95th Oscars: Some Deserved Better

At the 95th Oscars ceremony last Sunday, I feel like a lot of great movies were not given enough recognition. Like, did "Everything Everywhere, All at Once" deserve to take home all the awards, and not share any with films like, "Elvis", "The Fabelmans", or "The Banshees of Inisherin"?

My personal favorite is "Banshees", so I was sad, disappointed, and a little mad that it didn't win anything. I know, even being nominated is quite an honor, and it did win some other awards throughout the year, but this film spoke to me quite a bit, as I felt so much sympathy for Colin Farrell's character Pádraic throughout. I think this movie is very important to our society, because it highlights real human issues like loneliness, loss of friendships in adulthood, mental health, and purpose of life, but it seems like those aspects weren't appreciated much. Yes, the presenters did mention the film a lot, and brought out Jenny the Donkey on stage! Plus, all four of the main actors were nominated, which says a lot about the cast altogether. But I can't help but think that "Everything Everywhere" might have won it all for the wrong reasons. This is just a thought, but I know the Academy likes to award people of color lately, seemingly to "make up" for the lack of diversity in the past. It's almost as if movies win because they have a non-white cast, sometimes. Granted, the Academy should've been more open to awarding colored people all along, but it seems unfair now when it's not completely based on talent or performance alone. Plus, "Everything Everywhere" seems slightly "woke" while "Banshees" has no indications of being so. I have absolutely nothing against people like Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, or Jamie Lee Curtis, by the way. But, I feel like Jamie's role was nothing Oscar-worthy; the fact that it was attached to that film gave her a higher chance, I think. I also wonder if the Academy gives awards to Hollywood veterans, or people who have been in the business for a while, like Jamie and Brendan Fraser. Brendan is worthy of his award, but I am curious if it was given partially out of sympathy for the struggles he's been through during his career.

Anyway, this is just me conjecturing. As I said, even being nominated is a big deal. I'm sure Austin Butler knows he did amazingly well in "Elvis", even without an Oscar, so much so that his performance is still impacting his voice and mannerisms! And I'm sure the cast of "Banshees" knows the influence they had on Ireland and the rest of the movie world!

Yeah, let's get back to the days where everyone who won anything was white and we didn't have to suspect that there were any color based biases at play.

We all like to root for our favorites but no movie needs awards validation for one to like it. No matter what wins or loses or isn't nominated each year, time dictates which movies truly stand the test of time, as a larger society and certainly individually.

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

The key to inner peace is not thinking of the Oscars (or other people in general, for that matter) as validation of anything. If anyone's mood or sense of self is damaged or buttressed by such things, that change is not meaningful or sustainable. It's an inherently facile, surface-level thing, so it shouldn't surprise us if inclines toward symbolism for its own sake. That might even be the primary reason it exists (or still exists).

And what Holden said is completely correct: time will render the ultimate judgement. The King's Speech won Best Picture, but it beat out The Social Network and we talk about that 50 times as often. And the idea of being mad at that now, just over a decade later, seems silly, because it did nothing to change or prevent that. Who really won there?

The whole thing is one big headfake we can simply choose not to react to. It matters insofar as it convinces people it matters. The key is to not question the choices the Academy makes, but to question the premise that those choices matter.

Everything, Everywhere All at Once was HUGE! It was a both a massive critical success and a fan favorite. All the buzz I heard about this movie was hands down, over the top, enthusiastic. I would say this movie had the kind of love Gone with the Wind had without the big Hollywood and media build up that the older film had.
I am a big McDonough fan. When I saw Three Billboards I was breathless and thought for sure I had just seen the Academy Award Winner of that year. But alas my favorite did not win.
There is always going to be politics involved in an awards show of this caliber but I don't think Everything, Everywhere All at Once won through politics.

Yeah, I'm very sensitive to performative <anything>, and I didn't get much of a sense of that this year, and I can think of some obvious counterexamples right off the top of my head anyway.

