The Great Oscar Baiter

I've been meaning to return to this blog for months now, but for one reason or another (writer's block, holiday schedules, general laziness), I just never got around to it. But there really is no better time to write an Oscar blog than on the day the Oscar nominees are announced, and as such it seems like the perfect time to dust off the old mental faculties and get to work. What will this blog look like going forward? Who's to say? That's all for the future to decide. For now, we need to focus on the present! As always, there are many, many films (both nominated and otherwise) which I have not gotten around to seeing yet, so if I don't mention any of your particular favorites you can assume that's why. Anyone expecting hot takes about Babylon, Decision to Leave, Women Talking, Triangle of Sadness, Till, The Woman King or RRR (I did a REALLY bad job of seeing movies last year) are going to leave disappointed. At any rate, 2022 was a pretty good year for film,...

I’ll put myself on a consistent schedule for these things one day, I promise. In my defense, there are a lot of movies to catch up on, and isn’t that what Oscar Baiting is all about? For instance- until recently, I’d never seen the original Top Gun! But with Top Gun: Maverick holding its spot as the biggest hit of the year (probably only to be dethroned by Black Panther or Avatar ) and even potentially soaring into the obligatory crowd pleaser Best Picture slot, I figured it was time to see where things began. Because while the Oscars Top Gun: Maverick may win have yet to be decided, the first Top Gun only went home with one- for the love theme, “Take My Breath Away.” (via Wikipedia) Love themes for films have gone a bit out of style these days, although for a long time it seemed to be a surefire way to nab a Best Song nomination. Seriously, look through the Wikipedia article and count how many times you see "Title Seemingly Chosen at Random (Love Theme from Movie You Didn...

I was watching Belfast with my friend last week, and- like all great films- it raised a lot of questions. Questions like, “Hey, remember the last time I watched Belfast and was inspired to write a blog post because of it ?” and “Hey, why haven’t I written anything Oscar Bait related in a while?” Well, luckily for all of us “The Ballad of High Noon” wasn’t the only Oscar-nominated song featured in Belfast. Unluckily for us, that other song just happens to be “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.” (via Wikipedia) Readers of this blog will hopefully remember that I love a good movie musical. Sadly, those were few and far between in the 1960s. Oh sure, movie musicals certainly had a brief resurgence in those days. Many of them were big hits, both critically and commercially. Hell, Best Picture went to a musical on four separate occasions in that decade! But how many of them were actually any good? Not a lot. Oh sure, The Music Man is great fun and Mary Poppins is a classic. But far too many mu...

The Academy Awards have come and gone, and in the wake of all the controversy, we all overlooked one thing- “No Time to Die” beat “Dos Oruguitas” for Best Original Song! Not only was that a terrible decision on the Academy’s part, it also meant that I was wrong in my predictions! And perhaps it proved people right when they said Disney should have submitted “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” as Encanto’ s song. After all, Disney didn’t always get nominated for its serious songs. For proof of that, look no further than Cinderella’s “Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo.” (via Wikipedia) Disney's 1950 film Cinderella is an odd duck of a motion picture. The studio's first animated smash hit since Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, it might also be the platonic ideal of what people think of as a "Disney Movie." It's got everything- a prince, animal sidekicks, singing and dancing, dead parents. It is also, quite frankly, not very good. Oh sure, the animation is pretty great, excluding the h...

Once again, I find myself asking you to forgive me for my extended absence. I’ve been rather busy with schoolwork, and- if I’m being perfectly honest- I just haven’t really had a whole lot of thoughts which were worth writing down. I can’t really imagine a worse time for an Oscar blogger to have writer’s block than during Oscar season, but there you are. Still, if there’s one thing I’ve had a lot of thoughts about, it’s the Academy’s bone-headed decision to present eight categories before the ceremony, off the air- including all three short categories.  (via Wikipedia) Every category more than deserves its proper due on Oscar night, but few films benefit from that air time more than the shorts. Excepting the animated shorts that might get played before a family film, the Oscars are easily the biggest audience these shorts get. It’s a chance for people to get a look at them and check out a film they might not otherwise be interested in. It’s for this same reason I was against the O...