The 2019 Oscar nominations just came out on Tuesday morning, and they finally gave us something else to talk about besides who the hell will be hosting the damn live event. Many of the nominations, such as Lady Gaga for Best Actress and Spike Lee for Best Director were welcomed and acclaimed victories for the huddled masses. As per usual the huddled masses also found plenty to grieve about and with good reason. This year's omissions and snubs show that while the Academy and by a larger point the entertainment industry itself is making strides towards rectifying past wrongs they still have a ways to go in terms of being considered a beacon of true inclusion and diversity within the film business. 2018 brought us so many films that featured faces and viewpoints that we are not used to seeing on the big screen. It brought us into communities of colour and showed us that superheroes fighting for their technologically advanced African village of Wakanda in Black Panther (2018) could be just as enthralling and inspiring as a troubled orphan in bat-suit swinging across Gotham City. It gave us a heartfelt love story set in Singapore that united not only Pan-Asians but the entire world into falling in love with its cast of energetic characters in Crazy Rich Asians (2018). Furthermore, this year gave us popular entertainers showing us their capabilities in various occupancies. John Krasinski, once lauded only for his successful comedic efforts proved himself as a screenwriter, director and dramatic actor for his work in the masterly crafted horror film A Quiet Place (2018). Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga both took on new career responsibilities for their work in A Star is Born (2018). Yet something about this year still feels lacking, backwards. Oscar nominations yesterday showed that the Academy might be opening its eyes a bit wider, that isn't saying much when they've been squinting for the past thirty so years.
While talent does undeniably play an essential role in being recognized by the Academy, it cannot be denied that money and influence play an even larger role as well. A film that does not engage in a voracious award season ad campaign has little luck in being adequately recognized by the Academy and its members. This is not to demonize a film or its marketing team; it's merely an inevitable truth. You stand a small chance against the likes of pop culture titans like Emma Stone or even the band Queen if you're movie doesn't have the financial requirements to match their global significance, let alone surpass them in some meaningful way. The Academy, much like the film industry itself is all about who you know and how well you can get them to know you even better. Talent is a prerequisite, but notoriety and marketability are extracurricular advantages that are impossible to escape even for the stars themselves. It is why it's hard to picture someone like Emma Stone ever returning to comedies like Easy A (2010) again when her current clout seems to demand she take on projects that will only garner serious, critical buzz. I don't mean to imply that the grass isn't greener on the other side of success, it is, but with that comes the expectations of the townsfolk for the gardener to keep giving that grass its shine. Where does that leave other less fortunate and yet still unquestionably vital pieces of cinema then? Where does that leave up and coming female directors, performers and writers or people of color in the same position? Well, it leaves them unaccounted for by the Master of Ceremonies at these various televised programs of recognition. Still, it doesn't dilute their vitality, at least not to those who truly appreciate great filmmaking, beyond the importance of critical acclaim and award recognition.
Here are some films this year that were snubbed for the most part by the Award Shows, especially the Oscars but are nonetheless still great achievements in filmmaking that speak about things much more significant than just box office revenue.
While the film was always unlikely to garner much award recognition with its moderate box office success and controversial subject matter, The Hate U Give is a film that more people should be talking about in and out of Hollywood. The film covers not just the topic of police brutality but dives into other racially related issues, including those having to do with socio-economic class and interracial relationships. It's young lead, Amandla Stenberg gives a performance filled with strength and wisdom far beyond her years. The Hate U Give would perhaps have been a bit stronger in its depiction of real-life issues had it taken off its kid gloves more often than it does throughout the plot. Still, the film sparks conversation and visualizes injustices found on streets across America on a big screen for all to see and draw their own conclusions from. The Hate U Give calls upon the young and old to stop this self-created plague that is killing innocent Black Americans more and more with each passing year. An Oscar nomination could have helped elevate the discussions the film is trying to have. However, without it, I still have faith that people of all races, inside and out of the industry will ensure that this topic remains pertinent on a massive scale as it should. In an extremely divisive time in our country, films like this one act not as an escape from reality, but as an emphatic wake-up call to acknowledge our reality and make vitally necessitated changes to it.
