by Heath Lynch, Contributing Writer
The summer blockbuster season is here! The Devil Wears Prada 2 is slaying on the runway, Obsession is having an unprecedented box office run becoming a smash hit, and The Mandalorian and Grogu… exists. But, as much as it’s fun to make fun of Disney’s (mis)handling of Star Wars, it’s time to dive into past awards shows once again! Let’s discuss another year gone by. As a reminder, with our Oscars: What If… series we look at categories the Academy Awards should be honoring, but, for one reason or another, they aren’t. So, we’re going to imagine what could’ve been regarding past Oscar seasons. Hopefully someday the Academy will do right by these creative talents, but until then we must do the Academy’s job for them. Let’s look back at the year the Patriots came back from being down 28-3 to win the Super Bowl over the Atlanta Falcons, Adele won Record and Album of the Year at the Grammys for her song “Hello” and album 25, The Handmaid’s Tale debuts to rave reviews, there was a solar eclipse on August 21st, Hurricane Harvey devastated Texas, and the tragic Las Vegas mass shooting where 60 people lost their lives making it the deadliest mass shooting in American history. It is time to examine the films of 2017, celebrated at the Oscars in 2018. Let’s see what could have been!
Best Stunts and Choreography
Given to the best achievement in dance, stunts, related performances, and overall choreography for film.
And the nominees are… Baby Driver, Beauty and the Beast, The Greatest Showman, John Wick: Chapter 2, I, Tonya
And the winner is… Baby Driver!
It’s not just that there’s music and some dancing. It’s not just the gunplay action sequences. It’s not just the car chases and impressive driving stunt work. It’s that all of these things, which are incredible in their own right, are sequenced and choreographed to music, as the soundtrack of this film syncs up with everything on screen. Bullets are fired to the beat of the music, magazines are reloaded to the rhythm, car tires are squealing to instrumental solos, and car doors are edited to be slamming to the metronome. It’s as if Edgar Wright is the composer of a grand cinematic orchestra, weaving a visual and audio symphony the likes of which we’ve never seen before or since. You only need to watch the soft open car chase of this film, or the sequence where Baby is pulling consecutive 180-degree e-brake turns through and alley to dodge trucks and people in his 2006 Subaru Impreza WRX getaway car to immediately understand the stunning impressiveness of all the stunt work and choreography throughout this film. An easy Oscar win.
Best Performance by Voiceover or Motion Capture
Given to the best off-screen voice performance, or on screen motion captured performance, for film.
And the nominees are… Cristela Alonzo as Cruz Ramirez in Cars 3, Will Arnett as Bruce Wayne/Batman in The Lego Batman Movie, Gael García Bernal as Héctor in Coco, Andy Serkis as Caesar in War for the Planet of the Apes, Alanna Ubach as Mamá Imelda in Coco
And the winner is… Andy Serkis as Caesar in War for the Planet of the Apes!
Any other year, Will. Any other year. As an olive branch, I’ll offer you an order of lobster thermidor to enjoy in the Batcave while watching Jerry Maguire. On me.
Six. Six times. You got that? This is the sixth time we’ve awarded this Best Performance by Voiceover or Motion Capture, and you know what? Earned. What Serkis does here with his final outing as Caesar is beyond impressive, it’s heartbreaking. Full of life, regret, hope, and pain. The expressiveness he gives to Caesar as a character makes him one of the greatest franchise characters of any film franchise we’ve ever seen, and this climactic final appearance as the character is a big reason why. While I understand the ‘spread the love’ sentiment, I also stan ‘the best should win’ mentality. So, while you may be tired of seeing Serkis nominated, and winning, yet again, damn if he doesn’t deserve it.
Best Performance by an Ensemble Cast
Given to the best overall ensemble cast performance for film.
And the nominees are… Get Out, It, Lady Bird, The Post, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
And the winner is… Lady Bird!
While most people would’ve gone with Three Billboards here, with it winning Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor Oscars as well as winning the Critics’ Choice Best Acting Ensemble, I’m gonna zag and go with Lady Bird. There’s something beautiful, magical even, about how this coming-of-age tale is brought to life by such an authentic ensemble that elicits real catharsis. Supporting turns from Beanie Feldstein, Lucas Hedges, Timothée Chalamet, and Tracy Letts especially create unique and distinct characters, even with limited screentime, while perfectly providing a canvas for our two major characters to paint with and bounce off of. Speaking of which, Laurie Metcalf is delivering a raw and tragic performance that is arguably one of the best of her career. There’s such a vulnerability to her, guarded by an unapologetic abrasiveness, that works perfectly for this film. More than anything, Saoirse Ronan is incredible. Next level amazing. Personally, while I love Frances McDormand and feel she is truly one of our greats, it would’ve been amazing to anoint Ronan with her first Oscar for her work here, versus McDormand getting her second or what would be three Oscars that she has won. Personal gripes aside, I cannot understate Ronan’s incredible talents. Her personal strife, especially combined with her outstanding chemistry with everyone else on the cast, makes her the anchor in what is truly one of the great ensemble performances we’ve ever seen. I love this film, it’s a Millennial epic, and it should be recognized with an Oscar for its incredible ensemble work.
Best Directorial Debut
Given to the best achievement in direction by a debut directing talent for film.
