Tag Archives: Think Piece

When it’s not a review and I just want to vent or talk about something on my mind.

Misc

The 94th Academy Awards (2022) Review – Chaos Reigned

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What a show! But not in the “holy shit, what a great show we’ve just witnessed” sense, more like watching a car crash that somehow starts a chain of events that results in more accidents. But not just cars, but boats, jets, planes… How would that happen, you ask? Well, how do you take a ceremony that has one job and one job only (to celebrate films and EVERYBODY involved in the creative process) and somehow turn it into this shit-show? Before moving on, let me say one thing – this isn’t much of a review, as much as me thinking out loud about the state of the industry I love. I won’t be talking about the people who won the Oscar… well, except one obvious one, because that happened, and you know what I am referring to. This “piece” is me summing up my thoughts about this show and how it was (mis)handled. So, if you are expecting to read more about the winners, sorry, this won’t be it, chief.

My relationship with watching live Oscar shows dates back to 2009. That’s when I was comfortable enough with my English to justify spending a night awake. Because both in the Czech Republic and Scotland, where I live now, the time zones work against us. So the ceremony is on around 1/2 AM. Anyway, I stayed up to watch my first Oscars back in 2009, and I liked it. Sure, back then, I didn’t fully understand everything, but it got me even more into films seeing all the glamour, people, speeches, seeing it live as it happens. Ever since then, I would make it my tradition. Every time I could afford to take the day off, I would, just to see it happen, to be there.

And sure, not every single ceremony I’ve seen since was 10/10. No, they are “just” awards show, after all, so some things don’t work, some jokes don’t land, some hosts you like more, some you like less. But that’s part of being a movie lover, you might not always agree with who won, but that’d be a boring world if everybody agreed on everything. 😉 And every year I’ve seen live since (I believe I’ve only missed one or two since 2009) has been “fine”. But not until today did I feel like the ceremony was an actual disaster. And not due to my favourites not winning (all the top categories I have guessed correctly and most would be my picks for the Oscar) but due to the poor mismanagement, misjudgement and bad taste.

Let’s start with the most blatant mismanagement and the decision that alienated most movie fans before the ceremony even began – the Academy decided to present eight (!) awards before the “actual” ceremony began. These were:

  • Documentary (Short Subject)
  • Film Editing
  • Makeup and Hairstyling
  • Music (Original Score)
  • Production Design
  • Short Film (Animated)
  • Short Film (Live Action)
  • Sound

I genuinely thought this was yet another rouse to generate headlines to attract some press, as they had tried something like this a few years ago, but after the immense backlash, they budged and reverted their decision. But no, this time, they (the Academy) stuck to their guns. Only for those awards to be included in the live ceremony but cut down to just “highlights”. What a mockery, what a shame, what a joke. You have one job, Academy. Celebrate the films and the people who make them! Not just the A-list stars, directors and writers! I can only hope this will get reverted for a next year’s ceremony. Especially shameful, given Hans Zimmer won his second Oscar for Dune (2021, my review here). That would be amazing to watch live, not see it on Twitter.

It felt like things just spiralled out of control from then on. The hosts were… ok-ish. Wanda Sykes and Taraji P. Henson tried their hardest with what they had been given. Both had some highs and some lows. Someone I could do without was Amy Schumer. She had maybe two decent jokes in the opening monologue and then flatlined for the entire show. Here’s the thing, Wanda’s and Taraji’s “lows” weren’t as bad as Amy’s because… holy shit. I commend her for trying to be out there no matter what, but her “low” was just awful. I am talking about her “having fun” with Kirsten Dunst. Amy’s joke was simple – since Kirsten didn’t win the Oscar, she was just a seat filler. I know, I know. It was staged and rehearsed (or at least I fucking hope it was because it truly felt cringey), but Jesus, talk about reaching for the lowest of hanging fruits.

Another aspect of the show that felt off were all the montages. Sixty years of Bond was an ok montage, even though why have athletes (like Tony Hawk) present them instead of inviting all living Bonds back? Not mentioning, you literally had Dame Judi Dench and Javier Bardem in the audience? Or the montage about Pulp Fiction turning; wait for it… 28 years? Because that’s such a nice, round number… is there a meaning associated with the number 28 in Hollywood/USA I am not familiar with? The actual fuck? The Godfather (1972) montage (50 years since the original movie came out) felt the “most” in place to be there, but unfortunately, it was right after “the slap” that overshadowed everything (we will get there, but not just yet). And then we have the top 5 most cheered for moments with Zack Snyder’s Justice League (2021, my review here), making it to a top spot with a moment I forgot about, to be honest. Or a “fan favourite” movie of the year that kind of got brushed off before going to another commercial (it was Army of the Dead (2021), so you know). It’s decisions like these that angered me and movie fans like me. Because the Academy’s argument for not airing those eight awards live was to “cut down on time”. So what they do is fill the time with stuff that nobody asked for, hoping for people to like them. They were throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks.

