Everything that happens in normal life happens a lot faster online. The awards weekend started out with Netflix dominating the Annies, with The Mitchells and the Machines, then the DGA, where two of their films won top honors: Jane Campion for The Power of the Dog and Maggie Gyllenhaal for The Lost Daughter (First-Time Feature). Then everyone flew across the pond to the BAFTAs where The Power of the Dog took two awards: Best Film and Best Director, with Screenplay going to Licorice Pizza (original) and CODA (adapted). Then everyone flew BACK to the US where the Critics Choice Awards were held Sunday night.
So as anyone on Twitter now knows, Jane Campion made what appears to be a joke but came off sounding tone-deaf — kind of the textbook definition of “white feminism.” She said, essentially, Venus and Serena Williams were great and all but they didn’t have to compete with men like she did. She clearly meant it as a joke but it didn’t read that way on camera or especially on Twitter.
She has since issued an apology:
“I made a thoughtless comment equating what I do in the film world with all that Serena Williams and Venus Williams have achieved. I did not intend to devalue these two legendary Black women and world-class athletes. The fact is the Williams sisters have, actually, squared off against men on the court (and off), and they have both raised the bar and opened doors for what is possible for women in this world. The last thing I would ever want to do is minimize remarkable women. I love Serena and Venus. Their accomplishments are titanic and inspiring. Serena and Venus, I apologize and completely celebrate you.”
Campion was being celebrated one minute, then the Twitter/media machine was covering her comment at the mic when The Power of the Dog won Best Picture. She was trying to make a joke, I think, but it fell mostly flat and the rest is history.
One minute the news cycle was feeding off of Campion slamming Sam Elliot and the next minute she is being scolded for being a “white feminist.”
Here she is saying what an honor it is to be in the same room with Venus and Serena Williams. And if you look closely you’ll see King Richard’s Aunjanue Ellis nodding in agreement. There is no doubt it was an awkward moment and you can see many of the white faces behind them frozen in fear. Jane was obviously in a loose, boozy mood saying things that are a bit off the cuff, like how lucky Jesse Plemons is to be with Kirsten Dunst, etc. Thus, I expect that we’ll see a Saturday Night Live sketch of this moment.
So how bad is it going to be ultimately? For the film? For the people offended? For Jane herself? For Netflix? Oscar voting is basically starting in three days. Where does this go?
The problem here, of course, is that Film Twitter has cultivated the kind of climate that would derail Campion for her joke. Right? Sam Elliot said something on a podcast with Marc Maron that was his opinion. He was taken to task on it, with even Campion and all of Film Twitter piling on. Within a day the whole machine had whipped around and for a similar reason was now targeting Jane.
The solution? Learning to live with things people say and understanding that everyone has a right to their own opinion. The idea that we can bully and police and control opinion is the path to madness. We can’t. We can simply scare people into trying to be as careful and perfect as necessary. But even when they do that it is never quite good enough. Campion’s apology was the right thing to do in this case. She didn’t mean to be offensive and she was offensive so she apologized. Fine.
But in the case of Sean O’Connell at Cinemablend, he wrote a review of Pixar’s Turning Red that was an honest take on a film he didn’t much like. He tried to be as diplomatic as possible by saying it just wasn’t for him. How do you think that went over? Do you think people gave him the benefit of the doubt? NOPE. His job was threatened, the people at the Critics Choice were pressured into dropping him, and even Cinemablend as a business was threatened. All because he had an opinion and wrote a review that people interpreted as offensive and racist, even though it wasn’t.
He issued an apology I do not think he should have made. Instead, Cinemabled should have issued a statement backing him up and saying “We stand by our critics. If you don’t like what you’re reading go somewhere else.” Full stop.
And all you have to do for people to understand the time we’re living through is put the word “offensive” in front of it: “offensive tweet,” “offensive review,” “offensive joke,” “offensive book,” “offensive clothing choice.” There is a ritual performed where the person is accused, hundreds or thousands of people flip out on Twitter, then someone apologizes or is fired, rinse and repeat. Every time someone apologizes, though, it kicks the can down the road. They do it to spare themselves but all it does is embolden this distorted system of justice, which I’ve been writing about for a long time.
What is the alternative to this? Sean O’Connell writes a review. People read it or not. End of story. But instead, it was flung into the public arena to be judged and interpreted and blasted as offensive. Cinemablend completely caved, which only means they set themselves up to have every review be absolutely perfectly politically correct all of the time. Um. Okay. That means no one will want to read the reviews. The last thing people need are pandering critics afraid of offending anyone. That is why many of us are turning to audience reviews instead — we know they will be honest. HONESTY is what you need in film criticism. That is the whole point.
In Campion’s case, an apology was warranted. That is what you do when you have too much to drink and you say things you shouldn’t. You apologize.
So what you actually want to do know is what does this mean for Oscar?
Irritatingly, the “CODA bros,” as they are being referred to of late, are waiting in the wings and ready to say this will finally put CODA, with its three nominations, over the top. They see it as a win/win. It’s a movie everyone likes about a family everyone is rooting for and a first for the Academy to make history. And no pesky baggage hanging around. But you see the whole system is set up for even CODA to fail should someone make a mistake or something from their past is brought to light. If the awards are based on GOODNESS and righteousness and purity, then that is a house of cards. Maybe it shouldn’t be about them being good people who can meet the impossible definition of goodness. Maybe all that matters is that the movie itself be good.
This is sort of similar to the Moonlight year when La La Land had it in the bag until the very last minute when Moonlight overtook it. That also had to do with goodwill and complaints that La La Land featured a white guy explaining jazz (lest we forget). Then you had celebrities and Academy members on Twitter pushing Moonlight, and it had enough goodwill to push it over the top. Although this is mostly a product of the preferential ballot, you could still see a scenario play out under the old system when, say, Reds and On Golden Pond split the vote, allowing for Chariots of Fire to win. Or you have Crash beating Brokeback Mountain because, believe it or not, Crash was pushed by virtue and goodwill (that is what they thought when they voted for it).
Back in the day, Russell Crowe was on tap to win Best Actor for A Beautiful Mind when he got into a fight with someone at the BAFTA Awards (of all things) because they would not allow him to read his whole poem. It was enough to derail his win and it flipped to Denzel Washington for Training Day instead. Imagine that story in the era of social media.
The Power of the Dog will be tested on a preferential ballot next weekend, to see whether people feel strongly enough about it to push it to the top of their ballots. It’s a little ironic that the very same community that loves the film and wants to see Campion succeed finally is also the community that seems to have a hard time confronting the kind of accuse and purge ritual that is so commonplace now. The people who vote on these awards want to be seen as good people. They want to be able to showcase themselves on social media, get the enthusiastic applause and love. To do that they have to use their vote as a “virtue signal” to show their community what they stand for. That is why we’re always on the lookout for shitstorms.
So, to sum up — I think what she said was dumb and an apology was the right thing to do. I think condemning her entire character is not the right thing to do and is, quite frankly, a terrifying trend to be living through.
Does it mean Best Picture goes to CODA or maybe Belfast or maybe King Richard? We’ll have to wait to see what the Producers Guild does. The Power of the Dog, though, was already in this position heading into the Critics Choice. It is either a movie people love enough to vote for or it isn’t. It’s as simple as that. I guess we’ll find out in a week.
