2017 Schurmys - Genre Awards

2017 Schurmann Film Awards

Genre Awards

Your Name

Welcome to the Genre portion of the 2017 Schurmann Film Awards. This is where we celebrate the best comedies, science fiction films, action movies, documentaries, short films and many more. You know, the films that normally get overlooked by the typical awards circuit. Appearing in this section certainly doesn't disqualify a film from major awards, I just wanted to specifically highlight great feats of genre filmmaking.

The Disaster Artist

Best Comedy:

Previous Winner - The Nice Guys

Nominees:

1. The Big Sick
2. The Disaster Artist
3. Lady Bird
4. Logan Lucky
5. The Meyerowitz Stories

Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V Gordon's true story is told in The Big Sick through Kumail's signature Pakistani immigrant comedic lens. The Disaster Artist tells the equally crazy true story of Tommy Wiseau and his Hollywood dreams. It's the inspiring true story of how anybody can make their own movie and be a success (as long as they have several million dollars from undisclosed sources of income). The events of Lady Bird are completely fictionalized even if they seem true to life (and maybe Greta Gerwig is a liar) but that doesn't make them any less funny. Relying less on big laughs, instead going to a soft warmth over the entire film, Lady Bird is a phenomenal coming-of-age story of a teenage girl focused on her relationship with her mother. Steven Soderbergh comes out of "retirement" to make a comedic heist caper that even the characters realize is essentially a redneck Ocean's Eleven. Noah Baumbach's caustic tendencies are softened out with The Meyerowitz Stories (I like to think it's a case of Greta Gerwig mellowing him out). He still displays terrible people in caustic familial relationships but now looks for the connections between them and offers healing paths. And it's really funny.

Runner Up - The Meyerowitz Stories

Winner - LADY BIRD

Blade Runner 2049

Best Science Fiction Film:

Previous Winner - Arrival

My Nominees:

1. Alien: Covenant
2. Blade Runner 2049
3. Logan
4. Okja
5. Star Wars: The Last Jedi

2017 was a great year for big science fiction franchise films. Alien: Covenant explored the big questions of the universe and creation through a dark and malevolent God-character. Blade Runner 2049 tackled the nature of humanity and our place in society. Logan pushed the superhero genre into a bold new direction evoking classic western to tell a story of mortality and the sacrifices we make for future generations. The Last Jedi ripped apart the nostalgia grounding the Star Wars saga and pushed the biggest franchise in the world into new and exciting directions. Okja is the outlier (well at least until Netflix makes Okja 2: Superer Pig) but earns its nomination by being the best evocation of 80s era Spielberg filmmaking around.

Runner Up - Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Winner - LOGAN

John Wick: Chapter 2

Best Action Film:

Previous Winner - Green Room

Nominees:

1. Baby Driver
2. John Wick: Chapter 2
3. Logan

Three excellent displays of different action film archetypes here. Baby Driver sets its car chases and shootouts to Edgar Wright's favourite music and the result is and outstanding piece of filmmaking. Keanu Reeves finally makes a great sequel pushing the suave gun fights and smooth martial arts to their extremes in his second go around in John Wick. Logan uses the R rating to make the violence feel, well, violent. The brutality with which Logan dispatches his enemies is not "cool" or "awesome". It is a shudder inducing look at what he is capable of and it makes the insights into his mortality that much more compelling.

Runner Up - Baby Driver

Winner - LOGAN

It Comes at Night

Best Horror Film:

Previous Winner - The Witch

Nominees:

1. Get Out
2. It Comes at Night
3. mother!

Spoilers, the real monsters are people. In Get Out affluent White people are proven to be complete monsters in a social commentary that is an absolute perfect fit for today's society. In the post-apocalyptic It Comes at Night the horrors of humanity exist in what we do for our families. The lengths we will go to protect our loved ones over even the slightest hint of a threat is explored through the genre tropes of a horror film. mother! takes Biblical allegory to the furthest possible extremes turning all of humanity into a carnival side show of horrors curated by a "loving" God. It may not be subtle, but it sure as hell is impressive filmmaking.