There was also a weird decision to hype the first LIVE performance of ‘We Don’t Talk About Bruno’ from Encanto (2021, my review here) just for the song to get interrupted by Megan Thee Stallion. Believe it or not, I enjoy her music, and I didn’t hate her appearance there (as opposed to most people who seem not to like her involvement at all), but it again felt like a weird decision to have her there. Firstly, because she isn’t on the original track (therefore, it wasn’t the first live performance of this song, more like the first half performance). Secondly, that song isn’t even nominated and thirdly, when you think of “Encanto medley”, can you come up with a more erratic decision than to include Megan Thee Stallion?

The “in memoriam” segment also felt weird. I understand the Academy took a risk with a church… choir? Quire? And they wanted to “live it up” a bit, I guess? But it also felt tone-deaf. Bill Murray talking about Ivan Reitman felt right. Jamie Lee Curtis coming out with a scared chihuahua to tell the world to adopt a dog in honour of the late and great Betty White didn’t. But at least, in this case, I could understand where they were coming from; it made *some* resemblance of sense.

Ok, let’s talk about the unfortunate cherry on top of this cake full of awkwardness and confusion. Will Smith slapped/punched Chris Rock because of a joke Chris made about Will’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. So much to unpack. First of all, that joke was not funny as Jada has been diagnosed with alopecia (hair loss) which is something I didn’t know until today. Anyway, at first, I thought (as most people) this was just a sketch, a bit that was plain awkward, but seeing the reaction and hearing the uncensored version of it (yep, in the UK, we didn’t have it censored at all) that quickly dissolved any doubts about this being a sketch. Here’s the uncensored video for anyone who has no idea what happened. Here’s the thing, the joke wasn’t funny. But I thought Will Smith’s reaction wasn’t the best. Why? Because that wasn’t the time and the place. If you want to fight Chris Rock, do it after the show. But not when the entire world is watching, and the show already feels awkward?

I have never heard a room full of people so quiet in my life after Will shouted for the second time. Everything from that moment on became about “the slap” or “who is right and who is wrong”, and we, the audience, were 100% pulled out of that show permanently. Now, I am not saying Will Smith sank the show, nor am I saying it’s his fault the show was a mess. No, as I’ve gone through it above, the ceremony was messy as fuck before this moment happened. But this slap was the unpleasant cherry on top of the already unpleasant cake. I have already seen many reactions to this, some saying he was wrong, some praising him. My two cents on this are simple – defend your wife all you want. But don’t drag the entire world into it because that act made it into a reality TV show. And for people who say: “Well, the joke was public, so the response should be too?” Sure, after the show is over. Especially stars like Will and Jada will get many public opportunities to address it. Hell, rent a boxing ring, make it Pay-Per-View and donate the money from the proceedings to alopecia charity because that is where that belonged. But not in the main show, because again, whether you like it or not, that makes it into the “Will/Jada/Chris” reality show nobody signed up for. Plus, Chris Rock has been known for taking jabs at everybody throughout his career. And he worded his “joke” in such a way where sure, it wasn’t funny, but he wasn’t coming for Jada. He didn’t say she looked awful (on the contrary); he just made a comparison with a movie.

But you know, who knows for sure he was wrong? Will himself. Watch his speech once he won his Oscar for King Richard (2021), where he seems at first to try to justify it until Denzel Washington seems to remind him what I am talking about it. Will said: “Denzel told me: At your highest moment, be careful; that’s when the devil comes for you”. And to me, that seemed to have shifted his speech to be more apologetic. Thank fuck for Denzel; he’s a true class. He gets it, and he said it more eloquently than I could ever say it. To me, it sounds like he was telling Will something along the lines of: “Yeah, that was a shit joke. But this was not the time or a place for the slap.” Think about it this was Will who ultimately lost this battle, whether he was right or wrong to do that. Because several years, hell even decades from now, everybody will be talking about not his achievement in King Richard, but his legacy will be “that dude, who live smacked comedian”. And I think he might be regretting it already. Finally getting his Oscar, in the leading role(!), and the only thing people focus on now is that slap. I have already seen talks about whether Will’s Oscar might be removed from him due to this or that he could have killed him (really, Judd Apatow?). Let me make myself clear – I am 100% AGAINST it. As much as I don’t like what Will did, taking his Oscar would be an awful decision. Also, no, Will Smith could not have killed Chris Rock. Jesus.

