Since this seems to be a hot topic, it’s probably time to dive into it. I’ve seen plenty of stories now, mostly on the Right, that the Oscar movie is dead or dying. The holiday box office numbers were yet again disappointing like last year’s warning sign. The truth is there is a micro view and a macro view. It’s depressing and complicated confronting any of it.
The Critical Drinker has now declared 2022 to be the year the insular bubble of “woke” Hollywood burst and reality finally crashed the party. That’s partly true. It has to be. If Hollywood wants to continue to put movies in theaters they are going to have to ‘come out, come out, wherever you are,’ and realize that 75% of this country either doesn’t trust them anymore or hates them outright.
The reason you don’t hear more about it is that film coverage itself is in a bubble. Film Twitter is a bubble. The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, and Vanity Fair are all in the same bubble, the same echo chamber. When you add abject fear and hysteria into that, you get Salem in 1692. That means even if these journalists could see what was happening, they can’t admit it.
Lest we forget Sean O’Connell and the story of Turning Red. His review led to a mass hysteria reaction on Twitter that very nearly got him fired from Cinemablend. How dare he, a white male, give his impression of a film that was aimed at adolescent girls and was intersectional (I think)? He, a white male, is meant to be stepping aside, shutting up and allowing marginalized groups to rise. That plays well on Twitter and in various hives online where building one’s clout and platform overrides market concerns (like box office).
Hollywood is still run by the same people who ran it before, only this time they’re mainly looking out for their brand and image in Salem Village. They have to be seen as non-witch-loving Puritans or else their products will be viciously attacked and their image/brand tarnished. So we’ve seen an overreaction or over-correction to a long-standing problem of Hollywood being mostly run by, and revolving around, white men.
So now when people turn on any network news that aims its product at the “Left,” aka not Fox News, you will see intersectionality everywhere. It has to be there. It has to be Woke M&Ms:
Vivek Ramiswamy calls this “Woke Capitalism.” As long as they signal their virtue, they can do anything, sell anything. No matter whether it hurts them or the environment, no matter if it crashes at the box office, no matter if it’s absolutely terrible — the goal is to protect oneself in a time of extreme fear and hysteria at the hands of very loud activists who have a major voice. They control the media and the media buckles under the pressure, not to mention many outlets such as Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, etc. have hired activists and fired the dreaded white men. So their coverage has to sort of justify their place in the ranks — meaning, it has to also be activist.
When it comes to streaming platforms, this doesn’t matter that much. They aren’t trying to appeal to a majority. They’re trying to maintain good branding so that Gen Z, or wealthy white liberals specifically, will praise them and want to associate with them. They will want to share that association on social media because it builds their own clout. The market doesn’t matter that much. It is worth mentioning that Netflix and Spotify have gone to some lengths to de-Woke themselves a bit, but only a bit. A tiny tiny bit.
Here is a pretty good explainer of the disconnect between ‘go woke, go broke’ and ‘woke capitalism.’
Before you say it, Andrew Doyle is not a conservative, but that news network is usually associated that way. Unfortunately, this isn’t discussed in any direct way on the Left, which is why it’s necessary to navigate rightward.
Next, we have to go over the word “woke” because it almost always becomes the focal point. I’ll leave it to Ramiswamy to explain why it’s used to name the thing no one can seem to name:
“Wokeness has remade American capitalism in its own image. Talk of being “woke” has morphed into a kind of catchall term for progressive identity politics today. The phrase “stay woke” was used from time to time by black civil rights activists over the last few decades, but it really took off only recently, when black protestors made it a catchphrase in the Ferguson protests in response to a police officer fatally shooting Michael Brown.
These days, white progressives have appropriated “stay woke” as a general-purpose term that refers to being aware of all identity-based injustices. So while “stay woke” started as a remark black people would say to remind each other to be alert to racism, it would now be perfectly normal for white coastal suburbanites to say it to remind each other to watch out for possible microaggressions against, say, transgender people—for example, accidentally calling someone by their pre-transition name. In woke terminology, that forbidden practice would be called “deadnaming,” and “microaggression” means a small offense that causes a lot of harm when done widely. If someone committed a microaggression against black transgender people, we enter the world of “intersectionality,” where identity politics is applied to someone who has intersecting minority identities and its rules get complicated. Being woke means waking up to these invisible power structures that govern the social universe.”
I’m using it here because it’s used everywhere now to explain something that’s hard to explain. If you say “woke,” then people know what that means. This is not about the Black community, whose issues are separate from the white community attempting to absolve themselves of guilt and shame.
Now that we’ve got all of that out of the way, let’s get to the meat of the matter: is the Oscar movie dying?
The Oscar movie died a long time ago. It’s just that no one noticed. Remember the analogy I’ve been writing about for ten years or so about the first class section of the airplane? That the Oscar movies eliminated the public from the conversation, and that led to a kind of closed-off elitism? This isn’t new. What’s happened of late is that the combination of “woke” zealotry overwhelmed all aspects of American culture at the same time that concern about COVID exposure has inhibited the habits of the only audience the Oscar movies had.
The Harvey Weinstein Oscar movie is most definitely dead. The prestige period film about good people doing good things has been replaced by the prestige “woke” film of finding new ways to talk about the same subjects: #MeToo, racism, etc. That did serve a purpose for a while, but it’s become almost the only kind of thing on offer. Films that aren’t that, like The Fabelmans or The Banshees of Inisherin, are swept up in it too somehow because they look like an “Oscar movie,” and audiences figure they’ll wait for streaming.
Movies are expensive, and they require time and effort to go them. What would be something people would risk all of that to see? Not something they’re going to be irritated or depressed by, not now, not when times are as hard as they have been.
Film Twitter mostly sees movies for free. Their opinion should not count as much as people who have to pay to see movies, yet the dynamic has been reversed. In the old days, the market decided. If people liked a certain type of movie, then more got made. If it bombed, then careers could be ruined. Now, it doesn’t matter.
As you can see by the new model at Netflix, because people pay per month, they’ll watch just about anything. Filmmakers can make three-hour movies, indulge their every whim, and it will still get seen and might even get into the Oscar race. There is no way to fail.
Failure matters when you’re talking about building a successful business. How can you know what not to make if even the commercial failures are rewarded because they serve some other purpose? The reason Hollywood movies were so white, so male, and so heterosexual for so long wasn’t that people are evil at their core. It’s because when it comes to the practice of storytelling in our lives, we tend to want to watch that which reflects our own experiences and ourselves.
It is terrible that so many people were left out of that experience for so long, but the majority weren’t. Now, it’s safe to say that has flipped. Now, the majority is being left out as Hollywood desperately tries to virtue signal to spare themselves a bad image or bad branding. As we move away from theatrical and more to streaming, branding and image matter more, and box office matters less.
You can easily see our future as a species. Civilization is migrating online. Our online behavior is determined by clicks, views, engagement, and branding. That takes away the power of the ordinary consumer to vote with their feet. One person, one movie ticket. Now it’s what will get a lot of likes if I stand next to it on Instagram. What will make ME look good? How can I define myself as a Good Puritan?
Hollywood essentially built its house of straw, and the big storm finally came. COVID wiped out their main demographic: wealthy white liberals. They are the kind of people who wear masks while walking alone in the park. The chances of them going to the movies are going to be slim. But even those people are also kind of done with “woke Hollywood.”
What that means is that movies have robbed the public of the essentials of storytelling. There has to be an anchor to the truth. As a species, we have an attuned bullshit detector. We can spot their manipulation of reality from a mile away, and when that happens, the focus is off the story and on the people who are so afraid of criticism that they drag out a person of every type and skin color to use as shields to protect them.
