The Oscars never gets it completely right. This year is no different. Here are some of the snubs you aren’t talking enough about.
Every year, we complain about Oscar nominations. There are usually some general consensus complaints we all agree upon and others we may feel strongly about on a personal level. In either case, it’s often easy to point at what the Academy did wrong.
This year, the Academy has gone above and beyond to snub some of our favorite performances, movies and *cough* female directors. Here’s a breakdown of some of the Oscars 2020 snubs you’re talking about, and a couple you may not have thought much of… yet.
A host
The Oscars remain hostless since the Kevin Hart… ordeal? last year. While most had forgiven Hart, understood and appreciated his apology and moved on, the Oscars still went sans host for the 2019 ceremony. In 2020, they will do the same.
For the most part, a host is a waste of time. The Oscars is long enough without hit-or-miss bits and occasionally funny monologues, but it’s still nice to have someone running the show. It’s the same reason you feel more warmth walking into a house party than you do a bar. A host provides comfort.
If the Academy was worried about offending people, they could have gone with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, who makes everything and everyone around him better. That’s a huge “if,” too, because if they worried about offending, they would have done just about everything else different as well.
Jennifer Lopez and Adam Sandler
This has absolutely nothing to do with these two being my high school crush and high school hero, respectively. No. Both Lopez and Sandler gave incredible performances this year and unfortunately, neither will be rewarded.
Jennifer Lopez was incredible in Hustlers. Not only was she completely believable as a bad-ass stripper-turned-crime boss, but the physical toll her pole dancing training regiment would be intense for a 20-year-old, let alone a 50-year-old.
Ramona was a gangster, but one we loved to root for. It takes a great performance to portray this. Add in the fact that J. Lo had to balance this with a strict workout routine and it makes it all that more impressive.
https://twitter.com/JLo/status/1169763946682667008
Sandler, on the other hand, did not have to work out for his role as Howard Ratner in Uncut Gems. He did, however, put forth a character we haven’t seen from him in a long time, maybe ever. While Sandler has played serious roles before, this was far more of a transformation. Not to mention Ratner’s interactions throughout the movie, making viewers feel the stress and anxiety he was going through. Uncut Gems in general was snubbed.
Succession
I know, I know, television gets rewarded at the Emmys, not the Oscars. Would it kill the Academy to add one television category, though? If for no other reason than to reward HBO’s Succession, which I’m deeming an Oscar snub despite it being a television series. The introduction song alone deserves as many awards as a song can receive.
The Roy family could buy the Academy if they wanted to. (Is that a thing you could sell? I don’t know how it works. Go with it). Shiv and Roman could host. Cousin Greg would hold the awards in the background and Tom would make a great seat filler. Kendall would obviously provide the opening musical number and instead of the house orchestra playing people off, the prompters would just read “F**k off” when your time was up.
Michael Bay movies
While we’re going off the rails, have you seen 6 Underground? I’m a big supporter of anything with Ryan Reynolds in it. His movies are almost always worth the watch, and I’m sure this movie would fall into that category as well. Here is the conversation I had with my wife on a Saturday morning after watching 6 Underground’s high-octane opening car chase:
Me: “Jesus Christ, was this directed by Michael Bay?”
Wife: “Actually, yeah.”
Me: “Oh okay, I get it then.”
*Click*
It’s not that the movie was bad (at least, I don’t think it was bad), but you know what you’re getting with a Michael Bay film. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be Oscar-worthy. There’s obviously a massive audience for these types of films because someone keeps giving Bay millions of dollars to blow things up. Let’s reward this.
It’s time to make a new Oscars category that encompasses more than just special effects, but also the most extreme use of explosives and fireworks and the ability to make it seem as though you’ve destroyed an entire European city in a matter of minutes. There’s enough Fast and Furious spinoffs to fill Bay’s down years.
Women
Would it have killed them to nominate Greta Gerwig for her work directing Little Women? The film is up for just about every other award. Unfortunately for Gerwig, she’s a woman — something the Academy frowns upon, apparently?? The Oscars don’t seem to understand that trending for things like #OscarsSoMale or #OscarsSoWhite are not good things to be trending for.
Cats
I’m not buying it, Cats. It’s very obvious what happened here. After one single animation/CGI session, the makers of Cats realized how ridiculous this movie was going to be. They had a well-established brand, a Brinks truck of cash and the absolute dumbest looking CGI characters, which equals a recipe for viral success.
They gave boatloads of money to the likes of Dame Judi Dench, Idris Elba, James Cordon, Taylor Swift, Jennifer Hudson and Jay-saaan Deruloooo and proceeded to purposely make the worst product imaginable with every intention of it being a complete disaster.
What happened? Cats is a viral sensation (because we’re all meme-obsessed idiots) and is becoming our generations Rocky Horror Picture Show — with late-night screenings beginning to pop up (and sell out). Make a movie so bad that it becomes a fun, late-night activity and you deserve an Oscar.
James Cordon. AS A CGI CAT! Come on.
Cats deserves an Oscar nom. There has to be some category they fit into. If not, make a new one. Best Terrible, Beautiful Disaster or something.
Frozen 2
Just… shut up if you didn’t like this movie.
The opposite of snubbed
Full disclosure. I liked Joker as is, but I do have some issues with it in respect to its 11 Oscar noms, and I would have probably liked it more if they were addressed. Here goes.
Why was Joker a comic book movie? Why not cut out Gotham and the silly Bruce Wayne parts and make it a regular movie about a deranged psychopathic murderer? Did Todd Phillips and crew need to lean on the Joker name/Batman franchise to garner enough buzz to make it to this point? If so, I don’t think they deserve 11 nominations. If the movie was made without any reference to comic books it would still have been good have been better, and Joaquin Phoenix would still have been amazing.
I know people like to get worked up about this movie, both positively and negatively. Personally, I thought it was a good movie with one great performance, but when Arthur Fleck started talking about the Wayne family or anything to do with Gotham, it felt out of place and took me out of the story a bit.
It made even less sense knowing that by associating this flick with the Joker character, you’re welcoming comparisons between Phoenix’s Fleck and Heath Ledger’s version of the role, which is still unmatched (and will most likely remain unmatched forever). Joker is a good movie. Joker may have been worth its 11 nominations if it let go of the massive crutch it was leaning on. Both of these things can be true.