Also, last point – I can’t wait to hear from Jada herself. Or better yet, I would pay good money to see her reaction when it would be just the two of them. No press, no mics, just them arriving home. Do you think she will praise him? Or better question, do you think she NEEDS to be protected? I don’t know much about Jada. But from the few interviews I’ve seen with her, she never seemed like the type who couldn’t fend for herself. So I don’t think she would need Will to be this “knight in the shining armour, coming to protect her”. But what do I know? It was a cheap shot at her; the joke wasn’t funny, Chris Rock shouldn’t have made it. And Will Smith should have retaliated in his speech with some jabs at him instead, rather than getting physical.

Overall, the 2022 Oscars was the worse year I’ve watched live yet. For the first time, I regret staying up. We don’t need hosts; we don’t need montages. We don’t need BTS talking about Disney films (yep, that also happened). We need the Academy to honour and celebrate films and the people who make movies. Sometimes I think whether it would be worth trying to “minimize” the show, make it like it used to be, one award after another with only some musical numbers (the songs that are nominated that year), the “in memoriam” segment and focus just on the awards. Do anything except this. Please. From one movie fan who was always in your corner. Even though most people view the Oscars as “the pretentious award ceremony full of phoney people”, there are still people who enjoyed the previous years for what they were. Don’t try to appeal to everybody because that failed this year. I can only hope that the Academy and the people behind the Oscar telecast took notes, and next year, it can only get better. Because it feels right now, the Oscars tried to remain “current”, and while trying that, they hit a new low.

That’s all for this one! Did you watch it live? What did you think about it? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

Misc

Streaming services are killing… streaming services…?

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Netflix. Amazon Prime. NowTV. Disney+. Mubi.

These are not just some random streaming giants and Mubi (sorry Mubi, I love you dearly, but you know… just, you need to be this tall to ride this ride, you know what I’m saying?) these are all streaming services I am currently paying for. It doesn’t seem that bad, right? I mean, with Amazon Prime you get prime delivery (well, after all this COVID-19 ends, so maybe next June?) with NowTV you get plenty of classic Hollywood movies and most of HBO‘s finest box sets, with Disney+ you get all the movies that will soon move from Netflix and NowTV because they are all owned by Disney now, so basically 75% of all the movies ever made will end up there, and with Mubi you get great independent/cult/under-seen movies so we are all good until now. And of course, we can’t forget the one responsible for this all – Netflix, where you can still get decent movies and TV shows, and some of their content is truly awesome (Orange Is the New Black just to name my favourite).

The problem is this – people want money. Which is not bad overall, I mean, we all want to eat, buy nice things, travel (I mean, remember travelling? Good times…) and all that jazz and that’s honestly fine. But it stops being fine when big organisations think they can replicate what Netflix or Amazon Prime has done, have one or two known/beloved IPs (intellectual properties) and want to “build” a streaming service around that. And this is where we get situations like “Oh, you want stream Friends? Sure, it’s on Netflix now, but come 2021, it won’t be and you will have to get.. HBO MAX..?” The link for the full story is here.

Unfortunately, this isn’t even the end, not by a long a shot. NBC will have its own streaming platform, pulling the beloved TV show The Office from Netflix or Amazon Prime, depends where you live. The entirety of UK has apparently decided “Oi mate, we want ourselves streaming service too, only for the British!” so the BritBox has been born. I honestly wish I was joking and yes, that name sounds more like a box match where only the purest British people are allowed to compete in for a title of the most British person that’s ever britished. And I know I’m missing hundreds others I don’t either know, or care about (sorry YouTube, literally nobody cares about YouTube Premium). And this creates a problem. The problem. To paraphrase the TV show Archer:

Except pirates, replace the word “ants” with “pirates”.

The main issue is with the content all spread out, where one service will only hold this one or two TV shows and the other will only hold this, your market will fall apart quicker Michael Jackson’s nose (honestly hope it’s not too soon for this joke). Because ordinary people, and I am not using this as an insult or to discredit an average person, don’t care about movies/TV shows enough to pay for 10+ streaming platforms. They’ll only pay for 2/3 maximum and the rest… well, in an ideal world, they’d legally purchase everything else they’d to watch through reliable services to make sure artists get their cut, but in a harsh reality of this life, where some people live from paycheck to paycheck, they become pirates and to the torrents they go.