And the nominees are… Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird, Kogonada for Columbus, David Leitch for Atomic Blonde, Jordan Peele for Get Out, Aaron Sorkin for Molly’s Game
And the winner is… Jordan Peele for Get Out!
Honestly, this was much closer than you think, with Greta Gerwig almost getting the W here for Lady Bird. With both Gerwig and Peele receiving Best Director Oscar noms for their respective works this year, you’d be justified in making that pick. But the Academy did award Peele that Best Original Screenplay gold, which, to me, kinda tips their hand a bit in terms of which way voters were leaning this year. Additionally, I think there was a bigger ask of Peele with Get Out than what Gerwig had with Lady Bird. The heightened experience of this genre horror flick, that perfectly interweaves bouts of comedy, while telling a gripping narrative in its own right, that has much deeper social themes on its mind, that has to perfectly visualize unique and complex concepts like the Sunken Place… there’s a lot going on here. Peele, coming out of the gate like a seasoned veteran, and not like a sketch comedy star, showed us all that his talents extend far beyond what we ever thought possible. For me, he earns this trophy.
Best Popular Film
Given to the best audience supported motion picture that earned a spot as one of the top 25 box office films of the year.
And the nominees are… Coco, Get Out, It, Logan, Star Wars: The Last Jedi
And the winner is… Get Out!
Let’s get the box office argument out of the way. Yes, Get Out made less money domestically and worldwide than any of the other films nominated. Undeniable, and it’s not really that close. I mean, The Last Jedi made $620 million domestically and Get Out made $176 million comparatively. It. Is. Not. Close. But what makes Get Out’s popularity case through box office results so possible, so compelling, is its legs, and week-to-week drops. We don’t speak about this often, so a quick explanation for those less familiar with the terms. A film’s ‘legs’ describes the multiples a film earns at the box office relative to its opening weekend. As an example, if a movie makes $50 million domestically its opening weekend, but ends up making $100 million domestically in total by the end of its theatrical run, you would say the film’s legs were 2x, or two multiples, of its opening. The average film legs out about 2.5x to 3x its opening. In terms of ‘drops,’ this is the percentage a film’s box office earnings drop week-to-week. Again, for example, if a film opens to $50 million on its opening weekend, and then it earns $25 million its second weekend, that is a 50% drop. The average film usually drops between 40-50% week after week, with a 60% drop or greater indicating the film is performing poorly, with anything less than 40% indicating the film is performing well. Horror films in particular usually perform best on their opening weekend and drop an average of 60% per week. So, with those terms and averages in mind… Get Out legged out to 5.3x is opening weekend. It dropped only 15.4% from week one to week two, and then only 25% from week two to week three. This is as the movie was going against a massive hit like Logan, which is also nominated here.
Long story short, the buzz for Get Out was insane. Word of mouth and repeat viewings pushed this film’s box office performance to staggering levels relative to the size of the film and its low budget (this entire movie was made for just $4.5 million!), especially when considering that this was thriving against other blockbuster heavyweights. So, while Get Out might not have been as popular as all these other nominees in terms of box office volume, it was absolutely a popular film at the box office that justified its inclusion in this group.
As for our favorite adjective, ‘Best,’ to denote which film we’re going to crown the winner, yeah… This is the best film here. And I say that as an ardent Last Jedi defender, a fan who feels that Logan was the perfect ending for the 20th Century Fox X-Men movies, considers It to be their personal favorite horror film of all-time, and cried in theaters while watching Coco. The fact is, Get Out was a generational piece of filmmaking that changed our cultural paradigm. It rocks a 98% certified fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes with an 86% audience score, a must-see score of 85 on Metacritic, a 7.8/10 on IMDb, and a 4.1/5 rating on Letterboxd. Universal praise. It scored 88 award wins against 218 nominations during awards season, including one win against three noms at the BAFTAs, two wins against five noms at the Critics’ Choice Awards, two wins against five noms at the Independent Spirit Awards, and even one win at the Oscars for Best Original Screenplay, one of the biggest awards of the night, against four Academy Awards nominations. To say this wasn’t beloved by critics and audiences alike would just be a laughably false statement, as ridiculous as saying the Earth is flat. The only other nominated film that comes close is Coco, and I would genuinely entertain the argument that it should win this award for its two Oscar wins and all the tears elicited by the final performance of “Remember Me” in the film, but I still feel Get Out is the bigger deal. People were certainly talking about Coco back in 2017, but the cinema world was abuzz about Get Out at a level unmatched by nearly any other film that year outside of edgelord trolls being butthurt over The Last Jedi not fitting their fan theories.
So, while it might be a bit controversial to some, to me it’s very clear that Get Out was the Best Popular Film from 2017 and absolutely deserves to be gilded with Oscar gold.
That’s gonna do it! Thanks for joining me on another trip down memory lane to see what could’ve been! We got to talk about one of the biggest directorial debuts of all time, a beautiful Millennial coming-of-age tale, and the epic conclusion to the Andy Serkis’ Planet of the Apes trilogy. Be sure to come back next time when we look at films like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, A Star is Born, and Black Panther as we examine the Oscars of 2019, celebrating the films of 2018!
You can read more from Heath Lynch, and follow him on Letterboxd