One thing I have in common with anti-vaxxers (an opening no one expected, I know) is that I love to do my own research.
But while I have just as many hours in the day as Beyoncé, I squander far more of it on TikTok and online shopping. As a result, I don’t always have the most time to do all that research I love the most to form my own opinions on topics. When that happens, I turn to the experts (take notes, Jenny McCarthy).
We’re approaching the peak of awards season with the 94th Academy Awards coming up this Sunday, and I just knew I wasn’t going to have time to get into all of that this week so I reached out to Noted Expert On the Culture, E4P fan-favoriteJason Goodman.
This week, we just had a silly goofy time talking about award show scandals, retroactive awards, Christian Bale’s lost Oscar for Vice (2019) (again), and, shockingly, the Oscars—but not the ones you’re thinking of.1
And the Award Goes to… Jason!
If you haven’t checked out Jason’s Substack, Things (i think) I Think, first of all, rude. It tackles the hottest takes on movies, TV, and pop culture which are up literally everyone’s alley.
Last week’s piece, “The Oscars Conundrum in a Changing Movie Landscape,” broke down the changes the Oscars have tried to make both pre-and post-pandemic in response to declining viewership and increasing scandals. Unlike whatever the hell this is, it’s an insightful and well-researched piece about the state of the movie industry as it grapples with a pandemic, the rise of streaming services, and how the world approaches movies in the modern age.
Given all this, I simply had to ask:
Emily: The Oscars—yes or no?
Jason: Per usual, I will offer a complicated answer to an incredibly uncomplicated question.
The Oscars have consistently awarded undeserving movies and performances and have missed out on awarding some of the most culturally important movies of the last century. I mean, Stanley Kubrick and Alfred Hitchcock—two of the most important directors of all time—never won Best Director. Citizen Kane, widely regarded as the greatest American movie of all time, did not win Best Picture.
So, the first part of this answer is no. The Oscars consistently fail at recognizing movies and performances that matter. HOWEVER, the Oscars are really important in signaling to audiences what they should pay attention to. If you are a psychopath like I am, you saw the three-hour-long Japanese drama Drive My Car in theaters. But most people have a life and had never heard of Drive My Car until it snagged a Best Picture nomination. And after it did so, many more people saw it and now you can watch it on HBOMax. This is a net positive.
The Oscars help spotlight movies and signal to audiences what is worth seeing. So in this sense, the Oscars are a huge yes.
Not to distract from Jason’s expertise but to make the conversation entirely about me for a second: as someone who thought about being a film major for about four months and inevitably watched Citizen Kane one time per each of those months because it’s widely regarded as the greatest American movie of all time, I just wanted to say, on the record, I didn’t like it. Men being sad about things doesn’t really do it for me. But if we wanted to talk about the 2003 Brittany Murphy classic Uptown Girls…
I digress. Back to the top tier journalism you’ve all come to expect:
Emily: Fuck marry kill, Oscar edition: The Oscars, Oscar Isaac, and Oscar the Grouch.
Jason: Fuck the Oscars (in all senses). Marry Oscar Issac. Kill Oscar the Grouch. No explanation necessary.
On Jan. 15, 2015, the academy awarded all 20 acting nominations to white actors for the first of two consecutive years, inspiring April Reign to create the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite… Her words, coming on the heels of #BlackLivesMatter, erupted like a big bang, creating the conditions for a constellation of social movements — from #WhiteWashedOUT for Asian representation to Time’s Up for gender parity — that intensified media attention on the industry’s treatment of historically marginalized groups.
It would make sense for the best actors, directors, and movies to be awarded as such, regardless of gender or race. But I’m reminded of one of the conversations journalist Reni Eddo-Lodge has in her book Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race: she says, “We do not live in a meritocracy, and to pretend that simple hard work is enough to elevate everyone to success is willful ignorance.”
As the former academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs, one of more than a dozen people who spoke to The Times for this history of the movement, said recently: “That was the industry: You’d scan around the room, and everyone looked the same. But people didn’t get what was going on. Members would say, ‘We’re professionals — we just vote for who’s best.’” (X)
A reminder that progress is far from perfect: Issa Rae’s reaction after reading out the 2020 nominees for Best Director which featured, you guessed it, only men.
Yet, after all these scandals, getting nominated for and winning an Oscar still comes with an air of “being the best in the business.” I asked Jason:
Emily: The Academy Awards have always seemed to have this air of holier than thou amongst award shows (in my opinion, because no one gets drunk at their awards like the Golden Globes). Do you think that after all the recent award shows scandals that pretentiousness remains, or are all awards now equally murky in terms of morality?