For a while, it seemed like Netflix solved the piracy issue where it wasn’t even worth pirating something, as it gave people plenty of content (old and original), so they wouldn’t even think to pirate anything. And that is the main point what these newcomers don’t understand about Netflix and why it got so big. They weren’t building a streaming service on existing content, but they’ve invested a lot of money into their originals, doing that they had attracted Hollywood big shots and the rest is history. They weren’t relying on “Hey, you LOVE The Office right? Well come right along for a ride!”

The direct result of this will be, in couple of years we will see even more headlines like this one from last year (Piracy is back, link is here) where the author is making the same points I do (in unrelated news, please follow this blog for totally relevant and original think pieces like this one).

But it doesn’t matter how many different articles on this topic will be written – here’s what’s going to (probably) happen in a couple of years:

  • We will see a service or two that will “bundle-up” the streaming services you want for a slightly better price than paying for them individually (welcome to the cable for 21st century, yay!)
  • Plenty of these streaming services will eventually fail, to the surprise of no one except the people who thought it’d be cool to have a streaming service based on a few existing IPs.
  • Artists will complain about piracy rising.
  • Industry people who approved this will be like “new phone, who dis?”
  • Industry will blame the normal consumer for being spoiled and wanting everything instantly.
  • Only the giants survive, where they can (hopefully) buy back the content that once had been taken from them.

Or maybe not, and all of these streaming services will make millions of dollars/pounds/euros and I’ll look like an idiot who doesn’t know what he’s talking about. That is also possible. Unfortunately this is the kind of topic where only time will tell.

Also, BritBox is really stupid name. I feel like we’ve just accepted it, because UK’s been having some difficulties lately (Brexit anybody?) but honestly… no.

What do you think? Which streaming services are you paying for? Let me know!

Until next time,

Luke

Misc, TV Show Reviews

We live in golden age of TV and here’s why

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Yeah, I know I know I know – just saying this sentence feels as “surprising” as Daniel Day-Lewis winning yet another Oscar (honestly wonder whether he’s truly retired, or if he’s coming back…?) or Meryl Streep getting yet another Oscar nomination (who’s even counting at this point, honestly? Just always presume if Meryl had a movie out during a year, she’s getting nominated the year after, your life will become much simpler and in a weird way, it will make more sense).

But I feel like sometimes when people discuss this they focus on certain points and the way I’m thinking about it might be unique (that is until somebody links me 10+ blog posts like this making the same exact points and calling me a thief where I’ll be forced to go into hiding in a Moldavian cave, because as we all know, once you’re cancelled on the “internets”, it’s for good.)

On more a serious note, it’s a great time to be alive, unless of course you remember everything else except the TV, like:

  • Who’s the current president of USA.
  • Our planet dying.
  • COVID-19 in full strength and not getting weaker any time soon.
  • Disappearing middle class all over the world and increasing wealth gap.
  • The hive mentality of social media, where everyone needs to be 100% all the time, that’s not THAT difficult, right?

And the list goes on and on and, holy fuck this is getting depressing. Wait, let’s go back to topic, golden age of TV!

That leads me to my first point:

  • Escapism is real – Look, I’m not saying what was happening in the 60’s, 70’s or 80’s was all peachy, not by a long shot. But it does feel like lately, everything that can go wrong, goes HORRIBLY wrong (see the entire 2020 so far). And that’s why I believe people are switching on their TV screens much more often and just prefer to stay at home, where the danger, hatred and the cruel reality of the outside world can be replaced by something that gives us hope, that makes us laugh, or reminds us why this blue dot in the outer space is still worth fighting for.

But why are more and more people staying home, watching TV? Well, the escapism isn’t the only known unknown in this equation, as that’s been one of THE appeals of the cinema ever since its beginning! But only recently we’ve gotten our hands on so much more content than we could ever consume in 3 lifetimes.

  • Streaming changed everything, forever – To me, this is the most obvious point. With the rise of Netflix, and later Amazon Prime, HBO Go, Sky etc., we have now much more to consume for really good price! Entire box sets of TV shows we’ve always heard about and never could watch instantly, or brand new Netflix originals, where they still have a level of quality (even though you can make an argument for that level of quality decreasing by the year) to capture our time and give something a chance. After all, it’s only 6/8 hours of your life, right?

This actually brings me slowly to my biggest point of why we are living in the golden age of TV, because when I wrote “streaming changed everything, forever” I meant it. And not only availability wise, but rule wise. What am I talking about?

