How often should the Academy award bad movies?
And no – not Forrest Gump, Titanic, Avatar… I mean REALLY bad movies.
More Ranting: Bond 24 makes a bad casting move?
The quality of a movie is normally synonymous with the quality of direction, writing, maybe even performances… But Editing? Visual effects? Makeup?
Example: Why is it that William Goldenberg had to wait till 2012 to win for editing Argo, rather than being praised for National Treasure in 2004?
The answer: one of those movies was loved by critics.
Categories aren’t judged on the basis of their representation in a movie, but are consciously and subconsciously subjected to bias based on the quality of the movie as a whole.
At the 2014 ceremony, Best Makeup and Hairstyling went to Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews for Dallas Buyers Club. A great movie, with some wonderful hair and makeup to portray severe illness and degeneration.
But how much of this award was down to the weight loss of Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto?
What about the quality of the movie as a whole, did that have anything to do with it? Is it a coincidence that the winner of this category was critically praised, while the two losers were Jackass: Bad Grandpa and The Lone Ranger; critically destroyed?
Now, this isn’t an attack on Dallas Buyers Club. It’s an attack on The Academy.
More Ranting: Why Terminator: Genisys is already failing the fans…
Why hadn’t Adruitha Lee previously won an Oscar for her styling in the 2010 remake of The Crazies? Not a great zombie film, but them zombies sure had scary hair…
Why hadn’t Robin Matthews previously won for her work on The Twilight Saga? Again, not universally praised – but who can deny that those paper-white vampires looked perfect?
Maybe it’s something to just accept?
Or maybe Best Makeup at the 2015 Academy Awards should go to Maleficent, for example. Because Angelina Jolie looked really evil.
Movie Masticator 