remindmeofthe | (no subject)

You know, I've never watched the Oscars before. Bits and pieces here and there, but never ever right through.

And I seriously doubt I ever will again.

So, yes, everyone knows that the Oscars, whatever they used to be, have devolved into a popularity contest and egofest. I knew that. But it's one thing to know it and another thing to see it in action.

It wasn't just both Bill Murray and Johnny Depp losing out to Sean Penn just because he played the screaming drama and they went for (respectively) subtle humour/angst and immersive comedy. It wasn't just the increasing boredom as the weakest of the LotR movies won award after award. It wasn't just that some of those awards could have gone to more deserving candidates (Dear Sofia Coppola, Don't feel too badly, because you know in your heart that your direction was way better than Peter Jackson's. Love, Cathryn).

Sure, all that pissed me off. But it was mostly seeing, over and over, the same five or six names of the same five or six movies that coincidentally all happened to make a crapload of money. I work at a movie store, people, I know for a fact that there were at least ten movies released last year. Maybe even more. And a lot of them had really really wonderful things in them. They couldn't have maybe spread those nominations around a little?

Just as an example of what I mean, here are a few of the categories and nominations according to the Oscars in my head. There isn't an entry for every category, and I've tried to avoid repeating actual nominations. This is just for the movies that have been on my mind lately, as I certainly can't remember all the 2003 releases I saw.

Best Male Actor:
Crispin Glover, Willard
Nicolas Cage, Matchstick Men
Jason Isaacs, Peter Pan

Best Female Actor:
Allison Lohman, Matchstick Men
Lindsay Lohan, Freaky Friday (Oh, shut up, this kid was more convincing as an uptight forty-year-old businesswoman than Jamie Lee was in the same damn role.)

Best Score:
Willard
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Once Upon a Time in Mexico

I'll think of more later, I'm sure, but I just wanted to share an example of the stuff that got overlooked in favour of the big moneymakers. (Sure, I got a little repetitive, too, but I've put, like, five minutes' thought into this, as opposed to like hours and hours of time and effort.) I am upset way out of proportion to how much I actually care about the stupid ceremony, and it's not something I wish to experience again. Next year, I'll just listen to the radio to learn the results like I've always done.

In conclusion: I know I'm the only person on the planet who thinks this, but Return of the King was NOT THAT GOOD, DAMMIT.

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the thing about RotK was that the oscars were pretty much for all three films as a whole instead of just the final part. it seemed a little pointless to hand out the big awards for the first two when they just knew it would come up again the next year.

Oh my god... not that I'm too terribly biased or anything... but Crispin most definitely should have won some sort of award for Willard. Best Actor, preferably, but... really, almost anything.

Because the more I think about Willard, the better I think he is. Of course, I'd be more impressed to see him act (and act well) in a more "standard" sort of role (the kind the Academy drools over)... the skeptical part of me wonders whether he would actually be any good at that. But Willard is... well, really big actors sometimes think they play characters like Willard, getting back down and dirty with the common plebs, the average person. But they never do, really. There's always this moral message, or Triumph Over Adversity, or some sort of Hollywood magic. But Willard is just a normal loser, plain and simple. He had big problems, he wasn't exactly a pure and good protagonist, and even the standard "kindly female" didn't help him. He was a loser at the beginning and he stayed a loser, like so many people in real life (sadly).

I don't know. There's this normal, icky, unsanitized, bestial quality to Willard... and it has nothing to do with the rats. Crispin's emotional outbursts are as frightening and uncomfortable to watch as they are genuine, and I've never seen a more true-to-life contemplation of suicide in a movie.

Anyway... yeah, I'm ranting, pay no attention. :D But I pretty much agree with you. I hate the Oscars and RotK got way more press than it deserved. (Why did people cry at the end, dammit? You knew what was going to happen!)

And, goddammit, Finding Nemo won over Triplets of Belleville. >__< Stupid, stupid...

I had the same revelation you had this year back in... um... whatever year Titanic came out.

You know, when Titanic got 11 Oscars (out of 14 noms) and LA Confidential got 2 (out of FOUR noms).

That was the year I really lost my moviewatching innocence. *cries*

The worst of it is, as a movie reviewer I get asked ALL THE GODDAMNED TIME what I think about the Oscars. So I wind up giving the same rant over and over.

--Ealasaid

Word to that. I still cannot believe Titanic ever got nominated for anything. What a giant pile of ass.

~Hoedogg

. . . I liked it. Granted, I was a teenaged girl, and I'm kind of afraid to watch it again because it might turn out to be not as good as I remember, but I liked it. And to this day I reflexively defend it, unless we're talking the amount of hype. 'Cos there's no defending hype. Ever.

Oops. I forgot that I probably shouldn't be insulting the work of Billy Zane in your LJ. That was rude of me.

BTW, I'll take your silence with regards to my fic challenge as a "no thanks". Which is fine, 'cause it's not like I've gotten off my ass and written anything this year either.

~Hoedogg

Heh. Well, since you didn't mention Billy Zane specifically, no harm done. *g*

As for the challenge - well, you did miss the deadline. I like the idea, though, and I'll keep it in mind for something to tackle when I get back into HP this summer. If that's okay. =)

All I can say is: Go Charlize. I'm glad she won Best Actress. But having Lindsey Lohan nominated would have been great. And as for Willard? Wish that it had gotten nominated, too. Oh well...there's so much I would like to have seen nominated that wasn't (::cough::Nicole Kidman::cough::)

And no, it doesn't hurt that having Charlize Theron win meant glimpses of her boyfriend Stuart Townsend, who I think is a hottie.

Anyway, the only reason I was happy RotK won,a nd I told this to my ex the next morning, was because it gives fantasy writers who write fantasy movies some legitimacy and hope for Oscar gold. Or at least it did that for me...

This summer? What's this summer? (asks the clueless one) The next HP film?

~Hoedogg

Yep. June. Chances are it'll kick me back into the HP obsession for a while just like CoS did.