The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
It’s time to kill the myth of the battle between ‘popular’ movies and ‘Oscar’ movies
Are our moviegoing bubbles as impermeable as our political ones?
When the nominations for this year’s Academy Awards were announced, some observers could be heard decrying yet another crop of films that “no one” has seen, noting the absence of such hits as “Captain America: Civil War,” “Rogue One” and “Finding Dory.” Even “Deadpool,” which received love at the Golden Globes this month, was shut out of competition in the best picture and screenplay categories, where some comic-book fans hoped it might sneak in.
Granted, there aren’t huge box office performers on par with “The Martian” or “Mad Max: Fury Road” vying for awards this year. But a closer look at the nominees gives the lie to the assumption that the Oscars have become a self-aggrandizing ritual for movies that only urban, presumably liberal-minded, elites flock to in droves. Indeed, most of the best picture nominees embody the kind of crowd-pleasing values that give populism a good name: “Arrival,” Denis Villeneuve’s contemplative sciencefiction thriller about communication and breaking down borders, has proved to be just the balm filmgoers were seeking after a bruising political season, earning just shy of $175 million worldwide (more than $95 million in U.S. theaters) since opening the Friday after Election Day.
“Hidden Figures,” a bracing portrayal of real-life African American women who worked as NASA mathematicians in the 1960s, has become a genuine sleeper hit by giving audiences of all ages, ethnicities, political persuasions and regional affiliations a story to cheer about. The most widely seen of the bunch, the showbiz musical “La La Land,” has made nearly $180 million and stands to earn more when it taps its way into 1,200 more theaters this weekend on the strength of its record-tying 14 nominations.
Admittedly, “La La Land” stands accused of valorizing Hollywood at its most rarefied and isolated, as its title winkingly acknowledges. But its mix of self-awareness and romance has charmed viewers across the geographic and partisan spectrum. And it’s outnumbered by best picture nominees that champion salt-of-the-earth, working-class sensibilities, from “Fences,” about a sanitation worker in 1950s Pittsburgh, and “Hell or High Water,” about dispossessed Texas landowners getting revenge on greedy banks, to Mel Gibson’s “Hacksaw Ridge,” about World War II hero Desmond Doss.
Our lives as moviegoers aren’t nearly as embubbled as superficial assumptions might suggest.
“Arrival,” “Hidden Figures” and “Fences” may not be commercial juggernauts on the level of “Rogue One,” but they’ve punched far above their weight with general audiences. Even “Manchester By the Sea” and the gay coming-of-age story “Moonlight” are doing healthy business. “Manchester” has done well not only where it was expected to — in liberal bastions such as New York, Los Angeles, Washington and Chicago — but it has also over-performed in conservative-leaning cities such as Boise and Phoenix.
When viewers tune in to the Oscars Feb. 26, they’ll be within their rights to poke fun at the over-the-top gowns and self-righteous speeches. But don’t accuse the movies of being elitist or out of touch; if anything, they’ve helped pop our self-imposed bubbles, rather than reinforce them.