Since my blog largely deals with entertainment and pop culture, it seems only fitting that I’d have some opinions about Sunday’s Academy Awards… and I do.
My first opinion: Oscars traffic sucks. For those that don’t know, I live in West Hollywood, CA, between the famous Sunset Strip and the also-famous Santa Monica Boulevard. If you live outside of the L.A. area, you may not know that West Hollywood is its own separate city, not the “western part of Hollywood”. Ironically, Hollywood itself is not technically a city (it’s simply an area of Los Angeles proper). While the awards take place in Hollywood (at the Dolby Theatre), many of the after-parties happen right around me (the well-known Vanity Fair party, for instance, happens every year just two blocks south of apartment). I have friends that live near the Dolby Theatre, and there are so many roads blocked-off (and the nearest Subway stop is closed) that it makes the locals near-hostages in their homes. In West Hollywood, we don’t crash the parties. In fact, we’re annoyed by all of the limos that line our side streets as they wait for the parties to end so they can drive their passengers home.
My second opinion: seeing all of the nominated movies is a lot of work. As a member of the performers’ union SAG-AFTRA, I’m sent copies of nearly all of the movies nominated each year. I try to watch all of them, but I just run out of time… and I’m pretty sure I’m not nearly as busy as, say, Leonardo DiCaprio. If I’m not finding time to watch the nominated films before the Oscars are actually handed out, then you can be sure that Leo isn’t watching all the nominees before he votes. Just like I do when it’s not awards season, I watch the movies in the order of my desire to see them. Hence, I haven’t actually seen Leo in The Revenant because the movie just doesn’t seem like my cup of tea. Maybe I’ll get around to watching it someday.
My third opinion: just because something is Oscar-nominated doesn’t make it good. Rebel Wilson took some heat a few weeks ago for making this joke at the BAFTAs:
“I have never been invited to the Oscars because, you know, they are racists,” she said while presenting the award for Best Supporting Actor. “But the BAFTAs have diverse members. And that’s what we all want to see in life, isn’t it? Diverse members. One day I hope to return here to win a BAFTA myself. I have already been practicing my transgendered [sic] face.”
Many thought Wilson’s joke was insensitive to the trans community, but if you watch her face (video below), you’ll notice that the look she makes is the very same face Eddie Redmayne makes in The Danish Girl. Wilson’s not joking about being Trans, she’s joking about a bad performance that everything thinks is good. In his Oscar-nominated role, Redmayne makes that face literally every single time his character is dressed as Lili. This is not transformative acting, it’s a one-note performance from last year’s Best Actor Oscar-winner. So I’ll say what so many others haven’t said: The Danish Girl is a crappy movie that doesn’t deal with the consequences of what it would be like to be a Trans woman in the 1920’s, and Eddie Redmayne shouldn’t have been nominated just because the movie is trying to tackle a hot-button issue.
My fourth and final opinion: Room and The Big Short are both amazing. If you haven’t seen them yet, go. Go now. You’re welcome.
Big Shot Jason Blog 