It’s amazing that ABC broadcast an overlong Academy Awards show where no one mocked Donald Trump by name. There were just a few snarky remarks about walls, but that's pretty much it. But it’s equally bizarre that the Oscar for Best Picture went to Green Book – about overcoming segregation in the south – and the leftists came away angry!
What makes this amusing as well as amazing is Hollywood votes on these. This isn’t the People’s Choice award, it’s an insular Tinseltown popularity contest, and they’ve worked hard to add minorities to the Oscar electorate.
The networks announced this movie was a “controversial” choice. ABC’s Chris Connelly explained that racial uplift was the problem: “Well, time was when some movies featured black characters who have to show they are much better people than their white counterparts in order to be deemed worthy of being treated as equals. Problematic, you might think.” Jenni Miller at NBCNews.com underlined the animus: “this movie was written, directed and produced by white people, for white people.”
Horrors!
Liberal Twitter went viral with a video clip of Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman making a disparaging face, since Black Panther was also nominated. “Nerdy Wonka” tweeted: “Chadwick Boseman is all of us when Green Book was announced as Best Picture.”
Somehow, America is still backwards, which raises the question: How in blazes did Black Panther manage to gross $700 million at the American box office?
Then there was director Spike Lee, as spoiled as he is left wing, reacting to the Best Picture pick by pitching a fit, reportedly trying to storm out of the theatre. Later he rudely turned his back on the man who had bested his movie BlacKkKlansman, director Peter Farrelly, during his acceptance speech. Later, he complained “the refs made a bad call,” a reference to tantrums he throws in the front row of New York Knicks games.
The hot hashtag used to be #OscarsSoWhite. That’s not at all what the winners list looked like this year. Best Director went to Mexican Alfonso Cuaron for Roma, which many expected to win Best Picture. Cuaron’s film also won for Cinematography and Best Foreign Language Film. Mexican directors have won five of the last six Best Director awards.
The Best Actor went to Rami Malek, the son of Egyptian immigrants. The best supporting actors – Mahershala Ali and Regina King – were both black. The Best Animated Film – Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse – featured a half-black, half-Puerto Rican teenager as Spiderman, voiced by Shameik Moore. Black Panther won for Costume Design and Production Design – black women held both Oscars.
And Spike Lee actually won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, and Lee used the spotlight for an is anti-Trump rant (without using the name). “Before the world tonight I give praise to my ancestors who built our country, along with the genocide of our Native [American] people...The 2020 presidential election is around the corner. Let's all mobilize, let's all be on the right side of history. Make the moral choice between love versus hate.”
As National Review movie critic Kyle Smith asked, “Who throws a hissy fit because he wins only one Oscar?” But he predicted “Lee’s crybaby act pretty much guarantees he’ll win an Oscar if he ever again makes a film that is a hair better than mediocre.”
These award shows no longer reward talent. They reward their very own brand of self-centered idiocy.
