5 Ways to Recap the Critics' Choice Awards
By George Rose
January 15, 2018
BoxOfficeProphets.com
With that being said, Big Little Lies, The Handmaiden’s Tale and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel continue to hog the TV remote and that’s great for them. Everyone tell TV how pretty they are. Ok, good, moving on to movies. The Globes cast the wide net that ends up giving recognition to about ten films, actors and actresses, and supporting players. There’s a lot and, really, it’s just meant to give a broad idea of what films we should start watching out for. We learned the best Oscar bet at the moment is Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (four Globe wins), while The Shape of Water and Lady Bird are proving to be its biggest threats (two Globes each). Besides those three films, anything is anyone’s guess at the moment.
Though Oscars are too hard to predict as far out as the Globes and the real mid-level awards shows worth watching have “Guild” in the name (Screen Actors Guild, Directors Guild Association, Writer’s Guild, etc.), there are still some small ones that matter along the way. Well, they don’t really matter but they’re super fun, and they help heighten the tension between now and the Hollywood Super Bowl. While there’s no “Guild” in the CCA’s it is the first one to come after after the Globes and shake things up. As the Guild-less bastard of the awards bunch that appears on a network for awkward teenagers (The CW), I imagine many of you don’t watch this particular award show. For you, my friends, here are 5 Ways to Recap the CCA’s.
#1) THE (SAME) SHAPE OF VICTORY
Winning a Golden Globe doesn’t count for much, not because it’s a meaningless award but because it’s the first to be handed out. Nothing is set in stone and one early win doesn’t mean much. It’s the late-victories and multi-wins that matter. It’s too early to talk about dark horses so for now we’ll focus on the few that are the first to claim double victories with a Globe and CCA:
Score (Shape of Water), Foreign Language (In the Fade), Animated (Coco), Supporting Actress (Allison Janney in I, Tonya), Supporting Actor (Sam Rockwell in Three Billboards), Director (Guillermo del Toro for Shape of Water), Actor - Comedy (James Franco in Disaster Artist), Actor (Gary Oldman in Darkest Hour), and Actress (Frances McDormand in Three Billboards).
So here’s the things about awards season: while you can easily differentiate movies from TV (unless you’re talking about Best TV Movie or Limited Series, but I digress), it’s not always easy differentiating between comedy and drama. The Globes lump comedy and musicals together, and put drama in its own corner. The CCA’s don’t differentiate between the two. Instead, they have a category for Best Picture but then also Best Action Movie, Best Comedy Movie, and Best Sci-Fi or Horror Movie. This would all be well and good if these categories were treated like a math problem with simple rules in place to help ensure everything makes sense.
#2) NOBODY PANICS WHEN AWARDS GO ACCORDING TO PLAN
You know, like if A equals B, and B equals C, then A equals C. Basic rules that should be obvious but, for some, clearly need to be written down. If a movie wins Best Picture and is also nominated for a sub-Best Picture like Comedy or Action, it should DEFINITELY win the lesser award. I mean, right? Am I totally Bat-shit crazy for thinking the plan should be to make sense?
First of all, the they don’t show all the winners so you’d only notice how insane the CCA’s are if you looked the complete list of winners/nominees online and made the connection yourself. We don’t get to see an award handed out or nominees for Best Sci-Fi or Horror Movie, but we are made aware that the winner is Get Out. Ok, cool, right? That movie deserves awards attention and it’s nice to see it win something. Later on, the ten nominees are listed for Best Picture and one of them is Get Out. Wow, that’s really cool! A Sci-Fi/Horror film has the ability to be a Best Picture nominee and that’s pretty incredible. As great as that is, the Best Picture winner ends up being… drumroll please… THE SHAPE OF WATER! Holy crap, it beat out Three Billboards which won Best Picture at the Globes. It would seem the Oscar race is heating up.
Except, if you double check the winner/nominee list online Shape of Water was a nominee for Best Sci-Fi or Horror Film. How did it lose the lesser and win Best Picture? For a second there I thought Shape of Water’s Best Picture win meant there was a chink in Three Billboards armor but if the CCA’s can’t make simple math work within themselves then how could anything they do actually help predict the Oscars. The CCA’s hurt their own credibility. Maybe the win for Shape of Water DOESN’T hurt Three Billboards chances. Then why do they still feel smaller?
