Academy Award nominations were announced last week, and instead of celebrating Phantom Thread’s surprise run, or John Williams grabbing his fifth Star Wars nomination for Best Score, we did the typical “I CAN’T BELIEVE THIS DIDN’T GET NOMINATED!” whining and complaining. I go on this rant every year, but it drives me crazy when people constantly kvetch about Oscar snubs. For the love of Jaws, there are only so many spots. You can’t nominate everything.
Yes, sometimes there are legit snubs. Amy Adams not getting nominated for Arrival last year was ridiculous, as she was considered a lock. Foxcatcher not getting it for Best Picture a few years ago was absurd, considering Bennett Miller got a well-deserved Directing nod. There are certainly times to complain about snubs, but more often than not, it’s an overblown topic.
The snub du jour people rant about all the time though are superhero movies. Last year it was Deadpool. This year it’s Wonder Woman. Okay, we all need to take a step back and really think about this. Let’s lasso of truth it up. Is Wonder Woman really a Best Picture movie? Best Picture. Say it again. Best Picture.
No. I can’t go there.
While a great superhero movie, it’s fairly traditional, and suffers a very standard “let’s blow everything up” third act like most average action movies. Wonder Woman is a superb film. I gave it a glowing review, and even gushed about it in a podcast that ran almost two hours. If Wonder Woman is your favorite movie of the year, then more power to you. In my opinion, it’s just not in the same stratosphere as the caliber of films like Dunkirk, Get Out or Lady Bird.
Here’s the good news for Wonder Woman. Its impact on the film industry will outlast many of these other films, much like The Dark Knight did in 2008. I promise you, we’ll be talking about Wonder Woman years later more than Three Billboards or Phantom Thread, even though those are better films. That’s a pretty good consolation prize.
In the wake of complaining about Wonder Woman and The Lego Batman Movie, there’s another superhero film that got a SIGNIFICANT nomination: Logan for Best Adapted Screenplay. This is a big deal, and nobody seems to care.
In 2008, The Dark Knight was set up to be the first superhero movie nominated for Best Picture. It got a WGA nomination. PGA nomination. Christopher Nolan even got a DGA nomination, which was huge. It was all set to get that fifth spot behind Slumdog Millionaire, Frost/Nixon, Milk and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. What happened? It went to The Reader.
Exactly. Ugh. That still hurts. Not only was The Dark Knight denied its rightful spot as the first superhero movie to get nominated for Best Picture, but it was shut out for Director and Screenplay as well. That brings us to Logan.
The knee jerk reaction is to slam our fist on the desk that Logan didn’t get a Best Picture nomination, nor did Patrick Stewart for Best Supporting Actor, which people really tried to will into existence. Much like Wonder Woman though, neither had a shot. The one major award Logan had a chance in was Best Adapted Screenplay after it scored a surprise WGA nomination. We’ve seen this before though with films like The Dark Knight, Guardians of the Galaxy and Deadpool. Even the original Superman film from 1978 got one.
Despite Logan getting this honor, I was still a Sally Skeptic. I thought it would lose to All the Money in the World. I was wrong. Logan did it. It broke a barrier. This is why we need to give this more attention. It’s unprecedented. I know Best Screenplay isn’t as electrifying as Best Picture, or even Best Director, but it is one of the eight major categories.
In the entire history of the Academy Awards, dating back to 1930/1931, when official nominations for Writing were first handed out, there have been only five Best Picture winners that didn’t also receive a Writing nomination:
Grand Hotel (1931/1932)
Cavalcade (1932/1933)
Hamlet (1948)
The Sound of Music (1965)
Titanic (1997)
That tells you right there how crucial the screenplay nomination is. In an award this important, Academy members must have seriously considered Logan high on their Best Picture list. When Logan loses Best Adapted Screenplay at the Oscars, it will share the same honor as the following films: Million Dollar Baby (Paul Haggis), The Shawshank Redemption (Frank Darabont), Shane (A.B. Guthrie, Jr.) and A Streetcar Named Desire (Tennessee Williams).
We’re getting closer.
So again, let’s all relax. Take a breath. For once, instead of complaining about what didn’t get nominated, let’s celebrate what did. Logan did something no other superhero movie has ever done. I can’t wait for its name to be read at this year’s Academy Awards.
As a great man once said…
I think people will take screenplays and the writing process in general for granted, because all films start with one before production. I mean, Stanley Kubrick did say that behind the Shining “A screenplay isn’t meant to be read, it’s to be realised on film”. Regardless, reading the screenplay for Logan really helped me appreciate the film even more. The excerpt on the first page about how the fight scenes should be choreographed, the passages where Professor X died, and the finale of the film really deserves a lot of praise. Without a good screenplay, there will be no direction for the film to go. I admit I was disappointed to not see both Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart receive nominations, but a screenplay is just as much as a big deal because it got the best performances, style and direction out of the people who were working on Logan.