Tonight is the glitz and glamour of the Academy Awards, otherwise known as the Oscars for the dandy little statue. I’m going to take a break tonight to talk film. Well, somewhat of a break because everything is political. Before diving into the silver screen, I will remind you that Flint, MI is still dealing with the fallout from lead in the water. That would be 1,410 days since the city has had clean water. And that is just one of the crises the nation is facing, especially as the president makes another move to gut clean water regulations.
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In the spirit of the Flint water crisis, I’m going to open this discussion of film with a documentary series from Netflix on the subject. Flint Town, streaming now, examines the intersection of race, poverty, and politics in the city. The lead in the water is just one symptom of a much larger problem. Here’s the Netflix description of the show.
From an American dream to an American crisis, Netflix's new original documentary series, Flint Town — the story of Flint, Michigan through the eyes of the city's police department — explores the struggles of living in a constant state of emergency and the team of underdogs fighting against all odds to save the city.
And now on to the Oscars. I have a confession to make. I have only seen one of the Best Picture nominees and it isn’t Get Out. I don’t get to the theater very often so I have only been able to catch The Shape of Water. I can tell you that it’s a beautiful film. I am admittedly a fan of Guillermo Del Toro’s work. I find him to be a lyrical filmmaker who has taken the tradition of magical realism from the world of literature and translated it to his medium. I doubt the film will win Best Picture but I am definitely rooting for Richard Jenkins in the Best Supporting Actor category.
I am also rooting for Mary J Blige for Best Supporting Actress. There are two reasons for this. The first is that Mary J Blige is royalty as far as I’m concerned. The second is that I would love nothing more than to see her complete the EGOT. That would be Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony. And dammit, Ms Blige has had a tough go of it recently. I really want her to win this award, mostly because I want to see either Questlove or Elvis Costello pick up the Best Original Song win.
Best Director? That’s easy. Jordan Peele, hands down. Get Out is a brand new type of film on the Oscar stage. Anytime you can’t even nail down the genre of a great film then it deserves some recognition. The fact that some see it as comedy and others see it, correctly according to Peele, as a horror film tells you something about both the movie and the country.
As for Best Animated Film I’m torn between Coco and The Breadwinner. Coco seemed to hit all the right chords for a Pixar movie. The fact that there wasn’t a widespread cry from Latinx viewers pointing out cultural missteps means that Disney might have gotten one right. But my vote, albeit sight unseen, would be for the Breadwinner. I think anything that brings an American audience closer to conditions around the world deserves a win in my book.
That’s all I have for tonight. These are my completely biased and uninformed picks for the Oscars. Anything that gets people talking about film is a good thing for me. Any time that film gets people talking about the world around us and the ways we might make it better deserves special recognition in my book. We’ll see how it plays out tonight.
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