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Oscar thoughts!
Feb. 25th, 2019 02:24 pm The Academy Awards (and really, any awards show) are a lowkey guilty pleasure of mine. I say guilty because almost everyone I know holds the opinion that "award shows are bullshit/boring/too political/meaningless." But I just get a kick out of seeing so many celebrities in one place, and I like seeing their reactions to winning awards, and I just like the idea of giving awards in the first place (even though I often don't agree with the winners). I do sort of agree that it's meaningless, though, because just the fact that these films received such a great reception and made so much money and got so many creative people recognized should be enough. If it was a successful film, I'd imagine its creators feel proud of it, award or no award.
With all that being said, I had some thoughts on the Oscars last night (I didn't watch the entire broadcast. I looked the rest of the winners up later):
-I didn't even remotely miss having a host. They need to do this more often. There's really no reason to have a host when it comes down to it- they're really just a personality for the audience to focus on/to get their attention. I was also relieved there weren't any jokes made about it after the first presenters, because I felt like that would have been too excessive.
-Having Queen open the show was a smart move. (Yes, they are Queen to me, not Queen + Adam Lambert.) There is literally no better "pump up the crowd" song than "We Will Rock You."
-The only Best Picture nominees I saw were Bohemian Rhapsody, A Star is Born, and BlackkKlansman. I did not think Bohemian Rhapsody deserved a nomination- it seems to be an obligatory nomination because it was a biopic and those always win some kind of acclaim, but it really wasn't that great of a film. The other two I thought were great, for very different reasons. One was a heartbreaking story that spoke to me personally as a fellow creative mind/musician, and was also able to stand on its own apart from the versions that preceded it (and unearthed some hidden talent regarding Lady Gaga's acting and Bradley Cooper's directing). The other was fuel for the fire of righteous anger caused by living in this day and age- even though the story took place in the 70's, it was immensely, sadly relevant to our current times. It's the kind of film that makes you want to get out of your seat and go do something to improve society.
-Without having seen any of the other films, my guess was that the Best Picture winner would be A Star is Born or Roma. A Star is Born was practically Award-Bait: The Film (though that's not me knocking it), and Roma seemed to be the most "artsy," which would win it critical acclaim (plus I just wanted to be able to say that a black-and-white foreign language Netflix original movie had won Best Picture). I really do want to see Roma because I've heard great things about it from cinephile friends of mine.
-However, the Best Picture winner was the one I heard bad things about...??? Seriously, all I've heard about Green Book makes it out to be a patronizing white-savior sort of story that's nothing close to what happened in real life. I'm literally dumbfounded by this. (Not to mention I hadn't even heard of it until the end of last year. That always happens, but more on that later.) I mean, 2018 wasn't a great year for movies in my opinion, but that canNOT be the best one that came out last year. (And this is why they say the Academy Awards are bullshit.)
-I enjoyed seeing Gillian Welch and David Rawlings perform at the Oscars. There is something enormously alluring about that duo. However, we ALL knew "Shallow" was going to win. No contest. I saw a dig at that win from one of my Punchy bois (who shall remain unnamed), saying "it's pretty telling that a song called 'Shallow' won," and that has me feeling the same way that I felt when "Let It Go" won Best Original Song in 2014 and U2 fans were upset that U2's song "Ordinary Love" didn't win. Back then, and right now, even though I love U2 and I really appreciate Gill & Dave... I'm not surprised or hurt or outraged because the winner was such a foregone conclusion. Both "Shallow" and "Let It Go" are highly popular standard pop songs, and the Academy seems to favor what's popular, as opposed to what might be a better song. (And "Shallow" and "Let It Go" aren't even bad songs in my opinion. They're just seen as "appealing to the masses" as opposed to "artistic," but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes it seems those upset are less annoyed about recognition of true art, and more annoyed that their personal favorite didn't win.)
-I didn't even hear all the other nominees for Best Original Score but until I do, my mind can't be changed that Terence Blanchard should have won for BlackkKlansman. (Even if I hear them, who knows if my mind will be changed. That score was fucking amazing.)
-I didn't see A Quiet Place (I really want to though), but I'm baffled as to how it didn't win Best Sound Editing. Instead, the award went to Bohemian Rhapsody, which seems too predictable- of course the film about music would win in that category.
-SPEAKING OF WHICH, I feel like Bohemian Rhapsody only won Best Editing because of the Live Aid recreation that closes the film. It probably dazzled the Academy to the point where they couldn't see any of the other films they were meant to be judging... I dunno, it's hard for me to judge editing in a film but I didn't think Bohemian Rhapsody deserved it, is all.
-However, congrats to Rami Malek on winning Best Actor!! That was a well-deserved award in my opinion. I honestly thought Christian Bale might win for Vice and was pleasantly surprised.
