Worst Best Movie since Crash?

Which is pretty stupid, in my opinion. You can certainly complain about a movie not doing that (addressing a certain social justice narrative) when talking about whether or not you PERSONALLY like a move, but I don’t think it should be the basis of critiquing a movie on the merits of whether or not it is a great, well-done, or award worthy movie in general. Birth of a Nation was one of the most despicable and racist movies ever made, in terms of subject portrayal, but all serious movie critics and buffs will tell you how groundbreaking and that movie was from a cinematic viewpoint despite that. Also on the flip side, when a movie that DOES address a certain social justice narrative gets awarded, many on the right will complain that such awards were skewed because of just that very thing, and say the movie was terrible and that judges only liked it because of that social narrative. Which is equally as stupid and biased.

In reality it is neither, and shouldn’t be. When I watch a movie, I judge it on how much the telling of the story captivated me, no matter what the narrative of it, or message within, is. If it has a great message, but is a bore fest to watch, then that movie gets a thumbs down from me. If it has a shallow message, but the story is captivating enough to stay on the edge of my seat throughout, then it gets a thumbs up from me. And I think, based on Rotten Tomatoes viewership ratings I’ve seen through the years, most of the public would agree with me on this. All it takes is a good, captivating telling of a story, really, for people to enjoy it.

Critics look at other aspects. A bad critic will take the social narrative in play. A better critic will look at acting, directing, editing, and cinematography. A great critic will primarily look at what I spelled out above.

Granted, good acting, directing, editing, and cinematography each play an important aspect in telling that story. If any of these are horrible, then it can distract from the story or even turn a good one into a disinteresting one. But as long as those are decent enough, then it usually doesn’t matter as much as many mediocre critics make them out to be.

As for the Oscars, yes, they look at all those things too - heck they even have awards for all those categories. But when it comes to the Best Picture award, I’ve found that they don’t just look at which movies have the most merit points in all those other categories, but they, too, look at the movie as a whole, and how it is told, often ignoring these other aspects for the time being. This is why movies like Green Book, Crash, Shakespeare in Love, Chariots of Fire, and countless other upsets, beat out the movies that got 10, 15 nominations in all those other categories and ursurped predictions.

So it isn’t surprising to me, really, that Green Book won. I suspect I will enjoy this movie when I see it.

I happened seen both versions of " birth of the nation ". I saw the original version long time. that version was pretty good. the remake of birth of the nation, it was fair, one of the worst movie, I've seen awhile. so boring to watch and I could care less any message, it provide. the acting really save the movie, not much.

speaking of birth of the nation, one season of a tv show," underground " does a better job of the time than the movie. the tv show that deals with runaway underground that harriet tubman, it really good. it was cancelled, do lack of audience.

a feel good movie for who?

the people vote is most anyone Hollywood industrial, main actors and actresses are sent out in the mail. how it work actors and actresses are the group that selection this movies. I forgot how many movies force to watch and these movies beside the movie nominations over a month, I think 20 to 50 ( even 100 ) movies. then the actors and actresses will sent them a list the ones that like. I think they are sent back the movie nominations, and they sent the one like the best to the company on the Oscars. that what you see on Oscars.

years ago, the tonight show with johnny carson, one of his guest explain this process to the audience.

Kind of reminds one of Pia Zadora.

the movie was call " the lonely lady " that she was in. i saw a couple of times, she really nice small body. she was nude in the movie, who cares? if she can act. it is one of the worst film of all time. she is 64 years old now.

Citizen Kane didn’t win best picture. Neither did Apocalypse Now, Goodfellas, or Shawshank Redeption.

Yeah I know how the academy votes. I just don't see it as a "feel good" type movie.

I agree with you about the movie with Hollywood actors because diversity, they think it is a feel good movie.

So apparently Roma would have won if a segment of Academy voters were not dead set on refusing to vote for any film from Netflix.

I wonder how the Academy will respond to the upcoming mega-budget ($145 million!) film “The Irishman”, directed by Martin Scorsese, and starring Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, and Harvey Keitel, fully funded and produced by Netflix.

if the Irishman comes out in next three months, it might early for the Oscars nominations. most voters will remember the movie at the end of the year. not at the beginning or the middle of the year, it is more of a fact usually. the Oscars race starts in august to December, because the movies are fresh in the voter's mind.

Release date is in October.

yes, the movie has a good change to be nominate for Oscars. even in august, when the sleepers comes in movies that the first wave of nominations comes out.

Loved it. Just saw it today.