make sure that I saw the Gary Oldman move because I knew that there were two Winston Churchill biopics this year. And I was told this one was good. And I thought it was just fine, but I had to check to make sure that I saw the right one. I thought Get Out was good, but not as great as some others were saying. I know this may be a bit of a controversial opinion and I have heard it's a great movie to rewatch, which I have not done. But I really like the first hour or so of the movie. I hope the humor worked well. Some of the horror elements worked well. And of course had a very important and powerful message. But after that, I just really wasn't connected with it. And a lot of it just kind of fell flat and felt forced. I don't want to say too much because I haven't seen the movie since this past May. But I wasn't blown away by it. Now, nonetheless, I'm glad movies like this are being made. And it's a powerful message. And it's good to see it get some well deserved recognition. I thought it was very well written and very well directed. I also wasn't blown away by Lady Bird. I thought it was good, but it's not one of the year is best. People were calling it a completely original movie. And I just have to disagree. It was pretty predictable, pretty flat. If you've seen any other coming of age story, you pretty much know it's going to happen. I thought the strongest elements were her interactions and her relationship with her family. I thought those elements were great. But I didn't feel like there were enough of them. I feel like there's just so much other stuff like the high school drama and her two boyfriends and it just kind of weighed down the rest of the movie. Her relationship with her best friend was cliched and predictable and you knew exactly where it was going to go. Her two relationships I found to be interesting. I thought Timothy Chamele was great. I cannot wait to see Call Me By Your Name. And Lucas Hedges, at least in my eyes, he was dry and flat. Greta Gerwig is a great writer and you could tell there was so much emotion and it felt real, which not a lot of teen dramas feel like. It just felt like a real conversation. She did a great job with the script, but I wouldn't say she did a great job directing. I wasn't poorly directed by any means, but I also wouldn't call it one of the five best directed movies of the year. At least in my eyes, the most inconsistent movie of the year was Three Billboards. Some elements were great. A lot of the more humanistic parts were just so powerful. I mean, what it means to grief who's affected by grief and it just asks so many smart questions. Francis McDormand gives the best performance of her already impressive career. Woody Harrelson is great as always. And then you have horrible performances from Abby Cornish, who's struggling to keep a Southern accent. Lucas Hedges was dry and flat. And then my biggest complaint in the movie is just things that didn't make a whole lot of sense. Like how come Sam Rockwell's character didn't get in trouble for the attempted murder that he does? If it's trying to illustrate the theme of the lack of justice, then the movie suffers from thematic elements eclipsing the story, which I absolutely hate. The same goes for the scene where the one person enters the store. I'm not trying to say too much either way, a lot of greatness and a lot of mediocrity. I liked it and it was definitely one of my favorite movies of the year, but not one of the best. I've already spoken a bit about the post, so I'll keep it brief. I mean, it's Steven Spielberg, Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks. You're going to get great direction and great performances. It's also pretty well written. And one of my favorite aspects of the story was Tom Hanks's character. I feel like he's made a career of playing the unequivocal good guy who will never do an inch of wrong. And this it's not that simple. He's definitely playing a good guy, but someone who's willing to do a little bit of bad so a lot more good can be done. And I just thought there was so much subtlety that Hanks brought to the role, which I absolutely loved. Duncork was great. Again, I spoke about this movie in a video a few months ago, so I'll keep it brief. I love how much this movie says without saying anything. The subjectivity of war, how impersonal everything is. I loved how it used music to increase tension. I loved how it was shot. I loved a lot about this movie. Definitely worth a watch. And if this one's best picture, I definitely won't be complaining. But the movie that I'm rooting for for best picture as of right now is The Shape of Water. Del Toro made such a human movie about love and hatred. And there's so much to love about this movie. Everyone is great in the movie. There's a lot of comedy and a lot of drama and it's balanced super well. Movie is beautiful to look at. And most of all, Del Toro is able to capture the magic of movies. There's something that is so special in every shot in every frame of this movie. It's emotional, it's well done, and one of my favorite movies I've seen in a long time. I'm definitely hoping that this wins best picture. Although, again, you have to see Phantom Thread and call me by your name. So a lot of good movies that I'm still missing out on. But I'm really hoping that The Shape of Water has a successful run tomorrow night. I did want to tell everyone that I'm going to be releasing a limited time merchandise run. I've got t-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, and a couple of different types of t-shirts. Anyway, if you're interested, be sure to check them out. I cut down on my profits almost entirely, so they're as cheap as possible. They're going to be available for one week. So now is the time to do it if you're interested. Don't feel any pressure to do so. But if you want a nice JMR sweatshirt or something, now is the time to go and get it. Next week, we're going to be returning to our usual content. It's going to be a sequel of sorts to a video I made in the past. I don't want to say too much, but I'm excited to share it. Anyway, if you're new here, make sure you hit that subscribe button. I have a new video going up almost every Saturday. In case you're interested, I put a link to my playlist of all of my videos on 2017 movies. So check that out if you want to see any of them. Thank you for watching, and I will see you next week. Let's hope for a good Academy Awards.