The Oscars 2019

[Bartmanhomer]

Is anybody going to watch the Oscars tonight? I hope that Black Panther wins for Best Pictures.

[Aedilred]

I understand why people want Black Panther to win Best Picture, but it in no way deserves to. By the standards of Marvel superhero movies - indeed, even Marvel superhero movies released in 2018 - it was pretty mediocre.

The only thing that's really remarkable about it is its box office, which shouldn't be the determining factor in deciding whether a movie is any good.

[GloatingSwine]

I understand why people want Black Panther to win Best Picture, but it in no way deserves to. By the standards of Marvel superhero movies - indeed, even Marvel superhero movies released in 2018 - it was pretty mediocre.

Even absent other factors, Black Panther would still be the most likely Marvel movie of 2018 to appeal to the Academy.

Infinity War is quasi-meaningless without having seen at least half a dozen or so other movies, and so can't possibly considered on its own

Ant-Man and the Wasp is okay, but not as good as Black Panther.

And the actual best superhero movie of last year, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was animated and ain't no way the Academy are treating animated movies as real.

[The Glyphstone]

BP wasn't pretentious and artsy enough to win a Best Picture, and it wasn't made by a director who has 'earned' a BP win.

[GloatingSwine]

BP wasn't pretentious and artsy enough to win a Best Picture, and it wasn't made by a director who has 'earned' a BP win.

On the other hand, there isn't a clear favourite this year.

The Academy is trying to look less out of touch, especially because of the ratings problem they're having with the Oscars on TV. So they might go for the popular choice (which was also the most culturally impactful and best reviewed of the best picture noms).

[BWR]

BP wasn't pretentious and artsy enough to win a Best Picture, and it wasn't made by a director who has 'earned' a BP win.

It also wasn't good enough in any other respect. Good, but not Best Picture good. Of course, I rarely agree with actual best picture wins (when I've actually seen the winners, that is).

[Peelee]

The Academy is trying to look less out of touch

They could accomplish this by trying to actually stop being out of touch, but I have yet to see that idea floated by.

[Bartmanhomer]

Superheroes movies are rare for Best Pictures. These movies are very common for the Special Effects category though.

[MikelaC1]

Black Panther wasnt even the best Marvel movie of the year, let alone Best Picture overall. If it wins, it will be Academy bowing to PC pressure

[Murk]

Black Panther wasnt even the best Marvel movie of the year, let alone Best Picture overall. If it wins, it will be Academy bowing to PC pressure

I Always figured the Academy was at the head of political correctness. How could it bow to it?

[The Glyphstone]

Black Panther wasnt even the best Marvel movie of the year, let alone Best Picture overall. If it wins, it will be Academy bowing to PC pressure

It's running against BlacKKKlansmen, which has both a African-American main character and a Jewish main character, Roma with its indigenous Mexican female lead character, The Favorite with a triple lesbian love triangle period drama, Green Book with African-American and Italian-American co-leads, Bohemian Rhapsody, A Star Is Born, and Vice. 4/7 of those are minority/PC-friendly lead and story, 5/7 if you count Freddy Mercury. Probably the only Best Picture that couldn't be argued as 'bowing to PC pressure' would be **** Cheney's autobiographical film Vice.

[Bartmanhomer]

It's running against BlacKKKlansmen, which has both a African-American main character and a Jewish main character, Roma with its indigenous Mexican female lead character, The Favorite with a triple lesbian love triangle, Green Book with African-American and Italian-American co-leads, Bohemian Rhapsody, A Star Is Born, and Vice. 4/7 of those are minority/PC-friendly lead and story, 5/7 if you count Freddy Mercury. Probably the only Best Picture that couldn't be argued as 'bowing to PC pressure' would be **** Cheney's autobiographical film Vice.

All the other movies are very exceptional and Oscar-worthy so it's going to be a tough fight to see who win for Best Pictures.

[Lethologica]

It's running against BlacKKKlansmen, which has both a African-American main character and a Jewish main character, Roma with its indigenous Mexican female lead character, The Favorite with a triple lesbian love triangle period drama, Green Book with African-American and Italian-American co-leads, Bohemian Rhapsody, A Star Is Born, and Vice. 4/7 of those are minority/PC-friendly lead and story, 5/7 if you count Freddy Mercury. Probably the only Best Picture that couldn't be argued as 'bowing to PC pressure' would be **** Cheney's autobiographical film Vice.

Vice totally could be argued as such based on its politics. It's a very woke lineup.

[The Glyphstone]

Vice totally could be argued as such based on its politics. It's a very woke lineup.

True, though exploring that line of thought too deeply might lead us places we shouldn't go here.

[Kitten Champion]

My guess would be Roma, both for immediate external political reasons and because its quality is such that it's sufficient to satisfy most people's considerations for what an Oscar-winner would be. Though it has the issue of being tied to Netflix, which apparently is a thorny subject in Hollywood.

Black Panther's relevance doesn't depend on Oscar recognition at the end of the day, it was what it was regardless.

[GloatingSwine]

My guess would be Roma, both for immediate external political reasons and because its quality is such that it's sufficient to satisfy most people's considerations for what an Oscar-winner would be. Though it has the issue of being tied to Netflix, which apparently is a thorny subject in Hollywood.

