The Oscars: Consistent Disappointment in the Form of a Glamorous Appreciation of Mediocre Talent

It is “Hollywood’s Biggest Night”; a celebration of talent on the world’s biggest stage; the highest honour filmmakers and actors can receive. Yet, the Academy Awards are also the most consistently unsurprising let down. Year after year, the Academy of Mostly White Men with an Average Age of 62 vote on what should be considered the best movie of the entire year. Now, as film enthusiasts and aspiring filmmakers, Oscar audiences couldn’t be forced to admit that this Academy represents the diverse and ever-changing world of film. In a continually fresh and modernizing business such as film, we can and should acknowledge that the Academy is not representative of the industry’s groupthink. The Oscars has a problem, and it goes by the name of Profitable Institutionalized Discrimination.

Leading up the 91st Oscars, the Academy already did many things wrong – Best Popular Film, the inability to find a host that is Kevin Hart-ish (women exist, right?), and not announcing multiple technical categories on air – which they were eventually bullied into correcting, due to a massive swell of online backlash from filmmakers and enthusiasts. Yet, the one major injustice that couldn’t change ended up leading to many more negatives: the nominations and subsequent winners. The Oscars have always had a hard time with minorities (remember #OscarsSoWhite? That was only four years ago), especially in nominating women directors - #JusticeForLynneRamsay - but that was not the only flawed category. 2018 was a great year for film; new ideas broke ground, modern directors gave new perspective, directors who’ve been around outdid themselves, and the performances from Ethan Hawke, Elsie Fisher, Ryan Gosling, and more top many of the year's "best of" lists. So why do movies like FIRST REFORMED, FIRST MAN, and THE FAVOURITE get hardly any, or no wins at all?

The answer is pretty simple: movies that make the Academy feel good about themselves are the frontrunners. Keep in mind the 77% male and 86% +50 years old Academy is very easy to please – give them stories where they are the heroes; make them feel good about themselves by showing them they are always right. This can include anything from White Racist Relatable Male Redemption (THREE BILLBOARDS, AVATAR) to a mediocre biopic about a dead icon (VICE, DARKEST HOUR). This year, these movies were GREEN BOOK and BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY, and we couldn’t have asked for better representation of the Academy’s negligence.

The main problem with movies like GREEN BOOK and BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY (apart from the fact that they were directed by a sexual harasser and a pedophile, respectively – I guess #MeToo has an expiration date!), is that their sole goal is to appeal to the nostalgia/relatability/ego of the old men of the Academy, all the while ignoring important and obvious themes in order follow the shiny body of awards season. Peter Farrelly and Nick Vallelonga chose to tell the story of an iconic Black man, through the lens of White Saviour Porn; the pair left out details and simply lied to focus more on Tony's saviour arc. It was quite telling watching the group of about 30 receive their award for Best Picture, and the only visible people of colour on the stage were Octavia Spencer and Mahershela Ali. Likewise, although he portrayed questionably the most prominent gay man to ever die of the institutionalized homophobia surrounding the AIDS crisis, Malek opted not to give even a wink of respect towards the AIDS crisis, in any of his FOUR acceptance speeches! Now, winners can thank and say whatever they want, but if there was one role that required mentioning the AIDS crisis, it was Malek's role - especially with the blatant disrespect of the subject in the film. No matter how much we would like to think Malek just forgot mention his pedophile director or the AIDS crisis, or that Farrelly and Vallelonga accidently included a line where Mortenson’s protagonist says he is “blacker” than Ali’s and teaches him how to (sigh...) eat fried chicken, we should know better than to think of these as coincidences and call them what they are - tone-deaf, ignorant, and inherently damaging.

Other than that, they are simply bad movies – formulaic, boring, and, in BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY’s case, horrendous editing. Malek is notably animatronic and lacklustre in his performance, and Farrelly’s original screenplay beat out ridiculously deserving nominees such as THE FAVOURITE – arguably the sharpest screenplay in a very long time – and Paul Schrader’s haunting FIRST REFORMED. Below is an example of the Oscar-winning screenplay:

Tony Lip: Tell me that don't smell good?

Dr. Shirley: I've never had fried chicken in my life. Tony Lip: Who you bullshittin'? You people love the fried chicken, the grits, the colored greens... I love it, too. The negro cooks used to make it when I was in the army. Don Shirley: You have a very narrow assessment of me, Tony. Tony Lip: Yeah, right. I'm good.

Still, GREEN BOOK was awarded the highest honour, and BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY left the Dolby with 4 gold statuettes of its own: 2 for sound, 1 for editing, and 1 for Rami Malek. The combination of the sound department pressing play on Queen songs for the whole film, some of the worst editing I’ve ever seen, and Rami Malek’s rapidly-forming ignorant star complex almost distract you from the fact that a movie made by Queen and a pedophile vilified Freddie Mercury in ways that can only be understood as reckless homophobia derived of jealousy. For instance, the classic “Another One Bites the Dust” rides the soundtrack as Freddie finally starts to understand his sexuality and discovers the homosexual night life. Hm!

Having said all that, sometimes we see the Academy Do The Right Thing (yay Spike!), because seeing Olivia Coleman burst into tears, Emma Stone crying beside her, and Yorgos Lanthimos running over and on his knees praising her was enough to make me sob. But, until the entire show can get its act together, get a funny woman to host (Maya Rudolph is right here…), and build a truly representative Academy, the Oscars will always have an institutionalized issue, and I will forever be pulling a Spike Lee - turning around and attempting to leave during the Best Picture winner's speech.

Jade