The Oscars now have the same problem. No white men for Best Picture or Best Director has led to them twisting themselves up like pretzels trying to right the wrongs of society every time. Well, if there is one industry that really must rely on meritocracy, then it’s film awards. Otherwise, there is no point. If it isn’t about the best, and a majority of professionals don’t decide the best, why even have awards at all? Why not just hand out certificates of achievement? Doesn’t that serve their purposes better than pretending “deserves” has something to do with it?
I say this as someone who argued for decades about inclusion and diversity. But never in all that time did I think they would then rig the game to hand out awards that got them off the hook and made them look good. I always thought the person winning had to actually deserve it.
Perhaps it’s true that 2022 would be the year Hollywood finally got the message. Top Gun: Maverick shines the light out of darkness to say that what people want and what the majority wants isn’t that hard to figure out. This was one of the few films that makes you feel GOOD while watching it. It doesn’t take you down a rollercoaster ride of emotions that leave you gasping for air by the end and reaching for your meds. Feeling good at the hands of Hollywood — that’s what it’s all about. And while it’s true that “wealthy white liberals” only feel good when they’re in the presence of “correct” casting and intersectionality, that isn’t the majority of people who pay to see movies.
Movies have become like fast food. They are reduced down to a few recognizable brands. They always taste the same, and they are incredibly unhealthy. No one really cares as long as the money train keeps rolling on. The answer isn’t to make fast food healthier. The answer is to make something better than people might buy instead. Starbucks did it. How hard can that be?
The Oscars should not be about serving the guilty, fretful minds of people who no longer have to worry about the struggle of daily life. Part of what has gutted the industry is just that: they’ve completely lost touch with what it means to live and work hard labor all day long and want some kind of mind-blowing entertainment by the end of the day. Frank Capra knew that. That’s why he made the kinds of films he did. He wasn’t aiming them at the cultural elite. He was aiming them at the little guy.
The Oscar movies are dying because no one really cares what people who are that cut off from the reality of everyday life think anymore about anything. To them, it looks like lecturing at best and pointless naval gazing at worst. Even if we know these movies that aren’t making any money are good, that doesn’t mean people out there in the world will trust us. They don’t.
America is at a crossroads now. We have one foot in the reality of everyday life and one foot in the virtual world where we get lost in unreality. We are increasingly isolating ourselves from each other in the real world, and right on top of each other online. It is a strange time to be alive.
But the film industry and the Oscars must not get swallowed up in the virtual world, at least not yet. The people need you. They need you because they need culture too. This can’t be a better country or world if you foist upon them fast food all of the time. This point is made in the film The Banshees of Inisherin, one of the best of the year. Without access to culture, friendship, and compassion, we turn to violence, loneliness, and hatred.
Finally, the question: can movies come back? Yes, they can. The films that did really well this year did so because they were authentically themselves. They weren’t “woke pandering” movies with a few exceptions here or there:
Top Gun: Maverick — 700 mil
Avatar: The Way of Water — 450 mil and counting
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever — 400 mil
Elvis — 150 mil
Nope — 123 mil
Everything Everywhere All At Once — 70 mil
The Woman King — 67 mil
Those that underperformed did so because they flipped the script, and they tried to foist an ideology upon a built-in audience. If you give people what they aren’t expecting, then you will make them angry and lose their trust. It’s okay to try it, but don’t be surprised if you fail at it or lose your audience.
Serve the majority, listen to the market, listen to the people and Hollywood — and the Oscars — can thrive. Many people will distort this message and say it’s “White supremacy in action.” And as long as we keep going down the road of accusing and finger-pointing witch hunts, you might as well stick a fork in it. It’s done.
One person who makes her living off the internet cannot seem to contend with the fact that the internet is slowly killing the medium that helps make her money.
Maybe retire rather than blame things on the social evolution you can’t roll with.
Everything Everywhere All at Once (7): AFI, BAFTA, GG, CC, NBR, IPA, SDSA
The Fabelmans (7): AFI, BAFTA, GG, CC, NBR, IPA, SDSA
Top Gun: Maverick (7): AFI, BAFTA, GG, CC, NBR, IPA, SDSA
Avatar: The Way of Water (6): AFI, GG, CC, NBR, IPA, SDSA
The Banshees of Inisherin (6): AFI, BAFTA, GG, CC, NBR, IPA
Elvis (6): AFI, BAFTA, GG, CC, IPA, SDSA
TÁR (6): AFI, BAFTA, GG, CC, IPA, SDSA
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (5): GG, CC, NBR, IPA, SDSA
Women Talking (4): AFI, CC, NBR, IPA
Babylon (3): GG, CC, SDSA
RRR (3): CC, NBR, IPA
Triangle of Sadness (3): BAFTA, GG, IPA
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2): IPA, SDSA
Aftersun (2): BAFTA, NBR
Living (2): BAFTA, IPA
Till (2): NBR, IPA
The Woman King (2): AFI, NBR
All Quiet on The Western Front (1): BAFTA
Nope (1): AFI
She Said (1): AFI
The 2022 Set Decorators Society Of America (SDSA) Nominations
Contemporary Film
Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths
Bullet Train
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
TÁR
Top Gun: Maverick
Period Film
Amsterdam
Babylon
Elvis
The Fabelmans
White Noise
Fantasy/Science Fiction Film
Avatar: The Way of Water
The Batman
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Don’t Worry Darling
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Musical/Comedy Film
Bros
Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile
Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical
Spirited
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent
TAR finally became available for rental. One rarely comes across a film that’s aimed at one’s intellect. At first I hated it. Too pretentious, to self-satisfying. And then came that brilliant scene in the Juilliard classroom. I’ve no affinity for Bach and his harpsichords but to deny “Air” a listening is sheer folly.
And soon I kind of saw the film as some sort of extremely subtle mockery of your typical biopic and the film just grew and grew on me. And it hasn’t stopped growing. Not quite sure where it will land on the Best of the Year for me. But I suspect #4 or higher.
I love how currently over at Gold Derby there are now 6 different movies listed as Best Picture predictions. I don’t think i’ve seen that all season or in recent years. Given we are still in the middle of it all; that is quite a shift from The Fabelmans having most #1 spots, to now sharing that with Elvis, Top Gun, Everything Everywhere, Banshees and Women Talking! Normally there is some coalescing around one or two. No-one has Avatar or it would be 7!
The Globes will likely clarify that.
It will all be Banshees.
No, The Globes won’t clarify it. Don’t get me wrong, I love The Globes, but they are always just throwing darts to see what sticks.
We won’t know anything of value until SAG, PGA, DGA, and WGA.
Abba-salutely! 🙂
https://media4.giphy.com/media/hrywknGB2uqVW/giphy.gif
Aww love me some Meryl, My all time favourite actor!
Give me your top 5 Meryl performances!
Speaking of the Oscar Movie, Empire of Light was sadly a snooze
Serious, big-brained thinkers like The Critical Drinker and Vivek Ramiswamy definitely deserve our attention. They don’t come across as oafish to me. When I see their perspectives, I think to myself, “That’s so interesting! I should let them orient a conversation about culture.” I was kicked in the head by a horse a few weeks ago.
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you’ve been peeking in my bedroom window, first thing in the morning, again , haven’t you? ^.^
How very dare you! 😉 I resemble that remark!
Way of Water update: $1,482.5b ($1.025b international, $457m domestic) through Tuesday, by day’s end, the official most popular worldwide release of 2022, surpassing Top Gun: Maverick’s $1.489b. Now #24 domestic all-time. The next mile marker? Avengers: Age of Ultron ($459m). Globally, #12 biggest release ever, overtaking Frozen II.
