Thoughts from the Usher Podium: 2017 Laggys (Results)

And now it is time to announce the winners of the 2017 Laggys. As explained before, the Laggys are the Academy Awards set on a five-year lag. The idea is with a little bit of time elapsed, we all have a real chance to truly drink in all those fabulous movies from 2012. Additionally we also have the ability to take another look at flicks we have seen with fresh eyes and ferret out which ones had either too much or too little hype behind them.

This year was an interesting year for the Laggys. A lot of otherwise stately and competent Academy Award winners and nominees were left out almost entirely (Anna Karenina, Les Miserables Amour) while a couple of great genre movies that were overlooked at the time got surprise recognition (Cabin in the Woods, End of Watch, Dredd). While it's refreshing to see such a difference five years can make, there can only be one winner in the ten categories we have. So without further adieu, here are the results of this year's poll/award!

Best Original Score

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - Howard Shore

While this year the selection committee gave special shout out to Luis Bacalov for Django Unchained and Alexandre Desplat for Moonrise Kingdom (who was actually nominated at the Oscars for Argo), the Laggy this year ultimately goes to Howard Shore for his epic scoring of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. Note this was The Hobbit's only nomination.

Best Animated Movie

Wreck-It Ralph

Feeling a bit sour about this one...

While the Academy awarded the prize five years ago to Pixar's Brave, this year's voters decided the hyper-colorful Wreck-It Ralph deserved the prize. Personally, I think the fact Wreck-It Ralph won is just evidence that more people need to see Wolf Children, but that's just me (sips tea).

Best Adapted Screenplay

Silver Linings Playbook - David O. Russell : Novel by Matthew Quick

This year in the Adapted Screenplay category saw surprise nominees The Avengers and The Perks of Being a Wallflower being added to a list that included obvious shoe-ins Lincoln and Life of Pi. The ultimate prize however goes to the frenetic mental-health dramedy Silver Linings Playbook Written by its director David O. Russell and adapted by the novel by Matthew Quick.

Best Original Screenplay

Django Unchained - Quentin Tarantino

The Academy five years ago award Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino's vengeful neo-western, the top prize in the same category. Obviously the movie aged well, because Laggy voters thought it still deserved the prize all these years later.

Best Supporting Actress

Amy Adams – The Master

The Supporting Actress Award came as a bit of a surprise but upon reflection makes a boatload of sense. Five years ago Anne Hathaway lobbied her way into Oscar history but as anyone who saw The Master knows, Amy Adams was the only real choice. I suppose this makes up for the snub at the Oscars this year which didn't even nominate her for Arrival (2016). The heck Academy!

Best Supporting Actor

Leonardo DiCaprio – Django Unchained

Okay this one was genuinely a surprise. Leonardo DiCaprio beating out Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained? I'm thinking we're seeing a little reverse hype since it's common knowledge the blonde blue-eyed hunk-toad of What's Eating Gilbert Grape (1993) didn't win an actual Oscar until The Revenant (2015). Oh well, maybe when that movie makes it to the chopping block we'll pass over DiCaprio to give the prize to Jamie Dornan for 50 Shades (2015)!

Best Actress

Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook

Ugh, Silver Linings Playbook. Why have people not realized how frightfully average this movie is? Especially in the face of so many other films that have approached the same themes with, you know, subtlety. Oh well, Jennfer Lawrence was good in it I guess...not Greta Gerwig good but still...good.

Best Actor

Daniel Day-Lewis – Lincoln

I mean, was this one really even up for grabs? It really should have had only one nominee but for the sake of sport, we let Jake Gyllenhaal come out and play for a while. Oh Daniel Day-Lewis, is there nothing you can't do?

Best Director

Quentin Tarantino – Django Unchained

 As I recall, the Academy pitched the match-up in this category as pitting the technical wizardry of Ang Lee's Life of Pi, with the subtler prowess of an aging Steven Spielberg for Lincoln. Laggy voters however agreed (quite overwhelmingly) that Tarantino should get the prize. A prize he wasn't even nominated for back in 2013.

Best Picture

Django Unchained

Wow, absolutely no love for Argo, the actual winner of 2013's Academy Award ceremony. Sure it was nominated for a few things in the Laggys (Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor) but voters decided that the top prize should be given in perpetuity to Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained. As I recall at the actual ceremony, Tarantino looked like he was hopped up on enough cocaine to kill a horse, so imagining him walking up to accept Best Original Screenplay, Director and Best Picture) might have actually killed him. Congratulations Laggy voters, you hypothetically killed Quentin Tarantino!

Thanks a lot guys!