Abby Has Issues with the Oscars

There are a lot of things I do not understand about Hollywood.  I don’t understand why they can’t come up with original blockbusters not based off of bestselling books.  I don’t understand why they think Sandra Bullock is a good actress.  And I don’t understand why they decided the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie was a good idea.

But what I don’t understand more than anything else is the goddamn Oscars.

The Oscars suck.  They’re pretty much Hollywood’s way of patting themselves on the back for being pretentious douchebags.  Every year I expect to see some good movies nominated, but I don’t know why I expect this because every year they pick a bunch of crap I’ve never heard of and maybe one movie that everybody loved.  But the one movie everybody loved never wins.  The pretentious douchebaggy movies win.

So here’s what bugs me the most about the Oscars.  They’re supposed to be rewarding the best films of the year, right?  And from a critic’s standpoint, the best films of the year are supposed to be the ones that got the best reviews.  Personally, I don’t care much for reviews.  I like to make my own opinions about what makes a movie good or bad…BUT THE OSCARS ARE ALL ABOUT THE PRETENTIOUS REVIEWS!  So why why why why why why WHY is Harry Potter not up for some serious Academy Awards this year?

I’ll admit, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is not my favorite film.  It is not even my favorite Harry Potter film.  But the critics freaking loved that movie.  It’s one of the highest reviewed movies of the year and the third highest grossing film of all time.  Obviously it’s doing something right.  So why on earth is it not nominated for some serious awards!  I know it got nominations for like Special Effects and Art Direction and Make-up and stuff…but where the hell is Alan Rickman’s nomination for Best Supporting Actor?  Where the hell is the Best Picture nomination?!  According to the damn critics the movie is “Thrilling, powerfully acted, and visually dazzling” so why isn’t that being recognized?

I’m about to throw some numbers at you here.  Rottentomatoes.com is a website that combines all the reviews a movie gets and gives them a 0-100 percent rating based on how good they are.  Here are the ratings of the movies up for Best Picture:

The Artist:  97%

The Descendants:  90%

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close:  46%

The Help:  76%

Hugo:  94%

Midnight in Paris:  93%

Moneyball:  95%

The Tree of Life:  84%

War Horse:  76%

The rating for HPDH Part 2 is 96%.  You know what that means?  That means that Harry Potter got better overall reviews than EIGHT of the nine nominated films.  

There’s really only one explanation for this.  Only one fantasy film has won Best Picture before and that was Lord of the Rings Return of the King.  But Harry Potter doesn’t even get nominated because not only is it a fantasy film – it’s a young adult fantasy film.  And in case you were wondering, LOTR ROTK has a score of 94%.  So even Return of the King, my favorite movie of all time, Best Picture of 2003 has a lower score than HPDH. This kind of discrimination against young adult fiction just really pisses me off.  The same kind of thing happened with the Harry Potter books.  They were doing so amazingly well on the bestsellers lists that eventually they made a separate list for children’s books just so that Harry Potter wouldn't be hogging up the space.  Not only is that unfair, but it seems pretty cowardly and pathetic to me.  I don’t understand why people discount young people and their passions so easily.  As Oscar Wilde so eloquently said, “It’s absurd to talk of the ignorance of youth.  The only people to whose opinions I listen now with any respect are people much younger than myself.  They seem in front of me.  Life has revealed to them her latest wonder.”  

Now I’m not saying that I have anything against any of these other films.  I’ve seen most of them and they’re okay.  But the fact is that the Oscars are supposed to be about the best movies of the year and most of these films did not get the same kind of acclaim that Harry Potter did.  Although I WILL complain about one film…

EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE?!?!?!  SERIOUSLY?!  It got mixed reviews at best.  HOW did it get nominated for Best Picture of all things?!  Considering that it was reviewed so poorly it’s hard for me to believe that so many people in the academy thought it was worthy of the title best picture.  Also, one more thing about the movie’s nominations.  The old grandfather dude got nominated for Best Supporting Actor.  THE MOST ACTING HE HAD TO DO WAS LIFT HIS HANDS.  HE DID NOT SPEAK A WORD THE ENTIRE FILM.  I REPEAT, WHERE IS ALAN RICKMAN’S NOMINATION?!?!?!

You know what’s funny?  I’ve read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.  It’s one of my favorite books.  And I didn’t hate the movie.  But I don’t think it’s worthy of Best Freakin’ Picture.  Sheesh.

