drew olanoff dot com.

The Oscars, and why they suck.

I’ve probably seen a million movies in my 28 years.   I’m not kidding, it has to be close.   I’ve stood in lines at the theater, I’ve pre-ordered DVDS, I’ve bought shirts, I’ve told friends…everything.

I’m a movie machine.   I can tell you who said what in what movie, what song was on what soundtrack, at what point in the movie the song was played.  You get the idea.

Every year, the movie season revolves around The Oscars.  A glorious evening where rich people get free swag, clothes, and get treated like royalty.  In my opinion there are are a few truly brilliant actors/actresses who deserve that type of treatment.   Most don’t.

Anyways, back to the Oscars.   So I watch every year even though I say I won’t.   Every year there’s some wild and crazy surprise winner.  My question is…who in the muthafuck picks these things?  They get to see the movie for free, they get to write an anonymous ballot.   And they get to tell the world what the best movies are?  I know the Oscars are an Academy of voters, that’s the whole point.   But shit man, are they all over the age of 84?  It never fails.

Why isn’t there fan involvement.  I know this isn’t the viewers choice awards, but hell…we spend all of the money to see these movies, we have an attachment to them.   We know whats good and bad.  We vote with our dollars.   How many times have you been screwed by a crappy movie after paying 20 bucks to see it?  You should get to vote that movie down and campaign against it winning any award at all.

Actors and Actresses aren’t royalty.   They’re just like us.  They’re peers.  They should be at OUR mercy.  Not some old Academy members who don’t give a crap.

Some fine movies win awards, some fine talent win awards.  But this year, Ellen Page got ripped off for her role in Juno.  The writeups today will say “She’s young, she’ll be back”.  She didn’t win because she’s young and will be back?  Gah.  I’ve seen clips of the other movies, read reviews (haven’t seen them alll), but I wouldn’t want to.  They’re not my kind of movies.   Get the point?  The movies that win awards are the types of movies the Academy LIKES.  Therefore they keep winning!  And filmmakers simply do movies they know the Academy will vote for.

Bullshit.

Daniel Day Lewis deserved his award.   But he only does movies he’ll win an Oscar for.   It’s true.

Juno was a brilliant movie.  It cost $7 million to make and it made over $100 million on minimal marketing dollars.  Word of mouth made that movie go.  Why?  Because it was an amazing movie.  People suggest great stuff, not crap, and not cookie cutter period pieces who will appeal to geriatrics who have a vote for the Oscars.

Give us a vote.  Maybe not the whole say, but some say.

Congrats to Diablo Cody for winning for Juno.  She deserved it, and at least the Academy got one thing right at the Oscars.   She’s the Kevin Smith of the 2000’s.