The Shape of Water is the first science-fiction film to win an Oscar for Best Picture, one of four Oscars it received out of thirteen nominations, putting it in a ten-way tie for the second most nominations ever of any film. All About Eve, Titanic, and La La Land are tied for the most nominations overall at fourteen.

A beauty and beast story in which the beauty isn’t all that beautiful and the beast isn’t terribly beastly, the film is a marvelous throwback to the minimalist science-fiction films that were popular in the 1950s, most notably Creature from the Black Lagoon. Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro takes it one step further, with beauty having consensual sex with the beast, something that wouldn’t even be hinted at in a 1950s film.

The film’s one-of-a-kind Oscar-winning production design and terrific musical score by Alexandre Desplat add immeasurably to the film’s hold on its audience, but it should be noted that the film’s theme song, “You’ll Never Know,” was not written for the film as many of the film’s ardent fans seem to think. It is, in fact, an Oscar-winning song from 74 years earlier, introduced by Alice Faye in 1943’s Hello, Frisco, Hello.

The performances in the film are first-rate with Oscar-nominated Sally Hawkins leading the pack as the awkward mute cleaning woman who befriends the captured creature. Almost as good are Doug Jones as the creature; fellow Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins as beauty’s friend and neighbor; Octavia Spencer, also Oscar-nominated, as her friend and co-worker; Michael Shannon as a villainous government official; and Michael Stuhlbarg as a caring scientist.

Call Me by Your Name was nominated for four Oscars – Best Picture, Actor (Timothée Chalamet), Adapted Screenplay (James Ivory), and Original Song (Sufjan Stevens’ “Mystery of Love”), winning for Adapted Screenplay. It should have been nominated for at least three more for Direction (Luca Guadagnino) and Supporting Actors (Armie Hammer and Michael Stuhlbarg), and should have won at least one more for Timothée Chalamet’s beautifully nuanced portrayal of a 17-year-old tortured soul in 1980s Northern Italy.

Chalamet’s breakthrough portrayal of the bisexual teenager has been compared to Daniel Day-Lewis’ breakthrough portrayal of the gay punk in 1986’s My Beautiful Laundrette, which was released the same year as his portrayal of the effete snob in James Ivory’s A Room with a View. Ivory was Oscar-nominated for his direction of A Room with a View and later for Howards End, and The Remains of the Day, but this time around he opted for producing and writing only, finally winning an Oscar for the latter endeavor at 89, becoming the oldest competitive Oscar winner in so doing.

If Chalamet is a revelation in the film, and he is, both Hammer and Stuhlbarg finally live up to expectations fans have had of them for years. Hammer (The Social Network, The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) strikes just the right balance as Chalamet’s American lover and Stuhlbarg (A Serious Man, The Shape of Water) as Chalamet’s father has the kind of eleventh-hour monologue most actors only dream about.

Also worth noting are Amira Casar as Chalamet’s mother, Esther Garrel as the young girl he has a brief affair with, and Vanda Capriolo as the family cook.

The Oscar-nominated screenplay for James Franco’s The Disaster Artist is quite engaging. Based on the filming of a critically panned but ultimately successful “midnight movie,” the end credit sequence includes shots of Franco as Tommy Wiseau and Wiseau himself in the original saying the same lines. Franco’s interpretation is pitch perfect.

Wiseau was a failed actor who ultimately made his movie, The Room, himself, because he was virtually unemployable as an actor. With funds from undisclosed sources, he purchased two sets of camera equipment, hired a large crew which he simultaneously filmed unbeknownst to them, and both acted in and directed the film from his own screenplay.

The acting by both James Franco as Wiseau and his brother Dave Franco as his best friend, actor Greg Sestero, is excellent. The supporting cast, many of whom are spoofing their own personas, includes Seth Rogan, Ari Graynor, Alison Brie (Mrs. Dave Franco), Jacki Weaver, Josh Hutcherson, Zac Efron, Megan Mullally, Sharon Stone, and Melanie Griffith.

Nominated for three Oscars and winner of one, Craig Gillespie’s I, Tonya is supposed to be a comedy. I say, supposed to be, because it’s funny only if you find verbal and physical abuse funny. The film tries to have it both ways by making a misunderstood victim out of disgraced Olympic figure-skater Tonya Harding as she interprets her life one way and a willing participant in the criminal act against her rival, Nancy Kerrigan, as interpreted by her ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, leaves it to the viewer to decide who’s the more believable.

Margot Robbie works hard as Tonya, but how much of her performance was aided by her stunt double and the film’s large special effects team is unclear. Her character only elicits genuine sympathy in her last court appearance. Her numerous acting nominations, including her Oscar nomination, for this performance are baffling to me, but not as baffling as those of her co-star, Allison Janney. As Tonya’s nasty, overbearing mother, the character’s actions are so outrageous that it’s impossible to take her seriously. It amazes me that most of the critics’ awards for the year’s Best Supporting Actress went to Laurie Melcalf for her subtle portrayal of Saoirse Ronan’s flesh-and-blood mother in Lady Bird, yet the same award given by actors, who should know better, went to Janney. Not just the Oscar, but the BAFTA two weeks earlier and the SAG award before that.

The film’s nomination for Best Film Editing is only further proof that the editors’ branch, which should also know better, is impressed not by necessarily the “best” editing, but by the most obvious.

Superman is back from the dead in Zack Snyder’s Justice League, which is a better film than his previous Superman movies, Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

As is usual with today’s superhero movies, there is too much CGI, and in this case, too much lackluster CGI, as well as a terribly boring villain. What makes it worthwhile is the interplay between the superheroes and their loved ones – Henry Cavill as Superman, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, and Diane Lane as mother Kent – Ben Affleck as Batman and Jeremy Irons as Alfred – Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman and Connie Nielsen as her mother – Ezra Miller as The Flash and Billy Crudup as his father – Ray Fisher as Cyborg and Joe Morton as his father – Jason Momoa as Aquaman and his legion of fans.

All the above are available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

This week’s new releases include Downsizing and the Blu-ray release of The Passion of Joan of Arc.