There's the Netflix issue, Netflix is to the Academy as garlic is to vampires after all, and the fact that it's a largely subtitled movie trying to escape the best foreign language film ghetto.

Roma should be a good contender, but has Academy baggage.

[Aedilred]

On the other hand, there isn't a clear favourite this year.

The Academy is trying to look less out of touch, especially because of the ratings problem they're having with the Oscars on TV. So they might go for the popular choice (which was also the most culturally impactful and best reviewed of the best picture noms).

"Best reviewed" depends on how you look at it. Rottentomatoes gives one score, based on the proportion of reviewers that gave it positive reviews. But that doesn't take into account how positive the reviews are. On RT, Black Panther does indeed have the highest score, by a margin of about 1% over Roma.

Metacritic has a more nuanced but more subjective approach, taking into account not only how many positive reviews a film got but how positive those reviews were, and on that score, Black Panther falls some way down the list. Roma and The Favourite are ahead and A Star Is Born is level with it.

For my money, Bohemian Rhapsody, Vice and Black Panther simply aren't good enough films to deserve a Best Picture win. I don't think Bohemian Rhapsody even deserves the nomination and if being truly honest I don't think Black Panther does either. I've not seen Green Book but it's been savaged lately and seems unlikely to make the cut.

The "safe" option is probably The Favourite. A Star Is Born is handicapped by being a remake. Roma would be the subversive option, as a foreign-language film. If determined to be woke, they should pick BlackKklansman.

Black Panther would be a crowd-pleasing option but I'm not sure what it would prove. We all know that box office isn't a measure of quality and it's really its own reward. It wouldn't be the first film to win with a black star (Driving Miss Daisy); it wouldn't be the first film to win with a predominantly black cast (Moonlight). Awards aside it's not even the first black superhero film to be commercially successful: indeed Blade was not only a hit but was arguably even more influential in that it proved that superhero films were a going concern in a period when everyone had written them off.

[understatement]

It's entertaining (I suppose), thus it won't win.

[Mechalich]

And the actual best superhero movie of last year, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was animated and ain't no way the Academy are treating animated movies as real.

Into the Spider-Verse is broadly considered a lock to win Best Animated Feature, over Incredibles 2 and Wes Anderson's latest. That's not a bad showing for a superhero film.

As for Best Picture, it's totally unclear who will win because in the absence of a clear favorite, the winner will be determined by the complex preferential voting system used for this category, meaning the winner is going to depend upon which film gets the most 2nd and 3rd place votes.

[DavidSh]

It's entertaining (I suppose), thus it won't win.

While it appears that being entertaining to the general public isn't a criterion that the Academy uses, I wouldn't say it is necessarily a disqualification either. After all, The Sound of Music won, and that was very popular. And I found Shakespeare in Love very entertaining, although that one probably won on the basis of its appeal to actors.

[Bartmanhomer]

Into the Spider-Verse is broadly considered a lock to win Best Animated Feature, over Incredibles 2 and Wes Anderson's latest. That's not a bad showing for a superhero film.

As for Best Picture, it's totally unclear who will win because, in the absence of a clear favourite, the winner will be determined by the complex preferential voting system used for this category, meaning the winner is going to depend upon which film gets the most 2nd and 3rd place votes.

Actually, Disney usually win for Best Animated Flims.

[Chromascope3D]

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a brand new Crash.

[t209]

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a brand new Crash.

Do you mean the Green Book.
Which had a lot of controversy involving the director, the writer (the son of the man who drove for the pianist), and the pianist’s family?

[Chromascope3D]

Do you mean the Green Book.
Which had a lot of controversy involving the director, the writer (the son of the man who drove for the pianist), and the pianist’s family?

That Dr. Shirley's own family wasn't consulted at any point during the production of the film (and that Dr. Shirley himself reportedly never wanted the film to be made)? Yeah that's the one.

[ImperiousLeader]

Satire Site called it. And it kinda explains why it sucks that it won.

[Giggling Ghast]

A Canadian satire site, I note with a tiny degree of entirely-undeserved national pride.

Seth Meyers also kind of called it.

[Peelee]

A Canadian satire site, I note with a tiny degree of entirely-undeserved national pride.

Seth Meyers also kind of called it.

I don't watch a lot of Seth Meyers, but every time I do I feel like I should watch him more.

[Bartmanhomer]

It was a great show last night other than that Green Book stole Black Panther thunder by Best Pictures category. Darn, Darn, Darn.

[Lemmy]

Pretentious elitism and vapid virtue-signaling... A perfect fit for Hollywood.

But TBF, Black Panther doesn't deserve to even be considered for "Best Movie". It's not even a particularly good Marvel movie. It was perfectly mediocre.

[Dragonus45]

But TBF, Black Panther doesn't deserve to even be considered for "Best Movie". It's not even a particularly good Marvel movie. It was perfectly mediocre.

While I do wish I lived in a world where Black Panther was as good as it was important, if only because a movie that good might implode the universe. However Black Panther is absolutely deserving of at least the best picture nod, although I don’t think it should have gotten the win. I think it was a solid 8/10 personally and only the 4th best Marvel Movie but overall it’s absolutely the most thematically ambitious and for what flaws it has the execution on those themes is 100% delivered on.