Comments | your_sleep_god: Movie Ignorance

your_sleep_god

Movie Ignorance

Jan 22, 2009 15:11

So the Oscar nominations were announced today. The Best Picture category is comprised of 5 movies: one I’ve never heard of (The Reader), one I’ve only heard of because I listen to Fresh Air on NPR on the drive home from work each day (Slumdog Millionaire), and all 5 are movies I have never seen and have no real interest in seeing. Maybe… maybe… I’ ( Read more... )

Comments 4

thealiwoman January 23 2009, 02:12:13 UTC

You're not the target audience for the Academy right now. Since the whole rush for indie films in the last six years, the Academy has been looking more and more at the ART of the film, not it's popularity or PR budget.

Not a slam to you, the general consumer, but they really don't care about mass appeal right now. Same reason "classic" novels are hardly ever read outside of an English class.

your_sleep_god January 23 2009, 12:45:20 UTC

Maybe it's just me, but I happen to think a significant portion the artistic value of a work is its ability to connect to its audience. As such, it seems to me that mass appeal should not be automatically disregarded as a component of the art of a film.

thealiwoman January 23 2009, 15:36:06 UTC

I didn't say they were right for ignoring mass appeal. You are right that part of the function of an artistic work is to reach as many people as possible, to create a shared cultural experience. The Academy doesn't get that.

BTW, found your present. I'll mail it out next week when I get money again:).

cyan_fireflash January 23 2009, 02:56:51 UTC

Dude, the Academy has been out of sinc with the rest of movie goer opinions for a good long while now. I stopped watching or even listening to their stuff shirt opinions a looong spell ago.

I'm right there with you, nothing they put out made me say, 'ok that's a movie I'd see'. Rourke is a good pic, unless you count in the fact that he's as made for that role as he was for Marve in Sin City. (I always thought great actors were ones that could step out of their normal roles???).
Actually Pitt would fit as best actor. Benny Buttons was the only one I was looking into seeing, only because it was something new for him and the plot looked good to me as well. As for the others, not really made for mass consumption, and will most likely be seen in future MST3K episodes IMH2c (if they were still making them)