150% correct … Sasha and it with deepest regret i lost almost all trust in award season and their elitist delusional press to see common sense and reason as thing stand.
Somerhing all us to think about the OSCAR RACE EPIC YR OF 1917 V PARASITE V JOKER V FORD VS FERRARI V ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD VS JOJO RABBIT ..
Parasite was imnovative winner but it was never truly best picture . That year Oscar had as awards season did by sombre downbeat droll affair they refuced yhemselves to yr upon yr upon yr to go for more majestic truly genuinely visionary big scale storytelling historic set epic of films that not only rivalled parasite for crirical acclaim but SURPASSED it for maasive widespread public engagement .
Of all contenders that year . There was a chanve i wpuld supported way more for broader good wellbeing punlic reputarion of the academy to :
1. JOKER wins best picture as hollyeood salutes chsnging of the guard for the better the realistic dramatically near flawless but visionary comic book adaptation era reconnecting audiences to oscar
2. 1917 wins best picture ushering in a revival and redefinition of war time experienve told in a way to engage modern audienves of newer generation tild in most inspired n presented in most traditional way .. oscar reconnects with it routes and ounlic in process ( !aftrt all first oscar winner was called ‘ wings’ set in great war)
3. Once upon a time i Hollywood wins best picture split with knives out tellibg traditional stories in both convrmtiomal umconvrntional way redefinibg storytelling for setting n era they representing re emgaging oublic film goers and reviving old style hollywood with new stories for today generation ..
4. Ford vs ferrari stuns … sweeps against the odds… the film in industrial age that seldowm evet wins of a classic story brings oscar and public together to celebrate it pure entertsining first class filmmaking if a joyride… that shows best qyality near flawless filmmaking across board brilluant pergormanves can be story we all care about when famous actors engage in immersive cinema wunderkind… ( but in a way Ford vs Ferrari 3 oscar wins almost upstaged parasite 4 oscar wins as by ratio fordvs ferrari one 50% of it 6 nominations .
No ither film esp parasite won hslf theor nominated tally.. this foes matte tells us that despite wunmibg pic director and script parasite for all it overnlown exaggerated praise as one geat oeigibal films made failed to win more than one major arts tech awardds.
And the lambasting and underminibg if importanxe of the tech arts movie is what killing hollywood… as i highlighted above rmbracing bedt picture one of options above could lesd subsequentially in ensuring yr to bigget jp in oscar ratinfs not flatlining and decline we seen embrace the films mainstraam care aboyf at highest quality and public will leadt tale notice ignore this and see awards seasom in avoudable but now inevitable decline. This era in awards season was set noq i thimk boyt it when parasite won over more insoired more broadly apealing more loved movies outside holkyeood thsn just parasite oportunity kissdx snd toxic destinity forged simce that time.
3.
An interesting thought that kinda helped me understand this piece (& the whole TGM a bit better) just came to me earlier today.
The Menu spoilers but Ms Stone’s stance towards “woke” films is pretty much what Ms Taylor-Joy’s characters talks about near the end: Being tired of Avant-garde, intellectual or philosophical foods after being starved and just wanting to eat a good old cheeseburger. Here it’s social & message carrying films focusing on relevant social realities that seem to have killed gold old fun agenda-free Hollywood blockbusters.
It’s absolutely alright and as the character shows, perfectly nice to enjoy that delicious burger (I also LOVE cheeseburger) but claiming such sophisticated food has died because food providers have over saturated the market with Avant-garde ones so we need to save good old drive-by hamburgers is not the answer. First, the audience for “highbrow” foods is different and has NEVER been the masses. Also, the drive-bys still exist and serve their purpose but when people have ENDLESS foodie apps to order them & enjoy at their preferred places, that’s where most food is eaten. Also, you can have a burger AS WELL as a modern cuisine from a modern app and have it delivered right to you without resorting to older methods.
Oh please. Oscars are Olive Garden.
This is otherwise a solid comparison in my opinion but I’d argue that Oscar movies are not really the kind of food that is served at Fiennes’ restaurant in that movie. Those kinds of movies exist but they mostly don’t come even close to contact with the Oscar race. The Oscar movies have been and are something that’s in between those two disparate points, I’d argue slightly more towards “wanting a good old cheeseburger”. People just seem to think that they either don’t need anything else than cheeseburgers, or that for some reason only cheeseburgers are the only kind of food worth going out to eat for and the rest they can make at home.
Oh absolutely. The food served by Mr Fiennes is indeed more leaning towards European films that win at Berlin or CANNES but after seeing this post many times over the last few days, Ms Stone’s negative attitude towards supposed “woke” films vs an old-school film that she believes majority can enjoy suddenly reminded me of the difference between two food groups, their audience & value. Now that I think about it, “The Menu” itself could be considered a sort of “woke” film.
My wish for 2023 is that we break free of the notion that every single movie is made with Oscar in mind or the corollary idea that a movie that tracks with Oscar voters is an “Oscar movie”.
While I have no idea how EEAAO will ultimately fare at this year’s Oscars, no one even remotely rational can say with a straight face that the filmmakers and cast at the time the film was made were telling themselves “oh yeah, Dolby Theater here we come”. Oscar is basically a huge crapshoot that requires an immense amount of luck and fortune to bring home. All of these omnibus theories about “doing good” or insinuations of sticking it to white men just make me weary.
By using the phrase “Oscar movie” I meant not something that is made for Oscar but rather something that the Oscars go for. The Oscars rarely embrace the absolute extreme of mainstream genre blockbusters (though this year seems to be a slight exception) and though there are exceptions, their limits are rather low in terms of variance from certain styles (though I’d note that even Everything Everywhere All at Once, though not typical Academy fare, is still not in that kind of highbrow discussion in my opinion, and for example one critics’ group naming it the best experimental movie of the year is in my opinion rather ridiculous). Thus I think the phrase “Oscar movie” is reasonable, even though I agree with you that the concept of people making movies in order to win Oscars is a baffling one.
Not directed at you, just a larger observation that everyone could stand to be a lot more exact in how they talk about movies as well as maybe backing away from omnibus culture war theories about them.
Sorry, not sorry for veering off topic. I watched Roald Dahl’s Matilda: The Musical last night. What a wonderful experience. I didn’t know what to expect not having read the novel or seen the musical. Dame Emma is just brilliant and just as well she appeared in Good Luck To You, Leo Grande last year or she will be in danger of playing too many monsters and grotesques. The entire cast is great: I so love Andrea Riseborough and she too is unafraid of playing the extremes. She is one of Britain’s most versatile performers; quite the chameleon. Stephen Graham is always hilarious.
A rare experience for me to be spellbound by a feature on the couch at home. It’s heresy I know, but it has to be really compelling for me to not split a movie into a couple of parts or days!
Another Netflix piece of camp-erama is 7 Women & A Murder. I didn’t realise it was an adaptation (rip off) of Francois Ozon’s 8 Women which was also an adaptation, which I loved seeing 20 years ago but have no memory of the plot. Swap French actresses for Italian, and C’est Magnifique into Buon Divertimento. I really enjoyed both
And, no they’re not Oscar movies. Off topic….
Oh and Lashana Lynch is just perfect as Miss Honey. What a talent she is.
Over the years, much has been written of the relationship between Lydia TAR and Stephen Sondheim. I’m sure you all know they met during the creation of West Side Story and the two remained friends for the next decade until they had a peculiar falling out, neither of which has ever spoken publicly. After Sondheim’s death though, his notes reveal that The Ladies Who Lunch was written specifically about TAR (the reference to Mahler should have been our first clue) but then the extent of their feud inspired Sweeney Todd. Sondheim had wanted to distill the evil within TAR into discordant four-part harmonies. I was thus eager to view this film.
