Raphael Sullivan ’23
EE Staff Writer
Moviegoers might be excited to watch the upcoming Oscars on March 12th. Many great movies will be discussed and rewarded for their incredible storytelling abilities and acting. However, some not-so-great movies will also be showcased. The Oscars are pretty famously rigged, as almost every award show is.
The Emmys nominated the infamous Emily in Paris and the Oscars let Shakespeare in Love beat out Saving Private Ryan. “Over the past four years, best picture winners generated an additional $19 million at the box office”, according to Business Insider. That’s more than 42% of total ticket sales.
The King’s Speech, for example, was initially projected to gross just $30 million, but after its subsequent nomination and victory, it went on to make more than $400 million in the box office.
This year, it’s pretty easy to spot the plants. So I would like to go over which of this year’s nominated movies are plants and who I think will realistically win.
Now, when I talk about “buying” your way into the Oscars, I don’t mean just straight-up giving money to the judges. While I don’t deny that this may happen, the most common practice of bribing includes giving the judges experiences of exclusive interviews. For example, Emily in Paris flew the Grammy judges out to an all expenses paid trip to Paris in order to “watch the production”.
Elvis
Directed by Baz Luhrmann with Austin Butler playing the lead, Elvis. This is an incredibly inaccurate retelling of the life of Elvis Presley. While it is filled with many hit Elvis songs (many of which I am a fan of), Elvis is a failure in both an educational sense and an entertaining one. Many moviegoers leave the theater disappointed at this new biographic film. Elvis most definitely bought its way into the Oscars as I believe it is undeserving of any awards, including best music.
Avatar: The Way of Water
James Cameron’s masterpiece, Avatar was previously the highest-grossing film of all time. While it made a lot of money, Avatar has pretty famously been at the expense of many jokes. The main issue people have with the first was its forget ability. This issue was definitely not fixed in the newest Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water. This movie, much like the previous one, is absolutely stunning– the CGI is groundbreaking. However, this does not make up for the boring plot. Many watchers were forced to drop out halfway due to the extremely slow pacing and lack of real plot. This movie is a step better than Elvis as I do think it deserves recognition for it’s beauty.
Triangle of Sadness
Triangle of Sadness directed by Ruben Östlund is yet another “Let’s make fun of rich people!” comedy. While the premise is funny and we can all laugh at eccentric rich people, this just seems like a worse version of The Menu which was, unfortunately, not nominated. The Menu critiques movie culture itself and what it means to make art. Triangle of Sadness, on the other hand, is a movie about people sloshing around in a boat for over an hour. This movie, I feel, is at least much better than Elvis or Avatar: The Way of Water. Really this review is just an excuse to tell everyone to watch “The Menu”.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Before I get attacked for bad mouthing this movie, I must clarify: This is the movie that I predict will win this year’s Oscars. People have been raving about this movie ever since it came out. This movie, directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, is about a Chinese immigrant who goes on a crazy adventure through multiple universes. Even though I don’t find this movie to be the best of the nominees, the Oscars looks for a mix of quality and buzz. This film is the perfect fit of popular and well made. But no matter who wins, I’m sure we’ll all be disappointed in some way.