The 90th Academy Awards ceremony is taking place on March 4 and this year nine films have been selected for the much coveted Best Picture category. Among them is "Phantom Thread", a period romance between a fashion designer and his muse that takes place in Britain's high fashion world during the post-war period of the 1950s.

Anderson has been a critical darling ever since Boogie Nights, his Robert Altman inspired deep dive into the world of 1970s pornography, and while this couldn’t be more different from his usual output, it’s still been a smash hit. In A.O. Scott’s review - in which the film is designated as a NYT Critic’s Pick - he says Phantom Thread is “profoundly, intensely, extravagantly personal” without being biographical, and so he’s fascinated by the film’s parallels between the protagonist, Reynolds Woodcock, a fashion designer, and PT Anderson, a director, as both work meticulously to “[turn] drawings into drama, [manipulate] color and movement and the human form to construct a material object that is also artificial, idealized and fantastical”.

Although, that isn’t to say that the film works only as, or even exclusively focuses on the idea of, a rumination on art. He’s careful to say “it’s a chamber piece, romantic and baroque in equal measure, with arresting harmonies and ravishing changes of tone” and “wrenching tale of a woman’s love for a man and a man’s love for his work.”

The man in question as Daniel Day-Lewis, a screen legend who has (so far) won three Oscars for his work and, reportedly, now retired, with Phantom Thread being his final performance. True or not - Day-Lewis notoriously takes very long breaks between projects, suggesting it will be years before we know or not - many critics have focused on this in relation to the movie. Anthony Lane of the New Yorker describes him as “ the [Roger] Federer of film” because “he is equally a champion of stillness, and he seems, like certain rare sportsmen, to be preternaturally blessed with time—enough time, that is, to take stock of a situation, while people bustle around him, and to ponder his next move. His thoughts look more dramatic than other actors’ deeds, and his deeds are done with a deliberated grace.”

A.A. Dowd of the AV Club said that “he can be cruel both accidentally and on purpose. But Day-Lewis, in a terrifically testy performance that he insists is his last […] finds notes of tenderness, joy, and good humor” but his layered performance would be for nothing if his co-star an on-screen romantic interest Vicky Krieps, who Dowd refers to as a “titanic talent” and “a warmly naturalistic force of presence that grinds productively against Day-Lewis’ meticulous control.”

The meticulous control displayed behind the camera - one of the parallels A.O. Scott was no doubt referring to - was also much enjoyed by the critics. Unlike almost all the other directors nominated for Best Picture, he also worked as his own cinematographer and “he drenches the film in faded but still-rich color (like Technicolor worn soft), buttery walls and gentle firelight,” according for Moira Macdonald of the Seattle Times. She also says the ”sound is amplified: we hear the metallic scrape of butter on toast, the tiny click of a hook-and-eye fastener on a dress, the sigh of a pin decisively puncturing satin.” Emphasising how, even if it is a film very clearly set in 1950s Britain, Anderson has created his own world for Phantom Thread.

The craft on both sides of the screen is enough to make almost all critics deem the film a joy to watch, but Owen Gleiberman’s review for Variety did say that it is diminished by its stars as a romance that is “emotionally remote”: “The film is framed as a love story, but it never swoons, and it’s enough to make you wonder: Why does Anderson […] now make dramas that are essentially didactic studies of fantastically cold brutes?”

According to Oddschecker, "Phantom Thread", as a film about fashion design, is aptly the favorite for Best Costume Design and is averaging 1/10. Everything else is off the pace - even Daniel Day-Lewis who, in his final performance is still a distance second to Gary Oldman at 1/25.