Snubs
“Lady Bird”
We’ll have more to say on this later in the day, but it’s a little disappointing that in a year where the representation of women and the TimesUp/MeToo movements drove the conversation so much, that the sole major contender directed by a woman came away empty handed. It’s understandable in some ways: Greta Gerwig’s delightful film was never likely to be a factor in the technical races (though its editing was absolutely some of the year’s best: the day the Academy start to reward this sort of thing over the noisiest, flashiest cuts will be a happy one), and faced tough competition in its most viable races: Original Screenplay put it against “Get Out” and “Three Billboards,” while Laurie Metcalf might have won in any other year, but clearly felt a little less due than the beloved Allison Janney. Nevertheless, it was a bit sad to see Gerwig’s film win fewer awards than “Darkest Hour.”
Christopher Nolan
What does a guy have to do to pick up a Best Director Oscar? Nolan had inexplicably failed to be nominated even when previous movies like “The Dark Knight” and “Inception” had been awards forces elsewhere, and when “Dunkirk” dropped to rave reviews, it was widely thought to be his year. Nolan did pick up his first nomination, but in the end it was Guillermo Del Toro who walked away with the prize. It’s not tough to see why: Del Toro is beloved and plays the game a little more than the publicity-shy Nolan, and “Shape Of Water” was clearly well-liked, having taken the top prize. Indeed, while we don’t buy into the idea that Nolan’s an emotionless filmmaker, “Dunkirk” isn’t the film that makes the best argument against it, with its Bresson-ian survival narrative and lack of fleshed-out characters. Is he destined to be Alfred Hitchcock, a master technician unable to ever crack the Academy properly? We suspect not: given that it took Spielberg nearly two decades and Scorsese over three to win their statues, Nolan will surely have his time before long.
“War For The Planet Of The Apes”
What does a monkey have to do to get a Visual Effects Oscar? The work of WETA Digital and others on the recent Apes trilogy has been a true landmark in digital performance-capture characters: building on earlier work, sure, but truly making it sing, and reaching the point where truly photo-realistic characters can drive an entire movie. It’s utterly mad that they had never won before last night (‘Rise’ lost to “Hugo,” ‘Dawn’ to “Interstellar”), and madder still that voters blew their final chance to honor their work, not least on the most impressive film of the trilogy. Did they assume that the previous films had actually won? Were they put off by the movie’s inexplicable financial underperformance? Or did they just assume the apes were real? Any way around, it’s arguably the most baffling move in the history of the category.
“Baby Driver”
Last summer, even we, as massive fans of the film, might have raised eyebrows at the idea that “Baby Driver” could ever be included in a list of Oscar snubs: Edgar Wright’s car-chase musical is hardly the kind of film that awards bodies usually recognize. And yet the craft was inarguable, and happily, was recognized as such: it picked up a number of prizes from technical guilds, and even a few other crucial ones too (a SAG stunt ensemble, a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor for Ansel Elgort). And after it picked up the BAFTA for Best Editing, many wondered if it might go the distance with one or all of its three nominations, upsetting “Dunkirk” in the process. In the end, it wasn’t to be: though the film plays with American iconography, its British provenance probably helped it more than most with BAFTA. Still (and while this is overused as a phrase, it genuinely applies here), a real achievement to be nominated.
Jonny Greenwood
Like Nolan, Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood got his first nomination this year, but should have had multiple ones beforehand: his previous work with Paul Thomas Anderson and Lynne Ramsay was either deemed ineligible due to incorporating earlier compositions, or was overlooked entirely. But there was a good argument to make that Greenwood could win at his first time at bat: “Phantom Thread” proved surprisingly but pleasingly Academy friendly, was more traditional than some of his other work, and could well have followed the victory for another regular PTA collaborator, Mark Bridges, in the costume category. In the end, “The Shape Of Water” train proved insurmountable, and it’s hard to begrudge a victory for Alexandre Desplat and his lovely work on that film. Fortunately, Greenwood already has another classic score in the can: fingers crossed that he figures in next year for his work on “You Were Never Really Here,” which might be his best work to date, Kid A included.
“The Greatest Showman”
In some ways, an Oscar for “The Greatest Showman” would have capped the odd fairy tale for the film: a long time passion project for Hugh Jackman, delayed more than once in its gestation, which opened to tepid reviews and box office at Christmas, and then just kept playing in theaters: it’s now taken twenty times its opening weekend, the kind of multiple seen more in the 1960s and 1970s than today. And many had figured that it would take the sole prize it was nominated for, Best Original Song: after all, the film was a truly original musical (a rare thing), was penned by the team who won for “La La Land” last year, and had the most memorable performance on the night (admittedly of an unusually bad batch — sort the sound mixing out next year, Academy!). But in the end, it was “Coco” that won it, though we imagine that “This Is Me” will live on longer in karaoke parlors and theater-kid audition rooms.
Willem Dafoe
To say that Willem Dafoe was “snubbed” in the context of awards coverage, might be slightly misleading (it’s an imperfect term at the best of times) — almost no one expected Dafoe to win on the night after Sam Rockwell dominated the precursor awards in recent weeks. And it shouldn’t take anything away from Rockwell, an absolutely brilliant actor who’s very good in his movie (even if he’s been better before), and should have been Oscar-recognized long ago. But perhaps more so than other hotly-tipped actors who failed to pick up statues, like Timothee Chalamet, Laurie Metcalf and Sally Hawkins, Dafoe was at one time the front-runner: going into awards season proper he had the momentum, and was probably seen as the most “due,” having missed out from his previous two nominations too. Rockwell ended up being unstoppable, but we really would have loved to see Dafoe take the statue: hopefully we won’t have to wait another seventeen years or so to see him get another crack at it.
Thoughts? What were the most glaring snubs for you or the winner that genuinely took you aback. Weigh in below and let us know what you think.