My primary reaction, insofar as I allow myself to care about this stuff at all, was that it was neat to see such a weird and popularly enjoyed film win the top prize for once.

EEAAO is utterly, disastrously, pornographically abysmal.

CODA was awful schlock, too.

The Oscars are losing the dregs of the prestige they had left.

And... who cares, really?

Just live your life and enjoy the movies you like.

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Love and purity are the most important things in life.

I agree with 60% of those sentences.

That's roughly 50% more than people typically agree with me.

It's all subjective. I thought Everything Everywhere was the best film of the year. It would have been nice if Banshees and/or Fabelmans had won something, but they are still great films. I think the winners we got were pretty deserving though.

I have little doubt that if I saw Everything Everywhere I'd almost certainly hate it. But it winning or losing an Oscar means absolutely nothing about its value as a film. Absolutely nothing.


What can be complained about is that it's nice when unknown or underseen films are given some visibility because of an awards show. And this rarely happens. Which is frustrating if we want to shed light on films that might be more deserving but.... that's not actually the job of the Oscars. It's job is to get all of the stars dressed up nice and fancy so they can suck eachother off. It's about validating an empty and soulless industry that feels it deserves more than billions of dollars in revenue, so it made up an awards show to pat itself on the back.


Not winning an Oscar is the bigger honor

Jane, thanks for your questions. I don't know if you may not be from the United States, but we typically don't use the term "colored people" to refer to black people or minorities. We usually use minorities or "people of color", so just letting you know, since if you use that term in conversation with others, it could rub some people the wrong way, even if you may not have intended that, since historically that had a much more negative connotation.

I think that it is always tough to know why something catches fire with the Academy, and for those of us that may not resonate with the choices, we can all come up with our own rationalizations for why something is being awarded now and compare that to what may have been awarded in the past. Those rationalizations could be accurate, or, alternatively, we could be imprinting those explanations ourselves due to our own biases, because we happen not to like a movie, or happen to prefer other nominees, and so we're searching for the reasons for why our choice may not have been chosen, but those may or may not be accurate. I've engaged in these types of conversations myself on the board, and it's really hard to definitively know. I also agree that the Oscars are not really an objective indicator of what may actually be the best film of the year. These choices are inherently subjective, and like Holden said, the true test is what films endure over time, which we usually can't accurately predict via forecasting, and which can only be realized many years after the films are awarded. There are innumerable films that many consider classics today that are actually more highly regarded than the films that Oscar awarded for those particular years, and that eventuality is likely to continue.

If you're expecting Hollywood to be concerned about society, you're looking in the wrong place. Just watch the news and you'll rarely see anything positive coming from Hollywood concerning the improvements of society. Hollywood's only real goal is pandering to the views of the elitists.

Words to live by.

I caught a radio interview last night with the wife of Paul Sorvino.
His family is claiming the academy intentionally left him out of the in memoriam segment because he was conservative and the academy has gone "woke" so as to delete any deceased stars out of spiteful cancel-culture.

I didn't see it so I don't know, but could this be so?

I, too, was very upset that The Banshees of Inisherin didn't win a single award.

Comparing Everything Everywhere All at Once to Gone with the Wind is ridiculous.

There are usually a few conspicuous absents in the Oscar Obits. Intentional snubs? You be the judge.

This was cringe, though.

I feel called out.

So if you want to fight me, meet me by the monument after school. I'll be the one in the maroon letter jacket.
That being said. My comparison stands. They are both critical and popular successes that won a lot of Oscars. I didn't impugn the integrity of your favorite. I love Gone with the Wind. I love Vivian Leigh. I clapped like a maniac when Scarlett raises her fist in the air and says, "as God is my witness, I will never go hungry again." I hate Lesley Howard for messing with Scarlett's emotions. But it has become problematic as mores have changed and my vision has changed. I have not seen Everything, Everywhere All at Once so I can't comment on that movie as such which I didn't. So chill.

Gideon wasn't calling you out, he loves Gone With the Wind and was just saying Everything, Everywhere All at Once isn't in the same class.