Vicky Krieps - Phantom Thread [109 points / 16 votes]
Second place:
Greta Gerwig - Lady Bird [132 points / 21 votes]
And the winner is...
Jordan Peele - Get Out [167 points / 24 votes]
"A couple of years ago just the fact that Jordan Peele had gone from writer on Mad TV to co-star of his own popular and respected Comedy Central sketch series seemed like a meteoric rise. Key and Peele concepts could get weirder (and were filmed more cinematically) than many similar shows, so when I heard him talk horror movies on the Movie Crypt podcast in 2014, and he let it slip that he had written one, it made sense. Still, I daresay no one could've guessed that his debut would earn him Oscar nominations for best original screenplay, director and picture, something unheard of for a horror movie, let alone an African-American director, let alone one previously best known for getting so excited about Liam Neeson(s) that it made him explode.
"But even if it had been ignored like so many low budget horror movies before it, Get Out would've been an impressive achievement. Peele alchemically fuses a motley collection of sometimes contradictory elements - it's very funny but absolutely not a comedy, it uses an absurd mad science concept to say something deadly serious about relations between white and black Americans, it's accessible and fun but demands repeat viewings to completely decipher. It also pulls together diverse audiences to experience perspectives they've rarely been offered. The opening scene vividly puts white audience members in the shoes of a black man in an unfamiliar white neighborhood, imbuing a quiet suburb with the kind of tension movies usually reserve for dark alleys full of potential muggers huddled around burning trashcans. The ending plays off of the fear of racially charged encounters with police, and provides a catharsis that caused a woman in front of me to involuntarily gasp with relief.
"It works on the level of a Twilight Zone/Stepford Wives sort of tale, using genre as a vehicle to expound on complex ideas about the commodification of black culture, bodies and lives. It's that rare movie good enough to be claimed by horror fans while non-fans insist it's not just a horror movie, it's something more. In 2017, Jordan Peele went from a guy who plays Obama in comedy sketches to our best hope for provocative, socially conscious genre movies in the Trump era." ~ Vern
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