The Oscars 2023: “Oops…”
There’s a lot to be said for award shows in general and their relevance in modern film society. One of the major criticisms of these affairs will always be the massive amount of material that isn’t recognized and the number of obvious “snubs” in certain categories. The other night, however, I think that the Oscars got back to being [mostly] right. I want to talk about the shining moments of the ceremony and what a lot of it means for me personally, but, first, I do think it's important to spend some time with what was missed:
Viola Davis
The Batman
Top Gun: Maverick
The Whale
The Fablemans
These are what I’ll call the “Oops...”. In addition, we’ll detail some winners that I thought were odd as well:
Natu Natu
Pinocchio
All Quiet on the Western Front
I don’t have a special name for these. So they are also Oops’s.
Viola Davis
Viola Davis being snubbed for an acting award has set many people’s hair on fire in recent weeks. There’s a lot of buzz around The Woman King not being nominated in general but, and I’ll stand firmly on this ground, it just simply wasn’t a very good movie. It was poorly edited, boringly told, and dramatized a real event in a way that totally shaded actual happenings. The movie itself deserved 0 nominations, and got 0 nominations. HOWEVER [before the collective internet assassinates me], Viola herself was fantastic in the leading role. She absolutely deserved the nomination over Michelle Williams, though she still would have ultimately lost the award to Michelle Yeoh anyway. Nominations are still important, and this was a huge miss on the Academy’s part.
“The Batman”
Oh, The Batman. I don’t often agree with industry professionals that make large sweeping statements like,
“... what we’ve got today [are] the audiences who were brought up on these f***king cell phones. The millennian do not ever want to be taught anything unless you are told it on the cell phone.”
Generally, I think a lot of these people are big cry-babies that don’t like when their obtuse art isn’t appreciated. However, preceding this year’s ceremony, legendary cinematographer, Roger Deakins said,
“The reason it [The Batman] wasn’t [nominated for Cinematography] is pure and simple: snobbery. There’s this unfair tendency to avoid the Marvel universe and the other popular universes… Claudio Miranda, the director of photography of Paramount’s Top Gun: Maverick, is another one that was shut out.”
And, this time, I couldn’t agree more.
Without the brilliance of the people directing the cameras themselves in either of these movies, they would have faded faster than a candle in the rain. Nobody would remember either of these films if they hadn’t been so well orchestrated visually. While All Quiet on the Western Front IS a beautifully shot film, it in no way compares to either of these snubs. These were the two biggest and most obvious misses for me when the nominations were released earlier this year.
And, before this is passed off as snobbery on Deakins’ part, he was nominated this year… for a different film, Empire of Light, so he isn’t just crying about not getting recognized.
“Top Gun: Maverick”
I thought this movie was an absolute C+ of a film but an absolute A+ as a popcorn experience. Highflying, rambunctious, loud, and fun, Maverick got almost everything it deserved. Somehow, in a movie filmed as ludicrously as this one was, Maverick escapes a directing nomination and that absolutely blows my mind. Similar to Viola’s miss in lead actress, Maverick absolutely still would have lost to “The Daniels”, but I think that a nod to Joseph Kosinski’s tenacity and vision would have gone a long way to more innovatively made action films. Granted, it was nominated for [and deservedly] Best Picture, but this film losing out on both Cinematography and Director is an absolute sin.
“The Whale”
Similar to Maverick, The Whale' got almost everything it deserved [Brendan’s win not being the least of those, but that’s for the next article]. Maybe I’m just not in the know and Rob Simonsen used a bunch of pre-written music, but the score for Whale is one of the most moving, intense, and deeply emotional compositions of music that I have possibly ever heard. All Quiet certainly deserved to be nominated for this award with its very Nick Cave-esque score, though I’m not sure that it deserved to beat out The Banshees of Inisherin, and certainly should not have won over this. Wild to me.
“The Fablemans”
This movie was boring, lazy, and masturbatory in a depressingly cynical way. The only part of this film that was worth watching were the last 10-minutes and I’m shocked that it got ANY recognition at all. This film’s nominations are best summed up by Judd Hirsch’s nom for Supporting Actor when his entire role in the film is short enough to play during the ceremony itself. Nominated for Directing, Score, Picture, Lead Actress, Supporting Actor, Screenplay, and Production Design, The Fablemans took several spots that should have belonged to several more deserving films. Thankfully it didn’t win anything, but the nominations themselves should have gone to creators and performers who actually deserved recognition.
“Natu Natu”
There weren’t many awards or nominations this year that felt like “gimme” awards, but this one sure did. What I mean by "gimme", is an award that is either given or nominated for lack of recognition somewhere else. The win here for RRR’s “Natu Natu” feels like a conciliatory gesture for not nominating the film itself in the International Film category. I’m not sure that this song is objectively better or more meaningful than either Gaga’s anthem “Hold My Hand” or Rihanna’s tribute ballad “Lift Me Up”. This is an especially odd gesture given that I think RRR would have won the International Film category had it been nominated… But more on that in a second.
“Pinocchio”
I’m a little torn on this one. If the Animated Feature award is based on purely technical merit while using the artform, alright, yes. We got this right. If it’s based on literally any other part of the “film” aspect of “Animated Feature Film”, then I have absolutely no idea why this paltry, near-terrible film was given this award over the absolutely stellar Turning Red or the softly devastating Marcel the Shell With Shoes On. This is the only award this year that I feel very strongly should have gone another way and one that awards a filmmaker who deserves FAR more criticism than he gets while ignoring more intrepid and intelligent pieces of creativity.
“All Quiet on the Western Front”
Those who converse with me regularly will know this is something I bemoan constantly, but I firmly believe that if a film is nominated for the best overall category [Best Picture] it should not also be nominated for the best niche category [Animated, Foreign, Documentary]. Simply by being nominated best overall, the film has transcended the shackles of its smaller designation, and is, more or less, granted an honorary win in said category. An F1 car does not have to race against a stock Honda AND race against other F1’s for it to be crowned better than the factory vehicle. It’s in an entirely different class, and that’s how I feel about All Quiet on the Western Front winning International Film while also being nominated for Best Picture. It’s already won the small category by getting to compete with the big-dogs… Why are we taking nominations [and wins] away from smaller films that would benefit from the limelight? [Looking at you Parasite with your ridiculous 4 Oscars, two of which are redundant]. RRR was snubbed from the International Film category, and should have been added in [and likely won] in place of Western Front… since Western Front was already nominated for the overall award.
So, there’s my list of “Oops...” awards. Also the picture used for the article is an "Oops..." because that gag went on WAY too long and was not funny.
