We have just had the awards season for films, the marking of the great and good and also those that were deemed good but not great enough to even be nominated. Pre-Christmas you see the hopefuls come skipping out into the light and from that moment they all gallop, all pushing and shouting at each other to get out of the way. They demand great quotes from magazines to slam across the posters and inevitably they are all amazing in some way but with that there is a cynical aspect to their release date and marketing.
These worthy films are biopics and dramas, directed by the great and good staring the best and brightest performing feats of willpower to change their body shapes or delve into the depths of the minds of the famous and controversial. They fix themselves on these important people and moments and they are great films but lets be honest we can all see when Will Smith is making an Oscar run as Ali, or perhaps Hanks is getting stashed on a Island or maybe even Day Lewis is taking on a legendary political figure; they are all chasing 'Oscar'. The films are released in the 'Oscar season' and they are there to thrill, touch and impress but we cannot forget the formula that provides an 'Oscar film'.
The Oscars ignore the Blockbusters, mainly because most of them are simply not in the same league, but there is an obvious bent to ignore those big films for something more worthy, as though entertainment really is something for the less cultured. Look back through each year and there is normally a brilliant summer movie that gets a nod for technical achievements but is dismissed otherwise. This years was The Avengers, but Inception, Rise Of the Planet of The Apes, The Dark Knight, and many others films get shunned and their directors and actors ignored. So when the 'Oscar season' comes I rejoice because we are about to see those that are worthy and will touch our hearts but when it ends I rejoice because it's back to good old fashioned fun.
Following the 'Oscar season' we see the Hansel and Gretels, the Matrix's, the Saw's, the superheroes, psycho killers, dirty cops and naughty little comedies with mild nudity and sexual content. We witness adventuring, brutality, cavorting, dirty deeds, evil, fighting, gambling, heroism, Imagination unbound by the 'rules', justice, Killing, Love, Money, nocturnal nightmares, obsession, psychics, quickenings, rampaging, seduction, tits and tight torsos, U.F.Os, vampires, wild women, X-Men, yobs and Zealots! We are suddenly blessed with variety; variety of plot, mood, genre, budget, cast and quality.
Of course following the final goodbye of the great and worthy we usher in the shambolic wrecks, the chancers, the ones with plot holes so large you can drive a S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier through, but you know what? The rest of the year brings fun, entertainment and joy from an unexpected gem, or something that gets mauled by the press but when you see it you find something that really suits you perfectly.
The fact is the Oscars reward fabulous movies, but basically they may as well be called 'The Dramas' because they reward fabulous dramas, if you are a horror (bar Silence of The Lambs of course), a blockbuster or a comedy then you may as well not exist. So as much as I love to see all the great and worthy films about the noble historical giants or the literary adaptations that hit the lofty highs I'm looking forward to ugly, botched, stupid, throw away pieces of crap. Oh yes I am!
In the coming months I'm going to be in the cinema once every week, each week I'll be running the gauntlet, fighting the good fight and loving every second. Yes, there are some dire weeks ahead, yes I'll be slagging off the utter shite I have to sit through but I will see some beauties, some classic performances, be bolted to my seat and come out of the cinema roaring with laughter.
The difference is that the variety will suddenly return to the cinema and I won't be seeing or selecting films on what other people say I should be seeing, I'll be sailing through the cinema seas on my own power.
I can't fucking wait!
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