Runner Up - mother!

Winner - GET OUT

Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Best Sequel / Remake / Whatever:

Previous Winner - Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Nominees:

1. Blade Runner 2049
2. Logan
3. Star Wars: The Last Jedi

As outlined in the Science Fiction award it was a banner year for blockbuster filmmaking. These three films used their predecessors as launching points to tell mature stories pushing their franchises in bold new directions.

Runner Up - Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Winner - LOGAN

Casting JonBenet

Best Documentary:

Previous Winner - OJ: Made in America

Best Oscar Nominee - Abacus: Small Enough to Jail

Worst Oscar Nominee - Strong Island

Predicted Oscar Winner - Last Men in Aleppo

Nominees:

1. Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
2. Casting JonBenet
3. Long Time Running

Steve James is a master documentarian and while Abacus is nowhere near as good as his best work (Hoop Dreams) that's not really a fair because very little is that good. Abacus is a story about the only bank to be charged in the 2008 financial crisis and how broken and unfair the American system is. Casting JonBenet tells the story of the murder of JonBenet Ramsay through the eyes of the townspeople as they offer their interpretations showing how people strive for answers to the unknowable. Long Time Running is a decently made documentary but it tells an incredible story. And the center of that story is why it is nominated. Gord Downie and his battle with a brain tumor and his desire to give his fans one last tour is enough to make my Canadian heart weep.

Runner Up - Casting JonBenet

Winner - ABACUS: SMALL ENOUGH TO JAIL

Coco

Best Animated Film:

Previous Winner - Kubo and the Two Strings

Best Oscar Nominee - Coco

Worst Oscar Nominee - Loving Vincent (But probably The Boss Baby if I watched that)

Predicted Oscar Winner - Coco

Nominees:

1. Coco
2. The Lego Batman Movie
3. Your Name

Confession time: I didn't love Coco. It was a good Pixar movie marred by stupid animal antics (much like Up, another film I don't love). There was also some cultural significance I probably missed, being a White Canadian. I don't actually love any of these films. 2017 was just a year where I wasn't enamored with the animated offerings (at least not the features). Lego Batman is a fun romp through Gotham City with a crack comedic duo in Will Arnett and Michael Cera that makes the Batman-Joker relationship into something out of romantic comedy. Your Name is a breathtakingly gorgeous anime film about two teenagers connected via cosmic events. It is almost certainly the best looking anime film I've ever seen.

Runner Up - The Lego Batman Movie

Winner - YOUR NAME

The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki

Best Foreign Language Film:

Previous Winner - The Handmaiden

Best Oscar Nominee - The Square

Worst Oscar Nominee - The Square

Predicted Oscar Winner - A Fantastic Woman

Nominees:

1. After the Storm (Japan)
2. The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki (Finland)
3. The Salesman (Iran)
4. The Unknown Girl (Belgium)
5. Your Name (Japan)

A quick note: I'm considering three of the Oscar nominees to be 2018 films (A Fantastic Woman, Loveless and On Body and Soul) and have while I have not seen them yet, I plan on doing so and if I like them you can look for them here next year like The Salesman this year.

Hirokazu Koreeda is a master of small scale family dramas with After the Storm continuing the greatest of Like Father, Like Son and Our Little Sister. He nails the minutiae of familial life through the broken families his films explore and After the Storm is no exception. Olli Maki is an incredibly charming Finnish Rocky story wherein the Rocky character (Olli Maki) cares way more about his Adrian (Raija) that his fight. Asghar Farhadi makes films that feel like adaptations of classic plays. The scale of his filmmaking is small, often limiting the characters and locations, but the ideas are massive. The Salesman peaks in its climax which features two characters and a sparse room in a powerful contained scene. In The Unknown Girl the Dardennes brothers took their usual MO, naturalistic filmmaking surrounding a couple professional actors with amateurs, and crafted a detective story about a doctor trying to find closure in the death of a girl outside her practice. And just like their previous work, it is quietly powerful. Your Name just got praised in the Animated Film category so consider everything said there true here as well.

