The Oscars are becoming something closer to the AARP's "movies for adults" awards than the Teen Choice Awards. Yes, adults have a better understanding of the world; however kids' ideas are so often more fun. That is the great contradiction of the world that we live in and the nature of art itself. Art is subjective; however, the Academy has supported and we all surrendered to the idea that they know what the best art is in the world of film. (There are plenty of rival awards shows--especially the Golden Globes and SAG awards--that also offer a perspective into which movies are the best, and these other awards shows act as feeders into the Oscar race.) They are tainted by their own biases, and their own socio-political agendas, which are tied to being white, over-educated liberals living in Los Angeles or New York. You will never see the Ronald Reagan biopic be nominated for anything. You will never see a movie about a heroic Catholic priest, or a courageous logging company standing up to environmentalists. In 2004, The Passion of the Christ received zero nominations on the acting/directing/writing/picture side, and there were no black people involved. Whereas Christians were in awe of the Lord and Savior's final days, who died for our sins, Jews saw it as torture porn. Far from being anti-Christian, the Academy voters didn't see why Passion was an important movie.
When you look at all the Oscar best picture nominees in our lifetimes, the same patterns emerge as to who and what gets nominated. These movies are "Oscar-bait," as are many of the performers. There's a courageous white liberal fighting the system. They're often pro-gay rights, pro-reproductive rights. Many of the heroes are atheists or Jewish. These movies are not so much bad or wrong as unoriginal--you can be right and still annoying. Then the Academy hires a hip host (Letterman, Stewart, Rock, the Franco-Hathaway abortion) to try to sell these gold-plated turds to the kids. Chris Rock is hosting again, and this will be the most awkward Oscars' ceremony ever.
The last time Rock hosted, in 2005, he ran videoclips asking black people on the streets what they thought of the nominees, and recorded their confusion as to what these movies even were. He also did a bit where he pointed out that most people didn't know who Jude Law was. The joke was that Law came out of nowhere and became the IT Boy of Hollywood--and most of the attendees got his point: The film industry took an attractive, talented white man and decided he was the most important actor alive. This was followed by presenter Sean Penn giving a graven defense of Law. An important lesson was learned by Hollywood that night: Sean Penn doesn't get humor.
We should always remember that the Academy has it's favorites, like doting older relatives or school teachers. You know some people get nominated because they remind voters of their grandkids--looking at you, Brie Larson. Some actresses are a throwback to the beauties of days back and they get nominated because they are likable. Jennifer Lawrence is a tomato! She's a sparkplug with gams that go all the way up there!... Nice tits! Meanwhile people who alienate the members will never recover. Mel Gibson created one of the most successful movies of 2004; his career nonetheless took a dive because he's batshit crazy and it stopped being amusing.
Sylvester Stallone was nominated because he's been doing this for forty years. He has friends in the Academy. Michael T. Jordan and Ryan Coogler are still untested properties. (Oh, and the Fantastic Four reboot sucked--I know it's not your fault, Jordan. But it sucked.) Meanwhile a "Alone Yet Not Alone" got nominated last year. What's "Alone Yet Not Alone"? It's a song written by Bruce Broughton. Who's Bruce Broughton? He was the President of the Academy. He literally called up nominating members and told them to nominate his song. Which they did. (The nomination would ultimately be rescinded for being too damn obvious!)
Let me clarify that there is nothing wrong with having homosexual thoughts, and there's certainly nothing illegal about two adults having sexual contact in a private setting. These are movies that black people and Americans in general do not want to see. (A lot of men don't want to watch Nicholas Sparks movies, and it's not because watching heterosexual white people kiss disgusts us.) Hollywood has failed America. Not by allowing gays to marry or serve in the armed force but in making movies about cowboys who sodomize each other. The battle for gay rights has led to a surplus of terrible Oscar-bait movies. This year the most obvious Oscar-bait movie is probably Freeheld, featuring two attractive lesbians who want to get married so the younger one can receive the other's pension...before she dies of cancer. As a cherry on the top is Steve Carrell as the flamboyant gay attorney fighting the system. Freeheld did not get any nominations, not because it was bad, but because so many other white liberal movies got nominated. It was truly a space issue.
The problem with conservatism is that they will always lose. The problem with progressivism/liberalism, is that the day that the battle is over will be the day in which they become obsolete. The fight is over; you turn your swords into ploughs. But some soldiers don't want to become farmers. Watching Sidney Poitier movies doesn't work anymore. You can't make an advocacy film after the issue has been settled--that just doesn't make sense.
Michael Bay understands this quit well, and he abandons ideology. He fills his movies with shots of teen girls' asses (we will have to address that in another blog post) and the American flag. Bay knows what Americans want to see: Giant CGI robots talking about honor, integrity and sacrifice. These are values that America and Hollywood should be about. Americans generally don't want to see these weird indie movies full of foreigners where you have to see a dingdong. We don't want to see a movie where men are wearing dresses unless it's a comedy.
When George Clooney extolled Hollywood for giving Hattie McDaniel an Oscar, he neglected to mention that she was given the award for playing a happy slave. She was given an award by white liberals for playing a slave--a literal slave. Morgan Freeman (chauffer), Jaime Foxx (R&B musician), Lupita Nyong'o (slave), Denzel Washington (slave, dirty cop), Halle Berry (wife of a convict), Mo'Nique ("Welfare queen"), Cuba Gooding Jr. (athlete), Forrest Whittaker (African dictator), Terrence Howard (pimp who aspires to be a rapper). What's the solution to this? I have none--I know it sounds like I'm about to offer a solution to this, but I'm not. I'm literally just pointing this out. I'll let you figure out what this means.
It would be easy to call this racism. But it's actually stranger than racism. It's the mutant love child of racism and anti-racism. All the black winners were surely thankful for the pay bump that the award provided them, but something so liberating can come at the expense of honor. It's enjoying colored music but not letting black patrons in the club. McDaniel was invited at the table but had to sit at a segregated table. She was not invited to the after parties. White liberals, like white conservatives, like blacks in the abstract. They like that black people exist, but they don't really want them around too much. If they speak to enough black people, they will grow uncomfortable with their views on gay rights and transgenderism, and illegal immigration...and corporeal punishment...maybe Jews/Muslims. Clooney--for all his Hollywood coolness--gets so much of his own industry's history completely wrong. Real life is messy, and sometimes there are no bad guys, just people with wildly different opinions.
When talking about who got stiffed this year, the same few names keep coming up: Will Smith, Spike Lee, Michael T. Jordan, cool British black guy whose name that I can never remember. Dozens of white women were shut out of the Oscars, especially older white women. That there is some agreement as to who got stiffed adds value to the argument that the system was rigged, but it also detracts from the idea that there was any coordination to shut out black actors. As so many activists are pointing out, there is a dearth of good roles for black actors.
Far more insidious than shutting out black actors was the decision that of the four(!) slots for best songs. The song choice includes a classical orchestral piece and a Lady Gaga song. The Academy only needed to nominate one piece to retain credibility: "See You Again" by Wiz Kalifha. This is also a non-controversial choice since literally everyone (white/black, men/women) under the age of 40 likes it. (To be fair, both Eminem and 360 Mafia received Oscars for best song, so it's not entirely a matter of racism or anti-populism.)
In the future, to be fairer, the Academy should expel more gay guys. It is the only way to insure fairness. (Note: As I was writing this, the Academy did alter its rules to prevent older but inactive Academy members from voting.)
