Please, not another Crash landing
Thanks to the Golden Globes, the Oscars buzz has shifted in a terrible direction Sadaf Ahsan
At one time, the Golden Globe Awards was like a little sister to the Oscars, but in the past decade the ceremony has become more of a drunken uncle. This is not only due to the ceremony’s open bar (and resultant sloppy speeches), but also its affinity for awarding fare that laughably targets the lowest common denominator. While we can blame this largely on its infamously out-oftouch voting board, which is occupied by 90 California-based journalists who write for publications outside the U.S., we must also consider the momentous damage it leaves in its wake.
At this past weekend’s Golden Globes, Bohemian Rhapsody and Green Book won more awards than any other film. Let that sink in for a moment.
Prior to Sunday night’s ceremony, the critically panned Queen biopic had been awash in controversy because of its handling — or lack thereof — of frontman Freddie Mercury’s sexuality, race and life with AIDS. When not focused on the “cleaning up” aspect, conversation about the film on social media tended to focus on its troubled production, which saw director Bryan Singer rarely on set amidst rumours of sexual harassment. He was ultimately fired and replaced.
Meanwhile, Green Book, which tells the real-life story of Tony Lip (Viggo Mortensen), an Italian New Yorker hired to drive Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali), a black pianist, through the South on a concert tour, was receiving a similarly rocky reception prior to the awards show. It premiered in the fall to healthy reviews, but the film was soon criticized as being yet another white saviour film, produced by white filmmakers no less. The death knell seemed to have been rung when Shirley’s family blasted the movie, calling it a “symphony of lies,” disputing the film’s depiction of a friendly relationship between the pair.
Typically, production drama, a torrent of bad reviews and, at least in recent social-media rage-out years, racial controversy is enough to sink a film entirely. Nevertheless, Bohemian Rhapsody became the worst-reviewed film to receive a Golden Globe for Best Drama in 33 years, and Green Book scored for Best Comedy and Best Screenplay, beating critically-acclaimed frontrunners A Star is Born and The Favourite.
While it’s well-understood that the Globes are a circus, here’s the thing: voting for this year’s Oscars began the following day. And many of the Oscars’s voters — comprised of over 7,000 actors, producers, casting directors, costume designers, you name it — were either in that room, ready to be swayed, or watching remotely as each winner was announced and made their speech. Because of this, Hollywood trade papers have assumed those less-deserving films have gained a new momentum thanks to their Globe wins. And just like that, the vastly superior A Star is Born and Roma are no longer frontrunners for Best Picture glory.
This scenario calls to mind one of the worst years in awards history: 2004. Despite Brokeback Mountain, Capote and A History of Violence all being released that year, it was Paul Haggis’s Crash — which has aged so poorly it’s borderline laughable now — that went on to pick up Best Picture. (And let’s not even talk about Three 6 Mafia winning for Best Original Song.) This, despite Brokeback, that year’s frontrunner, having walked in with the most nominations, and having scored a Best Director win for Ang Lee. The conclusion at the time was that Hollywood just wasn’t ready to award a gay love story, instead opting for neater, but exceedingly tone-deaf material — a lot like this year’s Green Book, 2012’s The Help or 2009’s The Blind Side.
In the end, it suggests there really isn’t any value to be found in hoping, year in and year out, that the Oscars will recognize the “right” movie. That’s not what awards season has ever been about, despite what the trophies might suggest. Will they ever honour the most deserving movie is a question we’ve been asking for a decade and will likely continue asking for another 10 years. Still, the hope the Oscar for Best Picture will actually go to a film that is everything to all people — critically acclaimed, beloved by audiences and an artistic achievement — lingers, no matter the reality with which we’ve been confronted.
In its 91st year, it’s about time the Academy Awards actually stands for what it claims to represent. And one fewer Crash in its history is one step closer to that goal.