Runner Up - The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki

Winner - AFTER THE STORM

World of Tomorrow Episode 2: The Burden of Other People's Thoughts

Best Short Film:

Previous Winner - The White Helmets

Best Oscar Nominee (A/L/D) - Negative Space / n/a / Heroin(e)

Worst Oscar Nominee (A/L/D) - Garden Party / n/a / Heaven Is a Traffic Jam on the 405

Predicted Oscar Winner (A/L/D) - Lou / DeKalb Elementary / Traffic Stop

Nominees:

1. And So We Put Goldfish in the Pool
2. Heroin(e)
3. History of the Entire World, I Guess
4. Negative Space
5. World of Tomorrow Episode 2: The Burden of Other People's Thoughts

Let's just get it out of the way right now. The first four nominees are just happy to be here. The first World of Tomorrow is one of my favourite films ever made. So when Don Hertzfeldt announced that he was making a sequel I would have been happy if it was merely half as good as the original. It is not half as good. It is every bit as good. With the first WoT Hertzfeldt explored the future of society and where we are fated to end up. In the second he explored the effects of these societal advancements on the individual in just as profound a manner. He might very well be the best filmmaker working today.

The other four are great films themselves, they just can't really compete with World of Tomorrow 2. Goldfish is a fascinating Japanese short following the story of four high school girls who, ask you can probably guess, end up putting goldfish in a pool. Heroin(e) examines the opioid crisis in rural America through three women involved on the front lines of the epidemic. Bill Wurtz' expansion of his History of Japan video is more informative than high school history showing the development of human history from the beginning of time in and a breezy and entertaining manner. Negative Space is a fantastic short about the nature of packing suitcases that builds to an absolutely amazing final line.

Runner Up - And So We Put Goldfish in the Pool

Winner - WORLD OF TOMORROW EPISODE 2: THE BURDEN OF OTHER PEOPLE'S THOUGHTS

The House

Best Performance in a Bad Movie:

Previous Winner - Kate McKinnon - Ghostbusters

Nominees:

1. Zazie Beetz - Geostorm
2. Bridget Everett - Little Evil
3. Woody Harrelson - The Glass Castle
4. Jason Mantzoukas - The House
5. LaKeith Stanfield - Death Note

Zazie Beetz plays the nerdy tech helper role in Geostorm and is literally the only good thing in the movie. By some miracle she is engaging in the role, she is truly an actress to watch (more evidence, Atlanta). Bridget Everett takes the raunchy friend role in Little Evil and absolutely kills it. Little Evil isn't sure how exactly to balance its comedy and horror elements but Everett is good for laughs just about every time she shows up. Woody Harrelson had a pretty good year. Three Billboards, War for the Planet of the Apes, and The Glass Castle. A very disappointing follow up to Short Term 12 from Destin Daniel Cretton, The Glass Castle tells the story of how Woody Harrelson's fucked up parenting fucked up Brie Larson (except it totally didn't, spoilers, she's 100% fine and happy as an adult). Does Jason Mantzoukas know how to not be funny? I don't think he does. Even in a bad Will Ferrell comedy he is hilarious. When I first heard about Death Note basically all I knew was that is was an anime adaptation and that LaKeith Stanfield was in it. Naturally I just assumed he was the star (I was so terrible wrong) but while not the lead he does do the best worst in a film that has no idea what it wants to be tonally.

Runner Up - LaKeith Stanfield - Death Note

Winner - JASON MANTZOUKAS - THE HOUSE

The Lego Batman Movie

Best Voice Over Performance:

Previous Winner - Charlize Theron - Kubo and the Two Strings

Nominees:

1. Will Arnett - The Lego Batman Movie
2. Michael Cera - The Lego Batman Movie
3. Gael Garcia Bernal - Coco
4. Mone Kamishiraishi - Your Name
5. Saoirse Ronan - Loving Vincent

An easy way into my heart is reuniting two cast members from one of my favourite television shows. Finding Dory did it in minor roles with Idris Elba and Dominic West and while that was fun, The Lego Batman Movie decided to pair Arrested Development alums Will Arnett and Michael Cera together in starring roles for an entire film. More George Michael and GOB please. I can't get enough of these two together.

