Grace Randolph: no one will watch the Oscars

[RichAssPiss 4,917]

She's a gross capitalist hack who rarely covers anything besides blockbusters. It does not surprise me she doesn't understand the integrity in voting for achievement rather than ratings.

[StarstruckIllusion 52,560]

her first decent opinion ever, maybe… 

[LilyLark 10,095]

8 minutes ago, RichAssPiss said:

She's a gross capitalist hack who rarely covers anything besides blockbusters. It does not surprise me she doesn't understand the integrity in voting for achievement rather than ratings.

True, but she has a valid point in the best picture field. There is a degree of elitism and while they did nominated King Richard/Drive My Car...a lack of diversity. The whole point of expanding the field was to fix those issues, but...

For example, In The Heights had better reviews, made more money, and was written/directed/starred by POC...and yet the Academy decided WSS (written/directed by yt men) was more worthy. Not to mention the Passing snub, etc.

Edited: The idea of who decides what is worthy is something that is worth contemplating. And this is coming from someone who thought there were around 10 worthy performances for best actress (and as much as I love Gaga, Stewart, Kidman, and Chastain...I also thought Reinsve gave a better performance and she had even more acclaim, too).

[RichAssPiss 4,917]

35 minutes ago, LilyLark said:

True, but she has a valid point in the best picture field. There is a degree of elitism and while they did nominated King Richard/Drive My Car...a lack of diversity. The whole point of expanding the field was to fix those issues, but...

For example, In The Heights had better reviews, made more money, and was written/directed/starred by POC...and yet the Academy decided WSS (written/directed by yt men) was more worthy. Not to mention the Passing snub, etc.

Edited: The idea of who decides what is worthy is something that is worth contemplating. And this is coming from someone who thought there were around 10 worthy performances for best actress (and as much as I love Gaga, Stewart, Kidman, and Chastain...I also thought Reinsve gave a better performance and she had even more acclaim, too).

Agreed. But she is not a voice of reason to follow.  

Also, In the Heights is glorious. The best movie musical in at least a decade. And Passing was my favorite film of the year. I would have loved to see them both nominated. 

[ItWasntLaauv 6,392]

I stan Grace, even if she has an opinion that’s wild sometimes, I still live her haha!

[Future Lovers 6,901]

2 hours ago, LilyLark said:

For example, In The Heights had better reviews, made more money, and was written/directed/starred by POC...and yet the Academy decided WSS (written/directed by yt men) was more worthy. Not to mention the Passing snub, etc.

I understand the point that you're trying to make here but you're picking the wrong film to do it with. 

Yes, WSS was written and directed by and stars (in part) white men. But to say no it can't get in based on that reason alone would invalidate the achievements of the POC cast in it no? And it's not as if they made up a small segment of the cast, a significant portion of that cast is POC and almost every individual performer that was submitted for an award was one of the POC cast members. 

Beyond that, let's not pretend that Steven Spielberg is just another straight white pig of a man. Throughout his career he has consistently tried to do right by and feature performers of color and different ethnic backgrounds. His most famous films perhaps don't demonstrate this as much as some of his other work does, but that doesn't take away from the fact that he's been walking that walk for a long time (albeit with a few blunders along the way, I'm not going to excuse some of the more questionable depictions of certain cultures in the Indiana Jones films). And with this film in particular, he used his influence to get something done that not many other filmmakers would have: he got a major studio to agree to let the Spanish in the film go without subtitles and he not only stuck by that but defended it when controversy ensued. 

Beyond that point, In the Heights did not get better reviews than WSS, they were essentially equal (WSS has an 85 on MC and a 92% on RT; ItH has an 84 on MC and a 94% on RT). It also made a not insignificant amount less at the box office than WSS (WSS made $64.1 million, ItH made $44 million). 

[LilyLark 10,095]

3 minutes ago, No Way Home said:

I understand the point that you're trying to make here but you're picking the wrong film to do it with. 

Yes, WSS was written and directed by and stars (in part) white men. But to say no it can't get in based on that reason alone would invalidate the achievements of the POC cast in it no? And it's not as if they made up a small segment of the cast, a significant portion of that cast is POC and almost every individual performer that was submitted for an award was one of the POC cast members. 

Beyond that, let's not pretend that Steven Spielberg is just another straight white pig of a man. Throughout his career he has consistently tried to do right by and feature performers of color and different ethnic backgrounds. His most famous films perhaps don't demonstrate this as much as some of his other work does, but that doesn't take away from the fact that he's been walking that walk for a long time (albeit with a few blunders along the way, I'm not going to excuse some of the more questionable depictions of certain cultures in the Indiana Jones films). And with this film in particular, he used his influence to get something done that not many other filmmakers would have: he got a major studio to agree to let the Spanish in the film go without subtitles and he not only stuck by that but defended it when controversy ensued. 

Beyond that point, In the Heights did not get better reviews than WSS, they were essentially equal (WSS has an 85 on MC and a 92% on RT; ItH has an 84 on MC and a 94% on RT). It also made a not insignificant amount less at the box office than WSS (WSS made $64.1 million, ItH made $44 million). 