Jason: No, the Golden Globes are BY FAR the murkiest.
Now listen: this doesn’t mean the Academy is a perfect organization. Far from it. BUT, the Academy has done some good work in expanding the voting body beyond a bunch of old white men to include a much more diverse group of people.
In recent years, the Academy has added thousands of voters and it’s become increasingly more international. This is evident in lots more international films being showcased in categories outside of Best International Feature (like Parasite winning in 2020). Now, there are still tons of representation issues with who gets nominated and celebrated by the Academy, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t argue that more BIPOC filmmakers and performers must be given opportunities to act and tell their stories if we want more nominated.
That being said, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (the organization that votes on Golden Globes) is a corrupt cabal of like 30 voters that love accepting bribes and doing a bunch of shady stuff. If you’re interested in learning more, I’d highly recommend this LA Times Investigation.
But we do have to discuss the much smaller scale controversy: as Jason explained in his newsletter, “Last month, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced it would be cutting 8 of its 23 awards from the live Oscars show. They will instead present these awards celebrating craftspeople (like editors, production designers, film composers) before the show and debut their edited acceptance speeches during the telecast.”
Since I only have one cat, I’ve never had to pick a favorite cat but I would imagine cutting 8 out of 23 categories from the live show is a little like how my parents picked my sister as their favorite out of three children (too soon?).
While Jason gets into this snafu in his piece, I had to ask the most important question that he forgot to answer:
Emily: What is the best category the Oscars aren't airing live this year?
Jason: To be sure, all of these categories celebrate very worthy crafts. My favorite, personally, is Best Score.
Fun fact: my first real dream job was film composer so I have a special place in my heart for the music that animates the movies we watch. If I can’t score movies myself, I’d at least like to watch those that do accept their awards! Apparently, that’s too much to ask. Oh well.
The Wickedly Talented, One and Only
If you weren’t raised in a family in which you were trained to time the switch from the E! Red Carpet to ABC in order to get the last dregs of whatever “reporting” Giuliana Rancic think she’s giving before the actual show starts, let me tell you: the Oscars are a hoot.2
Emily: What is the best Oscars fuck up and why will it forever be Adele Dazeem?
Jason: The best Oscars fuck up is undoubtedly Adele Dazeem and I think there are a few reasons for this.
For one, this insane gaff happened at the 2014 Oscars. This show had the second-highest ratings of any Oscars telecast in the 21st century! That means over 43 million households caught this insane fuck up live on television! AND, it was the first time an Oscars audience was able to relish in that fuck up through memes and conversation on social media. So it’s the best Oscars fuck up because it came in a brief window where the Oscars were popular and social media populated. A rare monocultural fuck up.
Some other Oscars botches happened after. Most notably, last year when they moved Best Actor to be the last category presented to honor Chadwick Bosman without checking and he ended up losing the award to Anthony Hopkins. That was epic but in a really sad and depressing way and no one was watching and it felt kind of mean.
Adele Dazeem was perfect low stakes and high comedy.
Emily: Who is your ideal Oscars host?
Jason: Easy answer. Nick Kroll and John Mulaney as George St. Geegland and Gil Faizon from Oh, Hello!
Charmed, I’m sure.
Even though many people don’t know who these characters are, having these famous actors and comedians host the Oscars in character would be an unbelievable win for old people (Oscars core audience) and young people who like making fun of old people (Oscars target audience).
In April 2020 when nothing was certain and my senior spring semester had been ruined (trauma), my father and I drove down to Atlanta to formally move out of my apartment as it looked like I would be home for longer than three, maybe four weeks, I did what might be my most charitable contribution to society: I showed my dad Oh Hello: The P’dcast which he has since shown to every friend he’s ever had.
When I tell you the pull the Oscars would suddenly have from the mid-50s dad community —an underrepresented Oscar viewing demographic— if they did this… I genuinely believe it could solve their little viewership issue.
Emily: What is the best category overall and why?
Jason: I think somewhat of the conventional wisdom among film dorks is that Best Original Screenplay category celebrates lots of the movies that in hindsight, should have won Best Picture. Now, this isn’t always the case. But in 2017, Get Out won Best Original Screenplay and Shape of Water won the Oscar. I don’t know anyone that would tell you Shape of Water is better than Get Out. Or in 1996 when Fargo won screenplay and The English Patient won Best Picture.
This year we have some pretty exciting (and unexciting) nominees in this category. Licorice Pizza and The Worst Person in the World lead the pack for me. I’ll take anything but Don't Look Up.
