Awards backlash is no recent development. As long as I’ve been discussing films with friends there have been statements thrown around such as “I could never love X movie because it beat out Y movie at the Oscars, which is a crime,” and other such awards-based nonsense. My brain has never worked that way, just from a storage standpoint. My brain doesn’t have enough gigabytes to know what films were nominated on what year and competed against what other films. But I’ve also never really had a competitive bone in my body. I have SO much love in my heart for so many films, and so little ability or desire to hold onto knowledge of which film won what award or who was competing against whom. This is the beauty of being a fan and film blogger with no real financial investment in the industry!
All of this leads me to an observation I’d like to discuss. As someone who instinctually reviews films in my own head, but who cares very little about awards, I’ve noticed a trend that many film fans (myself included) have begun to hold a film’s awards contention against the film itself. I think this is problematic, and I’ll use David O. Russell’s two most recent films as the framework for my argument.
I’ve generally been a pretty big O. Russell fan, although I admit to never having seen much of his earlier works beyond 3 Kings. So when I saw the trailer for Silver Linings Playbook I naturally thought the worst. I say naturally because the trailer was dreadful. Even my red-blooded American crush on Jennifer Lawrence couldn’t make me feel anything but crestfallen. A bland-looking romantic comedy from David O. Russell?! But then the awards talk started. People whose opinions I respect started saying great things about the film. And I wised up and pulled the trigger on Silver Linings Playbook once it hit home video. Casting aside my initial misgivings about that awful trailer, I went into the film with as open a mind as I possibly could. And in the end? I liked the movie just fine. It pretty much was a romantic comedy, it just happened to be a little more authentic, fleshed out, and well-executed/acted than most other comedies of its ilk.
The only problem was the whole Oscar thing. Silver Linings Playbook was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Editing, and acting nominations were extended to Jennifer Lawrence, Bradley Cooper, Robert De Niro, and Jackie Weaver… the last of which probably had 10 minutes of screen time at the most. That is a LOT of Oscar love, even though Lawrence ended up being the only winner. And I didn’t end up thinking the film really deserved all that love. I was part of the problem.
Reviewing and assessing films isn’t a science. Biases, pre-formed opinions, personal preferences, differing life experiences, or even how sick or tired a person is when they watch the film… all of these elements seep in and, consciously or unconsciously, affect our final thoughts on a film. Silver Linings Playbook had O. Russell going for it (+1 point), but a terrible trailer (-1 point), it starred Jennifer Lawrence (+1000 points), but a weird ensemble including Bradley Cooper and Chris Tucker (-0 points +1 head scratch). I’m used to engaging these kinds of preferences as I assess a film and ultimately review it or simply rate it for myself. (I never formally reviewed SLP). But it took me a little while to sort through how I felt about SLP in regards to its nominations.
Does the film deserve the amount of praise that the Academy seems to have heaped upon it? I don’t believe so, no. Should I hold the Academy’s praise against the film as it seems so many do? No, I decided, I really shouldn’t. A film is not made up of the sum total of the awards recognition it received or did not receive, just as a film’s box office take is rarely an accurate representation of its quality.
I’m not totally naive, though. I’m aware that some filmmakers shoot for the Oscar. The term “Oscar bait” doesn’t just appear out of nowhere, after all. Sure, film after film comes along that seems to have been crafted solely to achieve Oscar glory. I haven’t seen The Iron Lady, so I can’t earnestly speak to its quality… but I heard next to nothing about that film besides that it simply wasn’t very good, and was a case in point of a film being crafted solely to angle for a Best Actress nomination. I’ve rarely heard a thing about it since, either, if that gives any further evidence. Or you hear about movies being “prestige pictures”, maybe angling for Oscar glory by pandering to the established patterns that the Academy seems to go in for.
And then there are the politics. Harvey Weinstein being notorious for his behind the scenes Oscar campaigning which has forever altered the awards game… for the poorer. This essay isn’t intended to be about all those politics, however, so I’m not going to dig in deep on this point. Let’s just say that “The Academy” is made up of actual, voting, human beings. And shark-like filmmakers and producers have figured out all kinds of strategies to bend “The Academy’s” ear.
So sure, there’s a little old fashioned American corruption and pandering going on when it comes to Awards season. But, for the most part, I believe that filmmakers and production teams are out there simply trying to create the best films they can. And no one has a time machine allowing them to know, while on set, that they are making a “Best Picture”. I simply can’t imagine the team behind The Artist, for example, (a tiny French film in the scheme of things, not to mention silent and black and white) sitting down on the first day of shooting and thinking to themselves: “Okay, guys. Oscar glory ahoy!” I just don’t see it. They wanted to make the best film they could, they succeeded, and awards accolades followed.
And so, I’m suggesting that we film fans do our best to not hold a film’s awards attention against a picture. After a day of thinking about it, I chose to do this very thing with Silver Linings Playbook. Did I like the film? Sure! I laughed, maybe have even cried a little bit, found the characters to be engaging, and found the dramatic payoff to be way less insulting than that trailer would’ve suggested. And no, I don’t think it deserved the level of awards recognition that it got. But I simply refused to hold that against the film itself. Silver Linings Playbook definitely deserved that much of my respect.
And now it is 2013, and another David O. Russell film has hit theaters. After Oscar attention for both The Fighter and SLP, American Hustle had awards talk swirling around it from moment one. And this time, the first trailer to hit was absolutely spectacular. If I put myself in O. Russell’s shoes (and live in the real world), I know there would have to be a certain amount of pressure at this point to craft a movie that strives for prestige. The quirky, niche David O. Russell of 3 Kings may simply not exist anymore. But I believe it best for film fans to walk into American Hustle doing their best to divorce the future potential Oscar glory of the film from their actual viewing experience. Try not to engage in the buzz, or at least put aside the buzz you’ve heard already and evaluate the movie as close to “on its own terms” as you possibly can.
Myself? I have seen and greatly enjoyed the film. And it probably won’t make any of my “best of” or “favorite” lists of 2013. And you know what? That is totally okay. American Hustle is funny, stylish, sexy-as-hell, and offers a wonderful ensemble. The crime elements take a back seat to letting these characters breathe and engaging us viewers with a surprisingly emotional investment that I hadn’t anticipated. David O. Russell has done alright by me. It is no Goodfellas, as everyone is comparing it to (and with good cause), but it doesn’t need to be Goodfellas to just be good.
And I don’t care what Academy Awards American Hustle gets nominated for, if any. The problem here is, of course, that it is being released at the end of the year, during prestige picture season. And, if I’m being totally honest, I can’t imagine David O. Russell, this time out, didn’t have some hopes of awards recognition when writing and crafting this film. Either way, I think it is a poor way to assess a film if you find yourself thinking, much like I caught myself thinking last year after SLP, “That movie is getting all kinds of Awards buzz, but I just don’t see it” and then rating it accordingly.
Do you like the film? Was it well-crafted and engaging? Did it have elements that made it stand out from the crowd? Will you look forward to re-watching it? Did it speak to you on one or more levels? What does it offer to think about or meditate on after the credits roll? These are the kinds of things I want to hear about when I’m discussing a film with you. I don’t really care if a film’s award accolades matched up with your expectations for it, and I’d humbly suggest we all work on setting that aside as we discuss the films we assess!
And I’m Out.