5 genre performances that deserve better from the Oscars and in awards season

This year’s Oscar nominations gave us plenty to celebrate. However, we can’t help but lament the continued lack of recognition for actors in genre movies.

Hear the champagne bottles popping? Yesterday, should’ve-been-contenders Andy Serkis and Tiffany Haddish announced the latest crop of Oscar nominees in a live-streamed ceremony. Predictably, Guillermo del Toro’s visually sumptuous fairy tale The Shape of Water led with 13 nominations, followed by Dunkirk with eight and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri with seven.

Overall, it’s a satisfying list, mixing fresh voices (Peele, Gerwig) with respected veterans (del Toro, Christopher Nolan, Anderson). Really, in a year when Rachel Morrison makes history as the first-ever nominated female cinematographer, complaining just seems greedy.

But we’ll do it anyway. After the announcement, critic Matt Zoller Seitz tweeted a thread that touches on a perennial grievance of mine: Oscar voters’ disregard for genre movies, particularly in the acting categories. (The term “genre movie” is hazy, but in this case, I’ll define it as action, science-fiction/fantasy, and horror.) While the expansion of Best Picture has led to nominations for several films that probably would have been ignored before (e.g. Inception, Mad Max: Fury Road), the performers in these films continue to go unrecognized. As Seitz says, they tend not to draw attention to themselves, relying less on emotional range than presence. It’s easy to dismiss their work as less difficult or “serious” than that of someone who gets to recite grand speeches or cry a lot.

With his nod for Get Out, Daniel Kaluuya becomes the first actor from a horror film to receive the honor since Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins for The Silence of the Lambs. Needless to say, we are delighted to see him included in the drama-heavy category. Still, why should we settle for just one? 2017 was stellar for genre movies, both big-budget and art house, and they contained some of the year’s most compelling performances. Here are five that we wish got more attention:

Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman)

Maybe it’s silly to feel bad for a franchise movie that grossed $800 million at the box office. You know what’s sillier? One of the year’s most beloved and influential movies getting precisely zero Oscar nominations. To compare, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, which was generally well-liked but forgettable, at least got in for visual effects.

Of all the nominations Wonder Woman didn’t get, its absence in Best Actress stings most. In the wrong hands, Diana Prince would’ve been bland and one-dimensional — a Mary Sue or, worse, a male fantasy. But Gadot balances her various seemingly incompatible qualities with the deftness of an Amazonian warrior deflecting bullets, by turns naïve and perceptive, fierce and empathetic, carefree and stern. She lends “Diana as inspiring symbol” and “Diana as relatable human” equal credibility, displaying the charisma of a movie star and the subtlety of an actor. This is one of the best superhero performances of all time.

Andy Serkis (War for the Planet of the Apes)

In War for the Planet of the Apes, Serkis plays Caesar, an ape gifted with unnatural intelligence, as a Jesus-like martyr, silently suffering for the sins of people. Seriously, if that doesn’t convince the Oscars that acting using motion-capture technology is “real” acting, what will? Yes, Caesar’s expressiveness owes a lot to dazzling visual effects, but so does Gary Oldman’s ability to portray Winston Churchill.

Also, no disrespect to Woody Harrelson’s performance in Three Billboards, but his performance here as the Kurtz-like Colonel is better. Like, there’s one scene where he dramatically shaves his already-bald head, and he makes it seem totally natural.

Also, not to be hyperbolic, but War for the Planet of the Apes is a stone-cold future classic, and it should have more Oscar nominations than Kong: Skull Island.

Mark Hamill (Star Wars: The Last Jedi)

Honestly, I could name almost any cast member from The Last Jedi and feel confident in my choice. Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver make the Rey/Kylo Ren relationship mesmerizing instead of off-putting. Kelly Marie Tran? Her enthusiasm is infectious and kind of badass. Laura Dern? She redeems Holdo’s whole storyline with a few seconds of tearful eye-acting. Benicio del Toro? Sure, why not?

Still, my heart belongs to Hamill. From the final shots of The Force Awakens, he sold me on Luke’s transformation from a dorky, earnest farm boy into a reclusive man consumed with cynicism and guilt. His weathered face and clouded eyes speak volumes about an unseen history, illustrating how experience and natural age lend performances depth that can’t be faked. At the same time, he retains a sharp sense of humor, lacing his dialogue with sarcasm. Does Sam Rockwell have to drink green milk while keeping a straight face in Three Billboards? I don’t think so.

Michelle Pfeiffer (mother!)

Take a seat, Ryan Murphy. If there’s any white man in Hollywood who excels at getting fun performances from older actresses, it’s Darren Aronofsky. Barbara Hershey made the controlling stage mom trope feel terrifyingly fresh in Black Swan. And Pfeiffer steals mother! from Jennifer Lawrence (who, by the way, does her best work in years, contrary to what the Razzies say). I still couldn’t explain exactly who her character is or what she’s doing, but it doesn’t matter. Pfeiffer uses the film’s enigmatic nature to her advantage, distancing us with a gaze that’s simultaneously ice-cold and seductive. Rarely has scenery tasted so delicious.

It Comes at Night ensemble

I would say it’s Get Out’s fault that It Comes at Night flew so far under the radar, but I doubt Trey Edward Shults’s apocalyptic thriller would’ve made a dent in the year-end awards anyway. For starters, it alienated many viewers by refusing to provide the cathartic scares we’re taught to expect from horror. That restraint extends to the actors. As is the nature of ensembles, no single performance stands out, yet collectively, they are pitch-perfect, from Joel Edgerton as a paranoid patriarch to Riley Keough as a young mother whose geniality seems disconcertingly at odds with her dire situation. And I bet Kelvin Harrison Jr.’s name will be coming up a lot soon. Watching them dance between calm and anxiety is high-wire suspense.

Related Story: Star Wars: Should Dee Rees become the next director?

The 90^th Academy Awards ceremony airs Sunday, March 4 at 8 p.m. EST on ABC.