What Whitney Wants to Say (About the Oscars)
You’ve probably seen the strange and annoying backlash to the Oscar nominations by now. There were a number of notable snubs but the fact that Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig were not nominated for Best Actress and Best Director respectively have caused the most commotion. While I understand being disappointed for your faves, I can’t understand their lack of nomination being considered some sort of “grand loss for feminism” as it is being portrayed to be. In fact, I think Barbie (2023) may have been nominated too much.
I avoided talking about Barbie when it came out because honestly, I was embarrassed. I left the theater feeling really unsatisfied with the film and that feeling continued to worsen the further out I got. The audience response was also incredibly positive and it was being hailed as this huge feminist movie. So much so that I felt like any obsessively negative comments of the movie I wrote would just read as mean-spirited. So I bit my tongue and went about my business. However, I can no longer remain silent. So here it goes:
That was a movie about Ken. A pink, corporate sign-off vehicle designed to sell fur coats, headbands, and other official Mattel merchandise. It actually broke my heart seeing this movie that was supposed to be about women be fully eclipsed by a male character. So you’re telling me even films written by, directed by, and produced by women can’t even be about women? Devastating. It was also a full 30 minutes too short while also feeling incredibly long with those transition scenes from Barbie World to the real world feeling particularly like a slog for me. I fully believe America Ferrera’s talents were wasted but I’m happy she got the nomination anyway. Not a single pay-off was earned down to the speech that got America that nom and I kept feeling a sense of “this can’t be the actual movie” throughout the entire thing. The only things in the film that sparked joy for me was that Billie Eilish song, seeing Issa Rae on the big screen, and the Barbie dreamhouse itself.
You can’t see it but I just unclenched my jaw. I feel free. I also want to congratulate the women who were nominated for Oscars who we seem to have completely forgotten like Lily Gladstone, who has the opportunity to make history (even though anytime someone makes history at the Oscars it’s usually because of the shameful practices of the Oscars themselves). Not to mention, women like Teyana Taylor and Greta Lee, who were truly egregiously snubbed. But no, political officials must crawl out from their foxholes to send messages of support about a lack of 2 nominations for a film that has 8 overall.
The biggest question I have about the Oscar noms is: What the hell is Bradley Cooper doing here?! I have not heard a good word about Maestro at all so it truly baffled me but then I saw the prosthetic nose and I knew. The academy loves a prosthetic nose and if you have the patience to sit in a chair and get that plastic on your face everyday, you too might have a chance at a nom. What pisses me off is that this was supposed to be Zac Efron’s nom and they gave it to Bradley Cooper for his sixth, one-in-a-lifetime passion project. It’s a damn shame.