Phantom Thread - Awards ticker

[Fuzzy Dunlop]

Such a ridiculous snub. DDL doesn't need another trophy. Nor does Meryl Streep - she was good and all in The Post, but let's get real: Vicky Krieps is one of the great cinematic finds of this century and ahhh fuck the Oscars.

I mean, I get it, she's amazing in the film, but she's been getting snubbed pretty consistently all season so its not surprising at all. Phantom Thread did a hell of a lot better than I was expecting so I don't think its a moment to complain. Best Picture and Director noms? That's fantastic fucking news.

[eward]

It is, I guess I just don't believe it's going to win in any category (maaaaaybe costumes and score but it feels like a long shot) so my excitement isn't properly pitched.

[Fuzzy Dunlop]

Also not surprised, but nominating DDL and Manville over Krieps feels like a misunderstanding of the movie on the part of the Academy

...which is pretty much par for the course for the Academy, though I'll say the competition in the Best Actress category was tougher this year than in the other two. Streep got her auto-nom, Margot Robbie is having an it girl moment, and the other three are leads in the front-running films. Vicky is still breaking out and will be there in a few years if she keeps picking the right roles.

Overall though, none of this shit matters beyond getting the next project funded. Actual Oscars are bullshit, but they are business. And after the virtual shut-out of Inherent Vice (and its financial underperformance), its a relief to see Paul/Phantom Thread get so much love for two very practical reasons:

1. Focus will have to continue pushing the film for the next few months, with a longer stretch of theatrical exhibition and a bigger, wider promotional push, meaning more people will see it and it will make more money, with the added bonuses of more PTA interviews and more chances for us to see it in theaters.

2. Because of the above, studios will be more likely to gamble money on his next project. And its all about that next project.

[d]

Since around The Master I've kept asking myself: am I delusional? To me PTA is in a different league than any other contemporary director. Is it a matter of personal preference? With the last few movies he created fairly unique genere for himself - twisted drama with fucked-up characters and wicked humor. Maybe that plus his masterful craftsmanship simply is 100% what I expect from cinema?

But it seems so wrong that he is even compared to surely talented and probably nice people like Gerwig and Peele. Some of the above are good movies. I really liked CMBYN. Get Out, Lady Bird were both ok. Hated Dunkirk. Enjoyed but was annoyed at the same time with Billboards. None of them however is nowhere near as ambitious, intelligent, unique and well-made as Phantom Thread. Is there any other director nowadays who at least tries to make something truly unique or moving or at least impressive? Refn? von Trier? I respect Fincher for his skills but not sure I can call him true artist. Guadagnino is promising. Villeneuve is ok but overrated. Sorrentino? Bennett Miller is really good but not PTA-level good. Maybe the mistake I make is that I'm expecting others to make PTA movies?

I enjoy other movies but it's a bummer that for a few years now new PTA movie is the best movie I've seen since the previous PTA movie.

[Drenk]

Since around The Master I've kept asking myself: am I delusional? To me PTA is in a different league than any other contemporary director. Is it a matter of personal preference? With the last few movies he created fairly unique genere for himself - twisted drama with fucked-up characters and wicked humor. Maybe that plus his masterful craftsmanship simply is 100% what I expect from cinema?

But it seems so wrong that he is even compared to surely talented and probably nice people like Gerwig and Peele. Some of the above are good movies. I really liked CMBYN. Get Out, Lady Bird were both ok. Hated Dunkirk. Enjoyed but was annoyed at the same time with Billboards. None of them however is nowhere near as ambitious, intelligent, unique and well-made as Phantom Thread. Is there any other director nowadays who at least tries to make something truly unique or moving or at least impressive? Refn? von Trier? I respect Fincher for his skills but not sure I can call him true artist. Guadagnino is promising. Villeneuve is ok but overrated. Sorrentino? Bennett Miller is really good but not PTA-level good. Maybe the mistake I make is that I'm expecting others to make PTA movies?

I enjoy other movies but it's a bummer that for a few years now new PTA movie is the best movie I've seen since the previous PTA movie.

Look. Hazanavicius won when Malick was nominated for Tree of Life. The Oscars are a narrative that matters in a way since, I guess, PTA being one of the best out there would be more "known" if he had won one Oscars...maybe...? It doesn't change the fact that he's clearly the better director of that list (well, I think Dunkirk is great and you can at least see that the craft and ambition are on a high level) but I realize more and more that he is in the shadows. I mean, Phantom Thread is once again a big flop. People are taking pictures of them alone in theaters before the movie. After the nominations, the movie got an expansion, playing in more movie theaters, and yet it's still doing -36% by week...I don't want to say that nobody cares. The releases are an event of some kind for those who follow him, or for critics or the small bubble of "Film Twitter" (whatever that is...), but it does feel like a parallel  universe. He's a big name and...kind of invisible...? It's a weird position to be in, indeed.

But he's still has access to the budgets he needs. Even if sometimes it's as if The Beatles were The Beatles, made their album, the same, but had 25% of the public they had; so you scream with ten people in an empty arena...

It's getting sadder, though. He's a prestige card for studios, but if that prestige is getting thinner and thinner in the "real world", well...

The Oscars show how forgotten he can be in the "culture". But they also gave best picture to Spotlight. And yet, they're another kind of "prestige". A business prestige, yes—but that's an important one when you want to make movies...

[d]

PTA being one of the best out there would be more "known" if he had won one Oscars...maybe...?

Well, my point is he is currently not just "one of the best" but easily the best by a large large margin. Would I really want him to win awards and be better known? I don't know. It surely will be fun to see him on stage in March but you are obviously right - what matters is that he gets the budgets. And surely I don't care if he is more famous or not. Box office? He himself seems to care about that. I guess it is al least to some extent because he would like the people who pay for his movies to make money rather than lose. It's also perfectly understandable he feels more comfortable then as well.

