In most other years, the answer to this question — if a major studio, superhero blockbuster could be a major Oscar contender — would be easy to answer. No, of course not. The Academy is a notoriously conservative branch of the film community who generally prefers slowly paced, deeply considered dramas set in the real world. They couldn’t possibly care any less about the latest Hollywood money-making spectacle outside of a few minor, throwaway technical awards.
But today’s Academy voters are not the same ones who shut The Dark Knight — what many people still consider to be the best movie of its kind — out of the best picture race. In fact, the entire Best Picture Category was completely revamped in order to accommodate the outrage that a lot of people felt when that truly deserving, but decidedly off-brand, film failed to make it into the tight, 5-nominee race in that category. Now, upwards of ten movies are considered for the title of Best Picture, which has allowed a lot of normally impossible contenders — from Toy Story 3 to Mad Max: Fury Road — to make it into the category in recent years.
As for the voters, their composition has changed dramatically since the #OscarsSoWhite controversy from several years ago. Over two consecutive years, a number of incredible, deserving films were shut out from the major Oscar races, seemingly for no other reason than they were made by minority filmmakers or focused on predominantly non-White stories.
To combat their newfound image as the stuffy “good old boys” chewing cigars in a smoky back room while keeping a new and increasingly colorful class of filmmaker from competing with the old guards of traditional Hollywood filmmaking, the Academy dramatically changed the composition of their membership. Retired filmmakers — many of whom hadn’t worked in the industry for decades — were quietly retired as voting members, while an expansive new class of voters were inducted across the Academy’s various branches.
This meant that while there were still steadfastly “white” films like La La Land and Manchester by the Sea, you saw a dramatically different class of film that, under the old Academy, would never have seen the light of day: from the India-set Lion to black-centered dramas like Fences and Hidden Figures. The film eventually crowned “Best Picture” ended up being Moonlight: a bold portrayal of a black man coming to terms with his homosexuality while growing up on the tough streets of Liberty City.
Banking on the idea that the new Academy voters — which are younger and more diverse than they have ever been — will gravitate toward their film with just a little prompting, Fox has already sent screeners of Logan to Academy voters: the first film of the year to do so. Like Warner Bros with Wonder Woman, Fox plans on a full-blown Oscar campaign, hoping to transform the film’s critical and box office success into tangible wins at the next Academy Award ceremony.
So their move isn’t crazy: or, rather, it’s not nearly as crazy as it would have been just a decade — even five years — prior. It’s commanding 93% on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes — which awards percentages based on the number critics who gave the film a positive review — puts it at or ahead other would-be Oscar contenders for this year. It’s in a dead heat with Dunkirk and Baby Driver and is ahead of movies like Wonder Woman and Detroit. With the sole exception of Wonder Woman, Logan easily outgrosses all its would-be competitors: proving to have more staying power with audiences than nearly any other movie released during the year.
And, in truth, it really is simply one of the best movies of the year: handily eclipsing any “Oscar bait” currently in release. Its story is deep and timely. Its performances are soul-rendingly real. Its action is superb and it flips everything that we’ve come to expect about Hollywood superheroes on its head. If not Logan, than what?
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