Boiling Point: The Academy Awards

Posted by Robert Fure (robert@filmschoolrejects.com) on February 19, 2008

[Editor's Warning: We believe that our good friend Robert Fure has really gone off the deep end this time. He curses profusely in the article below. If you are offended by this, we recommend checking out another article from our Oscar Week coverage. Otherwise, enjoy the show!]

The Academy Awards don’t mean shit. Yeah, you heard me. If someone wins Best Picture, they can put it on their DVD case and watch sales go up – but that doesn’t mean it was the best, or deserved to win. And everyone who disliked the movie will call it a rip off. Those who liked the other will call it a steal. And really, they’re all right.

The Academy Awards seem so political these days. It doesn’t seem to be that the winning picture has to be the best one. It, first and foremost, has to be the right kind of movie. Schindler’s List, There Will Be Blood, Titanic – all fucking no brainers for Oscar consideration. Where is Alien for Best Original Script? Not a chance in hell, as that movie is genuinely entertaining and gripping without being 150 minutes long and full of soliloquies. I don’t want to take anything away from some deserving movies, but a lot of this shit is a roll of the die.

Is there any doubt Return of the King wasn’t going to win? It deserved to. But so did Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. But, the Academy, knowing there was a third way to play catch up with, pawned off the other awards and ignored the groundbreaking work and overall awesomeness that was Fellowship of the Ring. All was made right by King, but that’s clearly a political move.

Johnny Depp, who is a tremendous actor, was overlooked for years until Pirates of the Caribbean caught on – now he grabs nominations here and there. He will win the Oscar within the next three years. He probably deserved it six years ago.

A movie like Juno will be taking home it’s Oscars mostly because of how many people like it and think its cute rather than based on its merit. Yes, a movie just being plain fucking enjoyable does count for something (unless it is a comedy, an action movie, or a horror story, which are almost universally ignored with minor exception) but that doesn’t make it technically proficient. A good story does not necessitate a good Directorial effort. But what the fuck, everyone thinks its cute!

Where are the fucking action movies and horror movies? They’re just as good, often times better. Real writing goes into them. Real acting. But no, unless you have some disease or some affliction, you can’t be the best actor or actress. Where are the fucking comedies for best screenplay? Comedy is a bitch to write.

I just want the Academy to wake the fuck up and start rewarding the movies that deserve. Films are constantly overlooked and the awards are dolled out in accordance with what is popular or political, not with what is merit worthy. Bowling for Columbine as best documentary? No, more like topical and a Hollywood fuck fest, that movie barely qualifies as a documentary. An Inconvenient Truth also wins best documentary. Good thing science doesn’t fucking matter because most of that fucking movie has been disproved by actual science! OOPS, FUCK YOU ACADEMY for not picking what deserved to win and picking what would make you popular. All these years later and you’re still just some kid on the fucking playground trying to get picked first for dodgeball. Fuck you.

Maybe no one else cares. Maybe you fucking want Juno to win every fucking award and still think that carbon dioxide levels are ten thousand percent higher than they are and are causing global warming (hint: they are not at their highest ever, not even close, and science seems to indicate that the planet gets warmer and then carbon dioxide goes up – OOPS!) then fucking ignore this shit. But I for one have had enough of these popular decisions and want a real fucking movie that really fucking deserves it to take home the award without all the bullshit associated with being popular or cute. Or maybe I’m just past my God damned boiling point.

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Nate

I agree Robert, The Academy is a complete joke. Just look at how they fucked up the foreign language category this year.

