Hollywood awards season politics turns critics into lobbyists
ss So far, awards season has been like a swarm of bad movies, absurd actors, and clueless showboaters seeking attention as they head to the Oscars. It is a caravan of the same competitors – Moonflower Killers, Oppenheimer, Past Lives, Poor Things, American Fantasy, The Keepers, Area of Interest, Barbie – Not good movies, but propaganda-driven hype machines.
The stagnation began before we even reached mid-December when the myriad awards groups and major publications got around to starting to announce their awards and “Top Ten” lists. What was the rush?
The year is not over, and in fact the major films (Rebel Moon, Iron Claw, Crime is Mine, Wonka) It was not shown to the press. This means that film journalists judged the year prematurely, in the same way that television networks now release election results — before all the facts are in.
This similarity between culture and politics is not easy. These traditions reveal the way we live and think as awards season approaches its climax, with Oscar nominations announced next week.
Few people understand this connection, especially when film culture acts as a harbinger of our political actions. Alternate reality award shows are about political grandeur, not excellence.
We need to clarify the difference between art and politics. American fantasyA weak sense of humor helps gatekeepers pretend that they do not confuse taste with intelligence. Adapting Percival Everett’s literary satire reduces it to a stupid farce. American fantasy It won the Audience Award at the Toronto Film Festival because attendees rewarded themselves for recognizing the theme of racial identity and its jokes about publishing industry practices ruined by social justice pandering no matter how obtuse the satire. This was the first stage of conforming to awards season, using absolute numbers to discourage or censor diversity of opinion. Weak minds are coerced in these not-so-subtle ways.
Is film review political? All the “top ten” lists glorify it Past life This proved to be the case, although laudatory reviewers avoided mentioning the film’s universal intentions and sentiments. It is indeed political for the American newspaper to praise the politics of films such as Past life And Dog power And Moonflower Killers While brainwashing readers into believing that such reviews exist no ideological.
Post-Siskel and Ebert reviewers and award givers don’t know how to discuss political substance in films. Critical thinking has been transformed into likes or dislikes, shutting down discussion. It turns film reviewers into lobbyists, and the term “lobbyist” connotes a preference to buy and pay for it. Far too many moviegoers see themselves as fans of particular filmmakers, studios, or comic book franchises.
Here begins the traffic jam of eligible films – films that have gained more attention than actual affection, admiration or appreciation. Voter lobbyists, under pressure from various forms of payment, fawn over the media presence of blockbuster films, trusting the deceptive “popularity” of films that may actually affect them personally.
Even the oldest merit-based institutions have been politicized by this dysfunctional habit. according to WindingThe Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Oscars) has adopted the “ranked choice system,” the biased counting method beloved by Democratic Party strategists.
Artistic and emotional achievements such as John Wick 4, Rebel Moon, We’re All Strangers, Taste of Things, And Asteroid city Lose to superficiality Oppenheimer, The Moonflower KillersAnd Area of interest And the mysterious nothingness Barbie And Bad things. The aesthetics of cinema are lost when most films (purportedly seen in theaters) are actually television – a lengthy and repetitive narrative by Netflix, Amazon and Apple. Not much is worth looking at. Such a medium no longer values the vision, movement, and imagination of Chad Stahelski, Zack Snyder, Andrew Hay, Tran Ahn Hung, and Wes Anderson. Movies have become a platform for hotheaded political demagogues: the mystical era of Christopher Nolan; the backward ideological immaturity of Greta Gerwig; Scorsese’s brooding penchant for cinema and lack of historical focus is a form of anti-American dementia shared by most critics.
Movies were once imbued with the culture, especially when the Academy Awards were awarded long after films had been widely distributed and into the spring of the following year. This allowed for maximum reflection by the audience. Today’s rush to judgment runs counter to the way movies used to stabilize and enrich culture: fraternal combat John Wick 4 The dynamic pits Keanu Reeves and Donnie Yen against Marlon Brando and Rod Steiger in On the waterfront. Battle of mothers between Rebellious moonNemesis (Bay Donna) and Harmada (Jena Malone) raised and dripped “You bitch!” moment in Aliens. Emotional integration between child and parent in We are all strangers The contradictions between generations intensified The Godfather Part Two. Deep sympathy between lovers of artists and chefs Benoit Magimel and Juliette Binoche in Taste of things Spirituality and devotions White House. Recalling past personal ambitions, Asteroid city Social identity conforming to post-World War II national myths since it went dark There is no country for old men. There are no such echoes in this year’s noisy traffic jam.
Awards season robs us of true cultural appreciation by singling out films for undeserved, quickly forgotten praise. Never vote in a hurry.
