Monday, March 05, 2018

Oscar Reflection

Last night, The Shape of Water won Best Picture. This is a movie about a mute woman who has an attraction to a hybrid fish man (think benign Creature from the Black Lagoon.) Mrs. X and I both have no desire to seek this movie out and watch it as it just doesn't look interesting to us. Jimmy Kimmel actually made a joke about how Hollywood doesn't make Oscar nominated movies to make money but to annoy the political establishment. That's actually not much of a joke when you look at the recent history of the Oscars.

I decided to go back through the recent history and see how many of the winners and nominees that I have seen and I think it's rather telling.

2017 - 0/9. This will change as I am mildly interested in seeing both Get Out and Dunkirk. I think Mrs. X would like to se Lady Bird and I'm not opposed to that in general. To be somewhat fair, some of this lack of seeing movies has to do with being busy (and poor) with a young family rather than disinterest.

2016 - 1/9 - Hidden Figures. I liked Hidden Figures, though it was somewhat predictable. Of the other nominees this year, I think Hacksaw Ridge was the only one that any appeal to me but not enough to make any serious effort.

2015 - 1/8 - The Martian. Many more folks would have added Mad Max: Fury Road here but I saw enough in trailers and cut away scenes that it just felt like a retread of The Road Warrior. I appreciate the logistics it went through but it just doesn't appeal to me. I should point out that only I saw The Martian. She hadn't read the book yet (thought it middling) so I watched it by myself. But everything else, no interest.

2014 - 0/8. This was a real case of ambivalence for me. Nothing appealed then and nothing appeals now.

2013 - 2/9 - American Hustle, Gravity. I think American Hustle was one of the movies that really pushed me off Oscar hype. It didn't win Best Picture but there was much hype around it. I watched it and found it boring. You want a good con movie? Watch The Sting. Gravity was another of those movies that while visually interesting was not worth the hype surrounding it. There is a small part of me that thinks I should watch 12 Years a Slave from a historic standpoint, but I never got a sense of importance with putting up with something that bleak like I did with Schindler's List so I don't bother.

2012 - 4/9 - Argo, Les Miserables, Life of Pi, Lincoln. This marks the first winner that I've actually seen. It was ok, though not particularly outstanding. Its win was clearly more a product of the snub to Ben Afleck in the directing category. Lincoln was well acted but heavy handed and not something I'm interested in seeing again. Life of Pi was odd at the time but it has grown a bit in my memory and I think I would actually enjoy watching it a second time. Les Mis was enjoyed by both of us, though I like the actual Broadway show better. Still it was good enough to pick up on DVD and watch a couple more times. Everything else, not really my cup of tea but nearly half, including the winner, isn't bad.

2011 - 2/9 - The Help, Moneyball. Again, two movies that weren't bad and enjoyable to watch, though neither one was enjoyable enough to watch it a second time. Everything else just didn't register as being worth my time.

2010 - 4/10 - Inception, The Social Network, Toy Story 3, True Grit. It takes us to 2010 for me to find movies that really enjoyed. Toy Story 3 is very good and have watched it several times, though I think I like Toy Story 2 a bit better. I like True Grit a great deal, both for it's visual style and acting. Every since Unforgiven, I've been very fond of the more realistic Western and True Grit is a well done version of that. Even Inception I found entertaining on a conceptual level, though its been overplayed a bit. The Social Network is more like prior movies on this list where I saw it once, thought it ok and let it slide off my brain. Nothing great there. Everything else, meh.

2009 - 1/10 - Up. Avatar never appealed to me as I could see the bones of that story from a mile away. I was mildly interested in District 9 but that also faded as time went on. Up on the other hand, I've seen numerous times and I can't think of any movie that can hold a candle to the emotional storytelling of the first 10 minutes of that movie. The rest is a little more bland, though with some properly funny moments, but still head and shoulders above anything else that was nominated that year.

2008 - 1/5 - Slumdog Millionaire. Back to era of five nominees. I barely remember the other four nominees but I thought Slumdog Millionaire was ok. Nothing great, but it did hold my attention for its run and that's not bad.

2007 - 1/5 - Juno. I liked Juno. It had that cynical, yet hopeful edge to it that appealed. I've also seen enough evidence to suggest that I would probably like both No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood so I might get around to seeing them someday. So though it's only 1 of 5 here, it could be a 3 of 5 and that's not too bad.

2006 - 2/5 - Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen. Little Miss Sunshine was like Juno in that it was a quirky, indie comedy that had broad appeal. The Queen was also decent and after watching two seasons of The Crown, I'd like to go back and watch it again. I'm not much on either dirty cop movies or Scorsese so The Departed holds little interest for me.

2005 - 0/5. Gay cowboys, Spielberg trying too hard and a big head scratcher. Pass.

2004 - 1/5 - The Aviator. I saw this one on my parent's recommendation. Didn't like it as it was slow and bloated. Probably should see Million Dollar Baby but just interested in what I know will be a real downer of a movie.

2003 - 4/5 - Return of the King, Lost in Translation, Master and Commander, Mystic River. Return of the King is more of an honoring of the whole trilogy. From an individual standpoint, The Two Towers is actually the best of the three. But I like it and have watched it several times. The other three are one and done's again. I personally think Lost in Translation is way overhyped and far to artsy for my taste. The other two were at least interesting in their own way, though I have no desire to return to either of them.

So of the last fifteen years, I have seen 23 of 111 nominees (20.7%) and 3 of the 15 winners (20%). Not great percentages.

For the overall record, of the 90 best picture winners, I have seen 37 (41.1%) with most of the misses coming in the pre-1960 era.