Running Movie Awards Thread

I overheard a woman on the train today saying she was disappointed that "Green Book" won Best Picture. The person she was speaking to asked her why, had she seen "Green Book"?

"No," she said. "But from I understand, it shouldn't have won."

JFC, this kind of sheep-like attitude is exactly what's wrong with this country. If you haven't seen the damn movie, how can you say either way whether it was worthy of winning? You don't have an informed opinion; you have an opinion parroted from things you have read and heard from others -- and a lot of those people aren't properly informed either. I guarantee there were plenty of people who were pissed "Green Book" won simply because Spike Lee was pissed with it winning.

 

Spotlight is excellent. Otherwise, yes, agreed.

And a lot of it is because the academy is trying to get it “right.”

 

It's funny, history has not been kind to "Dances with Wolves" winning, especially since "Goodfellas" is so good and so rewatchable. However, I don't think it was a controversial decision at the time. Maybe Costner winning best director and not Scorsese was more of a snub then.

There really are a ton of WTFs when you go through the lists of winners/nominees, and those don't even include what was left out entirely, like "Do the Right Thing" and "Malcolm X".

"Fargo" should have beaten "The English Patient".

 

I will stand down with Spotlight.

 

I happen to think Dances With Wolves is pretty great. Goodfellas is very good, too, but it's not without its flaws. For one thing, the last section focusing on Liotta -- with the helicopter and babysitter -- is drawn out and pretty dull.

 

There is such a disconnect between the public and the academy. Nobody is going to be talking about these Best Picture films in five years, in a decade, ever.

 

Costner is one of the worst actors ever, to paraphrase, with the range of emotions from A to B.

 

But that's like anything else in the awards culture.

If public popularity were the metric for artistry, the National Book Award would go to a romance novel every year.

The Oscars, founded to win back Hollywood's reputation with moviegoers, has never figured out whether the award is about art or popularity. Some years it's one; some, the other. Some years it's both or neither.

It's always worth remembering that the Academy Awards exist only to get people to buy movie tickets.

 

The NYT critics on this year's awards:

What ‘Green Book’ Says About the Academy. Our Critics on the Oscars.

 

But I’m just going to prepare us for next year’s show, when something like “The Best of Enemies” could be a factor. That’s set in late Jim Crow-era North Carolina and is about a civil rights activist (Taraji P. Henson) who teams up with the local KKK chief (Sam Rockwell) to desegregate their children’s school. I haven’t seen this movie yet. (It could be great!) But it also speaks to an inclination to find racial reconciliation in the past as a proxy for the present, for a particular kind of nostalgia.
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Yup, let's be prejudiced and comment about movies we haven't seen...

I almost wish "Vice" had won, if only so people went completely batshit -- ya know, more than they already are with the Green Book win. I typically like Morris's writing, but trying to predict the reception of a movie based on some basic understanding of the plot is a stretch. It seems like white movie makers can't win when trying to address racial issues.

 

I don't think it is that so much, but how black filmmakers find it very hard to find funding to tell stories about African-Americans. A white filmmaker? No problem - here is $30 million.
Maybe once a black filmmaker wins a best director award some of the animus will go away - but I get it. 12 Years a Slave, Malcolm X, Do the Right Thing, Fruitvale Station, throw in the work of Antoine Fuqua, F. Gary Gray, Tim Story, John Singlton and others - it isn't like they only make "black films" they make movies that make money and are critically acclaimed.
Shoot - Spike Lee had to crowd-fund to get Malcolm X made on a budget of $33 million even with Denzel Washington in the lead. So yes, I understand the bitterness.

 

I don't see how what I was saying has anything to do with what you just wrote, even if I do agree with most of it. Seemed like a sharp non sequitur.