What’s the worst Best Picture Oscar winner? People always say Crash and I don’t disagree, but I’ll cite a more recent winner: Green Book. I love Mahershala Ali and I loved that he won his second Oscar for it, but Green Book had no business winning Best Picture. [Pajiba]
Is Emma Watson dating Mexican billionaire Gonzalo Hevia Baillères? [JustJared]
Anya Taylor-Joy’s ‘90s-coded style and vibe. [LaineyGossip]
Paul Anthony Kelly looked hot at the Dior show. [Socialite Life]
Review of The Bride, which really does seem like Jessie Buckley’s Norbit. [Jezebel]
Ariana Grande brought back her natural curls. [Buzzfeed]
Texas Democrats voted for James Talarico. A mess. [Hollywood Life]
People love the Savannah Bananas. [Seriously OMG]
My boo Sombr turned up for the Valentino event in Paris. [RCFA]
A “dragvestigation” into the American Girl Doll stores. [OMG Blog]
Lol the bride sounds worse than the trailer made it look.
I’m actually excited to see The Bride. But I love weird things. And I adore Jessie Buckley.
Also, read a review that basically said if it were anyone but Jessie Buckley in it, it would not have worked.
So many of those examples show how absurd the Oscars are. The quality of writing/acting/directing are minor factors in the win. So I’ll just jump in with Titanic over Good Will Hunting is possibly the most egregious example of the 90s. Forest Gump against Shawshank Redemption and Quiz Show ranks second. But I haven’t closely followed the Oscars in awhile, so I’m sure there are more recent absurdities.
So I do think Titanic deserved to win – that was a huge spectacle of a movie, with amazing special effects and gorgeous costumes and set design etc. Acting was meh but the overall movie was amazing, even looking back. I mean some stupid parts lol but it had everything you wanted in a blockbuster at the time without being OVERLY stupid or cheesy (Pearl Harbor I’m looking at you.) Plus it was a huge gamble that could have sunk James Cameron’s career (pun intended. And, as I read in an article at the time, Oscar loves box office (I think this has become less true as time has gone on though.) But different opinions and all that.
But if I had to pick a movie that didn’t deserve to win…..it was Shakespeare in Love. and I LOVED that movie. But come on, that one over SAVING PRIVATE RYAN?!?!?!?!!
Admittedly, I rewatch Titanic all the time and never rewatch Goodwill Hunting, but it still shows that the Oscars are about money and glitz, not raw talent. Goodwill Hunting is a beautiful script and wonderfully well acted. It’s just not “fun” to rewatch like Titanic.
On that note, though, Brokeback Mountain is perhaps the most deserving big budget glossy film in recent decades to dominate, because it is endlessly watchable. It’s just a rewritten version of Romeo and Juliet with a more simplistic plot, but it took a bold topic and added breathtaking cinematography. Literally anyone could have made a same-sex, watered down Romeo & Juliet. The Oscar was the for the big budget.
I must admit that I loved and love Forest Gump. And also thought Titanic was a masterpiece, while of course Good Will Hunting had a great story (which won)
I’ll take Shakespeare in Love any day over Saving Private Ryan. SIL was well crafted and acted, beginning to end. Judi Dench! Simon Callow! Jim Carter! So many good performances.
Saving Private Ryan had me and then lost me with the maudlin final scenes with Tom Hanks telling the guy who has lost three brothers and didn’t ask for rescue to “earn this” and then we find elderly Private Ryan is haunted by the idea that he hasn’t been a good enough man, even though he was the only son his parents had left. I know it’s supposed to be symbolic of Americans appreciating the soldiers’ sacrifice, but there had to be a better way to portray that. Omit that bit of dialogue and that terrible ending and maybe then I give it the win, IMHO.
@Dee oh I hate the “earn this” part. the rest of it though is just so excellent. I don’t love the movie to be honest the way I love Shakespeare in Love – one of those is a lot easier of a watch than the other – but I think SPR was definitely the superior film in terms of how it was crafted.
I do like how grumpy we all are about wins and losses from 30 years ago. What about The Shape of Water lol.