Valid, though I still disagree slightly (and I wasn't aware WSS made more money). I do think ITH doing that much with a day and date release was pretty d*mn impressive, and Steven admittedly did make an effort but there was definitely some backlash (even NYT wrote about it) that this was the film he decided to focus on instead of supporting other Latino stories.

 

TLRD: You're right...it's not Greenbook or anything like that. And Steven did try and make it diverse and it's still far more diverse than other films. But I do think there's a difference in terms of diversity when you look at the teams behind films and the leads (ITH was led by four actors of color, including a Black man and a light skinned Afro-Latina...even if there were colorism issues...the main star that the media pushed for WSS was a yt passing Latina). The fact that largely non-Latino critics pushed WSS over ITH though was an issue imo.

 

[Future Lovers 6,901]

1 minute ago, LilyLark said:

Valid, though I still disagree slightly (and I wasn't aware WSS made more money). I do think ITH doing that much with a day and date release was pretty d*mn impressive, and Steven admittedly did make an effort but there was definitely some backlash (even NYT wrote about it) that this was the film he decided to focus on instead of supporting other Latino stories.

 

TLRD: You're right...it's not Greenbook or anything like that. And Steven did try and make it diverse and it's still far more diverse than other films. But I do think there's a difference in terms of diversity when you look at the teams behind films and the leads (ITH was led by four actors of color, including a Black man and a light skinned Afro-Latina...even if there were colorism issues...the main star that the media pushed for WSS was a yt passing Latina). The fact that largely non-Latino critics pushed WSS over ITH though was an issue imo.

 

I don't disagree with you on that front. 

I think ITH would've possibly had a fair shot under a different set of circumstances, namely Lin Manuel-Miranda triple dipping this go around. I can't say for sure as I don't know exactly what was done and what wasn't, but it seems that he and the studio didn't really campaign for ITH but campaigned for Tik Tik Boom and Encanto instead as both started coming out towards the end of campaign season as the more likely success stories of the two. 

Which I can understand, especially with Encanto. What the unfortunate thing about it is that all three films were going up against one obstacle or another that WSS didn't have to go up against. Encanto had to up against the fact that it's rare for animated films to secure a best picture nomination no matter how good. ITH and Tik Tik Boom had to face the challenge of being film versions of musicals that have not worked their way into the popular zeitgeist, so to general audiences (and by extension, likely a large part of the Academy's voting body) they were essentially a "new musical" and this is perhaps the worst time in history to be peddling a musical (even if it's amazing). 

WSS is a musical yes but that was discounted by the fact that it's a very known musical. Unfortunately, ITH and Tik Tik Boom alike didn't stand a chance to go up against it. 

Which is unfortunate because as you said, it would've been a more appropriate display of diversity. It seems unfortunately that the Academy's perspective on what is and is not diversity seems to be skewed. To them, I'm sure they look at the nominations and see more diversity than there actually is because of there being a Japanese film, a film with a celebration of Latino culture, a film about a prominent black man, an LGBTQ+ drama, a film made by a Spanish speaker, and what's left over is their usual Academy fodder. Which is an undiverse list but can definitely be seen as more a ticking of boxes than anything else. 

[Chromatican 4,046]

The Oscars are going to become another American Film Institute or National Board of Review type of organization within the next decade. I don't think a film like No Way Home should be nominated for Best Picture, but there really has to be some populism involved otherwise they should not televise this, and just announce nominees and winners in a press release. Gaga being snubbed is one thing, she is a relative newcomer and her film was mixed in terms of its reception, but it's not like they went with only well received films. These nominations prove the Academy really only sees a few films every year. I'm sad, because without the Oscars most smaller films will become even smaller and become streaming films.

[papergangster 2,745]

I never watch the Oscars. I was only going to watch for Gaga, but look how that went 

[azul 2,099]

I mean, it's difficult to nominate popular movies since people only watch superheroes movies. Those are objectively bad films, with no message, no acting achievements, and no interesting plots. Every time I speak about it here some users always come for me trying to defend their personal taste because they can different entertainment from art pieces. The reality is that movie-goers simply do not appreciate good quality cinema. It is what it is. I prefer Oscars to have lower ratings than to be some kind of a Kids Choice Awards that applaud popularity over quality.

[Oregano 103]

5 hours ago, ItWasntLaauv said:

I stan Grace, even if she has an opinion that’s wild sometimes, I still live her haha!

I almost never agree with her but I always seek her opinion first

[Battle 4 Ur Life 6,698]

11 hours ago, Oregano said:

be proud of your own heritage

WAIT, what do you actually mean? are you trying to shade me? I am on Gaga’s side because I actually chose to make sense with my life. you know, since I’m on her forum. otherwise I’d be just a loser who logs in to side with haters.

[Battle 4 Ur Life 6,698]

7 hours ago, JLoveLamar said:

I'm HOLLERING 

you should have your own opinion.

[Oregano 103]

32 minutes ago, Battle 4 Ur Life said:

WAIT, what do you actually mean? are you trying to shade me? I am on Gaga’s side because I actually chose to make sense with my life. you know, since I’m on her forum. otherwise I’d be just a loser who logs in to side with haters.

OMG

 

"Miss Fame... how's your head?"