Every single year, the academy awards is helmed as “Hollywood’s biggest night.” And it should be. The spectacle of stars and the luminance of the bright shining red carpet pre-show is what everyone craves to see. But what’s usually lost is the quality of selections that are apparent or not so apparent in what is actually nominated in the worshipped categories. This year more than most in recent memory, felt more self-congratulating and weak in terms of who and what was nominated. Let’s take a look at what films and performances didn’t deserve to make it in this year’s disappointing nominations list.
Overrated Films Nominated for Best Picture: Lady Bird and The Shape of Water
Despite an impressive directing debut by Greta Gerwig and a solid cast with great performances by Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf, this film lacks any originality and charm that has been seen before in the many films of teenage angst that came before it. A girl or guy feels out of place in the world and goes through the many subplots we’ve seen before from losing her virginity, getting a boyfriend, falling into the wrong crowd, being a rebel, having strange parental to child relationships, and also that annoying trope where the protagonist abandons their quirky weird friend for assholes and then realizes the assholes are assholes and goes back to their quirky weird friend. It’s been done so many times and done so much better that you’ll find yourself predicting what the characters will say or do.
Most Overrated Acting Nomination: Daniel Kaluuya for Get Out and Frances Mcdormand for Three Billboards
Now hold your horses. I’m not saying in any way that Daniel Kaluuya wasn’t good in this film. He did a solid job. His on cue crying and moments of unfathomable tension serve very well in some scenes. However, this is not the type of performance you’d really look at 20 years from now and remember as “oh man, that was real Oscar worthy.” Perhaps its because the Oscars have pushed an agenda for so long to applaud themselves that they feel the need to make sure that every performance and film nominated have some ounce of diversity in them. There’s nothing wrong with diversity. Actors and filmmakers should be more of a melting pot, but to nominate Kaluuya, who was chosen over candidates like James Franco for the Disaster Artist and Tom Hanks for The Post, just isn’t as strong as his counterparts who were snubbed. Frances Mcdormand on the other hand, essentially plays the same character in every movie. In Three Billboards, she’s a foul mouthed smart-ass who tries to outwit and out talk everyone in her own realm of grief. It’s a performance that we’ve seen before, done better before and it seems as if her one way ticket to the Oscar win is the Academy congratulating itself in rewarding actors decades at a time.