Can We Take The Oscars Seriously Anymore?

I remember before the Lincoln movie was made and was in basic production, I said, well, that's "Daniel's 3rd Oscar." I also knew they would get it factually incorrect and add a load of bogus cods wallop into the mix. I knew the Oscar was already decided the second Lincoln was a go ahead.

Sadly I was proved spot on.

Jaoquin Rafael Phoenix was ripped off IMO. He was awesome in the Master -- but the Master was too intelligent and non-mainstream for the industry. As bad as Tilda Swinton getting ignored for 'We Need To Talk About Kevin.'

Personally I thought Lincoln was an utter bore fest, mundane Day Lewis going through the motions, safe in the knowledge he had already got his gong. Omitting so many important facts of the civil war.

The Oscars are a joke NOWADAYS IMO. Great for the sycophants though drooling and kissing each others smug backsides.

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Was there some chronological point where you think things changed? It sounds like you do.

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I think I mentioned it somewhere already but more I watch Oscars,more I realize that usually not the best stuff wins but not the bad one too - something above average or mediocre.

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Possible alternative thread title: "When did you stop taking the Oscars seriously?"

Yeah was gonna say something like this, the list of Best Picture winners doesn't exactly blow you away 75% of the time.

The Oscars is what it is. It doesn't reward my favourite movies so therefore I'm not too interested in it but that doesn't mean it's a joke. It rewards the movies and performances that the "members of the academy" like - as it has always done.

People seem to think it's some all knowing being that should just automatically reward "the best". It's a popularity contest, like any awards, where a bunch of people vote subjectively.

In regards to Lincoln, I didn't love the movie but DDL was pretty good and was as deserving as anyone else that I can think of last year.

A better question: Could we ever take them seriously?

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I think I was gullible enough up to the point of Cloony's smug speech - kind of saw it for what it was then.

I must also point out that I am terrible at making a point. I know what I'm trying to say but rather than making any congruent points aligned to a semi decent structure, I tend to end up going off in a rant.

The Oscars essentially answer the question: What do the five thousand something mostly white, mostly male voters consider the best films of the year? A lot of the time it seems that those who "don't take it seriously" simply mean that the Academy's choices don't align with their own. Whether or not that's reasonable grounds for branding them a joke is up to the individual, but you can't deny that they do what they claim to.

I'd be OK with that if I actually thought they went to the cinema and saw the films. Hell, it wouldn't be too bad if they had all seen the shortlist.

As to the question. No. As to Yoda's suggested alternative title, when Satan won for Ghost. yup:

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While I enjoy speculating what movie will win what and debating the Academy’s choices as much as the next guy (Brokeback should have Best Picture dammit) the eventual outcome doesn’t affect my opinion of a movie or an actor’s/actress’s performance. I couldn’t care less if a movie I enjoy set a new record for Oscar wins or swept the Razzies; if I like it then that’s all that matters as far as I’m concerned. At the end of the day the opinions of the Oscar voters don't carry any more or less weight than that of a drunken hobo who lives in a cardboard box and insists that Son of the Mask and Movie 43 are the best movies ever made and is amazed that Hitchcock didn't spend his entire career flipping burgers at McDonald's. (They did have McDonalds back then right?)

I think I'll take the Oscar picks over this particular refrigerator box guy.

I don't think that the voting group signifies anything about the greater significance of the medium as an art form, so I'm not really interested. I don't think, however, that the voting party has gotten any better or worse, but rather, stayed thoroughly consistent in their career. The trouble is now that there's less of an excuse to ignore the world's current masters of cinema, from Tarr and Kiarostami to Hou and Jia. It's just made clearer where their interest lies in film, and those with huge dissent of their current choices in comparison with the older years suffer from a lack of context.

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Mubi

I think that movies that win or are nominated for best picture usually are good. Gladiator was awesome, The Godfather also, Schindler's list as well as well as The Lord of the Rings. The King's Speech and The Hurt Locker were recent movies that were pretty good as well.

Of course, your own opinion never fits with the average and also it's obvious that only English speaking movies are considered for the Oscar (they even have a "foreign language" prize for all non-English movies). But as a prize for the best English speaking movie of the year, it's quite decent.

I see, so to be a master of cinema our movie needs to be seem by less than 1 million people and to depend on government aid to be produced since the number of people willing to watch that stuff is too small to justify the cost of production.

At least the Oscars can go from time to time to popular movies that regular people like. I also don't like the way that such obscure art films spoil the name of all non-English cinema. Sexy Celebrity, for instance, associates non-English cinema with boring films because the fact that Americans who claim to be fans of "foreign" movies only watch the movies that people from the country the movies were made do not! Note also that Ozu and Kurosawa were like Spielberg and Cameron in 1950's Japan, and unlike these 4 directors you cited.

What non-English films regular people watch? Over the five years of the 2009-2013 period the largest non-English film market was Japan (China surpassed Japan in 2012-2013 but not over the 5 year average), and among the top 15 most popular Japanese movies in the box office were the following:

Kaze Tachinu

Miyazaki's film.

Umizaru 4

Fourth installment of an action film series based on a manga, also has a TV series.

Terumae romae

A Japanese bathhouse owner travels in time to Ancient Rome to learn the secrets of the Roman bathhouses. All Romans look like Japanese . It's based on a manga and also has a TV series.

The Bayside Shakedown 4

Action movie based on a TV series.

One Piece Film Z

Adventure movie based on a manga, also has a TV series.

Evangelion Shin Gekijôban: Kyu

The 5th movie based on the NGE action/drama TV series.

Wolf Children

Mamoru Hosoda's third film, like Miyazaki, he is a serious filmmaker and this movie is not based on anything.

From Up on Poppy Hill

Miyazaki's son film, not based on a manga or TV series.

A Ghost of a Chance

A live action comedy film, also not based on anything.

Arriety

Another Ghibli film.

Space Battleship Yamato

Based on a classic TV series from the 1970's.

Rookies: Graduation

A sports film based on a manga.

The other 3 among the top 15 top grossing movies of the period were another Bayside action movie, another Umizaru action movie and a Pokemon movie (Pokemon is still as popular as ever in Japan).

All these movies were very similar to American movies (but with Japanese senbilities) and dissimilar to stuff like Kariostami and Tarr. Ozu's films are similar to these, though, specially Ghibli's films and Wolf Chidren.

Thanks for expressing what I really meant to say guap!

Great post, Sane, I agree with every word you've said here.

When I watch the Oscars, I always get the feeling it's like some high-school clique-- inside jokes, cowtowing to the popular kids, etc. The quality of the award-winners, in my estimation, varies pretty heavily from year to year.

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Thanks to that weird spammer bumping this thread, I just noticed this little gem that will please SC

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I do enjoy the spectacle of it

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