The New York cognoscenti of the 1970’s definitely sided with Sondheim and TAR fell into relative obscurity. But then along comes Todd Field’s attempt to resuscitate the downtrodden iconoclast into some sort of free speech zealot. The film would work but it’s filled not only with distortions of musical history, but medical facts as well. Everyone knows Metoprolol’s main side effect is to put one to sleep, thus preventing the taker to overuse the heart.
I feel like the whole movie has been diffused with too much Metoprolol. I understand that Field wanted to keep a systemic distance from the material (he fears Film Twitter as much as anyone apparently) but still portray a nuanced take on one of music’s most indelible personalities.
Many think the role of Lydia TAR could only have been played by Cate Blanchett. I think she was completely miscast. It was a role Jennifer Coolidge was born to play. Maybe Steven Spielberg can cast her in the remake.
I watched Women Talking. I didn’t expect to enjoy it that much. And I certainly didn’t expect to love Claire Foy’s performance that much. Claire is on fire in this film, and her performance is so unlike anything we’ve seen her do in the past. The acting is stellar — it’s a brilliant cast, and a SAG win would be absolutely justified. Sarah Polley has certainly grown as a director, she’s now more tech savvy, but what I like is that she kept this sense of innocence in her approach. It’s almost naive but so honest and hard-hitting.
What I certainly didn’t like: the palette. It was certainly a bit too much.
Anyway, I think the adapted screenplay Oscar is safe (even though I expect a dark horse to emerge and take it away; this is what always happens when we have a front-runner by default — it feels right until it feels very wrong), but I’d love to see a lot of acting nods. The lack of acting Globe nods is ridiculous.
The amount of rage directed at Polley during this Oscar season has been beyond depressing to watch
There are some great points as it is always with Sasha. But, I really don’t think people are losing interest in movies because they are “woke”. It’s obvious that we’re still on Peak TV. And woke TV shows are beloved and successful. People just don’t wanna go to a cinema unless it’s a blockbuster.
Also, if the awards should be given on merit, then it’s best that editors should award Best Editing etc. instead of the whole Academy. Musicians should vote for Score, Actors should vote for Actors. For the winners, I mean.
The actual worst thing about awards season for me is how predictable it really is. If BFCA have any sense in them, they should stop copying the HFPA winners every damn year.
Going to the movies is expensive–most working-class and lower-middle-class families hardly ever do it because they simply can’t afford to spend $50-$100 on one night where they have to sack up the kids, leave the house, drive however far to the multiplex, buy tickets, buy overpriced snacks (unless they’re clever at sneaking things in), watch the movie in a theatre full of people on their phones yakking away/bootlegging the movie/generally being obnoxious. Then, when the lights go up, they wonder if it was really worth all that time, trouble, and money…oh, and let’s not forget all the damn ads you have to sit through first. Trailers are one thing, but ads we’ve already seen on TV? If I didn’t want to buy a Chevy Tahoe when I saw the TV ad, what makes anyone think I’d want one after I see the same damn ad at the movies? The majority of people only go out to movies they see as An Event, whether it’s something from the MCU/DCU, a movie that’s gotten a lot of good press for being something different, or one featuring one of the few Big Stars. Otherwise, they can stay at home, watch something on Netflix/Hulu/HBO/whatever, order in a pizza, sit on their own comfy couch, say whatever they want to back to the screen, and put everything on “pause” for a bathroom/snack break. It’s just much easier. “Woke Hollywood” didn’t kill people’s interest in movies; they’re still interested–they just prefer watching them at home, whether it’s a streaming movie or a series/one-off on cable, and they don’t necessarily shy away from “difficult” topics, either.
What I think a lot of it comes down to is the blurring of boundaries between film and TV–for many years, film was the big deal, and TV the inferior substitute; now, it’s TV that mainly tackles difficult societal issues, does them better, and gets people to watch them. There are and have been plenty of TV programs in recent years that have dealt with “ordinary people” and their lives that are both popular with audiences and critically well-regarded. If you can get better, more interesting material on TV than at the movies, and for a hell of a lot less money along with considerably more comfort and convenience, where are you going to go? “Oscar Movies” aren’t dead; they’re on streaming services and cable, and doing pretty damn well, thankyouverymuch. You’re never going to get the “ordinary” movies that pull in huge crowds in the same way that you’re never going to get most of the TVs in the US tuned to the same event any more, because everyone is curating their own entertainment, not just going along with the crowd. We’re in the middle of massive changes in media that we probably won’t understand until they’re well behind us; some formats will survive and some won’t, and there will be brand new formats we couldn’t have imagined. I can easily see a situation where first-run films are shown on streaming/cable, and movie theaters go back to the old “movie palace” concept of beautiful buildings and furnishing to give audiences some of the beauty they need and crave (honestly, who’s getting inspired by your average multiplex? The last time I was in one in Boston, I was sitting on the aisle when I spotted a rat scampering down the stairs to the main level), and running older movies, or cult films–places like the Brattle in Cambridge and the Coolidge Corner in Brookline (Boston-area theaters). Sounds like a plan to me…
I would have gone to the theaters to see an Oscar movie today, but I was too riveted by the goings-on with Kevin McCarthy.
When real life is far more disturbing/hilarious than your typical movie why go out when you can watch MSNBC. I mean, C’Mon!, 1/6 is far scarier than Barbarian. Volodymyr Zelenskyy is far more heroic than the Batman and Donald Trump is far more treacherous than Lydia TAR.
So, it’s not “white supremacy in action”, but it is choosing to not tell stories from anyone who isn’t part of the majority, so in that sense, it’s pretty close.
Movies are made to tell stories. Sure, a lot of folx that see them are white, and may even be male, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t make films about folx who fall into different categories. With that said, films also shouldn’t be made that depict non-white, non-male, non-hetero folx purely for the groups they depict, but rather as a way to reach folx who lack exposure to said groups and therefore have their entire worldviews shaped through that lens.
Variety is the spice of life, and the sooner white supremacists, or folx who behave like them due to a lack of exposure, get that, the better off we will all be.
The article by Joey Moser about Shirley Kurata’s work on Costuming for ‘Everything Everywhere All At Once’ is missing from Awardsdaily main page – no where to be found. I wonder why.
It is well written, https://www.awardsdaily.com/2023/01/02/shirley-kurata-eeaao/ please read it if you have time.
Way of Water as of yesterday: $446,000,000 domestic/997,000,000 offshore. Now the 13th highest global movie ever, passing Avengers: Age of Ultron ($1.403b).
I think this is a lot of overromanticization of the past.
“It is terrible that so many people were left out of that experience for so long, but the majority weren’t.” Yes they were. White heterosexual men have never been the majority, not in any place on the planet in any time in history. But they were the ones having decision power over money and so what appealed to them got made.
“I always thought the person winning had to actually deserve it.” This has never been the case. Most people on here know better than I how the easier to swallow, consensus pick won over the one that made its mark in history. The socially acceptable movie always had a bigger chance, that was true fifty years ago and it is true now. Just what is socially acceptable has changed.
“I always thought the person winning had to actually deserve it.” The Oscars are actually pretty great at giving awards to deserving people compared to, say, the Nobel Prize in Literature (who penalize success), the Grammys (who always lean to the most broadly popular), the Emmys (who over award the same people over and over), etc etc.
By the way a good companion to “go woke, go broke” is “go fash, lose cash”
You bring up great points about the woke voices being too much and everyone being too preachy and unbearable. I get it.