[Cory Everett]

I enjoy other movies but it's a bummer that for a few years now new PTA movie is the best movie I've seen since the previous PTA movie.

Welcome to Xixax. This is our curse.

[Lewton]

To me PTA is in a different league than any other contemporary director.

While I tend to look forward to his work more than anyone else's, I would never make this claim because there's no way that no other artist is achieving similar levels of greatness. I mean, this isn't only a hunch. It's borne out by my own viewing experiences. There are many unusual and great movies out there! There aren't really other truly PTA-esque movies, sure, but no one is perfectly matching Spielberg's standard, either. Those are both great filmmakers partly because their achievements can't be precisely emulated by others and their work often refuses to be forgotten in a good way. But there are many others who are also great in different, and sometimes similar, ways...

None of them however is nowhere near as ambitious, intelligent, unique and well-made as Phantom Thread. Is there any other director nowadays who at least tries to make something truly unique or moving or at least impressive?

Based on what I've seen: James Gray, Terrence Malick, Luca Guadagnino, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Ruben Östlund, Lynne Ramsay, David Lynch, Sean Baker, and (potentially) David Robert Mitchell, among others.

Based on what I've heard: Claire Denis and Yorgos Lanthimos, among others.

I enjoy other movies but it's a bummer that for a few years now new PTA movie is the best movie I've seen since the previous PTA movie.

Including experiencing older classics for the first time and everything? Not that you even need to go back that far to find uniquely compelling stuff. Again, while the arrival of a new PTA movie is a major event for me on a personal level -- his writing and visuals are my favourite -- I'm still similarly floored by other movies.

[d]

The Chalamet speech also there. The way he reads it from a piece of paper pretending the jokes are spontaneous makes it look even more weird than the quotes but also cool somehow. I mean Chalamet obviously, not PTA who is super-cool.

[jenkins]

the way PT shrugs while walking away is a highly accurate review of that speech. he doesn't appear super cool there he appears super human.

Chalamet brings up PDL and dovetails into The Master, if that's not well-known. their speeches go about the same, just Chalamet is younger.

[wilberfan]

Phantom Thread wins Best Film in Village Voice Film Poll


https://www.villagevoice.com/2018/02/13/the-village-voice-film-poll/

To be fair, the Voice poll does like PTA: The Master and There Will Be Blood came out on top in 2012 and 2007, respectively, and even his divisive Thomas Pynchon adaptation Inherent Vice had a respectable showing in 2014. (In fact, every film Anderson made since 1999 has placed in our Top Ten; view past results of the Village Voice Film Poll here.) But perhaps more significantly, Phantom Thread is the kind of work — patient, subtle, sexy, disturbing — that sinks into your brain and lingers there for a while. It was a pleasant surprise to see it do so well with Oscar nominations; maybe these added weeks of reflection will prod the Academy to throw it an actual statue or two.

[eward]

If We Picked the Winners: Best Director - RogerEbert.com

https://www.rogerebert.com/festivals-and-awards/if-we-picked-the-winners-2018-best-director

"It’s sort of amazing that Paul Thomas Anderson has never won an Academy Award. He’s only been nominated for best director once before: for 2007’s “There Will Be Blood,” his first collaboration with the great Daniel Day-Lewis. And he has several screenwriting nominations for his work on some of the most original and influential films of the past generation, including “Boogie Nights” and “Magnolia.” Now, he finds himself in the directing category again for “Phantom Thread.” And it would be so fantastic if he finally won. With “Phantom Thread,” he pulls off the most dazzlingly deceptive high-wire act. He tricks you into believing you’re watching one kind of film: a meticulously crafted but detached period piece, set within the luxurious world of 1950s London couture. Day-Lewis stars as the marvelously named Reynolds Woodcock, a world-famous designer who makes dresses for heiresses and aristocrats—a man whose life is as measured and precise the gowns he creates. But with the introduction of a headstrong waitress named Alma (the formidable Vicky Krieps), Reynolds’ perfect world gets turned upside down. So does “Phantom Thread”: It slowly but surely becomes another kind of film entirely, one that’s darker and weirder than you ever could have imagined, and deliriously so. The way Anderson sneaks in his brilliantly twisted sense of humor throughout the film—until it ultimately takes hold completely—is one of his hallmarks, and it’s one of the movie’s many strengths. You never know where “Phantom Thread” is going as it whisks you along with the help of a lush and transporting score from his usual composer, Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood. But you know you’re once again in the hands of a master, one who isn’t afraid to challenge you both intellectually and emotionally."

[Tdog]

It would be great if PTA won but unfortunately it seems like nobody outside his fans are talking about Phantom Thread.
We can only hope for some sort of dark horse, out of nowhere win but it seems highly unlikely to happen when the Oscars are as politicised as they have always been.

At this rate though he seems destined to get an honourary symbolic best picture award in about 20 years (Ala SCORSESE for The Departed). As others in this thread have lamented ol' PTA is head and shoulders above all the other nominees and in general film makers of today, so it's always baffling when his movies do as they do.

[wilberfan]

I was listening to a local L.A.-based NPR Awards Recap, with a moderator and 5 or 6 professional critics discussing the different categories in front of a live audience.  Two of the critics were quite enthusiastic about Phantom Thread, but when the moderator would poll the audience (via applause) for their choices for the various awards, Thread never seemed to get a very enthusiastic response.  Given my assumptions about an NPR audience and the 'classy' venue, I would have expected a better response from them for this film. 

[jenkins]

i'm not against surprises fellas, but Phantom Thread won best costume and Jonny Greenwood lost, i think that's a wrap. there's no way it'll win best picture though, if Jonny Greenwood lost, you know.