Runner Up - Michael Cera - The Lego Batman Movie

Winner - WILL ARNETT - THE LEGO BATMAN MOVIE

Logan Lucky

Best Comedic Performance:

Previous Winner - Ryan Gosling - The Nice Guys

Nominees:

1. Will Arnett - The Lego Batman Movie
2. Daniel Craig - Logan Lucky
3. James Franco - The Disaster Artist
4. Tiffany Haddish - Girls Trip
5. Paul Walter Hauser - I, Tonya

This is an award more for the funniest performance than the best performance in a comedy. Otherwise you'd see people like Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metacalf and Holly Hunter on the list. Instead it is these five who made me laugh the most. Will Arnett solidifies his position as my favourite Batman simply by making the Caped Crusader an entitled dick. Daniel Craig earned his spot here with his enunciation of "Incarcerated". Also with his explosives hijinx. James Franco does a perfect imitation of Tommy Wiseau capturing all of his weird mannerisms (that laugh, oh god that laugh) in one of the best performances of the year. Tiffany Haddish attacked everything with a raw energy and was easily the best part of the ensemble of Girls Trip. Hauser steals the movie from some very good actors with his bumbling body guard performance.

Runner Up - Tiffany Haddish - Girls Trip

Winner - JAMES FRANCO - THE DISASTER ARTIST

After the Storm

Best Performance in a Foreign Language Film:

Previous Winner - Isabelle Huppert - Elle

Nominees:

1. Hiroshi Abe - After the Storm
2. Adele Haenel - The Unknown Girl
3. Eili Harboe - Thelma
4. Shahab Hosseini - The Salesman
5. Jarkko Lahti - The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki

Hiroshi Abe shines as a struggling father just trying to do right by his son in After the Storm showcasing all the warmth and humanity that is buried inside of him. Adele Haenel is powerfully resilient trying to find the identity of a murdered girl solely to ease her conscience in The Unknown Girl. In Thelma, Eili Harboe's coming-of-age journey gets a supernatural twist but she sells the confusion of growing up wonderfully. Shahab Hosseini is just masterful in The Salesman, portraying his quest for vengeance with a full allotment of raw humility. Jarkko Lahti is just charming as a boxer training for the biggest fight of his life who cannot stop thinking about the love of his life in Olli Maki. A small note that technically this award will only go to performances in a foreign language so Elisabeth Moss' work in The Square is ineligible.

Runner Up - Hiroshi Abe - After the Storm

Winner - ADELE HAENEL - THE UNKNOWN GIRL

The Square

Best Cameo of Bit Part Performance:
Previous Winner - Margaret Bowman - Hell or High Water
Nominees:

1. Bryan Cranston - The Disaster Artist
2. Russell Crowe - War Machine
3. Terry Notary - The Square
4. Peter Serafinowicz - John Wick: Chapter 2
5. Samara Weaving - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Of all the celebrities who make appearances in The Disaster Artist playing either themselves or characters in Tommy Wiseau's life, none of the cameos were more memorable than Bryan Cranston's. Honestly, it might be my favourite post-Breaking Bad role of his. Russell Crowe appears right at the end of War Machine as literally the only great thing in the overall very disappointing movie. Terry Notary gives one of the best physical performances of the year torturing a bunch of high class socialites at a fancy dinner in an art museum. Peter Serafinowicz brings a necessary level of class to his role, outfitting John Wick will all the murder supplies he will need. Samara Weaving gets about 5 lines in Three Billboards but she makes them all count, turning her nothing role into a scene stealing turn.