There are a lot of best picture winners I didn’t see so I can’t make a definitive statement, but the ones that come immediately to mind for me are Titanic, Shakespeare in Love, Gladiator, and Dances with Wolves.
I don’t think ATJ jeans or dress are CBK coded. The denim with a dressy jacket or just bedazzled denim is what Dior has been doing since JW Anderson took over. I don’t think it works, but I get he’s trying to modernise Dior somehow. As for the dress, it doesn’t read as 90s to me.
I think The Bride looks awesome! It looks original, not another super hero movie or a remake or reimagining. Love the actors in it too. Will definitely watch.
Shakespeare in Love was not at Best Picture level. It only won because evil tyrant Harvey Weinstein wanted it to win. It’s a cutesy, silly movie and it is insane that it won over Saving Private Ryan and Elizabeth. And Gwyneth Paltrow should not have won Best Actress over Cate Blanchett. I will remain on this hill.
agree!
Why isn’t Emma Watson wearing shoes in an airport? Eww.
She’s wearing flip flops.
As a Texan and former public school teacher I don’t know why you called the Texas democratic primary “a mess”. It’s the best chance we’ve had to flip a senate seat since Beto lost to Cruz. Even so we are going against a huge advantage of republicans in this red state. Trump will work hard for whoever he decides will get his endorsement and undemocratically told whoever he doesn’t endorse to leave the race. Which will make it easier for them to prevail.
just saw that noem was fired.
1. Hehehe. The bird legged ho got tossed under a bus. The bugged eyed freaky FBI director will probably be next. There aren’t a lot of women/poc in that administration to hide behind before the incompetent white men start falling though. 😃 2. I think any white savior movie, Miramax movie backed by a Weinstein smear campaign or movie that beat out a better flick because of movie politics should be on the worst Oscar winner list. Flat out worst movie I have ever seen is Birdman with the English Patient a very close second. Hated those. Goodfellas is one of my favorite movies of all time. It shouldn’t have lost to Dances with Wolves. Loads of winners (American Beauty, Crash, Driving Miss Daisy, Out of Africa, Rain Man, Silence of the Lambs, Forrest Gump, Braveheart, Shakespeare in Love, The King’s Speech, Argo) are not better than the movies they beat. I think the academy should split best pic into categories because their refusal to reward any genre other than dramas that feature prostitution, addiction, biographical depictions, whitewashing history or rewarding career achievement for inferior late career projects makes the Oscars culturally irrelevant.
REALLY?! Hallelujah.
Her replacement is just as bad. I’m so sorry to the Cherokee Nation that he claims to be one of them.
Crash and Million Dollar Baby
People always say “Shakespeare in Love” when asked this question. I watched it for the first time not too long ago with my husband, expecting it to be straight dookie based on the public discourse. I was astonished by how much I enjoyed it. And I thought Goop was great in it. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?!? I’m not saying she deserved to win Best Actress, but I thought she definitely deserved the nomination. It sounds like a lot of people were torn between Fernanda Montenegro and Cate Blanchett that year, so I kind of see how she snuck in and ended up snatching the trophy.
I’m not super surprised that it ended up beating “Saving Private Ryan” despite the Weinstein of it all either. I liked “Ryan” too but it kind of felt like a slog for me after the introduction.
Sorry if any of that is controversial!
Moonlight instead of La La Land (and we all remember THAT fiasco!)
La La Land was so dull.
Moonlight was HEARTBREAKING. All 3 phases of that boy’s life were heartbreaking. He never had a chance with a mother like that.
I rolled my eyes so hard at LaLa Land I thought they were gonna pop out. Emma Stone got an Oscar for that??!! Ugh
Worst Best Picture winner- Trash, I mean Crash. The sexual assaulting police officer also gets to save the woman he assaulted. Spare me. Who wrote this? Then it came out that the writer/director was a horrible r*pist, oh, made more sense.
Crash is one of only two movies I walked out on (the other is A History of Violence). There are plenty of Oscar winners that don’t hold up. I think the list of correct Oscar winners is much shorter.