Everything Everywhere All At Once

I haven't seen a ton of movies this year, but if I were the Academy, I'd not only give that the Best Picture nom (and Michelle Yeoh a nom for Best Actress) I'd give them both the win. It is the kind of movie the Academy is starving for. The Oscars' Best Picture is usually won by great films. Sometimes they are shockingly won by bad films (see Forrest Gump). They are rarely won by GOOD films. Films an audience can like and enjoy. That was just weird and quirky enough to check off the Oscar boxes for an art film while still being popcorn enough for general audiences. Basically, it's a rare movie that will appeal to critics and the public at large equally. Nobody watches the Oscars anymore because no films anybody actually likes are ever nominated for Best Picture, and if they are, they almost never win. The last Best Picture Oscar winner I enjoyed was The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King, and looking back on things and the movies I grew up with, and saw the Academy pass over time and time again, that is literally probably the only example within my lifetime.

The Oscars have lost relevance for only praising bummer movies nobody likes. A crowdpleaser like this that EVERYONE is rooting for? The Oscars would be NUTS not to have it sweep and make people brave enough to watch the awards not wind up the night scowling.

My concern is that this is a no-brainer suggestion on my end. And this is the Academy, and Forrest Gump has an Oscar either Pulp Fiction or The Shawshank Redemption (take your pick) were actually robbed of. If the Oscars were capable of being sensible, we wouldn't be in this mess.

One last note: The movie is rated R. First of all, it doesn't deserve that rating. Not really. You can see this stuff in a PG-13 movie from the 1980's, only there are more f-bombs. I don't think a movie with a few f-bombs is something that needs to be restricted from younger viewers. But the R-rating is notable to me, because the movie doesn't need it, and probably could have sold more tickets as PG-13. I like that the movie refused to play the MPAA's game and tone things down even SLIGHTLY just to get the correct rating. The filmmakers decided the film was GOOD as it was, and decided not to let the MPAA make content decisions for them. That's refreshing to me, especially because I believe the MPAA is one step above a criminal organization. I'm kidding. But only a little. But the filmmakers have integrity there.

It's a GOOD movie, and a GREAT, good movie at that. Is the Academy dumb enough to deny us this win we all want? We'll find out. Let's hope we don't wind up as disillusioned with the night as David Letterman wound up in 1995. *****.