Runner Up - Samara Weaving - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Winner - TERRY NOTARY - THE SQUARE

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Ensemble Performance:

Previous Winner - Moonlight

Nominees:

1. LADY BIRD - Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, Tracy Letts, Lucas Hedges, Timothee Chalamet, Beanie Feldstein, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Lois Smith, Jordan Rodrigues
2. THE MEYEROWITZ STORIES - Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Dustin Hoffman, Elizabeth Marvel, Emma Thompson, Grace Van Patten, Candice Bergen
3. THE POST - Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Sarah Paulson, Bob Odenkirk, Tracy Letts, Bradley Whitford, Bruce Greenwood, Matthew Rhys, Alison Brie, Carrie Coon, Jesse Plemons, David Cross, Michael Stuhlbarg, Zach Woods
4. THE SHAPE OF WATER - Sally Hawkins, Richard Jenkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon, Michael Stuhlbarg, Nick Searcy, David Hewlett, Doug Jones
5. THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI - Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, Woody Harrelson, Caleb Landry Jones, Kerry Condon, Abbie Cornish, Lucas Hedges, Zeljko Ivanek, Peter Dinklage, John Hawkes, Samara Weaving, Clarke Peters, Darrell Britt-Gibson

Ronan and Metcalf are getting the awards love for Lady Bird but the cast of that film is just incredibly deep. Lady Bird's life is populated with living, breathing people and credit has to go to all the actors and actresses who brought life to these roles. The Meyerowitz Stories presents a fractured family trying valiantly to come together and every actor plays their role remarkably well. The Post surrounded Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks with seemingly every acclaimed television actor (shows represented include Better Call Saul, American Horror Story, The West Wing, The Americans, Community, The Leftovers, Friday Night Lights, Arrested Development and Silicon Valley among others) which made giving life to the supporting cast an incredibly easy job for Spielberg. The Shape of Water works so well because Guillermo del Toro is a master of genre filmmaking and the cast works so well as the glue holding all the different threads of the movie together. A special shoutout to Doug Jones as the Fish Man for making his character the most lovable of all of Guillermo del Toro's monsters. Three Billboards has a remarkable cast. The supporting actors all feel perfect in their roles and come together to make Ebbing feel like a real small town in Missouri.

Runner Up - Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Winner - THE SHAPE OF WATER

Call Me By Your Name

Breakthrough Actor:

Previous Winner - Alden Ehrenreich - Hail, Caesar!

Nominees:

1. Timothee Chalamet - Call Me By Your Name
2. Paul Walter Hauser - I, Tonya
3. Fionn Whitehead - Dunkirk

Timothee Chalamet broke out in a big way this year, not only with his incredible performance in Call Me By Your Name but also in Lady Bird. Two different characters, two incredible performances. His work in Call Me By Your Name gets the nod here. It is simply one of the best performances of a teenager ever committed to film. Hauser comes out of nowhere to absolutely steal I, Tonya. He is just consistently hilarious as the bumbling body guard who takes the attack on Nancy Kerrigan into his own hands. Just a stellar bumbling idiot. By design it is hard for an individual actor to stand out in Dunkirk (though Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy and Cillian Murphy certainly do) but Fionn Whitehead rises up and grabs out attention in the closest thing the film has to a leading role. He brings life to the soldiers trapped on the beaches.

Runner Up - Paul Walter Hauser - I, Tonya

Winner - TIMOTHEE CHALAMET - CALL ME BY YOUR NAME

Girls Trip

Breakthrough Actress:

Previous Winner - Lily Gladstone - Certain Women

Nominees:

1. Tiffany Haddish - Girls Trip
2. Brooklynn Prince - The Florida Project
3. Florence Pugh - Lady Macbeth

Tiffany Haddish deserved a mainstream breakout like Melissa McCarthy got after Bridesmaids for her work in Girls Trip. Everything she does in the movie is hilarious and she singlehandedly makes the film work. Brooklynn Prince delivered an all-time great child performance in The Florida Project. Moonee could easily have been a grating, annoying child but Prince, with Sean Baker's deft direction, brought out her warmth. Florence Pugh is a revelation as the manipulative, vindictive woman at the center of Lady Macbeth. It is not a Macbeth adaptation but it captures the spirit of the title character perfectly.

