Yeah, well, things are bad everywhere

by Thom Yee

The Revenant images courtesy of 20th Century Fox

There’s a breed of movie, let’s call it an “Oscar movie”, that we all know, that we’re all aware of, and that many of us may even have an opinion on, but that few of us have actually seen. The joke of the Oscars, and it’s a joke that will continue to endure far past the recent James Franco/Anne Hathaway, “We Saw Your Boobs”, #OscarsSoWhite controversies, is that nobody sees these movies. I mean, who’s seen Room? Or Brooklyn? Or Spotlight? Actually, I’ve seen every Best-Picture-nominated movie this year other than Bridge of Spies (because it looked boring), but the argument still stands amongst most people. But who are “most people”? Is “most people” supposed to represent me? And how many movies do “most people” see every year anyway? According to 2014 statistics from the Motion Picture Association of America, “most people” see fewer than six movies a year. If nothing else, purely by number of movies seen it’s pretty bad odds that “most people” will have seen any or all of the Oscar nominees, even this year when two of them (The Martian and Mad Max: Fury Road) were pretty big, pretty mainstream hits. And that’s not even considering other variables like taste, preference, or availability, and it leaves out that, regardless of what movies people do or don’t want to see, “most people”… well, they suck. Don’t get me started on “most people”. Continue reading →