I’m Brown AF as a disclaimer. (Queue the “he’s woke” labels.) Hear me out though:
Most of our favorite directors are white, because that’s all we’ve had, that’s all we’ve known. I agree that the online woke culture is getting just as preachy, just as bad as the way the right was a few decades ago during more Christian-prominent media eras. I’m starting to tune out the “woke” dialogues as well with eye rolls. I’m more for choosing my battles and assuming the best about people.
I’d argue the Oscar film is evolving, not over. We really can’t be stuck in the past anymore when MEtoo, Black Lives Matter, and Border Issues and Native Treaty issues are consuming this country. These. Are. Stories. Put them on fIlm! Tell the stories from all perspectives but let’s tell more than a World World II biopic Oscar “Classic.” (I love those too by the way.)
We all crave deeper, intimate, more unique stories and those are unfolding all around us.
The biggest thing any of us want is representation, it makes money, and it creates the unique stories we all crave in cinema, oh…and it reflects the realities we live in accurately which helps us form a healthier view of the society at large. There are in fact Natives, Latinos, Asians and more in this country who have agency. Not white people in brown/black face like early Hollywood depicted. I think Simu Limu says it best right now when it comes to representation in Marvel films.
I’m here for the white directors who create amazing film, but I want to see POC and women directors as well. I want to see everyone have a voice.
And yes! Let’s tell these stories without being preachy woke assholes to each other, please. Let’s assume the best and stop crucifying each other for saying the “wrong” thing. We are all learning.
I’ve enjoyed reading this blog for years and will continue to read it. I enjoy the topics and thoughts brought up here.
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I love this response, and you are such a clear communicator. If you’re not a writer, you should be. 🙂
Jim. That’s such amazing feedback, thank you.
No need to thank me. Credit where credit is due. 🙂
Re: Simu Liu’s tweets: He is Chinese, was born in China and got to be the lead actor in an American film. How many big budget Chinese movies had white American lead actors?
I’m confused about why this is relevant exactly? Why do White American’s need to be in Chinese films? We have out own booming industry that plays in China to great numbers when our movies get past their regulations. See Avatar and Fast and Furious franchise.
Why do Chinese people born in China need to be in American films?
Because we have Chinese-American people here?!?! Do you not know that information? Or do you need to do a quick google search for yourself?
I finally watched TG:M last night. To me it was just like any entertaining late 80’s – late 90’s Hollywood blockbuster. Just shot better/ more interestingly than usual.
It basically gave me the same vibes as Armageddon (which I’ve always enjoyed). Except in this film the tough old timer is teaching his scrappy young crew to do a seemingly impossible mission in a realistic setting. Same cheesy tropes and all, (Which is fine)
But I don’t get why some people se this movie as the second coming of Christ or something.
It’s just a good old fashioned Hollywood blockbuster with actual passion put into it rather than trying to pump them out as many and as fast as possible like with the recent MCU fare.
All true. But to be fair, some people’s adoption of the film has been openly motivated by culture war politics that they claim to hate.
Totally! And acting like it is the second coming of Christ sets it up for failure in the eyes of those of us who hadn’t seen it yet, such that we are left scratching our heads when we do.
I felt that way about all the films below this year:
Top Gun: Maverick
Everything Everywhere All at Once (Btw, was chatting with a friend about this the other day and we agreed it should be renamed “Too Much of Everything All at Once”
The Fabelmans
The Banshees of Inisherin
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Doesn’t need to be an awards player, nor should it be)
Oliva Colman’s performance in Empire of Light
There is one film that was set up for high expectations and delivered:
Women Talking
Meanwhile, there are still other films that blew me away and were not set up to do so:
Aftersun
The Whale
I spoke with Jesus’ publicist and they said he agrees with you.
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You answered your own question. It’s not Tom Cruises fault that bean counters and snowflakes have hurt tent pole cinema. TP:M was competently made and uncomplicated. It did it’s job. You don’t get to dismiss it by comparing it to 40 year old movies. People are starved for 40 year old movies TODAY. Maverick delivered. Problem?
You misunderstood… I really liked TG:M… I just think people were making it out to be more one of a kind than it really is… It’s my 5th favorite movie I’ve seen in 2022.
“The films that did really well this year did so because they were authentically themselves. Those that underperformed did so because they flipped the script, and they tried to foist an ideology upon a built-in audience.”
I guess the writer meant to say this is why The Fabelmans and Babylon flopped. Because Spielberg and Chazelle didn’t “serve the majority, listen to the market, listen to the people”.
Monday morning quarterbacking is always fun.
As I said a few days ago the big time downside of doctrinaire “rules” for movies is once in a while you have to quietly carve out exceptions for films that you end up personally loving. Let’s be blunt, Fabelmans wasn’t the only film this site loves that bombed at the box office. Banshees made less than $10 million in the US and has only made $20 million worldwide. Does that mean Banshees had themes and representation that offended the majority? Of course not. Sometimes films just don’t land.
“Blah blah blah Salem. Blah blah blah woke. Blah blah blah Oscars are dying because you won’t award Top Gun. Blah blah blah I’m not wrong, YOU’RE wrong. Lather, rinse, repeat. The end.”
Except it’s never “The end”.
I honestly think, this is, probably, the most misunderstood and underrated film of the year… plus, a necessary film, revolutionary, intelligent and trusting the audience… and that in 20 years from now, will be aprecciated as a landmark.
I can’t really discuss why, without going into full spoiler mode, but anyone should start thinking that the very same title is totally meta, and willing to open meanings to the whole project. A “Strange World” indeed – that shouldn’t be strange, for starters. Not perfect, but one to be taken seriously.
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LatelyI have seen more and more this kind of articles written by Sasha and I must say I’m surprised and glad to see this. Usually liberals tend to be overtly emotional and rather irrational in their arguments. It’s good to see there are people in the left like who can be critical and empathetic without losing common sense and proportions.
“people on the left”?
Sasha was always a Liberal. Now, she sees hypocrisy on both sides and sees things much more moderately. That’s the impression I get from things she has said here and elsewhere.
I do not always agree with Sasha’s ideas (as evidenced by my comments over the years expressing such) but l recognizing the problems on both sides is important and a sign of intelligence and critical thinking. To quote Dumbledore from Harry Potter, “it takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but a great deal more to stand up to your friends.”
There are ways to stand up to one’s friends that could stand to be tried
You’re speaking in riddles lol what exactly are you trying to say
Nothing that would get me banned.
Alright dude I don’t have time to play guessing games lol. Have a nice day
Just a comment on the current state of movie blogs.
Riveting lol
Then you do not have a proper understanding of how little one is allowed to say here.
You can say whatever you want to say, if it’s mostly kind. You can disagree with someone without name calling.
Sasha, is not a racist, homophobe, transphobe, or any other words people want to call her. She has become quite a moderate—and no one has to agree with it….but that doesn’t give license to come here and treat her or anyone else like garbage.
It’s really that simple. So let’s not be all “you don’t know how little we can say here.”….especially since, you are pretty new here? At least according to your disqus history of comments—so don’t act like you know things and spread false crap, as if you are some victimized commentator that can’t call people names and treat them rudely.
Agreeing to disagree with people is a thing, and so is leaving or just being a nice human.
I will respectfully disagree with your assertion that she is a “moderate”. A cursory review of her Substack pretty much establishes that she’s anything but. And before you all jump my case, that’s her right to be that way and no good will come from trying to call her out on that here. But to argue that people aren’t self-censoring their posts to avoid getting banned is not entirely correct.
No no I’m not gonna jump on you and tell you, you’re wrong. I have not read anything of hers that she hasn’t written here, from that point of reference—she comes across as moderate. I think at one point, she has said she’s still liberal but just she doesn’t bow down to the left radicles way of thinking on every point.
