The voter, who happens to be female, ripped into those who feel Ava DuVernay's Selma has been unfairly snubbed by the Oscars. The film only received two nominations, one for Best Picture and another for Original Song, despite holding a 98% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Not that it matters because this voter REALLY just wants people to shut up about the film already, and stop questioning if the mostly-white membership is perhaps a bit out of touch...
"First, let me say that I'm tired of all of this talk about "snubs" — I thought for every one of [the snubs] there was a justifiable reason. What no one wants to say out loud is that Selma is a well-crafted movie, but there's no art to it. If the movie had been directed by a 60-year-old white male, I don't think that people would have been carrying on about it to the level that they were. And as far as the accusations about the Academy being racist? Yes, most members are white males, but they are not the cast of 'Deliverance' — they had to get into the Academy to begin with, so they're not cretinous, snaggletoothed hillbillies. When a movie about black people is good, members vote for it. But if the movie isn't that good, am I supposed to vote for it just because it has black people in it?"
While it's perfectly fine that this particular voter may not have liked Selma all that much (saying it has "no art" was a bit much), her words began to take a nasty turn that has nothing to do with the movie. Specifically she was offended that the cast showed up to the New York premiere wearing "I Can't Breathe" t-shirts out of respect to the family of Eric Garner who died while in a chokehold by the NYPD.
“I’ve got to tell you, having the cast show up in T-shirts saying ‘I can’t breathe’—I thought that stuff was offensive. Did they want to be known for making the best movie of the year or for stirring up s**t?”
That they were helping to create further discussion on the racially-charged issue of police brutality, something Dr. King faced in his life and is presented in the movie, apparently didn't matter to this voter.
For me, I find it interesting that this voter takes such offense to the Selma cast getting involved political/social issues, while at the same time praising American Sniper, saying that the pro-war film about the controversial Chris Kyle galvanized the country...
"American Sniper is the winner of the year, whether or not it gets a single statuette, because for all of us in the movie industry — I don't care what your politics are — it is literally the answer to a prayer for a midrange budget movie directed by an 84-year-old guy [Clint Eastwood] to do this kind of business. It shows that a movie can galvanize America and shows that people will go if you put something out that they want to see. With regard to what it did or didn't leave out, it's a movie, not a documentary. I enjoyed it, I thought it was well done, and I can separate out the politics from the filmmaking."
She must have forgotten that American Sniper director Clint Eastwood famously attended the Republican National Convention and talked to an empty chair. Guess that kind of "stirring up shit" is okay.
What else did she have to say? She thought Inherent Vice was "terrible" and "incoherent", feels Julianne Moore is easily the Best Actress winner for Still Alice, and wasn't a big fan of Birdman's cinematography (it gave her a headache) although she's voting for Michael Keaton for Best Actor because he seems like a "sane person". Didn't know that was the criteria.
I'd be happy if outlets stopped talking to these people every year. What's the point in giving a platform to those who don't have the guts to give their opinions out in the open? If anything, the Academy probably isn't too proud of all this. Ironically, in this voter's zeal to present herself as above things like race, she's probably only added fuel to the fire.
