What a movie summer it’s been! From the Amazon prowess of “Wonder Woman” to the sound and fury of “Dunkirk” and “Detroit” to the quieter charms of indies such as “The Big Sick” and the fierce style of “Baby Driver” and “Atomic Blonde,” film summers this good don’t come along often. And we’re not even into the fall, when studios usually start releasing any movie they think might be good enough to have a shot at an Academy Award.
Could this unexpectedly great few months herald the demise of the traditional “Oscar season”? We can only hope.
The cycle begins in early September, when big awards contenders debut at the Toronto and Telluride, Colo., film festivals (and even earlier in Venice, Italy), then get released in theaters later in the fall.
Timingwise, a movie that a studio considers Oscar bait should typically aim to “get in that October-November corridor” at the box office, says Tom O’Neil, editor of the Oscar prediction site Gold Derby.
That creates a glut few regular moviegoers are able to make their way through in time for the awards shows. Some big films (2010 Best Picture “The King’s Speech,” 2008’s Best Picture “Slumdog Millionaire”) are even held all the way until Christmas, and then only open in a couple of theaters in New York and Los Angeles before going wider in January.
Ultimately, Oscar season exists for the flimsiest of reasons: Because Academy voters — who cast their ballots in January — apparently have the recall of goldfish.
“The vast majority of Oscar movies are released in the fall because of the poor memories of Oscar voters,” says O’Neil.
Summer — the most logical time to escape to a cool, dark theater — has mostly been the province of big, dumb blockbusters, subpar sequels or reboots. It’s not unheard of for summer movies to win an Oscar, but it’s unusual: In the past 20 years, only “Gladiator” in May 2000, “Crash” in May 2005 and “The Hurt Locker” in July 2009 have snagged the top prize after a warm-weather release.
But maybe a summer this good will help change the system (or at least inspire voters to start keeping lists). After all, why should good movies be limited to a few months of the year?
We’re also long overdo on expanding our very idea of what is Oscar-worthy — a running joke that Academy Awards television hosts including Jimmy Kimmel and Chris Rock have played on, pointing out that the things mainstream audiences actually like and the things that tend to win awards are often wildly different.
Even this summer’s sequels are first-rate: “War for the Planet of the Apes,” the third in a trilogy, is also the best in the series. A big action adventure, it doubles as a weighty meditation on the nature of humanity. It features a leading performance from Andy Serkis that should, if there were any justice, snag him an Oscar nomination — but probably won’t, because motion-capture technology isn’t considered prestige acting.
“Spider-Man: Homecoming,” which was in theory a remake nobody needed, turned out to be the Spider-Man movie we’d all been waiting for, with a real-deal awkward Peter Parker (Tom Holland) who outshone both his predecessors.
Of course, superhero movies aren’t generally taken seriously by the Academy — and yet Diana Prince (who looks mighty good in gold) is already generating awards talk. “There is serious Oscar buzz for ‘Wonder Woman,’” says O’Neil. “There is great respect for this superhero movie, and they don’t usually get respect.”
Traditionally, comedies don’t get much love, either. The Best Supporting Actress award, for example, usually goes to a woman who suffers through a small role in a weighty drama — think Viola Davis in last year’s “Fences,” or Mo’Nique in 2009’s “Precious.” But if light summer movies were allowed into the club, Tiffany Haddish of “Girls Trip” would be a shoe-in. She’s a newcomer with a lightning-quick wit who crushes every scene she’s in. Raunch comedies are generally out of the running for awards. But this year, who knows?
Summer action movies, too, are not often considered serious enough for awards time, but Edgar Wright’s “Baby Driver” might buck the trend with its audacious re-imagining of a heist plot through the syncopated rhythms of a tinnitus-plagued, perma-headphoned wheel man. Then there’s Sofia Coppola’s Southern Gothic “The Beguiled,” which already won her a best director prize at Cannes, and “The Big Sick,” Michael Showalter’s comedy based on star Kumail Nanjiani’s real-life love story. Both achieved the crucial combo of performing well at the box office and winning critical praise.
But the hottest picks from this season, and the likely front-runners, no matter what comes out in the final weeks of 2017, are Christopher Nolan’s WWII drama “Dunkirk” and Kathryn Bigelow’s 1960s riot biopic “Detroit.” “They both have big studio campaigns behind them — that suggests both as major Oscar players,” says O’Neil.
So how did all this quality arrive so early? “I don’t think it’s done on purpose,” says Cynthia Swartz, head of the bicoastal agency Strategy PR/Consulting. “Everybody loves when films come out now that end up being Oscar players. It shows that it’s doable, and it means you don’t have to release films in the last two months of the year.”
http://nypost.com/2017/08/03/this-summers-hot-movies-are-shaking-up-the-oscar-race/
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