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Need to cram for the Oscars? Try our handy guide

March 2, 2018 - 8.51pm

So it's happened again. The Oscars are on Monday and somehow, the last 12 months have gone by and you've seen none of the nominees. You're lost at the water-cooler talks and have no idea why Get Out should beat Dunkirk.

It's okay. You've got a full weekend ahead of you to catch up with the cinephiles, and 9news.com.au is here to help.

The important thing is to plan your attack.

While most studios craftily release their Oscar-bait movies close to the ceremony, this year there are a couple of outliers you can catch at home.

Thriller film Get Out, the first big screen feature directed by Jordan Peele, earned rave reviews in the US for its savage allegories about racial prejudice, as well as for being a highly-effective fright flick.

Watch this one at night with the lights off. Reflect on humanity's cruelty. Eat popcorn.

If you feel up for another heavy movie, Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk is a mighty effort that is also available for home viewing. Cinema geeks will tell you it can't replicate the theatrical experience, but if we cared what cinema geeks said, we'd have seen it in the cinemas, right?

The bigger consideration for the discerning filmgoer is that Dunkirk is one of two World War II movies up for Best Picture this year.

Gary Oldman's turn as wartime British PM Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour has been roundly applauded by critics and is likely to land him a Best Actor statuette.

If you're pressed for time, we advise picking one now and watching the other later in the company of whichever WWII-obsessed older relative you prefer.

Now you've exhausted the possibilities (and popcorn) at home, it's time to head out.

The other Best Picture nominees are playing in cinemas around the country, from arthouse to multiplex.

Steven Spielberg continues his collaboration with America's friendly uncle, Tom Hanks, to great effect in The Post - and ups the ante by adding Meryl Streep.

Based on true events surrounding the release of the Pentagon Papers in 1971, this is probably the most relevantly political of the nominees, so adroit comparisons between the press and pollies of the 70s and those of our own troubled times will not go amiss in the conversations that follow.

Phantom Thread is a competing prestige drama, with the added appeal of the chameleonic Daniel Day-Lewis.

It's a romance about a fashion designer in 1950s London, so if you're looking for a date movie, this is probably it.

Lady Bird, on the other hand, is likely to make you want to call your mother afterwards, so be prepared. The movie about the relationship between a strong-willed mother and daughter has been nominated in multiple categories.

Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape Of Water is likely to be one of the most divisive of the nominees: a Cold War thriller about a woman who falls in love with an inhuman, amphibian monster. Repair to somewhere with tasty drinks and cosy seats afterwards to enjoy a good argument with whomever you went to see it with.

One final tip - what to do with the kids while you're zipping about town catching the year's finest films? No problem.

Plonk them in front of Oscar nominee Boss Baby - out now on DVD - and they'll be the most cultured kids in class the next day.

WHERE YOU CAN SEE THE OSCARS FRONTRUNNERS

SYDNEY

Call Me by Your Name (Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay, Original Song)

Playing at:

Chauvel Paddington