dagblog - Comments for "Feel-good lying race flick on Don Shirley wins Oscar"

The only caveat is 30's

PeraclesPlease — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 06:32:48 +0000

The only caveat is 30's Depression offered Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, etc - real flights of fancy. Prolly there was nothing that immersing this year, so a made-for-TV melodrama had to suffice

With excerpt with my

artappraiser — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 05:26:08 +0000

In reply to Feel-good lying race flick on Don Shirley wins Oscar

With excerpt with my underlining following tweet

Understanding a controversial best-picture win might mean coming to grips with the idea that this category now rewards Hollywood’s least-alienating fare https://t.co/Dfl2o65G9n
— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) March 1, 2019

What Green Book’s Best-Picture Oscar Does (and Does Not) Mean by K. Austin Collins

[....] the night’s biggest bit of irony: when Lee’s BlacKkKlansman and Farrelly’s Green Book—films that feel representative of two ideologically opposite strands of black representation in Hollywood—won back-to-back Oscars for adapted and original screenplay [....]

Something about those two wins in particular feels too neatly representative of the Oscars as a whole, an institution that feels caught between old and new ways of thinking about movies and the culture that they’re born into. It’s always tempting to narrativize the cultural meaning of the best-picture winner, to say nothing of the sum of the accomplishments and breakthroughs advanced in every other category. I do it; everyone who treats the Oscars like the Super Bowl of entertainment does it. It’s part of the pageant. What can be said about the Oscars this year—what made the show valuable, even for someone like me, who verges on cynical—is that one way or another, the winner was going to seem to “mean” something.

One Academy member in his 50s told The New York Times that he was tired of being told what movies to like. How's that for meaning? Given the size and diversity of the Academy, I’m sure that voter wasn’t alone. Still, I suspect Green Book’s win last night had at least something to do with the vagaries of the preferential ballot system—which is designed such that the “least disliked” film, rather than the most popular one, can take the trophy. I suspect we can thank this for Green Book as best picture, more so than outright support among voters. This is a field that stretched from two crowd-pleasing musicals to a winking political farce about recent American history to a politically savvy black superhero movie, a foreign-language art-house film released by a streaming service, and one of the first major films to tackle the bigotry of the Trump era. There was truly something for almost every stripe of Oscar voter, save, probably, those with a taste for outright melodramas (unless the weepy ending of Green Book, which was cribbed from the ending of the superior 1987 comedy Planes, Trains and Automobiles, qualifies).

Frankly, under the preferential ballot system, it’s more surprising to me that a film like 2016’s winner Moonlight—which is outré by every Oscar standard that I can think of, from its cinematographic style to its subject matter to the composition of its cast—didn’t prove more alienating. That is, to me, what best picture designates under this system: it is the least alienating film of the lot. Green Book, Spotlight, and other similar winners, with their straightforward dramatic arcs, calmly adult subject matter, and unobtrusive but competent style, have the right pedigrees to win this distinction.

I’m not sure it makes sense to be bothered when films like this win, because mediocrity proves victorious every day of the week, in every arena imaginable [....]

Would like to throw in my own suspicion from the getgo: the majority would this year try even harder than usual to pick most "least alienating" because of the Trump troll effect on the country and the world. Basically looking for an "anti-outrage" message to sooth the savage breasts. Offering escapism during the Depression is how they grew into what they are today.

Did not read this response

PeraclesPlease — Thu, 28 Feb 2019 10:41:17 +0000

In reply to What is reasonable is

Did not read this response closely when I answered - truth is, I didn't think MB was great, don't recall the complaints, but perhaps would have felt the same way as with GB if I'd read & thought about them. Or I might disagree. I'm not a purist on this. Go to any movie blog and you'll see tons of comments for and against movies, even ones we consider great or absolute trash (and I have some favorite trash picks that hurt so good...)

There has been more

artappraiser — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 19:29:17 +0000

In reply to There are outlets to honor

There has been more commentary about a black male actor wearing a tuxedo gown to the event.

That's my sense too. And it is the case in recent decades that attendees use the red carpet and global audience to push extreme boundaries. Because mere association with the kings and queens of modern entertainment world allows them to do it, they don't banish it, they are tolerant of quirks as long as you don't make them themselves push the meme.

The reaction to this one costume shows a boundary there on queerness/intersexuality, the mass culture is far away from being ready to accept and overall many different kinds of people felt free to ridicule him without shame.

