The Storylines:
And so it goes! Another season at Last Resort Films is in the books and we can now look back on the season that was and what lies ahead. As a whole, this season stands in quite the contrast from last. Season 16 was notable for a relatively weak box office (mainly out of a lack of marquee blockbusters) but a very competitive awards field. This season saw a very strong finish for the studio’s bank account, with films like Green Lantern Corps. and Namor The Sub-Mariner bringing in loads of money late. But awards? Well, that’s a different story.
Perhaps those comic book movies are the best place to start. As we all know, that genre tends to dominate headlines in Hollywood these days. This season, that was especially the case for LRF. The studio started off with a bang with the first ever LRF Comic Con and perhaps that was a harbinger of things to come. Of the films with two or more nominations, four of eleven belong to films based on comic properties. This includes representation in the Best Director and Best Picture categories.
Would those films have done as well if there were more high-end awards-type films? It is tough to say. There’s an odd symmetry to the fact that the season’s two biggest awards contenders - The King of Hearts and The Glass Menagerie - were released in the very first and last rounds of the season. I sometimes talk about how films with early releases suffer from recency bias but that was not the case here - especially considering Pulp, which also nabbed 8 noms, was the fifth release of the season.
Outside of those three films, however, the field feels quite a bit weaker than usual. Or perhaps that’s just me. Nowhere is this more evident than in the main acting categories. That is not to say that there aren’t big names and worthy performances in there - this might be one of the most star-studded Best Actor quartets of all time. But looking at the voting cards shows that the overall options in both are not too deep. Sometimes we have 7-8 names vying for those categories but that’s just not the case this year.
Which leaves us at a bit of a standstill. Will this be a ceremony dominated by those three movies (or perhaps just one or two of them)? Or can films like Green Lantern, Namor, and Sandman pull off some upsets and firmly establish this as the Season of Comic Books? That’s the main thing I’m watching.
One last thing I want to note before moving on is how strong the Best Starring Couple group is this season. They all work as pairings in a unique way and, perhaps appropriately, showcase four of the best films of the season.
The Surprises & Snubs:
Surprise: 1965 - The surprises are a bit hard to come by in this season’s GRAs but seeing Meirad Tako’s 1965 pop up in Best Original Story was a pleasant one. Given its cast, crew, and story, this is the type of film that can have a hard time finding a large audience but this nomination clearly shows that it had its supporters.
Snub: Laura Basuki - Speaking of that film, I still think that Basuki’s performance in the film had an outside shot at getting a Best Actress nomination. Part of that is the shallow field but it was also just a good performance. The lack of name recognition likely worked a bit against her given some of the names she is up against.
Surprise: Namor’s Best Picture Nom - This is something that happens from time to time and it always manages to surprise me. I would’ve thought it very possible that this film get nominated in this category heading in but, as the noms were announced, I became skeptical. It is not often that a film misses the acting categories and director categories and still lands in Best Picture but - as I said - it happens here and there.
Snub: The Hulk - On the topic of comic book films, I was surprised to see this miss out entirely. It certainly seems like it was probably the odd-man-out on categories like Sequel, Villain, and perhaps even Ensemble. I, for one, wouldn’t have minded seeing Don Johnson getting recognized or even Mark Duplass over Johnny Depp (but you didn't hear that from me).
Snub: Jacob Jones - It was tough to see Jacob come out of this announcement with no nominations. He released three films this season and none of them bad - although Whammy certainly isn’t for everyone (I thought it had a chance at Soundtrack, for what it’s worth). Given its cast and interesting premise, Kiss Me Katie was probably the most likely to show up somewhere but it was surprising to see it never show up here.
Previous Winners:
Elle Fanning - This Best Actress nominee returns to the category that she first won back in Season 6 for Perfect Blue. That season saw her pair that win with a big box office hit in Made in Abyss - establishing her as a major name to watch. Could this dual-role lead to her cashing in on that bet?
Florence Pugh - Speaking of actresses to watch, this now marks Pugh’s fourth nomination after seven films and her second in the Best Actress category. She previously won for Season 14’s A Lost Sense of Heaven. Could her Ledger award win at the Silver Stars be a precursor here?