One thing I respect of her doing that, is I think it’s great to question what you believe and why you believe it—are you believing something just because you are told to? I think many people on the right and left do so without ever questioning why…I use to be very conservative. Here in the Midwest, most of my friends and family still are very conservative….but then I started questioning things and I came to some strong realizations and it changed the way I view politics and the right and left. Sasha is doing something similarly….so my view on what she has done is she has opened her eyes and looked around and seen some ugly things, and know she’s questioning and finding ground to stand on. I consider myself to be firmly in the middle—able to see both sides, the good and the bad. I believe that’s where Sasha is getting at, judging from these writings here. That’s my take on what she’s done and where she is….you obviously don’t agree and that’s fine.
As to people censoring—I guess that’s on them. But why would you feel that way? Because to me it’s pretty simple, be kind and don’t call people names…..so you censor yourself because you can’t do that and fear being banned if you do? Just seems odd. It sounds like a “you” problem. Explain that to me?
When has she acknowledged and discussed hypocrisy on the right?
Incorrect. There is never any acknowledgment of any wrong on the right. Zero. Look beyond this site for further insight.
Yeah cause conservatives are never emotional.
It took a few tries but I got through this one.
The overall thesis here seems to be that audiences don’t like being challenged by art, so artists should stop trying to challenge them. Is that accurate? Am I misreading the article?
No. The overall thesis is that audiences don’t want to be saturated with themes that don’t represent the majority. And that awards should be handed out based on merit alone and not on filling quotes or making amends for the past based on race or any other minority issue.
Here are the last five BP winners:
CODA
Nomadland
Parasite
Shape of Water
Green Book
Which films were awarded BP based on “making amends” or “based on race or any other minority issue” and please cite your evidence for any film you list.
Ironically enough the ONE film that would fit your metric of “themes that don’t represent the majority” is Green Book. For all the blathering about “woke” all these years, the wokest BP of the last five years was the one BP this site adores without equivocation.
Thank you. I threw that stat in the face of a user on here (who has the audacity to soil Werner Herzog’s name by using it as his handle) and he couldn’t deal with it either.
Yes please reward mediocrity. It’s the way of the past. As I’ve said often: I’m a white cis male and I, in no way, want to only see myself on a screen. I want to learn other perspectives. How sad that anyone only wants the same thing constantly.
Isn’t this just a way of saying not to challenge audiences? You’re telling artists that their goal should be to tell the audience whatever they want to hear.
The U.S. population is and has been majority female for decades, if not centuries.
Also:
That “75%” is hyperbole (to put it kindly), but beyond that people from all walks of life stopped “trusting” Hollywood in the ’60s, not in the past decade.
Call me old fashioned or stuck in the Age of Reason, but I happen to think that human beings by simply existing enjoy universal human experiences. I am very uneasy at the idea that the worth of a story is primarily or even exclusively based on the idea of a demographic head count.
It makes me sad that some people appear to be openly suggesting that films should be as blinkered as the audience. There’s room for Top Gun AND Nomadland, it shouldn’t be an either/or choice, yet here we are being told to make that choice.
“Woke is where the art is”.
I was first called woke by a friend in 2014. At the time, I didn’t know what it meant – so I asked him to explain himself. He said, “you empathize with women, minorities, and immigrants because of your life experiences as a gay man and an immigrant. This makes you talk about equal rights at dinner parties which is somewhat annoying , hence you are woke”.
If being empathetic to others is woke, I am proud to be so. I really don’t get this line of attacks that seem to prefer “head in sand” strategy towards inequality in civil rights.
Perfectly written Sasha. Nobody has explained the current situation quite like you have.
She’s wrote this same article hundreds of times before. I still don’t understand what films she meant to say are woke and what films are not. When you make allegations in such broad generalizations, it’s hard to give a damn. At this point, it seems as though the films she hates that get rewarded do so because they are woke, and the films she likes that don’t get rewarded do so because they are not woke enough. Very convenient.
Her articles are just for click-baiting. The more controversial, the more data traffic it gets. Simple as that.
Yeah a lot getting inflated and tied up here all at once. When we look at those box office numbers we do see a lot of movies that weren’t built for award season, ELVIS and EEAAO are not specifically made to win awards. On the other hand we don’t know what the streaming revenue is on Banshees and Tár, and because of that we don’t really know if award season films that now get some of their love and attention via streaming no longer have a place in the world of film and capitalism. Film critics see films for free but a lot of “film twitter” (movie fans that use social media?) shells out the $3.99 (or more when the first hit the rentals) to watch. So while I agree that we are trending away from She Said (as in a movie specifically being made for award season) from having as much marketability as it used to, I still think the most “critically acclaimed film” have a place among people who enjoy films, and I don’t see studios deciding flat out to not make them anymore.
I watched Thirteen Lives. I enjoyed it a lot, but they went out of their way to mention that some of the trapped boys and their families were undocumented illegal immigrants. Does that make it a woke movie? It’s hard to keep track.
Went out of their way? Isn’t it mentioned once or twice briefly near the beginning with respect to fear of rescue priorities?
Went out of their way? Isn’t it mentioned once or twice briefly near the beginning with respect to fear of rescue priorities?
I can’t with the politics. So maybe yes, it might have a little to do with it, but I feel it’s mostly due to post COVID realizations that people now understand there is no need to always have to go out and catch the movies in the theaters. Sure, they’ll spend $$ to watch a blockbuster event ala Top Gun, Avatar, Marvel movies, etc; but, when it comes to smaller dramedies aka Tar, Fablemans, etc that do not require a towering screen, deafening surround sound, people tend to now wait for streaming to come, and usually they’ll be fast arriving.
I have not met a single person who has said “I refused to see this movie in a theater because it looked woke,” it’s always just how it seemed or worth effort to see on big screen.
Glass Onion was viewed by 30-35 million households in its first three days on Netflix.
People have not stopped watching highbrow movies; they’ve just stopped watching them in theaters.
Glass Onion was viewed by 30-35 million households in its first three days on Netflix.
People have not stopped watching highbrow movies; they’ve just stopped watching them in theaters.
Excellent point.
Seriously, supposed “woke” or highbrow films are doing fine (She Said, Women Talking or TÁR have their audience who appreciate streaming).
It’s the theaters themselves that are dying because streaming & home cinema WORK.
Cinemas now can only sell big tickets if you have a popcorn movie or a technically exclusive experience for Theaters like Avatar The Way Of Water. Like Avatar 1, It’s a film that HAS to be seen with all the tool available in cinemas but even this will soon become streamlined enough that the only thing left for cinemas will be the nostalgia factor.
Thus “CINEMA ONLY” fans will truly become the new “Vinyl only” crowd of 21th century).
I think vinyl is a good analogy. You can argue all you want that music sounds better on vinyl, but 9 times out of 10 people will choose convenience and lower cost.
Vinyl is ridiculously overpriced and I fear it will kill it dead without a serious price correction.
Of course, flip side (no pun intended), the used CD market is incredible and used bins reveal big prizes. I found a used copy of the Coltrane Love Supreme Live in Seattle for 8 bucks when a new vinyl is 40 bucks.
Come on! Glass Onion is most definitely not a high brow movie.
I’m not going to argue semantics. My point is that it’s a movie that’s made for adults that isn’t driven by special effects and impressive visuals.
For those that don’t think history repeats itself, it’s fascinating that those who scream the loudest about “wokeness” are aging, white people who can’t cope with the fact that their world is disappearing, and they simply can’t handle it. Some have platforms to document their slide into irrelevancy, but most just bay at the moon.
