On Self Congratulatory Little Gold Men

In which we consider the mistakes of the past before making guesses about the future.

For the last 34 years my mom has been working as an elementary school teacher in Lafayette, Indiana. Due to the close proximity of Purdue's campus she often has student teachers that will join her for a semester. Most of them are good, some great, and a few, not so much. One she had a few years ago was really quite the buster. She was teaching, I believe, fourth grade at the time, and he had only been in the class for a few weeks when he asked if, as an educational experience, the class could watch the Academy Award Nominations. Not the actual awards themselves, mind you, but rather just a reading of those films and actors that were nominated. That guys really built himself a solid foundation with that one, let me tell you. I wish that I could go back in time and ask him just what he thought the educational benefit would have been for those fourth graders.

I share this story with you because we are at that time of the year again, this very morning the nominees for the 83rd annual Oscars were announce. Given that I haven't got much else on my mind at the moment I thought that I would write about them for a bit. But first, a disclaimer.

The Oscars, and most other award shows¹, are pretty much just rubbish. Especially when it comes to the best picture. It is a rare year when you hear the winner and think, yeah that was definitely my favorite movie from that year. What's more, there are some years when you are left dumbfounded at the choice that was made.  Here are, in my opinion, some of the worst offenders.

2001 Oscars - Winner Gladiator
Don't get me wrong, Gladiator is a good movie, I own it, I've watched it multiple times, and I will keep watching it. However, this year it was up against: Chocolat, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Erin Brocovich, and Traffic. There is no way, in my mind, that Gladiator was a better movie than Traffic. Steven Soderbergh put together one amazing movie with Traffic, he manages to weave together three complex story lines and get incredible performances out of his actors at the same time. The bigger upset for me this year though was the fact that Russell Crowe won the best actor award over Tom Hanks for his role in Cast Away, which I think was one of his most powerful performances ever.

2003 Oscars - Winner Chicago
I saw Chicago when it came out, but I don't remember much of it, which doesn't say much for that movie does it? This year it was up against: Gangs of New York, The Hours, The Two Towers, and The Pianist. While I will freely admit that Gangs of New York and The Two Towers are not without their problems they are both easily better movies than Chicago was. I don't know what the thought process was here.

1998 Oscars - Winner Titanic
This is a great example of spectacle winning out over quality. By the time that the awards rolled around in late March Titanic had already broken the one billion dollar mark. It was, to say the least, wildly popular, and certainly a technical marvel. But over all the story line was nothing too spectacular, the same goes for DiCaprio's acting. What movies did it beat out? Oh just As Good as it Gets, The Fully Monty, Good Will Hunting, and LA Confidential. It wouldn't be the first time James Cameron would have a film nominated based on new technology, a huge profit, and a weak story line, luckily the next time the Academy would wise up².

1995 Oscars - Winner Forest Gump
Without a doubt this is the most egregious oversight that the academy has made. In my opinion Forest Gump is a fun, heart-string yanking, film designed for the masses to enjoy. And you know what, there is nothing wrong with that. The problem is that two win this award it had to beat out The Shawshank Redemption, which is my favorite movie and is also the top rated film on IMDB. This year more than any other teaches us to take the Academy Awards with a grain of salt. With that in mind lets take a look at this years nominees and who I think is likely to win the big award³.

Best Picture:
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids are Alright
The King's Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter's Bone

My Thoughts: My first thought is that I haven't seen enough of these movie. The real five to watch are probably Black Swan, The Fighter, The Kids are Alright, The King's Speech, and The Social Network. From what I'm hearing expect The Social Network to take the trophy⁴.

The rest of the nominees for all the other categories are easy enough to find on the internet (for example: here). I do have a few short thougths about some nominations, or lack there of though.

• The fact that Hailee Steinfeld was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress role filled me with mixed emotions. It was great that she was recognized because she does an amazing job. But it is absurd that she was nominated for a supporting role when she acts as both the narrator and protagonist of the movie. There are far to few strong lead roles for females, let alone that it is a western, that to cheapen it to a supporting role is just disappointing.
• I think it is a travesty, but not unexpected, that Scott Pilgrim vs the World did not get nominated for either best editing or best visual effects.
• Natalie Portman (best actress) and Christian Bale (supporting actor) are probably locks.
• Finally, I could see Exit Through the Gift Shop not winning best documentary simply because of the questions surrounding it's authenticity.

PS: For people thinking that picking questionable best picture winners in a new phenomenon know that in 1942 How Green is my Valley won over Citizen Kane.
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¹ Especially the Golden Globes.
² If Avatar would have one they should have just shut it down.
³ Please know most of this is based on complete conjecture as I have not seen all of these movies.
⁴ Saying things like, "From what I'm hearing" makes you sound much more legitimate.