Conservative people try hard to brand all of "Hollywood" with the extreme pushers on the red carpet etc. but I don't think the majority falls for that, they just see "Hollywood" as tolerant of wacko creativity all in good fun, not necessarily in full support. If they didn't give that off, they wouldn't have a mass audience.

There are outlets to honor

rmrd0000 — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 18:39:39 +0000

In reply to P.S. Within this context, the

There are outlets to honor black films other than the Academy Awards. I haven’t seen any large pushback criticizing John Lewis’ appearance on the Oscars. There has been more commentary about a black male actor wearing a tuxedo gown to the event.

P.S. Within this context, the

artappraiser — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 18:03:54 +0000

In reply to I want to make it clear that

P.S. Within this context, the question of whether John Lewis would be seen as an Uncle Tom for what he did was interesting to me. The contrast with Spike Lee's behavior made it even more interesting. So it was like a setup like this: hey world out there, who you gonna believe, John Lewis (old ways of seeing) or Spike Lee (new ways of seeing.)

And in the end, as far as best picture, what I see: lots of buzz for learning more about and understanging the Jim Crow period. Not to mention an emphasis on role playing and role reversal about class issues. Mho, the latter is probably what the majority of the academy voters probably saw as the merit: white guy plays the lower class, black guy plays the gay-ish elite, busting pop culture stereotypes without being too radical, making lowest common denominator think.

I want to make it clear that

artappraiser — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 17:53:39 +0000

In reply to Feel-good lying race flick on Don Shirley wins Oscar

I want to make it clear that I don't want to get into defending The Green Book as a movie because I haven't seen it.

I just strongly agreed with all of oceankat's initial comments along the lines of "doh!". Doh, history-based movies are not accurate, they include dramatic license for message purposes. Doh, the Academy Awards usually reflects mainstream pop culture and it is therefore often mediocrity which is rewarded.

With these points a given, it is exactly this kind of article that has grown tiresome to me: "what an outrage that such a piece of shit movie got best picture!" That is where I begin to react sarcastically! I've seen this "outraged at best picture award" article too many years now.

It is like a tiresome elite whine.

Rather, what I find really neat about the Oscars: it is highly affected by lowest common denominator current culture worldwide! But the electors also have some savvy, they are elites of a certain kind, elites that have to understand how to sell to lowest common denominator. Not the kind that whine about pop culture lowest common denominator, more the kind that pander to it.

The top awards always seem to pander more to lowest common denominator, to not try to be very radical. (I think I once read, not sure if it is true, that is partly a reflection of the whole body voting for those awards, where in the more specialized awards, only the people that work in those fields vote.) It is an interesting indicator of where pop culture is at the moment, where the boundaries are, where they can be pushed so that things are still exciting, but not too far to turn too many people off. All the more so because such a huge world audience watches and is affected.

I found the actual design of the awards show this year to be the most interesting thing about it. It was very reflective of a new "lowered attention span" culture from internet device use! Without a host guiding it, they were constant quick jumps from one meme to the next, packed full of memes, almost chaotic jumping. I found it hard to multitask which I usually do with something like this. Even the ads seemed to flow into the show, you couldn't tell where the show ended and the commercial started. It didn't seem like the tiresome same old same old droning on too long where the host could have been Bob Hope. Said to me: this is how pop culture has changed, truly, change is here: no more "long form."

I don't find it weird at all,

artappraiser — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 17:24:33 +0000

In reply to The Central Intelligence

I don't find it weird at all, it looks like goofy P.R. to me. They want to sound like they are real people too, who also watch the Oscars, just a fun organization that maybe you young fans of Black Panther out there might want to join when you grow up. They are looking to diversify; they found that limiting humint to just the WASP tribe doesn't get them very far. Be all that you can be: there's other options besides the Marines, think about us, we're cool superheroes too.

They're duplicating your

PeraclesPlease — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 16:34:40 +0000

In reply to The Central Intelligence

They're duplicating your links too - scary.

The Central Intelligence

rmrd0000 — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 14:55:15 +0000

In reply to Feel-good lying race flick on Don Shirley wins Oscar

The Central Intelligence Agency was live-tweeting about “Black Panther” during the awards show, making sure that people knew that vibranium was fictional

https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2019/02/cia-black-panther-twitter/

Weird