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Athens, Ohio, United States
"Art and love are the same thing. It's the process of seeing yourself in things that are not you."

Thursday, January 22, 2009

The Gut-Punch

So America just elected its first black President and the Oscars couldn't find the courage to nominate a summer blockbuster for Best Picture?

I am not watching the Oscars.

That's it. That's all I have to say. I have made excuses for them for years and I have dutifully watched every single ceremony for as long as I can remember.

But I will not watch this one.

I love movies. But it is becoming increasingly more clear that the Oscars don't. I am writing this reaction mere seconds after I learned that The Reader.....yes, The Reader, the movie that currently has a 60% on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie that stars Kate Winslet as a Nazi seducing a young boy who later grows up to be Ralph Fiennes (I did not make that synopsis up), the movie that is the very definition of Oscar-bait received a Best Picture nomination and The Dark Knight did not.

Look, Oscars, I try my damndest to support you. I told other people that you were legitimate even though you repeatedly shot yourself in the foot, year after year. But this is just crazy. I don't have to tell you how good The Dark Knight is or why it should have been nominated because you already know. At the end of the day, you were just too afraid to nominate a movie that was....gulp, POPULAR! 

Can you imagine the horror if the Oscars had actually nominated a movie that the general public gives a crap about? It would be anarchy! So its really best they didn't. They wouldn't want to jeopardize their image as a old institution of cranky old white men who are completely out of touch with the viewing public. Thank God, they still have that image or they actually might have made themselves matter in the new age of America.

Oh well, they will still have the same ten or twelve snobs who actually watch the show every year watch it.

I just won't be one of them this year.

4 comments:

Woozie said...

I don't think I've ever watched the Oscars, not even for a second. Awards shows bore the hell out of me.

The A.G.B said...

I used to be a Total Awards Show junkie. It was kind of a tradition. It just won't hold my interest this year though if I don't think the nominations are legitimate and I do not think these nominations are legitimate.

Anonymous said...

I bet you will not be able to stay away and will catch at least part of the show

The A.G.B said...

There is a good chance I will.

I think I am beginning to soften on my stance already.