Why Are the Acting Oscar Nominees All White AGAIN?

Posted on January 19, 2016 at 3:12 pm

Spike Lee, who accepted a special Oscar award just two months ago, has said he will boycott the award show this year in protest of yet another all-white list of nominees. He is right to be outraged. How could Sylvester Stallone be nominated for “Creed” while his co-star Michael B. Jordan and writer/director Ryan Coogler are overlooked? What about the extraordinary performances in “Straight Outta Compton” (which only got a writing nomination and the Spike Lee’s completely overlooked “Chi-Raq?” What about a nomination for Idris Elba for “Beasts of No Nation” Fans and critics are outraged, with #oscarssoswhite hashtags dominating Twitter.

The Washington Post’s Lonnae O’Neal quotes my friend and fellow critic Tim Gordon in an excellent article about the “processing disorder” in the Academy when it comes to nominations for non-white performers.

From 1927 to 1999, a total of 14 black people won Oscars in all categories, he says. In acting categories, only 24 people of color have won since 1927, according to a Post report. More than 90 percent of Oscar voters are white and nearly 80 percent are male, according to the Los Angeles Times, and those numbers directly affect the range of stories and portrayals.

AMPAS head Cheryl Boone Isaacs, an African-American woman, is unhappy with the nominations as well, describing herself as “heartbroken and frustrated.” But until the Academy starts admitting more young, diverse members, it is not going to change. Boone agrees. She says. “The Academy is taking dramatic steps to alter the makeup of our membership. In the coming days and weeks we will conduct a review of our membership recruitment in order to bring about much-needed diversity in our 2016 class and beyond. As many of you know, we have implemented changes to diversify our membership in the last four years. But the change is not coming as fast as we would like. We need to do more, and better and more quickly.”

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Awards Commentary Race and Diversity

Movies in 2015 — Best, Worst, and Final Thoughts

Posted on December 30, 2015 at 3:02 pm

A final round-up on the movies of 2015

The best:

Tied For First: “The Big Short” and “Chi-raq,” both all the more ferocious for being as funny and purely entertaining as they are angry
Tied For Second:
“Brooklyn”
“Carol”
“Ex Machina”
“Inside Out”
“Mad Max: Fury Road”
“The Martian”
“Star Wars, Episode VII: The Force Awakens”
“Bridge of Spies”

Runners-up: “Diary of a Teenage Girl,” “Creed,” “Trumbo,’ “Spotlight,” “Son of Saul,” “Mustang,” “The Shaun the Sheep Movie,” “Mustang,” “Girlhood,” “Straight Outta Compton”

A good year for: movies by and about women: “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “Miss You Already,” “Chi-Raq,” “Carol,” “Brooklyn,” “Inside Out,” “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” “Infinitely Polar Bear,” “Diary of a Teenage Girl,” “Pitch Perfect 2,” “Suffragette,” “Sisters”

Not such a good year for: romance, comedies, or romantic comedies

Popcorn pleasures: “Furious 7,” “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation,” “Magic Mike: XXL,” “What We Do in the Shadows”

Top five documentaries:

“Amy”
“The Look of Silence”
“Heart of a Dog”
“Iris”
“Best of Enemies”
“The Mind of Mark Defriest”

Breakthrough performers: Alicia Vikander (“Ex Machina,” “The Man from UNCLE,” “The Danish Girl,” “Testament of Youth,” and more, Teyonah Parris (“Chi-Raq”), Jake Lacy (“Carol,” “Love the Coopers”), Raffey Cassidy (“Tomorrowland,” , Brie Larson (“Room”), Amy Schumer (as star and screenwriter of “Trainwreck”), and John Cena, very funny in “Trainwreck,” “Sisters,” and “Daddy’s Home”

And the worst:

“The D Train”
“Mortdecai”
“Unfinished Business”
“The Gunman”
“Blackhat”
“Vacation”
“Pixels”
“Fantastic Four”
“Stonewall”
“Hitman: Agent 47”

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Commentary Critics Lists

#Where’sRey — Why Do “Star Wars” Action Figure Sets Leave Out the Main Character?

Posted on December 29, 2015 at 11:21 am

Jen Yamato writes on The Daily Beast about the infuriating and inexplicable omission of Rey toys from “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” sets.

The #WheresRey hashtag first trended over a month ago when Star Wars fans noticed a shocking lack of Daisy Ridley in Disney’s onslaught of The Force Awakens merchandising. The hashtag took aim at the glaring lack of Ridley’s Jakku scavenger heroine Rey from a Target exclusive toy six-pack that included her three new male co-stars John Boyega (as Finn), Oscar Isaac (as Poe Dameron), and Adam Driver (as the Sith junior lord Kylo Ren) alongside Chewbacca, an unnamed Storm Trooper, and an unnamed First Order pilot….As disappointing as it was to see Rey left out of the Target six-pack of The Force Awakens figures, it came as an even bigger shock when fans discovered Hasbro’s popular Star Wars: The Force Awakens Battle Action Millennium Falcon set (retail: $139.95) comes with a light-up Millennium Falcon, a BB-8, a Finn, a Chewbacca…and no Rey.

So, a character who does not even have a name rates a toy but the lead character who (spoiler alert) HAS THE FORCE and actually FLIES the Millennium Falcon does not?

Rey is a sensational hero for boys and girls and should be a part of any Star Wars play. Memo to Disney: these are the toys we’ve been looking for.

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Commentary Gender and Diversity

This Week at the Box Office — The G Sweet Spot

Posted on November 8, 2015 at 4:20 pm

Why why why why why is it so hard for Hollywood to figure out that there is a wildly enthusiastic audience for G-rated movies? The only major G-rated release of the year is “The Peanuts Movie,” which opened last Friday (Pixar’s “Inside Out” and the upcoming “Good Dinosaur” are both PG). And even up against the new James Bond, it did very well, $45 million, one of the best openings of the year. (Bond did a respectable $73 million, less than expected but still very strong.)

Industry observer The Wrap attributes it to “masterful marketing, nostalgia and pitch-perfect reviews.” I’d put it differently: good quality, family-friendliness, and careful updating of beloved characters.

Studios are so cynical about the G-rating they intentionally put one word or joke into a film just to mak sure kids (or their parents) will not think it is too babyish. Here’s hoping the lesson, or I should say 43 million lessons from this week results in more G-rated films in the next year.

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Commentary This Week at the Box Office

This Week at the Box Office: Goosebumps Beats Crimson Peak and Spielberg/Hanks

Posted on October 19, 2015 at 3:04 pm

Once again, a PG-rated film wins the box office. “Goosebumps” came in ahead of the Steven Spielberg/Tom Hanks drama, “Bridge of Spies,” and last week’s other scary movie, the big budget “Crimson Peak.” They were third and fourth, with holdover blockbuster “The Martian” at number two.

Hollywood needs to be reminded again that there is an audience for family films. You’d think $23.5 million in ticket sales, almost twice the combined sales of the other new releases, would send that message.

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Commentary This Week at the Box Office
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