Don’t get distracted by big blockbusters like Thor: Ragnarok, Justice League and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The last two months of the year are when Hollywood rushes out all of its prestige pictures, the serious dramas with important messages. You know… the “Oscar Bait.”
November and December are a veritable smorgasbord of ambitious and, often, excellent motion pictures but the sudden deluge of quality (or at least, hopefully quality) films at the end of the year can sometimes overshadow earlier releases that are just as good, if not better. While everyone’s busy talking about the Oscar possibilities for films like The Post, The Phantom Thread and Darkest Hour, they’re actively overlooking films with smaller releases, breakout genre movies and, frankly, sometimes movies that simply came out a while ago and no longer have quite as much buzz.
But if Oscar punditry has any value, it’s that it’s an opportunity to keep the conversation alive for films that aren’t necessarily shoe-ins for big awards. They’re an opportunity to speak, in front of a large audience, to the incredible quality of the unsung movies that deserve a shot, whether or not they have big campaigns.
The Oscars are, if we’re being honest, largely a popularity contest. It’s wrong to only consider the films that are already popular with Academy voters and industry pundits, when we could also be using that power to make deserving films more popular than they already are.
With that in mind, here are fourteen movies that are fading from the awards season conversation, or aren’t a part of it at all, or are being forgotten in certain categories. They’re all fascinating movies, and they all deserve more Oscar buzz.
Fourteen Movies That Deserve More Oscar Buzz:
Top Photos: IFC / 20th Century Fox / Imagination Worldwide
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on Canceled Too Soon and watch him on the weekly YouTube series What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
Oscars 2018: Fourteen Movies That Deserve More Oscar Buzz
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Blade Runner 2049
The critics loved Blade Runner 2049, but audiences stayed away in droves. That might hurt Denis Villeneuve's chances at Hollywood's annual popularity contest, but it would be a shame if the film doesn't get recognition. Nominations in the technical categories - like Best Cinematography, Visual Effects, Production Design and Costume Design - are likely, but the film also deserves buzz for Best Adapted Screenplay, for the seemingly impossible task of telling a satisfying new tale while preserving all the old mysteries, and for Best Supporting Actress, with Ana de Armas giving a performance that has to work on two completely different levels, and which is heartbreaking either way.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie
It hasn't been a particularly great year for animated features, and many expect Pixar's Coco will win over the Academy (which has a soft spot for the studio). But Captain Underpants: The First Epic Movie deserves to be a frontrunner for Best Animated Feature, telling a clever and heartwarming story about childhood friendship and the use of imagination to solve our worst problems. Weird Al Yankovic's incredibly catchy theme song should be a contender for Best Original Song, too.
Photo: 20th Century Fox
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Colossal
Nacho Vigalondo's bizarre, genre-bending Colossal is a story about alcoholism, abuse, and giant monsters, and it's probably a little too weird to be up for most of the major Oscar categories. But surely everyone can agree that Anne Hathaway gives a fantastic performance as a woman who gradually learns the horrifying consequences of her selfish actions, and that she deserves to a serious contender for Best Actress.
Photo: Neon
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Get Out
Jordan Peele's blockbuster, acclaimed horror/thriller Get Out seems like it might break into several major Oscar categories, including Best Original Screenplay and, quite likely, Best Picture and Best Director. But attention should also be paid to the film's astounding cast, particularly Daniel Kaluuya and Allison Williams, who give performances that evolve every single time you see the film. Get Out works one way the first time you see it, and a completely different way the second time, and it wouldn't have that impact without these two actors, who should be serious contenders for Best Actor and either Best Actress or Best Supporting Actress, depending on how the votes went.
Photo: Universal Pictures
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IT
Another acclaimed horror blockbuster, IT, might be a little too broad for the Academy's tastes. They don't reward horror movies very often and when they do, they're usually classy as hell. And yet, IT is classy as hell too, even though it's got a demon clown in it. The impressive adaptation warrants serious consideration for Best Picture (where it has a legitimate shot), but also for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director, Best Visual Effects, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and possibly Best Supporting Actress, for Sophia Lillis' heart-wrenching portrayal of Bev.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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The Light of the Moon
Jessica M. Thompson's understated drama The Light of the Moon is flying under a lot of radar, but it features one of the finest performances of the year. The film deals frankly and intimately with repercussions of sexual violence, dramatizing aspects of the aftermath that aren't usually addressed in cinema. Stephanie Beatriz gives a grounded, conflicted, absorbing performance that should, by all rights, make her a frontrunner for a Best Actress nomination. Let's hope the Academy takes notice.