Jim

But hasn't the disprovals of An Inconvenient Truth then also been again disproven by other real scientists? Science can never make up its mind. Stephen Hawking proved things that seemed impossible and then was disproved.

emad

my opinion?i think you are a snob and you have to take care of yourself.on the other side i think you have forgot that movies are all about subjectivity,calling Schindler a no brainer.and about screenplays,i think you missed a bit about nominees in past years,even this year there is two comedies nominated,i think dan in real life or knocked up deserved to be there too but i cant blame everybody else just because they don't think like me.
about genre movies,you know when you say GENRE you are saying"there will be a lot of people who won't like this"as for myself i don't like any horror but when a movie is somehow free-genre(a.k.a drama)there is more chance of popularity(and again i think Ultimatum really deserved a picture nod)
i didn't like juno as everybody else seems to have too,but when you see that a veteran like ebert says it is the best movie of the year,you can't say it's bullshit like a verdict.

pearly

I agree. Juno is completely overrated. Basically it's a cute funny movie that Fox Searchlight has successfully promoted as an "Oscar-worthy" film.

jon

i do agree with most of your rather exaggerated statements. horror films, or even suspenseful films such as "Zodiac" of this year should recieve much more recognition then initially given. the academy does give awards to films that are either 1.period films, such as " There Will be Blood", 2. political films, such as Micheal Clayton or going back to a film like All the Presidents men, or 3. emotional character studies, such as Juno, or films like Titanic (which had the epic atmosphere around it) and Atonement. In my opinion, Zodiac deserves multiple nods that Atonement has.

blackmanjew

hmm blackmanjew is back and is taking off his pants. all i have to say is i would love to sit on roberts face and poop a little.

Kevin

Wow, I've never seen the usual rant against the Best Picture Oscar with such colorful language. The academy has been out of touch before such as snubbing Psycho which made a lot of money on a low budget.

Why shouldn't Juno at least get a nomination? Every Year it seems less people watch movies and less watch the Oscars except in the years when something popular but with some level of technical or artistic achievement is nominated such as Lord of the Rings. What's the point in talking to ourselves?

Movies this year were crap for the most part. Too many stinky sequels. We should at least honor a film that is entertaining but with a good story and fresh characters. Similarly , I feel Knocked Up should have gotten a screenwriting or a long shot directing nomination. I do agree with you, but I can't get hopped up when a fun to watch movie is nominated along with the usual suspects.

Oh not to piss you off even more, Alien should have been nominated for best adapted screenplay if that was around in 79. Its pieced together from Star Beast by Dan O'Bannon. Ronald Shusett added his ideas.

Robert Fure

I always love to see people respond, especially to Boiling Point - seems to boil up a lot. Please, continue to ravage, embrace, refute, or celebrate anything I've said here or about me.

blackmanjew, I'm not sure if your comment is a negative or a positive - you never know with some people!

Kevin, agreed on a lot of the suck going around this year and I'm not against Juno getting a nomination, but don't feel that it's all that great (refer to Boiling Point - Hype Sucks!!!).

Though I do have to say that Alien, under WGA guidelines, is an original screenplay. O'Bannon has the screenplay credit while he and Shusett share story credit. Star Beast was the original title of the story O'Bannon and Shusett came up with, which O'Bannon penned; the title was changed to "Alien" because Star Beast sucked (and was the name of a Robert Heinlein story). It was never a separate complete work.

Kevin

No problem. I hate the nitpicky rules of some awards shows. In My Best Original Score article I ranted about There Will Be Blood being snubbed because there is no Adapted Score category anymore. Great topic. Its getting a good response. I see I'm not the only Alien fan around here.

the new guy

"Comedy is a bitch to write."

As evidenced by this unfunny tripe. It's obvious you are a bitter man who is jealous of the success of others, but it's not a conspiracy that no one will give you a job. It's because you are a terrible writer. Set aside your pathetic overuse of the word 'fuck' or your lack of understanding how apostrophes work, you appear to know little of what you are writing about.

"Where are the fucking comedies for best screenplay?"

You mean like Little Miss Sunshine, Sideways and other nominees like Borat. I would go on by why do more research than you did?

Knocked Up isn't going to win an Oscar. That mediocre film barely deserves an MTV Movie Award

Boiling Point: The Academy Awards

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