Runner Up - Brooklynn Prince - The Florida Project

Winner - TIFFANY HADDISH - GIRLS TRIP

Ingrid Goes West

Best Directorial Debut:

Previous Winner - Robert Eggers - The Witch

Nominees:

1. Kogonada - Columbus
2. Jordan Peele - Get Out
3. Matt Spicer - Ingrid Goes West

Let's just start by acknowledging that Greta Gerwig technically doesn't qualify for this award as she co-directed a film called Nights and Weekends with Joe Swanberg in 2008. With that out of the way it makes selecting this award very easy. Nothing against Columbus and Ingrid Goes West, those are fine films, but Get Out is one of the absolute best films of the year. Kogonada's Before Sunrise-inspired film about two souls drifting together in the architecture of Columbus, Indiana is a quietly powerful film. Matt Spicer's Ingrid Goes West is a delightfully dark satire on the social media obsessed featuring incredible performances up and down its cast.

Runner Up - Kogonada - Columbus

Winner - JORDAN PEELE - GET OUT

Logan

I'm a Man, Damnit Award

Previous Winner - Manchester By the Sea

Nominees:

1. Call Me By Your Name
2. A Ghost Story
3. Logan

The last 20 minutes of Call Me By Your Name are heartbreaking. Just an absolutely perfect way to bring the story to a close. A Ghost Story is frequently, profoundly sad as it examines grief in the micro and the macro. The ending of Logan physically shook me. I was blindsided by how monumental it felt. An absolute gut punch that, while it feels like it, certainly doesn't come out of nowhere. It is where the film had been building to but that doesn't make it any less powerful. When I created this award I never thought a superhero movie would win it.

Runner Up - Call Me By Your Name

Winner - LOGAN

Song to Song

WTF Masterpiece Award

Previous Winner - The Handmaiden

Nominees:

1. A Ghost Story
2. The Lure
3. mother!

Quick note: I'm not considering either Get Out or The Shape of Water for this category because while they do seem weird, they are at heart basic versions of horror film and fairy tales respectively, just in fancy new skins.

A Ghost Story is a film in which Casey Affleck spends most of the runtime under a white sheet. It's also a profound meditation on the nature of grief and time and our place in the universe. It plays with time, skipping centuries with cuts and holding on specific moments, drawing them out and letting us wallow in them. The Lure is your standard goth, coming-of-age musical about two singing strippers trying to overcome forbidden love with violent consequences. Oh, and they're mermaids. mother! is EVERYTHING the movie. Biblical allegory, examination of the relationship between artist and muse, study of the depravity of humankind, environmental message movie, or just an excuse to make Jennifer Lawrence worry about the bracing of a sink. I still can't believe some studio let Darren Aronofsky make this. I loved it but holy shit, it is a crazy movie.

Runner Up - mother!

Winner - A GHOST STORY

And that's it for the Genre Awards. Be sure to come back tomorrow for Worst Awards. Get ready for The Book of Henry and Bright and The Snowman but oddly no It despite how much I hated it I found so many more terrible movies.

Genre Award Stats:
Number of Nominated Films: 52
Film With the Most Nominations - TIE: The Lego Batman Movie, Logan - 4
Films With Multiple Nominations:
4 - The Lego Batman Movie, Logan, 3 - The Disaster Artist, Your Name, 2 - After the Storm, Blade Runer 2049, Call Me By Your Name, Coco, Get Out, A Ghost Story, The Happiest Day in the Life of Olli Maki, I Tonya, John Wick: Chapter 2, Lady Bird, Logan Lucky, The Meyerowitz Stories, mother!, The Salesman, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri, The Unknown Girl
Number of Winning Films: 14
Film With the Most Wins - Logan - 4
Films With Multiple Wins:
4 - Logan, 2 - Get Out

A Ghost Story