Was it me or were the Oscars really awkward to watch this year? In the wake of accusations of racism against the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, it seemed like they set a new quota for this year — at least one person of color in each frame. The awards ceremony usually does come up with some cheesy gags, but the one with Octavia Spencer was interesting. Her job was to watch a case for host Neil Patrick Harris. I guess she was reaaally good in her role in “The Help.”
The whole program reminded me of someone who gets accused of being a racist. He’s like, “No, no — I have a ton of black friends!” And then you bust out Terrence Howard for no solid reason.
And then there were the nominations. Part of what made me cry about “Selma” was that (most of) it really happened. Not only did it really happen, but today, black people refuse to register to vote despite the fact that people literally died so that could happen.
But that’s me. Me? I saw that movie and thought David Oyelwo, Carmen Ejogo and Wendell Pierce should have been nominated for acting Oscars. I thought Ava DuVerney should have been nominated for best director. It’s another question to ask if they should have won — a question you can answer if you’ve seen every movie nominated in that category. I have not.
The Oscars committee, made up largely of old white males, said, “Meh. I like this “Birdman” movie.” Two things: If you identify more with a struggling actor who is tired of being typecast, but cannot identify with the movie about the thing that happened in the country you live in, it’s just hard to know what to say about that. Second, there’s originality and then there’s just nonsensical. “Nightcrawler?” Original. “Birdman?” Nonsensical. No spoilers here, but seriously, “Birdman” made me want to punch something, especially because I had initially decided after an hour that it wasn’t worth my time, but then I let my husband talk me into finishing it. Besides that, it was also really annoying. Like, someone took the phrase “Drumroll, please,” and went all the way to town.
But anyway, there’s been some accusations of racism about the nominations this year — I wrote a column about this last week. It’s like the president of the African American Film Critics Association told me — it’s not racist, really. It’s perception. It’s having a different set of eyes because only you can see what you’ve seen in your life. It’s why some people I’ve talked to think Birdman is awesome, and others who agreed with me about it. It’s true with all art. To this day, I can’t understand why people like The Great Gatsby. When I was reading it in high school, I was thinking, “You think Daisy and Jay have problems? Whatever!” Of course, I had a library card, so I was reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X and Langston Hughes plays at the same time. Perception. See?
But it does suck that the Academy’s general lack of color bleeds into their decision making, because if you do good work, your peers should give you credit for it. You shouldn’t need a special group of critics to make sure that happens.