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Samizdata quote of the day

America is truly the land of opportunity, even multimillionaire actors can be victims deserving special treatment.

A commenter called Joshinca, commenting on this post about the Oscars, by Roger Simon.

I know this might seem a bit contrarian-for-the-hell-of-it, and I might miss out, but these days a good rule of thumb for me is that if a film has won an Oscar, then there is a more than trivial possibility that it sucks in some way. They resemble Nobel Peace prizes, almost.

14 comments to Samizdata quote of the day

  • Alsadius

    Caveat: Technical Oscars are usually positive signs. Artsy ones are the bad ones, and even then they’re not awful – Hollywood has to care about public opinion way more than the Nobel committee.

  • Johnnydub

    What I find hilarious is who the hell do they think is running Hollywood? It ain’t Republicans.

    As the article observes, this is just pampered luvvies wanting a bit of that Black Lives Matter victimhood.

    Look at their reaction to Stacey Dash, who said pretty much the same thing as Morgan Freeman…

  • Laird

    I agree: Best Picture Oscars are basically political, and the politics of those who award them are so at odds with my own that I generally make it a point to avoid even those which have been nominated. When was the last time a film of actual artistic merit won? Or a musical? (Answer to that last question: Chicago, in 2002, and it was deserved.) Most of the nominees over the last few decades have been undeserving.

  • Mr Ed

    Isn’t ‘an Oscar winning performance‘ code for faking it?

  • mojo

    I hear the Brit Parliament (or some lunatic subset thereof) is all a-twitter and calling for the fainting couch over the prospect of Donald Trump entering the sacred precincts of Jolly Olde.

    Twits. They have nothing better to worry about? Really?

  • Laird

    Not to worry; the Academy is revising its membership standards to promote “Oscar Diversity”. So in future years we won’t be subjected to the disgrace of another “all-white Oscars”. (Which means that the award will be even more debased that it is already.)

    I feel so much better now. I’m sure Stacey Dash does, too.

  • veryretired

    If I remember correctly, the movie “American Sniper”, which had all the progs collapsing with the vapors, grossed more than all that years’ Oscar nominees combined.

    It’s hard to say which is more unwatchable—99% of Hollywood movies or 99% of network TV shows. Both are cliche’ ridden, PC cartoons with no real attempt at any serious story or characters.

    If it wasn’t for sports and old movies, I probably wouldn’t watch much of it at all, and I’m a terrible TV junkie.

  • AngryTory

    “Benghazi” is pretty good, even if far too liberal overall.

  • Kevin B

    I saw at Instapundit a tweet by Ben Shapiro:

    Spike Lee is mad because rich white people aren’t giving rich black people fake gold statues. He also stares daggers at interracial couples.

    Pretty much sums it up.

  • Paul Marks

    Quite so J.P.

    Hollywood is dominated by white leftists (hence what they give awards to) – and now the black leftists have got angry with them.

    Let both sides fight – and let us sit back and laugh.

  • Rich Rostrom

    Looking at the last ten years, I’ve only seen seven Best Picture nominees, but five of them were good.

    The King’s Speech, The Departed, Moneyball, Philomena, and The Grand Budapest Hotel were all outstanding; The Imitation Game wasn’t bad. Only The Help bombed for me, with its obvious moral self-satisfaction.

    veryretired: American Sniper can’t have outgrossed all the Best Picture nominees, because it was a Best Picture nominee.

  • AngryTory

    The King’s Speech, Philomena, Budapest, Imitation Game (and Help) are all communist propaganda.

    American Sniper, The Transformers, The Fountainhead (all volumes), now we’re talking!

  • Jerry

    ‘…the Academy is revising its membership standards to promote “Oscar Diversity”. ‘
    Oh goody, now we’ll finally have Oscar quotas !! Everything must be fair you know, even if it has NOTHING to do with accomplishment !!

    Agree with Veryretired. I have given up on several television programs that were initially, to me anyway, pretty good but have now started to push some ideas I find offensive. They start very subtle, visually, verbally or both and when they is little or no ‘backlash’ or complaints they become more blatant in the, ah, presentations.

  • Jerry

    ‘veryretired: American Sniper can’t have outgrossed all the Best Picture nominees, because it was a Best Picture nominee.’

    Sure it could. How about if we add two words –
    ..grossed more than all OTHER OF that years’ Oscar nominees combined.