Emily: You're hosting an Oscars viewing party and you can invite 5 former winners living or dead. Who's there?
Jason: Give me Kate Winselt (no brainer). And then I want Denzel Washington but acting fully in character from Training Day. Jordan Peele because he’d be great at breaking the ice. And then lets go with H.E.R. just for the possibility of an impromptu concert (she won for Judas and the Black Messiah).
Friends, I’ll admit it: so rarely do I actually ask the questions that need to be asked. I’m here to make you laugh so you keep reading and giving me attention. I love your attention. But suddenly, as I was writing out these questions for Jason, the perfect question came at me like an Oscars producer runs at Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty and I had to ask:
Emily: Actually let me backtrack—should the Oscars serve alcohol like the Golden Globes?
Jason: We would all be better off if the Oscars got a little less uptight and a bit more fun. Like you said, they take themselves way too seriously. If it’s an awards show celebrating movies it should be a celebration.
PLUS, if we’re trying to make the Oscars culturally relevant again, alcohol would be the best way to do so by increasing the chances of insane memes and tweetable moments. Ask yourself this: do you want to see a drunk Lady Gaga getting an Oscar in 2025? If your answer is no, you’re boring.
Perhaps we might get a little drama à lá Jackson Maine… I’m not saying I want that!!!!! I love Gaga!!! I’m just saying it’s something that is now in the realm of possibility and I think we should address it.
Congratulations to All Those Movies (Not Derogatory)
I felt it was only right that I asked Jason some real, genuine questions about his love of movies… thinly veiling my real questions about who he predicts will win the awards this year:
Emily: As a film buff, which movie this year gets your Academy Award?
Jason: I think Drive My Car is the best movie of the year. It is shockingly well-paced for a 180-minute movie with performances brimming with emotionality and a script that is one of the best in a while. It’s an insane achievement in movie-making.
Out of movies that were not recognized by the Academy, I’d say Pig and C’mon C’mon are my favorites. Specifically, I’d like to shout out Woody Norman, a 13-year-old British boy who gives the performance of the year in C’mon C’mon. Watch this video and then go watch the movie.
Emily: What movie retroactively deserves the Academy Award for Best Picture?
Jason:Get Out instead of that movie about interspecies romance. Moneyball over The Artist. The Social Network over The King’s Speech. Brokeback Mountain over Crash. Saving Private Ryan over Shakespeare in Love. I could keep going.
A good rule of thumb: sometimes the Academy chooses right. Most of the time they choose wrong.
Emily: What is the best category overall and why?
Jason: I think somewhat of the conventional wisdom among film dorks is that Best Original Screenplay category celebrates lots of the movies that in hindsight, should have won Best Picture. Now, this isn’t always the case. But in 2017, Get Out won Best Original Screenplay and Shape of Water won the Oscar. I don’t know anyone that would tell you Shape of Water is better than Get Out. Or in 1996 when Fargo won screenplay and The English Patient won Best Picture.
This year, we have some pretty exciting (and unexciting) nominees in this category. Licorice Pizza and The Worst Person in the World lead the pack for me. I’ll take anything but Don't Look Up.
Emily: Finally, the hill I'll die on: who was snubbed for Best Actor in 2019 and why was it Christian Bale in Vice?
Jason: Christian Bale is a shining star in a weak pool of nominees. At least it’s not as egregious Jesse Eisenberg losing for The Social Network to Colin Firth.
Thanks so much to Jason for coming in to answer these questions!!! Unfortunately, it will be the last time he ever joins us as he had the absolute gall to talk any form of shit about Colin “Learned Portuguese for Love in Love, Actually and Fist Fought Hugh Grant in both Bridget Jones’ Diary and Bridget Jones: Edge of Reason, Among Other Things (Including Wearing a Jumpsuit and Dancing to ABBA in Mamma Mia!)” Firth on my newsletter, AFTER he found a way to insult The One Thing I’ve Ever Enjoyed Gwyneth Paltrow In, Shakespeare in Love!!!!!!
At least he agrees: all of the awards for Gloria Steinem’s stepson!!!!!
No one understands how important this is to me!!!!!! THIS is the true hill I’ll die on!!!!!!!!!
In all honesty, thank you to Jason for taking the time to answer all of these!!! Make sure to check out Things (i think) I Thinkif you haven’t already (even though I literally tagged it a billion times here already)!!!!
THANKFULLY, the Red Carpet is going to have actually good comedy this year. A welcome farewell to Giuliana and Ryan Seacrest’s Yearly Lukewarm Stab at Stand-up: “Laverne Cox Named Red Carpet Host of ‘Live From E!’”
