In case you missed it (how could you?), watch the clip below.
Like Chrissy Teigen, you cringed. I cringed. We all cringed.
Coming at the end of Rock’s monologue, which was either legendary or divisive depending who you ask, Dash is introduced as the Academy’s new Director of Minority Outreach. You can hear the crickets in the audience as Dash walks on stage and awkwardly proclaims, “I can’t wait to help my people out! Happy Black History Month!” It’s a kind of joke that seemingly bombed and served no purpose.
It may be one twisted symbiotic relationship but Dash’s appearance is kind of genius. It’s subversive and weird and politically in tune with the entire monologue.
The Academy Award nominations were announced today and for the second year in a row, the acting nominees were all-white. Straight Outta Compton, Creed, Will Smith in Concussion, Idris Elba in Beasts of No Nation were all snubbed. And so, like that Hollywood sequel you didn’t ask for, #OscarsSoWhite is back. I’m both disappointed and not surprised. I don’t think anyone is truly surprised. Discussions of race and gender in Hollywood, both on screen and behind the camera, are never-ending. But more importantly, the Oscars are rooted in industry politics and its more clear than ever that Hollywood cannot escape itself.
Expectations are now being placed on host Chris Rock to say something, anything about this year’s Oscar snubs. But before you go down that rabbit hole, keep this in mind:
A five minute opening by brilliant Chris Rock will not make up for over 80 years of erasure of marginalized communities. #OscarsSoWhite
The 87th Academy Awards are in just a few hours. Boyhood will win Best Picture but that doesn’t matter.
As always, the Oscars telecast will be one of television’s great spectacles. Too much attention will given to what actresses are wearing, to how Jennifer Aniston will be breathing the same air as Brangelina, and to whether or not Neil Patrick Harris lives up to the absurd expectations we set for emcees. (No NPH, you can’t top Ellen’s selfie. Don’t even try.)
What we won’t discuss – at least not for any longer than we need to – is the incredibly flawed system (and Academy) that determines the so-called best movies, performances of a given year.
Every year the Oscars nominations incite people and this year that has anger resonated more than anyone could have predicted. The lack of recognition for Selma, its director Ava DuVernay and star David Oyelowo is deeply wrong, damaging and glaringly political. Equally disheartening are the overwhelming number of nominations for white men for the movies they made about white men, their lives and their problems.
For some reason, this year I thought I could change my ways. I tried so hard not to care about Awards Season and to snark on them along the way. (Did you see my Golden Globes commentary? It was so hilarious, no one got the joke.) But it’s a lie. I’m still obsessed with the Oscars and I watched Seth MacFarlane and Emma Stone announced the nominations this morning. The Oscars will always be one of my favorite things. Here are some of my quick thoughts on some of the nominations: Continue reading “Snap Judgments: 2013 Academy Award Nominations”
The 83 Annual Academy Awards are tonight. In less than three hours to be exact.
I could dedicate this space to share with you my predictions, who I hope will and won’t win. I could analyze how there should only be five best picture nominees, how Michelle Williams should win best actress over Natalie Portman, or how we should expect that Hailee Steinfeld will pull an upset in the best supporting actress category. (Sorry, Melissa Leo.) But I don’t feel like doing that. By now any Oscars predictions, something I have been so focused on since November, have gotten old. I just want the ceremony to happen and be done with.
What I do want to discuss however is the one topic that has been broken down so many times: The Social Network versus The King’s Speech. One received all the critics prizes and is said to define a generation. The other won the guilds prizes and is a rousing audience favorite. As we approach tonight’s awards ceremony it is The King’s Speech that is expected to win best picture.
Since seeing The King’s Speech, I have been thinking about the very essence of what this movie is about: communication. In so many ways, The Social Network is about the same exact thing.
Simpler times
The King’s Speech is set during a time when a leader could not stutter. Radio broadcasting provided the voice for the modern monarchy, making the king’s voice all the more important and powerful. King George VI (Colin Firth) and his unorthodox speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) work to overcome his crushing speech impediment throughout the film. The film’s cinematography works to show you how trapped King George is by his disability. (Think about how scenes rarely leaves the confines of indoor settings.) He isn’t really free, or the king of England for that matter, until that last radio address is complete.
And it is such a dreadfully boring movie. (Yes, I just went there.)
The direction and the cinematography have all been done before. What carries The King’s Speech is the story (someone rising from adversity is always a crowd pleaser) and the performances of Firth, Rush, and Helena Bonham Carter. The scenes between Firth and Rush are among the finest acting duets between two performers this year. Firth will rightfully win the best actor statuette tonight.
Then there is The Social Network.
The Social Network.
The Social Network.
Today's meaning of friendship
It was only when I compared The King’s Speech to The Social Network that I really began to see the merit of the British historical drama. Where The King’s Speech fails to excite or offer any potential intellectual engagement, The Social Network more than makes up for. The pairing of director David Fincher and screenwriter Aaron Sorkin is something only the cinematic gods could conceive. Fincher does something incredible in The Social Network; he de-Sorkin’s Aaron Sorkin. The writer’s work is unmatched but his common character archetypes (neurotic white people!) and style (lots of walking and talking!) can deter audiences. But Fincher’s brilliant direction matches Sorkin’s dialogue to create the year’s sharpest film.
But Mark Zuckerberg is no King George. He’s a pretentious, neurotic, know-it-all jerk. When your main character’s flaw is his personality and not something beyond his control, he is less than redeeming and likable. This is why audience’s favor The King’s Speech; it is more universally appealing. I can easily look past the tremendously annoying Mark Zuckerberg because of my own interests in what The Social Network is about beyond this character.
Like The King’s Speech, The Social Network is about the importance and value of communication. Both films show how commication is constantly changing to reflect society’s needs. Unlike The King’s Speech, that is The Social Network‘s greatest flaw. The Social Network is all about the cultural impact that social media has had on our society. It is said that this movie defines a generation and it does. The impact of Facebook and social media is something I think people who are not constantly “wired in” don’t really like to think about. It is the unspoken quandary of social media; for every person who recognizes the value of it, there are countless people who don’t and who want our culture to remain the same.
In the history of communications, The King’s Speech represents a more idyllic time that we can probably never go back to. The King’s Speech presents two men who didn’t need a Facebook connection to validate their friendship. The beauty of The Social Network is that it knows its cultural place, shows it, and doesn’t makes excuses for it. In the final scene of the movie all of the cultural implications of Facebook come to fruition. Mark Zuckerberg sits in front of his computer deciding whether or not to friend Erica Albright, Rooney Mara’s character whose searing words cut him down earlier in the film. Logically, he shouldn’t want to be Facebook friends with her but Facebook has changed how we view friendship. When Zuckerbeg loses the one real friend he has (Eduardo Saverin), he latches on to this intangible virtual connection.
But we never see Erica accept his friend request. Why? Because what The Social Network ‘s filmmakers want you to question is the validity of the intangible relationships we can create now. And at the end of the day, do you really think about everything your Facebook page says about you? If you did, you would go crazy and not use social media. The King’s Speech, meanwhile, boldly lets you think about nothing. There is nothing on that screen for you to question about your own existence. It tells you how the story ends and that everyone involved lived happily ever after. So, naturally, why would you want to complicate your own existence and choose The Social Network as the best picture of 2010?
No matter what happens tonight, the best picture race is the most culturally significant since 2005 when Crash upset Brokeback Mountain. But it is culturally significant in a more subtle way because of what people don’t want to acknowledge about themselves.
@Cinefille 