#3) WITH GREAT VICTORY COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY
Even though winning a CCA now means nothing to me, that doesn’t mean the things that happen at the CCA’s don’t still have an effect on possibly winning an Oscar. So in the one hand, yes, Shape of Water beat out Three Billboards at the CCA’s and deep down I know that actually does mean something. But, let’s say it doesn’t. Maybe nobody cares the CCA’s didn’t recognize Three Billboards as Best Picture and it’s destined to still win the Oscar. Or maybe, just maybe, the reason Three Billboards eventually loses the Oscar for Best Picture is because both Sam Rockwell AND Frances McDormand decided not to show up to the CCA’s to claim their prize. The chances of one celebrity missing an award show, especially one they are destined to win at, are actually possible. It happens. What doesn’t happen a lot is having two stars from the same movie win an award and neither winner is present.
It’s a bad look for Three Billboards. Losing the CCA Best Picture trophy just makes the race more fun but skipping out on the party when there’s still winners within that losing movie seems like a bad decision in my mind, especially since they said Rockwell’s absence was due to appearing on Saturday Night Live. Really? SNL isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Chances to claim a victory at the CCA’s are hard to come by and, unfortunately, some Academy members (like my future self) might hold this disregard against Three Billboards later. Luckily, they also won the CCA for Best Acting Ensemble. This reinforces the inevitable Rockwell/McDormand Oscar wins but hurts Billboards where it matters most. They lost the CCA for Picture and Original Screenplay, and I fear the shade cast by these actors will loom over Ebbing, Missouri.
#4) WHO RUN THE WORLD? GIRLS!
One of the joys of these lesser awards shows is that they offer chances to celebrate some of the great movies out there that might be too “super” for some Academy voters to give an Oscar to. Right now there are two movies that received wonderful acclaim throughout 2017 but aren’t your usual awards-worthy fare. Those movies are Wonder Woman and Get Out. Superheroes and horror movies aren’t the kinds of movies that win Oscars. They were, however, among the best reviewed movies of the year. They do even stand a chance at receiving Oscar nominations for Best Picture, though I don’t see either claiming the prize. Get Out did surprisingly win CCA’s for Best Sci-Fi/Horror Movie (over Shape of Water) and Original Screenplay (over heavyweights like Shape of Water, Three Billboards, Lady Bird and Big Sick). Seriously, that’s huge for scoring itself a Oscar-nod for Best Picture. But neither award was given during the live broadcast. No great Jordan Peele acceptance speech. Maybe that’ll come at the WGA/DGA.
For now, what was showcased at the CCA’s was Wonder Woman’s Best Action Movie win (the film’s FEMALE director Patty Jenkins giving a great speech) and the special, honorary SeeHer award (given by Patty Jenkins to Gal Gadot, aka Wonder Woman). While both speeches were powerful and contributed to the equal rights cause of the moment, they may not be helpful towards the Oscars. Gal Gadot won’t be nominated for Best Actress for an honorary award win at the CCA’s. Wonder Woman may have to settle for an “all-inclusive” nomination, either Best Picture or Director. I don’t see both happening, and I don’t see either win happening. For now, being given a huge chunk of the tiny two-hour CCA runtime might end up its biggest victory.
#5) DRAMATIC ACTORS REIGN OVER COMEDIANS
At the Globes the acting awards for Drama went to Gary Oldman and Frances McDormand, while the comedy awards went to James Franco and Saoirse Ronan (Lady Bird). Since the CCA’s don’t differentiate between drama and comedy, all were nominated in the Best Acting category. Again, Oldman and McDormand won, helping both eventually win over Franco and Ronan at the Oscars. Further helping this become fact is the CCA award for Best Actress in Comedy did not go to nominee Ronan but rather to Margot Robbie for I, Tonya. Though Franco did win the Comedic Acting CCA, he recently followed up his Globe win with sexual misconduct allegations. Win aside, his chances for an Oscar nomination have slimmed. Drama wins.