Photo: Imagination Worldwide
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Logan
It's been a very good year for superhero movies, particularly the inspirational Wonder Woman, which is getting a lot of Oscar buzz, and Logan, which seems to have lost some of its awards season luster, at least partly because it came out way back in March. Fans are hoping for a Best Picture or even Best Actor nomination, but the film probably has the best chance - and may even be most deserving - for Best Supporting Actor. Sir Patrick Stewart gives a powerful yet frail performance as a dying Professor X, looking back on his life with regret, and eagerly taking what little pleasure he can find in the present.
Photo: 20th Century Fox
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My Cousin Rachel
Roger Michell's adaptation of Daphne du Maurier's My Cousin Rachel stars Rachel Weisz as a woman who may or may not have killed her husband, and Sam Claflin as the misogynist who thinks she did it but falls under her spell anyway. It's a fine mystery, and probably a serious contender for the Best Costume Design Oscar, but the film should be remembered first and foremost for Weisz's nuanced, dignified and yet sensual performance. She has to be everything men think she could be, and then much, much more. It's the sort of performance that Best Actress nominations were made for.
Photo: Fox Searchlight
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My Friend Dahmer
Before he was a serial killer, Jeffrey Dahmer was - to the people in his neighborhood - just another kid in school. Marc Meyers' disturbing My Friend Dahmer builds a web of suspense and keeps plucking it, because the audience knows exactly where Dahmer's life is going. In an impressive, breakout performance, Ross Lynch takes what we know about the notorious serial killer and works backwards, twisting himself into an painful knot of pent-up compulsion. It's a performance worthy of Best Actor consideration.
Photo: FilmRise
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Patti Cake$
Rags to riches stories are a dime a dozen, but Patti Cake$ is one of the better recent entries in the genre. Danielle Macdonald gives a superb performance as the title character, a young woman with dreams of rap stardom, but whose deep-seated insecurity stands in her way, and should be part of the Best Actress conversation. And the film's catchy, cleverly written songs are better than a lot of the tunes that have been nominated for Best Original Song lately.
Photo: Fox Searchlight
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Personal Shopper
Olivier Assayas' strange meditation on death is part drama, part horror movie, and altogether probably too unusual for the Academy to embrace it fully. But whether you love it, hate it or simply don't get it, it's clear that Kristen Stewart is giving a truly astounding performance as a young woman reaching out to her dead brother, and finding herself embroiled in other, entirely unexpected, sorts of mysteries.
Photo: IFC
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Professor Marston and the Wonder Women
The story of the creation of Wonder Woman is a strange one, filled with psychology and invention and open marriages and BDSM. Angela Robinson's thoughtful and sensuous Professor Marston and the Wonder Women has some minor narrative issues that might keep it out of the Best Picture race, but the film deserves serious consideration for Best Original Screenplay, and for co-stars Rebecca Hall and Bella Heathcote, who give impressive performances worthy of Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress nominations, respectively.
Photo: Annapurna Pictures
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Raw
Cannibalism movies aren't usually "Oscar Bait" and Raw is not exception... but maybe it should be. If nothing else. Julia Ducournau's visceral and thematically rich exploration of uncontrollable urges features a shocking and unforgettable performance by Garance Marillier as a college student who eats meat for the very first time, and suddenly realizes that she wants more. A lot more. Marillier's performance makes the whole horrible concept seem completely believable. If there was any justice, she'd be a contender for Best Actress.
Photo: Focus World
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Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets had a miscast lead actor, but nobody who actually saw the movie can deny that it's a visual spectacle of the highest order. Luc Besson's impossibly imaginative comic book adaptation features scenes, worlds and aliens the likes of which we've never seen in films before. It may not be worth of Best Picture, but it's certainly worthy of Best Costume Design, Best Production Design and Best Visual Effects. And in the VFX category, it probably deserves to win.
Photo: STX
