Oscars: The Grouch

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I have a serious grouch with the Oscars, year on year.

My theory is that the Academy is run by snobs who vote for their mates or whichever film lies closest to their political ideal. Therefore, I am rarely happy with the results and the recipients are nearly always boring, serious actors who act in boring, serious films.

Quirky/fantasy/action films very rarely win Oscars (The Return of the King is the exception) and character actors never get Oscars, yet these are the reasons why many of us adore the cinema.

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Who honestly goes home and whacks in a DVD of an 'Oscar-winning masterpiece' for an enjoyable night of home cinema. And who has seen or even thought about Mystic River, Monster's Ball, The Last King of Scotland, Million Dollar Baby, etc. in the past year.

However, usually when I slag off the Academy's choices, some smart-assed prick says to me:

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"Have you even seen Monster's Ball?"

To which I reply: "No."

To which they reply with a smug, triumphant grin: "Then how can you say it doesn't deserve an Oscar?!"

But not anymore!

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This Winter, I am going to drag myself to every dull, depressing, harrowing Oscar-nominated film released in the cinema. This will include films about single mums, 1950s American suburbia, Che Guevara, old people ageing backwards, interviews with Nixon and, of course, the standard holocaust film.

But this grim winter will all be worth it because then I will have complete and informed jurisdiction to justifiably smite down each and every result the Academy is going to announce on February 22nd. Hah!

First stop, The Changeling...

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