If only this Oscar could go to...
Not all memorable acting from 2017 will be honored in Hollywood tonight
Maybe it’s time to add some fresh categories to the Oscar race. Because as exciting as best actor and director are, they tend to reward a small sliver of movies. If you were to hand out an award for, say, the best motion capture performance or most inspired use of food products, things might get a little more interesting.
Here’s a look at a wish list of new awards, plus 2017’s imaginary front-runners.
Best opening-credit sequence “Baby Driver”
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” “Split” “Wormwood” Front-runner: “Split’s” fragmented title sequence cleverly hints at the villain’s multiple personalities, and “Baby Driver” has an im- peccably choreographed coffee run set to “Harlem Shuffle”; “Wormwood” – the Netflix docu-series that also got a theatrical release as a movie – has a dreamy depiction of a man falling in slow motion from a hotel window. But nothing can compete with the title credits of the second “Guardians of the Galaxy.” Not only does it boast the jolly, toe-tapping strains of Electric Light Orchestra’s “Mr. Blue Sky,” but it comically zeroes in on an adorable dancing Baby Groot while a kinetic battle between the rest of the gang and a huge monster is relegated to the background.
Best motion-capture performance
Andy Serkis, “War for the Planet of the Apes”
Dan Stevens, “Beauty and the Beast” Taika Waititi, “Thor: Ragnarok” Terry Notary, “Kong: Skull Island” Front-runner: It’s frustrating that actors known for motion capture never seem to get the awards they deserve, simply because their
performance is covered up with a patina of technology. If life were fair, Andy Serkis would be up for a best actor Oscar for his soulful performance as Caesar in “War for the Planet of the Apes.” His work was so moving, he made the audience root against the humans and hope that primates would inherit the Earth.