Toni Collette's performance in this horror film could be considered career-defining if the actress already didn't have so many excellently revered performances in her back catalogue. Instead, Hereditary feels like something else, something unsettling. It gives us an un-sanitized look at how a family unit can be broken down, piece by piece until all that is left is the pieces of shattered heartbreak used to cut one another until they all bleed dry. It shows a matriarch incapable of doing the one thing every mother is supposed to be able to do, keep her family together. Hereditary's horror elements are quite secondary to its psychological ones. By the film's end, it becomes evident that the horrific happenings are merely vessels used by the filmmakers to explore fractured family dynamics and how a woman so deeply damaged can only hold herself up for so long before breaking down. It is how many women I imagine have felt many times before, whether they are mothers or not. With this past year being a boiling point for women across the entertainment business in regards to unfair workplace treatment and sexual harassment, Hereditary can almost be seen as a victim's last hurrah. While its female protagonist fails in her attempts to save her family, she does manage to expose the misogynistic hypocrisies that relegate women so often to second fiddle, professionally and within the narrative structure of horror films as well. While the ultimate antagonist of Hereditary is a male demon, it is women and the powerful, influential forces of motherhood that make it a true cut above the rest in terms of terror.
Beautiful Boy (2018):
A Star is Born managed to make some accurate depictions of drug abuse and addiction, as well as providing an emotional commentary on the negative influences within show business that encourage such behaviors. Beautiful Boy grounds addiction even further into reality by slowly and painfully examining the struggle to survive. Just when you think the main character, played phenomenally by Timothee Chalamet, has kicked his addiction, the addiction comes back around. It kicks him right back, even harder as the film presses forward towards an emotionally tolling conclusion. While Hereditary showed us the pains and sacrifices of motherhood, this film displays the underappreciated necessity for a nurturing father in the life of a troubled boy. The film avoids cookie-cutter morality by concerning itself more with accountability than blame-placing. Should his father have been more involved in his life, should he have been less? Addiction is something that can possess anyone, in any lifestyle, at any time, and the film is more interested in illustrating the resilience to survive possessed both by the drug abuser and their loved ones than just lecturing about what the right things to do are in these precarious situations. The fact that this is based off a true story proves that a film can't encapsulate the entire tumultuous experience of addiction, but it can give a good enough glimpse for us to realize that those struggling need our support, our love and our respect.
Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018):
One of the biggest surprises of the Oscar announcements was the omission of this incredible documentary on the late and great Mr Rogers. The film not only details the creation of his groundbreaking television educational program but explores the man's never-ending passion for feeding and developing children's imaginations. It paints him as a flawed, but an endearing progressive advocate, using his skills not just to make people laugh in delight, but think. Documentaries often struggle to find an audience beyond those that typically enjoy them, so it is with complete bewilderment that we all are lamenting the exclusion of an excellent piece of non-fiction failing to be recognized in its ability to educate on the past and inspire us for the future.
These overlooks from the Academy are not surprising for the most part, nor are they the last of their kind to ever occur. No matter how open-minded or progressive the Academy gets there will likely always be troubling omissions, such as these, and the important thing for us to do is not allow the Academy, or any other award show, to dictate what constitutes as cinema worthy of our consumption. The nominations matter to the extent that they give us an idea of what is tracking in the industry, what kind of stories and performers are receiving notoriety. What is selling and who is performing well among the masses. Still, they should not be taken as a final judge and jury of talent. I believe any multi-award winner across the board would agree that these awards are to celebrate film and actors, not anoint them as unequivocally superior to other works of visual performing art. Quite plainly what I'm saying is, watch movies that interest you, that speak to causes that matter to you and those you care about. Celebrate the cinema you deem worthy of celebration, regardless of what others, including the Academy or Rotten Tomatoes or even your own family and friends, think or tell you. The Academy may have a lot to learn, and it may take years to do so, but we can better educate ourselves today, right now. We can look past the politics of award season and find the winners of our own hearts. The only films worth watching are the ones that change us, that move us towards thoughts and ideas we've never had before. These are the Best Pictures, not by virtue of a gold statue but by a virtue created by our inner selves.
