The Oscar irony
The Oscars is probably one of the most-viewed events on television. People seem to enjoy it because they get to see all their favorite artists in a single room announcing the best movies of the year. The irony is that people don’t seem to understand that winning an Oscar does not mean the movie is good.
The Hurt Locker, for example, was nearly unwatchable for some viewers. It shows the United States’ role in the Iraq war through the experiences of three soldiers in a series of scenes of violence, crude language, and action. I thought the movie was, all in all, pretty boring.
Another example of an overrated movie which also happened to be incredibly boring was Birdman. I was quite shocked when it won this year’s Best Picture Award in the Oscars. The movie can be summarized by a camera following Michael Keaton around while the audience feels a forced feeling of pity for his character who is having a hard time letting go of a superhero he once played and opens a theater production in hopes of getting over it. Weird. The whole movie felt like random actors with big names were simply shoved in the movie in order to call it “good.” Admittedly, Birdman deserves some props for filming the entire movie in one take, but can the so-called “best movie of the year” go up against movies such as Forrest Gump and Saving Private Ryan? No.
More often than not, many feel intimidated by the fact that a movie has won an Oscar and thus proceed to perceive it as “good.” In my opinion, there were two movies that should have been considered more likely to win this years Oscars, Interstellar and Whiplash. Their scripts were original and the acting was very well executed.
Whiplash is about a young man striving to become a great drummer. Throughout the movie, Andrew, played by Miles Teller, shows how much physical pain it takes to become “great.” His band instructor, Fletcher, played by J.K. Simmons, shows how much it takes to make a great musician by teaching his classes with rigor to the point of being charged with assault. The movie is spectacular and, so far, extremely underrated.
Interstellar probably made my top movies list. It is, quite simply, magnificent. The plot is original. I am not the biggest fan of sci-fi, but this movie proved the biases I have against this genre to be nonsense. Matthew McConaughey does an amazing job (as always) and portrays his character to the fullest. Several scenes gave me goosebumps and the science behind the story is fascinating. It is definitely the best movie of 2015 and arguably makes the top 10 list of best movies of the decade, completely toppling over Oscar winners such as The Hurt Locker and Birdman.
Nowadays, the truth is that an Oscar constitutes nothing. Movies that are given Oscars should not be automatically deemed as excellent. In fact, nowadays, the greatest movies are often the ones that don’t win, since truly beautiful things don’t demand recognition.
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