Shia LaBeouf - Shia returns to the Best Starring Couple category a season after winning it with Ben Foster for Fractured. He is also nominated for Best Actor for the second season in a row, as well.
Christian Bale - George Washington’s coming home. To the GRAs, that is. Bale won in season 4 for his portrayal of the first president in Delaware and returns now in a much different role. He was also nominated in Season 11 for Radisson. The king of the biographical films, huh?
Best Adaptation - Finally, every nominee in this writing category has won it before. Lon Charles for The Crucible, Chad Taylor for Buried Child, APJ for Alan Wake and Batman: Caped Crusader, and Malone for The Prisoner, To the White Sea, Death Dream, and Torso.
Previous Nominees:
Tom Cruise - Last season around this time, Cruise made his way onto this segment through the newcomers category. His turn in Heights didn’t win him the award but he’s back in the spotlight here with The King of Hearts. It’s fair to say he was the star of the season after starring in the most critically acclaimed and highest grossing films of the season.
Susan Sarandon - In addition to Cruise and LaBeouf, Sarandon is another repeat nominee. Last season, she was nominated for her performance in Revelations.
Hayley Atwell - While yet to have a major starring role at the studio, Atwell is stealthily building up a nice resume at the studio as this marks her third Best Supporting Actress nominee. The other two were for The Killings and Ypsilanti.
Reese Witherspoon - It has been a bit of a beat since Reese was last in a studio film - all the way back in Season 8 with Nevada, Iowa. She was nominated for Best Actress then so this marks her second appearance in that category.
Sam Mendes - Reese was also in Sam Mendes’s first film for the studio - Season 7’s Revolution. He was nominated for Best Director then but lost to Paul Thomas Anderson.
Tom Hanks - This one comes with a bit of an asterisk as Hanks has never been nominated for an individual acting award outside of Best Villain in Season 12’s Cold. This is first shot at one of the big four acting categories.
Rooney Mara - Don’t look now but Rooney now holds the record - at least temporarily - for most nominations without a win at eight. While three of those are Best Starring Couple, she has been nominated twice for Supporting Actress (Sinkhole, But What Am I?) and twice for Best Actress (Survivor, The Crucible). Can she finally break through?
The Newcomers:
The Villains - All four nominees in the Best Villain categories are first time nominees. In the case of Hugh Grant, he has a chance at winning twice as he also landed in Best Supporting Actor.
Holly Hunter & Cheryl Ladd - These two veteran actresses are seeing their first GRA nominations at this ceremony. In the case of Ladd, it is her debut performance for the studio that got her here.
Sebastian Stan - This Best Supporting Actor nominee was last seen at the GRAs in the winning ensemble for Heavy Rain but this marks his first individual nomination.
John Goodman - Somewhat surprisingly, this is Goodman’s first individual nomination at the studio despite having parts in well-liked films like To the Moon, Calamity, and Cape Torment.
Bennett Miller, Christopher McQuarrie, & Guy Ritchie - Outside of Mendes, all three directors are landing their first GRA nominations here in Season 17. This is McQuarrie’s debut film, Ritchie’s third feature, and Miller’s fourth.
Season 18 Preview:
I usually try to end these things with a preview of the next season but, with only the first few rounds announced and a lack of ancillary blog posts from writers, there is not much to go off at the moment. In the first round, we know we have a Chad Taylor-penned comic book film and a surprise sequel to Alex Conn's The Vegan Movie. You would think there is certainly some GRA-potential in the adaptation of Pulitzer Prize-winning Less, particularly for Ewan McGregor. That being said, literary adaptations haven't always translated to big awards contenders here at LRF. We also have some horror and thriller films early on, as well as Ben Affleck's Lowell - which is something to keep your eye on. Beyond that, details are pretty scant on the season although Comic Con should help provide some more insight into the schedule. We have heard from Alex Conn that his masterpiece is coming up in Watch Hill (which is slated for a late round release). He's also announced a film about Columbine which might have awards potential but also seems like something that will be very difficult to pull off tonally. We shall see!
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