Think The Crown meets Dunkirk meets Downton Abbey, and you’ll be somewhere close to Darkest Hour. However, the above description does not include the fact that Gary Oldman is just unbelievable as Winston Churchill. Unbelievable in a good way, that is. It’s like he IS Churchill. It’s astonishing! Besides Oldman, who should be a no-brainer for Best Actor, the rest of the cast is solid; the movie is beautifully shot; and the story varies between endearing and inspiring. Darkest Hour, even though dealing with the ever-daunting task of retelling a World War II story, is especially refreshing after last night’s viewing of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Just imagine—dialogue can be effective and moving without the F-word every five seconds, old white men can be inspiring, and dedication to one’s country despite political differences with others is the honorable way to go. Who knew! (Please note my sarcasm.)

Why It Might Win BP

You just never know with a World War II flick. Darkest Hour has class, probably the best acting performance of the year, and a storyline that we should never tire of hearing: good defying evil. The film is personal, national, global, and worthy of more credit than it’s received so far. Personally, I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t share some sort of admiration for the great Winston Churchill.

Why It Might Not Win BP

Dunkirk. Much of Darkest Hour revolves around this miraculous historical event, but it deals with it in a completely different way from Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster. Where Dunkirk is infinitely detailed from the point of view of the soldiers stranded on the beaches of France, Darkest Hour focuses on Churchill’s perspective of Britain’s predicament in the spring of 1940. Dunkirk is a sweeping account of the event; Darkest Hour is the psychological, emotional toll it takes on one man who finds himself in power during Britain’s, well, darkest hour. Darkest Hour would perhaps have more of a chance at BP had Dunkirk not been released in the same year; but as it is, I found it rather fascinating that both films tackled the same topic in such different ways. That being said, this film is smart (like 2012’s Lincoln), probably too smart to entertain the casual viewer. In a side-by-side comparison, it would most likely end up in the shadow of Dunkirk‘s scope and verbal simplicity–though it isn’t likely that either WWII film will appeal to the Academy as much as the blatant shock value of Three Billboards. What a shame.