'Deadpool' Should Have Been Nominated For Best Picture

Unlike in previous years, when undeserving titles like Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and Les Misérables received inexplicable nominations, there isn’t a single stinker in the Best Picture bunch for the 2017 Oscars. La La Land and Moonlight are the frontrunners, but the other seven films in the running for the Academy’s most prestigious award range from excellent (Hell or High Water) to good (Hacksaw Ridge). Still, Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel thinks at least one more movie could have, and should have, been nominated.

In the same interview where he discussed his late-night future, Kimmel said, “I would have liked to have seen Deadpool get nominated. I do think there’s a certain type of movie that’s not considered for awards. It’s a shame, because there’s nothing serious about the movies; they’re an escape. I think comedies are also underappreciated. There’s maybe too much gravity applied to the nomination process.” Deadpool was likely never seriously considered for Best Picture, despite Ryan Reynolds’ promise of a “crazy reaction video” — not only is it a comedy, like Kimmel pointed out, but it’s also a superhero movie, and not even arguably the greatest superhero movie ever was acknowledged by the Academy. (Yes, Heath Ledger won Best Supporting Actor for his transformative performance as the Joker, but, as a film, The Dark Knight was deemed inferior to… The Reader?) The day a superhero-comedy is nominated for Best Picture is the day the Oscars start ignoring Holocaust-dramas.

At least Deadpool could have been better represented than Suicide Squad…