10 Reasons Why My Favourite Movie Is Better Than Yours
Halle Berry delivering her acceptance speech after winning the 2002 Best Actress Oscar for her performance in "Monster's Ball", the first African-American to ever win the distinguished award.Editor's note: This article was originally published Jan 2009.
Ok so starting with number one...
Well actually the title is purely satirical and I don't claim, nor do I actually believe, that my favourite movie is somehow in a different league then yours. In fact, I don't really care what your favourite movie is. So why bring it up? Good question.
The United States has just closed a gruelling two year long presidential election campaign and already another election campaign has begun. No not the next presidential campaign (although I am sure that is not far off), I am talking about the 81st Academy Awards to be held on February 22nd, 2009. Now don't get me wrong, I love movies, I do after all co-run a DVD release database, and the Oscars are always a great event, but does it really need to start now?
I was recently trawling the internet looking for interesting movie stories to put on the front page of CouchPotatoesOnline for your viewing pleasure when I was confronted with this ghastly piece of nothing-else-to-talk-about-ism: "It's never too early to start making Oscar forecasts." Oh how I disagree. Now you may ask yourself, "What's this guys deal, is he going to make a point or is he going to just complain for the whole MIH article?" Well here it is.
Every year the major film companies start lobbying the Academy months in advance in order to make sure that their treasured films from the year are picked as winners. And although many quality films do win, time and time again I see some of my favourite films being passed by. I will quote film critic Roger Ebert who said "I lost faith in the Oscars the first year I was a movie critic -- the year that Bonnie and Clyde didn't win."
As any good rant should do, I will come full circle in my closing. I started this MIH by satirically stating that "I had 10 reasons why my favourite movie is better than yours." My point is simple, I think "Knocked Up" is not only funny but intelligent, I thought it was hilarious when Jim "glued himself to himself" in American Pie 2. I also was riveted by Daniel Day-Lewis' performance in "There Will Be Blood," and Josh Brolin's in "No Country For Old Men."
We need to remember that Hollywood was founded by pioneers who wanted to push the boundaries of film, not by a judgmental faceless golden idol or by pretentious film critics. Sure, I never graduated from film school, but I know what I like, and in the end that's all that matters because movies are made for us, not the Academy.