Like I said, HPDH Part 2 is not my favorite movie, but you would think that since it was overall successful and received widespread praise that the academy would at least give the movie some serious nominations to acknowledge the series as a whole.  Over the past ten years the Harry Potter film series has made an enormous contribution to film and the fact that they could just ignore it like this baffles me.  Eight beautiful, well reviewed, culturally impacting movies were made.  Not one of them has gotten an Oscar.  That just seems so wrong to me!  Harry Potter is such a significant piece of literature to our generation!  Even if you don’t like Harry Potter, you can’t deny that much.  These movies may not be as important as the books in the eyes of many fans, but in my opinion they are still hugely important to the kind of Harry Potter culture and fandom that has been created.  I cannot stress the impact Harry Potter has had on our generation enough.  It’s a big deal, people.  Deal with it.  Recognize it.  It deserves to be recognized.  In the words of Hank Green, “It would have been easy for the Harry Potter books to be just, you know, another kids’ book fantasy adventure.  But it is not just another kids’ book fantasy adventure.  There’s something very different going on here.  This is like the biggest thing that’s ever happened in publishing since like…the Bible.”

I may not be an expert on film and I may be completely biased about Harry Potter.  But this much I know for sure – fifty years from now no one is going to remember The Tree of Life, The Descendants, or Moneyball.  But Harry Potter will still be a household name.

Darren or Dan?

Okay, so here's the scoop.  You may not have noticed, but I kind of really really really love Harry Potter.  People tend to get pretty tired of hearing that in real life so that's what this blog is for - for me to talk about Harry Potter.  If you do not like Harry Potter or happiness then I suggest you read something else.  I will even be kind enough to supply you non-Harry Potter lovers with something else if you click that fun little link.


Right.  So let's get to it then.  Today I was walking out of the dining hall and I head the dulcet tones of the lovely Aaron Tveit.  At first, I thought I was making it up because that is exactly the kind of thing my mind would do - decide that Broadway music is playing in a public place and then announce it loudly,looking like a fool.  But today I was not a fool!  Next to Normal was indeed coming from the Philbrook Cafe.  So because of this, I started to engage in a magnificently non-awkward conversation about How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying with the cashier.  I don't know how she knew I found this topic interesting.  Either she just assumed that I would be interested in it because I like Next to Normal so naturally I must like all Broadway shows, or I just have OBSESSED WITH HARRY POTTER stamped on my forehead.  ...Or there is the slight possibility that I have met her before.


If your confused as to how HP is related to How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying then I guess I should clarify something.  Daniel Radcliffe just recently finished his stint on Broadway playing J. Pierrepont Finch.  And then Darren Criss replaced him.  So that's just about the coolest thing ever, right?  A Very Potter Musical-Harry Potter replaces Movie-Harry Potter on Broadway.  A situation just full of awesome.


Unfortunately, I was not able to see Dan or Darren perform in this show because I don't have the kind of money to go see Broadway shows all the time.  So I remain an adamant enthusiast from afar.  Anyway, cashier lady and I started discussing who we would prefer to see given the chance - Dan or Darren.  Now, anybody who knows me knows that I pretty much think that Darren Criss walks on water.  He is in every way the perfect man.  He's beautiful, he sings, he writes music,(including the soundtracks to AVPM, AVPS, and my all time favorite musical, Starship) he loves Harry Potter, and he plays Kurt's boyfriend on Glee.  He is inhumanly perfect.  But for some reason when I was asked who I would rather see, my automatic answer was Daniel Radcliffe.


Why?  Why would I say Daniel?  I LOVE DARREN CRISS!  If I could trade lives with any one person it would be Darren Criss.  Darren is a better singer.  Darren is about ten thousand times more attractive.  So WHY would I pick Dan over him?  I really didn't know the answer to this at first.  But after thinking about it for a while I have decided to stand by my quickly given answer.  I would rather see Daniel.  Not just because Daniel is more famous, not just because I've already seen Darren perform live before, but because Daniel, more than any other person in the universe, is a symbol of my childhood - a symbol of everything that I love about Harry Potter.  I definitely associate Darren with Harry, but Daniel really IS Harry in my eyes.  I mean, I'm not delusional, I know he's not REALLY Harry Potter and I know that often times the Harry he portrays on the screen strays from the Harry I know and love in the books, but he is linked to my love for Harry Potter in a way that no other person ever can be.  The Harry Potter in my head will always be Daniel Radcliffe and despite fangirlish claims that the books and movies are completely separate things - they're really not, not to me anyway.  The books are really just one aspect of what I love about Harry Potter.  Harry has really taken on a life of his own outside of the books. Some of Harry's best moments are in the movies or in the consciousness of the fans who have recreated him in their own minds.  So even though Daniel is NOT exactly the Harry from the books, he IS in some way part of what Harry has become.  And because I have known Dan since 2001 when the first film came out, he is so much more of what Harry means to me than Darren is.  And yes, believe it or not, I would base my decision on who to see on Broadway based on who is more Harry Potter.  Because really Harry Potter is why I love them both.  But Daniel is my Harry more than Darren.


So if you had the choice who would it be?  Dan or Darren?