Well, for the first time in memory, I watched the Acedemy Awards ceremony last night without having first seen any of the Best Picture nominees. In fact, the only nominated films in any category that I saw were Brave and The Avengers.
Actually, I didn’t even watch the whole program. We turned it on late, thereby missing the opening monologue, which is generally the most entertaining part. I also went to bed early, and didn’t know who or what won for actor, actress, director, and picture until this morning.
The bottom line is that I really have nothing to say about Argo winning for Best Picture. I hear it was a slight upset, as Lincoln was favored and Life of Pi, by virtue of its numerous nominations, was second-favored. Ask me in a few months, after all these flicks have been made available on DVD, and I’ll be happy to offer an opinion. In fact, I’ll probably offer my opinion here, on this blog, even if you don’t ask.
But in keeping with the spirit of the Oscars, I present this list. Below you will find a list of all the Best Picture winners since 1990. In the third column, I offer my (very brief) opinion. The one-word opinions breakdown thusly:
Bravo!: The Academy nailed it, as far as I can see. In other words, I’m in complete agreement with that year’s win.
Fine: There were better options, which I list in column four, but the film that won was a good choice, and I can’t really gripe about it.
Meh: This film wasn’t my thing. There were better options, which I list in column four, but I can still see why they picked this one. I can respect their choice, even if I disagree.
Yuck: I am baffled that this crap was even nominated, and utterly shocked that it won. What were they thinking? Is it too late to do this year over again? I list two superior choices in column four, though I could easily list another five or six preferable films from that year.
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I liked it better when there would be a one in five chance (nomination failings aside) that The Academy would “get it right” for Best Picture.
Also, Pixar is now even — twice they were robbed (Monsters Inc. > Shrek, Cars > Happy Feet) and twice they stole it (Fantastic Mr. Fox > Up, Wreck-It Ralph > Brave).
I will admit, though, Brave had MUCH better marketing. I think I would have actually liked the movie they advertised. Meanwhile, I still haven’t seen/heard an ad (Internet, TV, radio, billboard, movie poster…) for Wreck-It Ralph.
Yes, I don’t like the beefed-up nominees list, either. To me, it seems like the last few years have still consisted of five REAL nominees, and four or five others that they threw into the mix to make them seem more inclusive.
That reminds me of a conversation I once had with a co-worker similar to this post. When I started rattling off better options for Best Picture winner, he said, “But those weren’t even nominated.” It seems he was simply trying to figure out which of the five nominees was most deserving, while I was trying to figure out which film, of all the ones I had seen that year, was the most deserving.
I haven’t seen “Fantastic” or “Ralph,” so I can’t comment on those, but “Up” is on my short list of films that were pitch-perfect brilliant for the first 20 minutes, then tanked.
In 2001, when the Academy first offered “Best Animated Feature,” the first thing I thought was that they had created that catergory just to honor “Monsters, Inc.” Then I read the nominations and, knowing the Academy, sighed, “Oh, right, I forgot about Shrek.”