Oppenheimer wins 7 Oscars (Best Picture) (film & awards)

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I finally saw Parasite. It's my new personal favorite movie of the year, edging out Jojo Rabbit, and unlike Jojo Rabbit I can actually see it winning best picture because 1. it has the ever-elusive quality of "buzz" and 2. it's less funny (although still very funny, at least in the first half) and the Academy is allergic to comedy. I think it's fair to say that it's not necessarily a character-driven movie as such, but not everything has to be; thrillers aren't a genre that (usually; something like Notorious would be an exception) can afford to luxuriate in meticulous character-building the way something like Marriage Story (or even 1917 with its see-sawing between gory trauma and rural idylls) can.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I finally saw Parasite. It's my new personal favorite movie of the year, edging out Jojo Rabbit, and unlike Jojo Rabbit I can actually see it winning best picture because 1. it has the ever-elusive quality of "buzz" and 2. it's less funny (although still very funny, at least in the first half) and the Academy is allergic to comedy. I think it's fair to say that it's not necessarily a character-driven movie as such, but not everything has to be; thrillers aren't a genre that (usually; something like Notorious would be an exception) can afford to luxuriate in meticulous character-building the way something like Marriage Story (or even 1917 with its see-sawing between gory trauma and rural idylls) can.

Despite the characters being somewhat two-dimensional, except for maybe Mr. Kim and Kevin, the actors do a REALLY good job of implying character depth with their performances. Especially Mrs. Park which is a performance I LOVED.

Mrs. Park's and Ki-jeong/Jessica's actresses were both snubbed big time in the Supporting Actress category.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

With all the technical categories accounted for, 1917 has three Oscars; Ford v Ferrari two; and Once upon a Time in Hollywood, Little Women, and Bombshell one each within those categories.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Gross.  Parasite is gonna win

I've never really "gotten" your tastes in media, jdb.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Parasite is gonna win

Have you seen it? It's fantastic.

My guess is he's seen it and just wasn't crazy about it; he gave it a mediocre rating in John Dule's thread.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Joaquin Phoenix’s speech was just...out there. Environmentalism isn’t the type of thing to talk about considering what the Oscar was for.

Especially given that the particular type of environmentalist rhetoric he used was dredged from the darkest depths of Vegan Tumblr. Yeesh.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Aaaaaaaaaand Parasite goes yard. Love that journey for us! ("Us" is people who've wasted years of our lives writing academic papers on East Asian movies.)

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Congrats, #BongHive

Side Note: Of course, the Academy recognizes the first film by Bong Joon-Ho I've seen that I didn't absolutely love (Mother, Snowpiercer, The Host, and especially Okja were great).

I haven't seen Okja yet, but Snowpiercer's a bona fide masterpiece. I might rewatch it tomorrow.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I went to see Portrait of a Lady on Fire. I was expecting to like it a lot, and I certainly wanted to given what FFs the director and stars seem to be, but it dealt with some sensitive subject matter in ways that I found acutely upsetting (not necessarily morally depraved, but upsetting), so I ended up finding it a chore to watch. I was left thinking that perhaps we should have a shutdown of lesbian art films entering our country from France until we can figure out what the hell is going on.

I also saw Birds of Prey over the weekend and loved it.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

I'm not one to mindlessly parrot classy-person conventional wisdom about what are and aren't good movies; I think there are serious arguments to be made in defense of movies like Shock Treatment and Showgirls. But I'm not going to loudly and unpleasantly insist that awards shows need to acknowledge these movies (lol. lmao, even), and I'm certainly not going to stick up for focus-grouped-to-hell-and-back hyper-blockbusters as if the people who made Avengers Wars 69 are suffering for not having won Best Adapted Screenplay.