best picture

man, i would love for juno to win best picture. for one thing, i think it was the best movie. but the other thing is, there has never been a george mason or villanova at the oscars. there's always the underdog best picture nominee, immediately identified, and everyone is supposed to be happy for it to be there, the ugly kid with the hot date. and they lose but they're smiling, and maybe they get a best screenplay award. (!) the academy awards need an upset victory.

whenever best picture awards look like mistakes after the fact, it's because they're either given to movies that nobody has a real urge to see ever again (a beautiful mind, crash), or to movies that are already becoming a national joke by march of the year after their release (titanic, forest gump). *

compare those movies to some of the sleepers from the same years. pulp fiction, brokeback mountain, good will hunting. these are movies you will want to see at least once every other year until you die. and they only have one thing in common: the story of these movies getting made seems like a joke. "you want to make a movie about gay cowboys?" "you want to make a movie about hit men? ok, and you are positive that john travolta is living?"**

doesn't that sound just like juno? a movie about a disaffected pregnant teen who has the kid, in a year that already saw a four star comedy about a full term unwanted pregnancy. it sounds like the description of a movie that would get its release date pushed back more times than vantage point.

when No Country wins in a couple sundays, i'll be happy for the coens, who should have won for fargo instead of losing to the english patient. (EP is still a great movie, fine, but...jesus, fargo! i'm not sure i agree with the academy 100% on their police work, there.) but as good as No Country is, it's going to fade from the national memory because of the ending. i understand that subverting the narrative is something that english majors really enjoy. hey, fine. but i don't know many people who pick up mrs. dalloway once a year. just compare it to the departed, which i probably watch accidentally more times in a month then i will ever watch No Country again.

* note: i'm not even using chicago or elizabeth in love here. i mean, those are not best pictures, right? but i figure they weren't marketed at me, so how can i judge? it would be like asking me what brand of bran flakes i like the best.

** making a movie about hit men doesn't seem like a big deal now, but that's because everyone was copying pulp fiction for about forever after that movie came out. remember "truth or consequences: new mexico?"