Confusing, Boring & Wasted Opportunities!
So this is the film that's going to win all the Oscars?? Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon meets Coin Laundry. I have no idea how this got to the top of the pack, but if you're looking for the cinematic masterpiece of the year, this ain't it.
Michelle Yeoh plays an aging mother who hates that her daughter is dating a girl, is in the midst of divorcing her husband, and owes the IRS a lot of money- and explanations. During her audit, her ex husband takes her into a broom closet and explains to her that "you're the one" and "we must save humanity before it's too late!" Then there are random action scenes with security guards, customers and Jamie Lee Curtis. My friend and me walked out after 30 minutes. We just didn't get it. But then we heard some "WOKE" folks from behind us praising all the diversity in the story and we realized this was just a political piece, meant for awarding China.
"I love Michelle Yeoh. She deserves the Oscar over Cate Blanchett. Not because she's better then Blanchett. But because she's a woman of color."
"Yeah - yeah I think so too. Like TAR was long and boring. At least this movie had lots of CGI and action. And I loved the daughter! I can relate."
Wow what fools. So they wanted Michelle to win because she's Asian. Not because she gave the best performance.
My friend Helen then researched online, and saw Yeoh's own racist comments about the academy, and how Cate Blanchett shouldn't win "because she has won before, and she's white." Wow. But apparently, if you're white now- you're the enemy.
As someone who has studied the academy awards, I think all the EEAAO crowd are in for some bittersweet reality Sunday. Yeoh is not going to win. For a few reasons. But the main reason is she's just not on par with Blanchett, or Andrea from To Leslie (who plays a former lottery winner who drinks all the money away- thats a great performance btw!). Anyways - Michelle is going to lose for the following reasons --
1. She gave a weaker performance. Merit always wins these days. Ask Anthony Hopkins and Frances McDormand, who both won for The Father and Nomandland respectfully- even though they were "white people" and white people are the enemy on social media, their performances overcame the Twitter cancel culture-- thank God.
2. She lost the BAFTA (British Academy Award). The Baftas have a strong track record for the leading races, mainly because the bulk of voters on BAFTA are also Oscar voters. This helped the likes of Mark Rylance, Casey Affleck, Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, and most recently- Hopkins and McDormand.
3. Blanchett swept the big critic awards- New York, LA and National Society of Film Critics. And she won the Drama Golden Globe. Yeoh won SAG (Screen Actors Guild) and the Comedy Globe. The former formula usually prevails.
4. Only one woman of color has won the lead Oscar. Halle Berry in the noncontroversial and lovely family movie, Monster's Ball. No asian woman has ever won in lead, and since a lot of voters are older white males- that won't change this Sunday. No matter how mad you "woke" generation Zs are. No matter how many tik tok protest videos you make. No one cares. And these older "out of touch" voters hate being told they're racist, or what to do. Michelle will lose.
The film overall (sigh) will still win best picture, director, supporting actor, supporting actress- possibly for Jamie Lee Curtis (but our money is on Kerry Condon). Curtis is the best thing about the movie though. She's actually funny, not trying too hard like the rest of the dorky cast. The film also seems destined to win Film Editing, even though we had no idea what the hell was going on. The storyline is all over the place. We hope Banshees of Inisherin wins Screenplay over this hot mess.
If you feel pressured to like this movie because of awards and people telling you "it's about races coming together", please don't waste your efforts.
FINAL GRADE: D