  • First rule of streaming club, we don’t give a fuck about number/length of episodes – Think about it. There were always great TV shows, but most of them had one, major weakness. They had too many episodes, and those episodes had to have a certain length, always. But not because they had the story to tell, or characters to develop, but they had a year of TV to fill in. And that’s hard, and it doesn’t matter if you’re a lighthearted sitcom, or serious drama, eventually you find yourself in a trap of writing for a sake of “we need 22/24 episodes, goddammit! That’s how it always was!”. Or at least that’s how it’s been before HBO (exactly, we need to acknowledge the true OG, as young people say, and I should know as I’m still young and definitely not getting old) came along and we’ve started to get TV shows with 12/10/6 episodes a season. I know, I know, it’s not exactly fair to compare network TV stations like CBS or ABC to HBO, but stick with me. Because I honestly believe people at Netflix, when they established themselves as a streaming giant, took notes and took the most important one from HBO – just give us a story that makes sense, that captures the audience and we don’t care if it’s told over 6 hours or 16. We don’t care if one episode is 48 minutes long and the other 42. Suddenly, these “filler” episodes, or “best-of” episodes from previous seasons (and you DO know what I’m talking about, perfect example would be The Simpsons, or the classic of Czech TV programming Step by Step) were not there anymore. Don’t get me wrong, I am NOT saying we don’t get “weaker” episodes, not by a long shot, what I am saying is, there are less of them and that makes any TV show more fluid, coherent and watchable. And I genuinely hope more network TV shows will just acknowledge that this is the way, for a future of better TV.

There is one more thing why I think we live in the golden age of TV, and it kind of relates with, surprise suprise, streaming changing the game. And that thing, or a point is:

  • It’s no longer shameful for a proper A-lister to have a TV show – Not that long ago, the TV show was a medium where movie actors and actresses went “to die” – they were either too old, too outside of the mainstream or the studio considered them too unmarketable to be in a movie. It wasn’t until late 80’s where one actor finally managed to make his mark, and going from a successful TV show to be an international movie star – that man is of course, Bruce Willis. Yes, some people are either too young to remember, or have already forgotten that he started on (at that time) successful TV show called Moonlighting and has managed to fight his way through to the silver screen. Then, in the 90’s, George Clooney had followed Bruce’s example and made his leap from another successful TV show (ER) to the silver screen. And these two were the major examples that it CAN be done, that those two worlds can co-exist together. But there was still this “fear” from A-listers, where they thought “once I’m on TV, my career as a movie star has officially ended” and there was no two ways about it. Yes, you can find some examples, but the general rule of thumb was, TV is for when you get older. Then the “revolution” came with Netflix and I need to mention 2 names, one of which is controversial to mention nowadays – Kevin Spacey and David Fincher.

Yes, House of Cards was the actual turning point in finally blending in these two worlds, where 2 talented people at the height of the power, have fearlessly went to Netflix, and lead the way for others, where suddenly, a few years later, it’s a thing of pride to have a TV show, or a limited TV series. Just look at (still haven’t seen it, but hopefully getting to it soon) Big Little Lies – a TV show where the first season already had Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley, Zoë Kravitz and Laura Dern but that wasn’t big enough I guess, so in their second season they’ve added nobody smaller than Meryl Streep.

And this is the thing – all of these women still have successful movie carriers and they are not in any way shape or form ready to “die” on that show, nor they are afraid by being in one would get them less movie offers.

The TV nowadays is considered the “adult” medium, where grown-ups get their stories, their doses of drama, comedy, thriller etc. Movies are for spectacles, comic book films, and larger than life movies. That’s not to say you can’t still find a great drama or comedy on the big screen, sure you can. But there is a shift happening, slow one, but there is.

Even back in 2013, Spielberg and Lucas gave an interview about something similar, saying movie going experience will be for big blockbusters only and it’s only a matter of time for some stories to be told on the smaller screens.

George Lucas about movies in the future:

Lucas lamented the high cost of marketing movies and the urge to make them for the masses while ignoring niche audiences. He called cable television “much more adventurous” than film nowadays.

“I think eventually the Lincolns will go away and they’re going to be on television,” Lucas said. “As mine almost was,” Spielberg interjected. “This close — ask HBO — this close.

The full link for the interview can be found here.

When you think about it, it makes sense – the way we consume art, has changed with new technology, we want something good immediately, and preferably yesterday, so we can say to our colleagues or fellow students “Oh yeah, I watched it yesterday, it sucked!” And that is why this trend will not only not stop, but we will see even better TV shows in the next couple of years. This golden age can last for a quite a while and the only thing we can regret is having no time to watch everything that comes out.

What do you think about this topic? Did I miss something obvious? Let me know below!

Until next time,

Luke