About Those Oscars in 2022

Linda Winsh-Bolard

Predictions and expectations of major studios and media were partially fulfilled.

Jane Campion won Best Director
Dune won cinematography (Greig Fraser), visual effects, editing, production design and sound.
Belfast won Best Original Screenplay
The score was awarded before the ceremony even started, so no one was surprised, by Hans Zimmer' s Oscar (Dune).
West Side Story won Best Supporting Actress (Ariana DeBose)
CODA won Best Supporting Actor (Troy Kotsur)
King Richard won Best Actor (Will Smith)
The Eyes of Tammy Faye won Best Actress (Jessica Chastain)

and then the shock came:
CODA won Best Picture

Months and months pushing of The Power of the Dog, even a spite between Jane Campion and Sam Elliot, did not win the film Best Picture.
Was it perhaps because the West is after all not a mythical place?
I don't really think so.

I predicted that Don't Look Up! will be nominated , as would be Belfast, Dune , West Side Story, Drive My Car. King Richard, The eyes of Tammy Faye were possibilities, Licorice Pizza and Nightmare alley I did not pick up.

I correctly guessed that Dune, West Side Story, Don't Look Up and Belfast will get a snub, and so they did.
Don't Look Up! and Belfast committed the cardinal sin of being too close to reality, one sarcastically depicting today's government internal dealings, the other historic dealings of a close government.
Corporate media is not fond of that. Politicians are neither.

Dune's sin is the destruction and despair.

West Side Story is a remake, it is also a Spielberg film, it never had a chance. Academy does not reward musicals with serious themes, it is far too lofty for that.

CODA won, something I did not expect, because it is the opposite- it is this "heartwarming", if you do not mind killing fish for commercial purposes, story of small people, with an additional handicap of a disability, winning over their predicament and even over hostile government workers.
A dream made for corporate media.

The unsubtle message being: if only you were good enough, you'd make it too!

It leaves out how minuscule the chance is and how many accidental and incidental circumstances must merge for even a chance of it to happen. It does push the : Do not be afraid! rather too often.
It is a nicely made, largely predictable film, with some very good acting, Marlene Matlin is the mom and she is wonderful, Troy Kotsur is the Dad and he got an Oscar for the part, some beautiful scenery and nothing new.

It could have been told by any media. The film craft only comes into it when it shows, truly nicely and humanely, just how boring are certain activities of hearing people to the deaf ones. But that was done, equally well, in The Children of the Lesser God and Marlene Matlin got an Oscar for her performance in it.

Best film should be the one using the media to tell the story in the film best craft way.

By that measure, Belfast should have won. Kenneth Branagh created purely filmic moments that deliver the story, and the feeling of what is happening at that moment in that story remarkably.
A little boy standing in his ordinary street ,when his world collapses around him, is such moment. That moment, when al l you have known changes, time stands still, sound is gone and you cannot comprehend what is going on. That is what only film can do, that is what the Award is for.

Belfast also has an amazing, and in my opinion best, supporting actor: Ciarán Hinds. Hinds is the kind of actor who can play a role so well, you believe he is that person. He also has the rare gift of warm humanity that Morgan Freeman has.

Troy Kotsur certainly made his Dad funny, annoying, loving and human. How hard it is to perform in hearing world is nothing I can imagine. And yet, Hinds was that granddad in Belfast...
So, why did CODA beat The Power of the Dog? Because The Power of the Dog is depressing film showing human weaknesses. It is also strangely unappealing to watch, never really touches you, unless to annoy. All that power struggle, intimate threats and secrets were not going to make it this year.

Dame Jane Campion won, of course, being the woman critics love. There is a great love among the critic for films where women overcome abuse of some kind; it makes one wonder why there are so few female critics.

Go and see CODA. It is an old fashioned, family oriented (the sex is never naked) story that ends well. It is well made and will make you feel fine.

The sarcastic , bone cutting Don't Look Up! is far scarier, but it is never boring. A lot might seem rather familiar as well.

Nothing this year beats the grand spectacle of Spielberg's Romeo and Juliet in West Side costumes.

Dune is all you'd expect, so if that's your cup of tea, you will not be disappointed.

To appreciate The Power of the Dog, you must love the genre. Within that genre, it is first class.

You must love movies, and appreciate conflicts, brutal and ordinary, to love Belfast.

The Eyes of Tammy Faye is a film about corrupt preacher and his wife, who is the driving force in success. I cannot judge how well it was acted, i have no clue what the real Tammy Faye was like.
I can judge that the make-up was first class. Jessica Chastain plays the character through decades, and always looks natural for the age she is playing.

Why was King Richard mad, is a mystery. We know that behind all successful people are those who help, push, deal and so on. Again, unless you know the real person-who is to tell how good the acting is?
No one can even tell, if Will Smith will be known for his Oscar or for the living proof that a rich man can publically assault someone and just walk away. He was not even escorted from the building, as of being charged...

This was an Oscar bowing to political correctness as seen through the eyes of corporate money.
Hence, we had the oddity of watching the pictures of those who died last year ,while a large dance number was performed onstage.
I'd take a moment of silence , thank you.