It reminds me of stories I was told as a child about when The Beatles arrived. All the old, conservative guard from the Eisenhower era acted like it was end times. Their howls of protest didn’t matter then, and they sure as hell don’t matter now.
That’s why the Man from Hibbing is eternal:
“Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’”
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I think we know who would have screamed about Sidney Poitier in the woke film Lilies of the Field beating Paul Newman for Hud in 1963.
Roy Cohn?
I couldn’t see the first two season of NYPD Blue because I was living in Jacksonville Florida and the local ABC affiliate refused to air it because of content that you can watch easily today.
It’s always been this way, Internet just enhances it.
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Nice try. Problem is, woke is not the oppoite of fascist.
Fascism is clearly defined. Woke is not. It’s an ideological Rorschach test that means something different to each person depending on what they believe. To progressives, woke is being a proponent of social justice, equal rights and opportunity, and staunch opposition to anything that stands against it. To many on the right, it means being overly politically correct and attempting to stifle any and all opposing viewpoints that do not fit exactly within their narrow framework. To more moderate liberals, it means it seems to be a combination of the two: they agree with the principles but think they’re going a bit too far in terms of implementation. The point is, it’s a very slippery word and you’ll get a different idea of what it means from every person you’ll ask to define it.
Exactly. Not even close. It’s astonishing how few people around here seem to get this.
It’s way to easy to accuse only the politics and so called wokeism. Franchises, streaming, death of cable tv and at the same time death of cultural meaning of old cinema – these are factors to blame. The last one seems especially crucial to me. Today people have almost none contact with older movies, they are fed only with streaming content. If there is no cinema history awarness, there is no meaning in Oscars, no reason to invest any attention to them. For many ppl there are no story behind those awards so no point to watch them. This is why
West Side Story last year and now The Fabelmans are struggling so hard in box office – ppl just don’t care about Spielberg’s or anybody else hereditary. They don’t expect from cinema good, original storytelling
anymore. Last two decades of
franchising the industry finally and
sadly brought results. And yes, Scorsese was right when he said that superhero movies are kind of theme parks. And they redefinind the cinema experience very much. It will be hard to change it. There are no prestige period films csuse there are no prestige in cinema anylonger.
“Oscar movies” aren’t dying. The storytelling is dying. The cookie cutter versions that everyone is used to isn’t going to cut it. Engage the audience with good storytelling. The ideal oscar movie nowadays doesn’t do this in entertaining ways.
“The prestige period film about good people doing good things has been replaced by the prestige “woke” film of finding new ways to talk about the same subjects: Me Too, racism, etc.”
How did Fabelmans, Banshees, and Everything Everywhere fit into that box?
“Those that underperformed did so because they flipped the script, and they tried to foist an ideology upon a built-in audience.’
How did Banshees and Fabelmans do that, what specific ideology was “foisted” on the audience by those films that caused them both to bomb. I’m only vibing here, but I wonder if relentless press articles telling center right to hard right Americans that all films are woke and suck except Top Gun contributed to ticket buying patterns.
“Serve the majority, listen to the market, listen to the people and Hollywood — and the Oscars — can thrive.”
Almost 90% of movie screens are currently showing superhero films, films based on existing IP, and sequels. Blaming the other 10% of films for whatever ails the industry is more than a little reductive. The weird thing is that I saw this exact same dynamic discussed and fretted about in Peter Biskind’s book Easy Riders and Raging Bulls, published TWENTY FIVE YEARS AGO. This cycle of blockbuster, people getting bored with blockbusters, bored filmmakers making non-traditional films, non-traditional films becoming hits, non-traditional filmmakers getting egotistical, non-traditional films failing, middle of the road blockbusters returning has been going on for 50 years now. If you actually look up at the sky, you’ll discover that it isn’t always falling.
As a white heterosexual Catholic male, the idea I’m suddenly part of a “persecuted minority” is laughable and pathetic.
This was a fun place and can still offer insight but Sasha’s “wokeness is new Salem/McCarthy Era” nonsense is marring what points she has to make. Not to mention how pieces like this or her Bros box office talk once more fall into fallacy liberals are wealthy elitists while conservatives represent hard-working common Americans.
And this “Top Gun Maverick succeeded because non-woke and should be Best Picture” is long past aggravating. Yes, a fun film but also a retread of the first and a blatant copy of Star Wars plots, let’s not pretend it’s a masterpiece of original cinema.
Finally, Sasha talking of “have to free from echo chambers and bubbles” is laughable given I’ve read the comments on her Substack praising her even crazier talk. And championing guys like Drinker (who thinks Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris is “woke”) shows how far she’s fallen from the sharp and funny writer she once was.
Top Gun Maverick is an incredibly woke movie because women flew planes and there were several black and Hispanic people in the film. Also they toned down the homoerotic scenes which we know were the most manly, most all-American scenes in the original film.
By no means do I think that white males are being “persecuted,” but I have noticed that out of all the different groups out there they are the only one whom it is considered in certain circles acceptable to mock, insult, and demean. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve seen people on social media dismiss someone’s opinion – intelligent, stupid and everything inbetween – because they happen to be fair-skinned and have a penis. Now, I would never argue that white men have indeed dominated discussions in this country for centuries and it is high time other voices have an opportunity to be heard, but it strikes me as disingenuous and hypocritical for the group that proudly proclaims itself to be tolerant, open-minded and “in the right side of history” to so flippantly dismiss a person solely because of their race and gender
I would suggest that mocking the poor is just as acceptable in the circles you describe.
In what way?
” the idea I’m suddenly part of a “persecuted minority” is laughable and pathetic.”
Not suddenly, it’s a slow trend. And if you think that whites cannot be a persecuted minority then go to 2023 South Africa or Zimbabwe.
Which movies were “woke” this year?
Whichever ones she personally disliked.
Many movies she championed would go on the woke pile if she didn’t like them.
THANK YOU. I’ve been asking this question all year. Several years, actually.
I’ve just woken up, does that make me woke? i guess so. 😉 I am fully a-woke! ^.^
Any movie that the right said was. So there!
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She Said, Women Talking, The Woman King, Till… and probably many documents
But she liked all these.
So something is ‘woke’ if it simply deals with issues relating to women? Can something be ‘woke’ and have a man in it?
That seems like a reductive statement. The biggest complaint I’ve heard about The Women King, for example, is that it’s a real-life story about a woman standing up to the patriarchal enforcement of the Atlantic Slave Trade – itself a tool of colonialism – as told from an African perspective. Checks off a lot of boxes. Except in real life this woman and her tribe were themselves slavers complicit in the slave trade.
Now obviously, what this movie does is nothing unique: if you stated counting the number of Hollywood films “based on a true story” that obfuscated, changed, or outright made things up in the service of entertainment you’d never stop counting lol. But by presenting itself as a true story about female empowerment and standing up to patriarchy and colonialism by fig her info for human rights whilst white-washing the uncomfortable truth the film. I’m the eyes of some, ultimately undermines its own message.
This brings to mind the idea of “performative wokeness,” or the idea of using feminist, anti-racist, or otherwise progressive ideologies to sell a product rather than being genuinely concerned for or passionate about making any kind of change. In the case of The Woman King, the film wraps itself in the guise of being all of the above things but at the expense of the truth. Considering that one of the goals of the progressive movement today is taking a look at history – or more importantly how history has been presented and taught to us over the years – and applying a critical eye and different perspective to these events in the hope of gaining new insight or knowledge from them, the film seems incredibly hypocritical in the sense that history is outright being ignored because it isn’t convenient or “pretty” enough for mass consumption. With that in mind, it can be seen as antithetical to the very tenets it claims to uphold and espouse.