-So, during awards season, there's always at least one film (more than one in recent years) that I haven't heard ANYTHING about, had no idea it existed, and then it shows up and wins an award and I'm like "what even ARE you??" This year, that film is First Man. Since it's about space (even though it's not science fiction), I feel like I have to see it now. But it really came out of nowhere for me.
With all that being said, I had some thoughts on the Oscars last night (I didn't watch the entire broadcast. I looked the rest of the winners up later):
-I didn't even remotely miss having a host. They need to do this more often. There's really no reason to have a host when it comes down to it- they're really just a personality for the audience to focus on/to get their attention. I was also relieved there weren't any jokes made about it after the first presenters, because I felt like that would have been too excessive.
-Having Queen open the show was a smart move. (Yes, they are Queen to me, not Queen + Adam Lambert.) There is literally no better "pump up the crowd" song than "We Will Rock You."
-The only Best Picture nominees I saw were Bohemian Rhapsody, A Star is Born, and BlackkKlansman. I did not think Bohemian Rhapsody deserved a nomination- it seems to be an obligatory nomination because it was a biopic and those always win some kind of acclaim, but it really wasn't that great of a film. The other two I thought were great, for very different reasons. One was a heartbreaking story that spoke to me personally as a fellow creative mind/musician, and was also able to stand on its own apart from the versions that preceded it (and unearthed some hidden talent regarding Lady Gaga's acting and Bradley Cooper's directing). The other was fuel for the fire of righteous anger caused by living in this day and age- even though the story took place in the 70's, it was immensely, sadly relevant to our current times. It's the kind of film that makes you want to get out of your seat and go do something to improve society.
-Without having seen any of the other films, my guess was that the Best Picture winner would be A Star is Born or Roma. A Star is Born was practically Award-Bait: The Film (though that's not me knocking it), and Roma seemed to be the most "artsy," which would win it critical acclaim (plus I just wanted to be able to say that a black-and-white foreign language Netflix original movie had won Best Picture). I really do want to see Roma because I've heard great things about it from cinephile friends of mine.
-However, the Best Picture winner was the one I heard bad things about...??? Seriously, all I've heard about Green Book makes it out to be a patronizing white-savior sort of story that's nothing close to what happened in real life. I'm literally dumbfounded by this. (Not to mention I hadn't even heard of it until the end of last year. That always happens, but more on that later.) I mean, 2018 wasn't a great year for movies in my opinion, but that canNOT be the best one that came out last year. (And this is why they say the Academy Awards are bullshit.)
-I enjoyed seeing Gillian Welch and David Rawlings perform at the Oscars. There is something enormously alluring about that duo. However, we ALL knew "Shallow" was going to win. No contest. I saw a dig at that win from one of my Punchy bois (who shall remain unnamed), saying "it's pretty telling that a song called 'Shallow' won," and that has me feeling the same way that I felt when "Let It Go" won Best Original Song in 2014 and U2 fans were upset that U2's song "Ordinary Love" didn't win. Back then, and right now, even though I love U2 and I really appreciate Gill & Dave... I'm not surprised or hurt or outraged because the winner was such a foregone conclusion. Both "Shallow" and "Let It Go" are highly popular standard pop songs, and the Academy seems to favor what's popular, as opposed to what might be a better song. (And "Shallow" and "Let It Go" aren't even bad songs in my opinion. They're just seen as "appealing to the masses" as opposed to "artistic," but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes it seems those upset are less annoyed about recognition of true art, and more annoyed that their personal favorite didn't win.)
-I didn't even hear all the other nominees for Best Original Score but until I do, my mind can't be changed that Terence Blanchard should have won for BlackkKlansman. (Even if I hear them, who knows if my mind will be changed. That score was fucking amazing.)
-I didn't see A Quiet Place (I really want to though), but I'm baffled as to how it didn't win Best Sound Editing. Instead, the award went to Bohemian Rhapsody, which seems too predictable- of course the film about music would win in that category.
-SPEAKING OF WHICH, I feel like Bohemian Rhapsody only won Best Editing because of the Live Aid recreation that closes the film. It probably dazzled the Academy to the point where they couldn't see any of the other films they were meant to be judging... I dunno, it's hard for me to judge editing in a film but I didn't think Bohemian Rhapsody deserved it, is all.
-However, congrats to Rami Malek on winning Best Actor!! That was a well-deserved award in my opinion. I honestly thought Christian Bale might win for Vice and was pleasantly surprised.
-So, during awards season, there's always at least one film (more than one in recent years) that I haven't heard ANYTHING about, had no idea it existed, and then it shows up and wins an award and I'm like "what even ARE you??" This year, that film is First Man. Since it's about space (even though it's not science fiction), I feel like I have to see it now. But it really came out of nowhere for me.
