Not quite literally true but close. I think it's still pretty shocking that this film pulled off such an upset. I enjoyed it, though agree it's a bit self-indulgent in places. Mostly I really didn't want Tár to win anything. I thought Peter Bradshaw's closing comments in his column were apropos: "everyone involved with The Banshees of Inisherin, The Fabelmans and Living will have experienced every injustice everywhere all at once." Bradshaw also felt a bit queasy about giving the Oscar to Brendan Fraser for his swanning around in a fat-suit.* Given where culture, especially cancel culture, is headed, in only a year or two this will be viewed as just as insensitive as giving an award to someone in blackface. (As far as I know Robert Downey, Jr. didn't get any awards for Tropic Thunder. And while I know the point was to show how wrong it was to do blackface in a very meta way, I still don't think it was the best vehicle.) I already mentioned I hoped Bill Nighy would get the Oscar, but it was not to be. Anyway, the backlash over The Whale is just beginning to ramp up.
Well, I have no intention of ever watching The Whale, so I can safely pretend this never happened. I did see that several movie theatres around Toronto have already added some screenings of Everything Everywhere (an extended cut with 8 minutes of bloopers as if it needed to be longer!), and this second run might well be extended now that it has more or less swept the Oscars. I actually saw this twice in the regular theatre, so I don't have to go again, but if my wife wants to see what the fuss is about I'd probably go.
* Bradshaw also agreed with me that Don Cheadle should have at least gotten a nomination for supporting actor for his role in White Noise, which was very unfairly shut out.
No comments:
Post a Comment