Whhhaaaat!?! The movie I'm in didn't make as one of the NINE Oscar finalists for best picture of 2017?
Nope. Sorry, porg. You, sir, were snubbed. Unjustifiably by me. I LA-OVED the movie you we're in. But let me warm up the audience before we get to that point.
Well we're a little over a month away from the 2018 Oscars as I type this post. And I must admit this year I think the Academy of Arts and Sciences really DIDN'T pick the most deserving, 9 best movies of the year. I think I've only seen two of the 9 nominated movies for best picture in 2018. You know what that means right, gotta get out to the movie theater and see the other 7!
Have you ever wondered why so few movies released earlier in the year don't make the top 9? Always seems to be a picking of movies from the fall of that year.
I JUST got back from seeing "Lady Bird" which is up for best actress and best movie of the year. Now, though, Saoirse Ronan did a fine job as title character from which this movie derives its name, this is a very boring movie. Totally undeserving of being one of the 9 finalists.
E.C. was praying like this during my movie for the boredom to end"
One other movie that I recently looked up and watched the trailer for that was for best picture of the year was "The Phantom Thread".
"The Phantom Thread" stars Daniel Day Lewis who is probably the greatest actor of all-time. Yeah, he's THAT good. But the trailer that I watched for "The Phantom Thread" was DREADFUL. Now a movie trailer is SUPPOSED to a favorable first exposure that makes you wanna see the movie. Not so with turd of an idea, film. Holy Shit was the trailer for "The Phantom Thread" bad. Apparently it's about a tailor who is very good at his job, but has a hard time experiencing love. I think it's set in the 1950s. The trailer was just awful. I don't think I bring myself to go see a movie like that. I have the same kind of bias feeling that feel toward "The Post", which to me looks like newsroom political witch hunt movie. PASS.
Other Oscar contenders look bad too. Neither of the Word War II movies make me want to see them. And "Get Out" (written and directed by Jordan Peele), which I think a suburban horror tale that involves a mixed race couple going to dinner a strange house. PASS.
Why wasn't my favorite movies of the year in the final 9?
To me the best movie of 2017 was "The Last Jedi". That movie was GREAT! Worthy of being in the final 9. Like "Wonder Woman" too, though not as much as "The Last Jedi". Okay, so those two movies were big, budget tent-pole movies. Should that negate them from the best picture award?
No! In my opinion it shouldn't.
But since they're not nominated, I gotta come to grips with why. Sure, grading out a movie is a subjective thing. But I think they're something else at play here. I think what's really going on a subtle attempt at box office manipulation by Hollywood. I call it the Oscar Bump.
E.C. Henry defines the Oscar bump as Hollywood's attempt to draw attention to a select group of smaller movies and boast the box office sales by putting them up for special awards
I fallen victim to this scam, and sometimes its not so bad. A few years seeing the "Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)" was nominated and make a run BACK into the theaters, I actually went to see it because of that, and was pleasantly surprised.
Huge fan of the Oscars, because I love the movies, and love seeing truly talented people be honored for their fine work. My gripe comes at the snubs of the more deserving that suffer on account of people who don't really vote for the best, but rather cast their vote to rending financial assistance to other movies.
"I think it's time I put my belt of truth on this E.C. Henry fellow, I think he likes my movie--because he thinks I'm hot!!"
#shesright
When it come to the Oscars, I wanna see the best. And I don't think we're getting that this year in their top 9 nominated best pictures of the year. I think I'm right on this issue; to the Academy it's more about money than honoring the deserving. And that bothers me. I value truth. Sure it's all subjective, but are you telling me "The Last Jedi" doesn't deserved to be in the running for best picture of the year. It was my favorite movie of the year--by a lot. Besides "Wonder Woman" I also like "The Disaster Artist" (staring James Franco) and "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri", though it wasn't really the story but rather the acting in those two stories that won me over.
I think awards should mean something. In my mind the dynamic that I see in play here, the deserving aren't being honored they way they should. And that cheapens the award and what it means to win. If I was nominated for an Oscar I would want it to be a TRUE representation of me being the best.
Sam Rockwell in "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" as best supporting actor is a worthy pick
So will I watch the 2018 Oscars? Probably, but anytime the best picture of the year talk comes up, I'll listen while silently grumbling. Believing that the Academy of Arts got it wrong. The didn't pick the best and most deserving films of 2018, but rather watered down their votes in hopes of getting a bit of an Oscar bump in money so some other films. And to me, that's sad.
If I was in charge of picking the best movie of 2017 and give the Oscar to the talent that made it that Oscar would go to: