it's hard out there for a nerd
I'm going to have to write about my trip to Atlanta backwards. In the meantime, I watch a lot of movies, so let's talk Oscars. Every year I tell myself I'm not going to be upset by the Oscars, and every year I usually am... but not this year! And no, it's not becuase the Academy all of the sudden started recognizing the best films (even amongst their own nominees), but I have finally resigned myself to the fact that they will, without fail, pick the things that I found to be the worst.
This years example: Crash. Now I still haven't seen Brokeback Mountain or Munich, but unless they have a Celine Dion-esque soudtrack and montages of people looking serious about racism, there's no way they could be as dumb and pandering as Crash. Seriously, it's one of the worst movies I've seen in awhile. Granted, I watch some terrible movies, but at least a movie like Oily Maniac has no pretenses, no agenda, and pretty much zero desire to be taken seriously. Crash is a movie that is every bit as cartoony and ludicrous (pun intended) as Two Thousand Maniacs or The 40 Year Old Virgin, and yet wants to be taken seriously as some well-constructed meditation on racism in America. Rather than bothering to develop characters and steadily build tensions towards an explosive climax (like a similar, well-made film, Do The Right Thing), Crash is one obnxious characiture after another in a seemingly endless parade of stressful situations. While I guess this is effective to old farts like Roger Ebert (his #1 movie of 2006), David Denby of the New Yorker (the best American film since "Mystic River"), and apparently the Academy of Motion Picture Arts, I found it just annoying, unintentionally hilarious, and contrived to the point of being a burden just to watch it unfold. Did these guys not see A History Of Violence? A film that tackles issues that are uniquely American, but leaves room for you to consider how you feel about it... I guess that is not as pleasurable as one that is all surface, all artifice, and doesn't require one to think.
But don't let my venom mislead you: I was not really upset by it being picked as the Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. In the Oscar Pool at work, I actually guessed that this would happen. It only makes sense. Academy, I'm not mad at you, I'm just disappointed.
This years example: Crash. Now I still haven't seen Brokeback Mountain or Munich, but unless they have a Celine Dion-esque soudtrack and montages of people looking serious about racism, there's no way they could be as dumb and pandering as Crash. Seriously, it's one of the worst movies I've seen in awhile. Granted, I watch some terrible movies, but at least a movie like Oily Maniac has no pretenses, no agenda, and pretty much zero desire to be taken seriously. Crash is a movie that is every bit as cartoony and ludicrous (pun intended) as Two Thousand Maniacs or The 40 Year Old Virgin, and yet wants to be taken seriously as some well-constructed meditation on racism in America. Rather than bothering to develop characters and steadily build tensions towards an explosive climax (like a similar, well-made film, Do The Right Thing), Crash is one obnxious characiture after another in a seemingly endless parade of stressful situations. While I guess this is effective to old farts like Roger Ebert (his #1 movie of 2006), David Denby of the New Yorker (the best American film since "Mystic River"), and apparently the Academy of Motion Picture Arts, I found it just annoying, unintentionally hilarious, and contrived to the point of being a burden just to watch it unfold. Did these guys not see A History Of Violence? A film that tackles issues that are uniquely American, but leaves room for you to consider how you feel about it... I guess that is not as pleasurable as one that is all surface, all artifice, and doesn't require one to think.
But don't let my venom mislead you: I was not really upset by it being picked as the Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. In the Oscar Pool at work, I actually guessed that this would happen. It only makes sense. Academy, I'm not mad at you, I'm just disappointed.