THAT is what woke means in this particular context: outwardly progressive, idealistic and forward thinking, but ultimately just as misguided, hollow, and morally bankrupt as the things it claims to oppose.
“No white men for Picture or Director has led to them twisting themselves up like pretzels”
Facts: Breakdown Oscar BP Nominees (2019 – 2021)
White men: 41
White women: 21
POC: 8
2021 Best Picture Nominees:
• CODA (Philippe Rousselet, Fabrice Gianfermi, and Patrick Wachsberger): 2 WHITE MEN, 1 WHITE woman
• BELFAST (Laura Berwick, Kenneth Branagh, Becca Kovacik, and Tamar Thomas): 1 WHITE man, 2 WHITE women
• DON’T LOOK UP (Adam McKay, Kevin Messick): 2 WHITE MEN
• DRIVE MY CAR (Teruhisa Yamamoto) 1 asian man WOKE ALERT!
• LICORICE PIZZA (Sara Murphy, Adam Somner, and Paul Thomas Anderson) 2 WHITE MEN, 1 white woman
• DUNE (Mary Parent, Denis Villeneuve, and Cale Boyter) 2 WHITE MEN, 1 WHITE woman
• KING RICHARD (Tim White, Trevor White, and Will Smith) 2 WHITE MEN, 1 black man
• NIGHTMARE ALLEY (J. Miles Dale, Guillermo del Toro, and Bradley Cooper) 2 WHITE MEN, 1 LATIN man
• THE POWER OF THE DOG (Emile Sherman, Iain Canning, Roger Frappier, Jane Campion, and Tanya Seghatchian) 3 WHITE MEN, 2 WHITE WOMEN
• WEST SIDE STORY: (Steven Spielberg and Kristie Macosko Krieger) 1 WHITE MAN, 1 WHITE woman
2021 Totals:
WHITE MEN: 17. White women: 8. Asian Man: 1. Latin Man: 1.
2020 BEST PICTURE NOMINEES:
• NOMADLAND: (Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey, and Chloé Zhao) 2 WHITE men, 2 WHITE women, 1 Asian woman
• THE FATHER (David Parfitt, Jean-Louis Livi, and Philippe Carcassonne) 3 WHITE men
• BLACK PANTHER (Shaka King, Charles D. King, and Ryan Coogler) 3 black men
• MANK (Ceán Chaffin, Eric Roth, and Douglas Urbanski) 2 WHITE men, 1 white woman
• MINARI (Christina Oh) 1 Asian woman
• PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN (Ben Browning, Ashley Fox, Emerald Fennell, and Josey McNamara) 2 WHITE men, 2 white women
• SOUND OF METAL (Bert Hamelinck and Sacha Ben Harroche) 2 WHITE men
• TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 (Marc Platt and Stuart M. Besser) 2 WHITE men
2020 TOTALS:
WHITE MEN: 13. White women: 5. Black men: 3. Asian women: 2
2019 BEST PICTURE NOMINEES:
• PARASITE (Kwak Sin-ae and Bong Joon-ho) 2 Asian men
• FORD V FERRARI (Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, and James Mangold) 2 WHITE MEN, 1 white woman
• THE IRISHMAN: (Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Emma Tillinger Koskoff) 2 WHITE men, 2 WHITE women
• JOJO RABBIT (Carthew Neal, Taika Waititi, and Chelsea Winstanley) 1 white man, 1 white woman, 1 Maori/”Polynesian Jew”(self described))
• JOKER (Todd Phillips, Bradley Cooper, and Emma Tillinger Koskoff) 2 WHITE men, 1 white woman)
• LITTLE WOMEN (Amy Pascal) 1 white woman
• MARRIAGE STORY (Noah Baumbach, David He-man) 2 WHITE men
• 1917 (Sam Mendes, Pippa Harris, Jayne-Ann Tenggren, and Callum McDougall) 2 WHITE MEN, 2 white women
• ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD (David Heyman, Shannon McIntosh, and Quentin Tarantino) 2 WHITE men, 1 WHITE woman
2019 TOTALS
WHITE MEN: 11. White women: 8. Maori man: 1.
Never let facts get in the way of a good argument.
We are still waiting for a “good argument”.
The change in Sasha in the last two years has been astounding with her sudden “left is ruining everything” beliefs.
Hey. If the Oscar’s really are dying, she’s gotta find a new shtick right?
Cue “yes but those are exceptions to rule” line.
I am sick and tired of people contradicting erroneous and misleading statements with facts. It’s so un-American!
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omg, no one cares who the producers are. The topic of the movie is what matters.
My comment addresses a statement made in the article. The Best Picture Oscar is given to the PRODUCERS of the film.
Attempt to actually read and comprehend a post (and educate yourself) before you attack it.
omg
Way of Water $66.8m this weekend (beating $63.4M estImate, UP 5.5% vs last). $425m after 17 days. Passes Wakanda Forever as #2 domestic money earner of 2022.
$24.4M yesterday (3rd best NYD ever behind Force Awakens’ $34.3m and original Avatar’s $25.2m. It even beat Spider-Man: No Way Home ($23.1M) last year.
Off Topic…
Jeremy Renner, stable but in critical condition after an accident. Here’s hoping for a quick and complete recovery, such a great actor.
Thanks for this piece. Oscar movie has indeed died but I have big issue with the end list. How could you leave 2 films out?
1. The Batman out? It is well reviewed, has solid box-office & is an entertaining movie.
2. RRR as it broke some records in theaters before doings similar things on Netflix. Like The Batman, it’s well reviewed & has box-office numbers behind it.
(I’m also a bit baffled by Nope’s incluision).
That “Critical Drinker” guy decreed “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” as “woke”, maybe we should collectively pump the brakes before decreeing this guy as an authoritative voice on film.
I have zero idea what the hell he is on about with that. What the hell is “woke” about a white woman trying to buy a fancy dress?”
anyone using “woke” as a sign to diminish an opinion or piece of art, shouldn’t be taken seriously.
“Wokeness” means integration, empathy, a more realistic depiction of the world, and those complaining about “wokeness” are those who never had empathy for those marginalised and dream of a WASP straight world in which minorities of all kind can be merrily swept under the rug.
I liked one of his videos I saw here but WTF!?
This whole “woke” status has turned into a “woke scare”.
EEAO is woke (Favored by Twitter) so it must be hated. Top Gun is gungho military propaganda so it must be stopped (Favored by the right).
This needs to STOP. The former is an amazing film that has nothing to do with woke while the latter is a decent by highly overrated film that should be enjoyed by those who like it and should not be hated or dropped just because of this maddening current trend.
I find it ironic that some of the people who have correctly condemned the dirty campaigns against Green Book, La La Land, and Three Billboards are openly participating in a dirty campaign against Everything Everywhere. Seriously, if you don’t like the film, absolutely your right, but don’t become what you claim to despise in the process.
Top Gun has some fairly glaring flaws that are papered over somewhat by some good technical filmmaking. The fact still remains that blockbuster films getting nominated in topline categories isn’t moving the ratings needle. Exhibit A, Joker. Made a billion dollars (highest grossing R rated movie of all time), led the Oscar nomination with 11 that year, and was assured Best Actor before a single vote was tallied. Didn’t movie the ratings a single inch. Voting for ANY film for BP primarily because you think the ratings will be higher demeans Oscar more than any so-called “woke” film could ever dream to.
Spot on.
Damn those disgusting campaigns. I’m not a fan of Green Book but that whole fiasco (Regardless of quality) was beyond unacceptable as was situation around the other 2 you mentioned.
People are hypocrites: they think they because THEY’RE doing something it’s good, but if someone else does it for reasons they don’t agree with it’s bad. It’s a very “end justifies the means” kind of thinking