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I do find the thesis in the ending quite weak: > For a longer time before the gritty period, we all dedicated ourselves to the idea that anything we’d acknowle
by zokier 5y ago
I do find the thesis in the ending quite weak:
> For a longer time before the gritty period, we all dedicated ourselves to the idea that anything we’d acknowledge as very good had to be both serious and artsy. People really liked Good Will Hunting (see: very serious); it was also a good movie, so it won an Oscar. Zillions of people love movies like The Princess Bride and Happy Gilmore; it’s incredibly likely both dwarf Good Will Hunting in terms of total views, but you can’t even imagine a world where either could have possibly won an Oscar.
[...]
> This is a short article by my standards, but it does have me thinking: What kind of world could we actually live in, if we were willing to treat works of art made with the goal of making us happy as if they were important? What if we were willing to make them? We’ve seen what happens in a world where all the Oscars go to movies that make you cry, or that we pretend make us think even though they generally don't
There are plenty of widely acclaimed movies that can not be considered "very serious", picking some recent Oscar winners as examples with categorizations from wikipedia:
* Parasite ("black comedy thriller")
* Green Book ("comedy-drama")
* The Shape of Water ("romantic fantasy")
* Birdman ("black comedy drama")
* CODA ("comedy-drama")
* La La Land ("comedy-drama")
* Life Of Pie ("adventure-drama")
Are all those completely feel-good movies intended to make you happy? Maybe not, but still its not like happy/humorous/feel-good is completely disregarded category even among grumpy art critics.
- AlbertCory 5y agoYou're right. There are certainly some "make you think" movies that win for their portentousness and are promptly forgotten ("Crash" and "The English Patient" -- lookin' at you). I ran the Google Cinema Club for 10 years. In all that time, no one ever asked for those movies, and we never even seriously considered them. On the other hand, "The Princess Bride" was constantly being requested, as was "Office Space." There was some reason we couldn't show them; can't remember now what it was.
- causi 5y agobut you can’t even imagine a world where either could have possibly won an Oscar. Is this some kind of joke or is he a buffoon? Princess Bride was nominated for an Oscar and won two Saturn awards and one Hugo.
- criddell 5y agoI think the problem with his argument is tied up in the word “we”: > if we were willing to treat works of art The Oscars aren’t awarded by us, they come from industry people. If HN readers voted on software awards, it’s pretty likely that the winners wouldn’t reflect choices made by the wider world. Emacs beating Tik Tok might be our version of Good Will Hunting beating Happy Gilmore.
- brimble 5y agoEverything Everywhere All At Once is almost certain to at least be nominated, and it's a feel-good sci-fantasy family action-comedy... more or less.
- munificent 5y agoAlso, the idea that Good Will Hunting is "very serious" also misses the mark. So much of why that movie worked is because it interleaved humor throughout: * "How you like them apples." * Sean talking about his wife farting when she was nervous. * Will's entire monologue at the NSA interview. * "My boy is wicked smaht."