With the wrong film winning the Oscar for Best Picture last
night, I began thinking about the complete dichotomy there is between voters
and viewers, and how it relates to the similar clash between critics and movie
goers.
When a movie like Batman v Superman gets reviewed negatively,
the general movie going audience needs to reconcile WHY they like the film
despite its poor assessment by critics. I don’t think the same is applicable to
the Academy awarding Dances with Wolves over Goodfellas or Moonlight over La La
Land. Critics, for the most part, watch films differently than the general
audience, and the scores they give reflect the broader scope of the film. With more
moving parts to analyze, it’s more likely to lead to a separation between the
audience and critics.
The Academy, however, is made up of members of the Hollywood
community that consumes film on a level I would say lies closer to critics than
movie goers. How then, can they, more times than not, give the wrong movie the
statue?
The answer, as I see it, is indicative of the general
Hollywood culture, and how it’s perceived in the majority of the country, and it
is made up of two parts. The first is
one that, I would guess, most people see quite clearly, and that is the left
leaning, P.C. cultured, and worst of all PANDERING nature that has taken over. The
other part, I feel, is far more dangerous for the future of the film industry‘s
perception among the general American population. Hollywood has long been
famous for being made up of people who rely and thrive upon what people think
of them. Something changed. They don’t care anymore. At least not the way they
used to. They are much more content to make, promote and award films THEY like,
than films that WE like. When a crowd pleaser like La La Land loses to a
Hollywood pleaser like Moonlight, it runs the risk of putting off their source
of income, at least to the extent they could have expected.
