Is Barbie Punished by the Academy Awards for Being Successful?

The Oscar nominations came out yesterday with some very obvious snubs. The 2024 Academy Awards should have been a battle between Barbie and Oppenheimer. Instead, Barbie didn't get nominations for Best Director or Best Actress.

I'm looking at the list and thinking WTF?!

A lot of folks are outraged Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie didn't get nods for Best Director and Best Actress. The speculation is that they were dissed for being women. That may be so, but there are other factors involved.

First, the Academy rarely nominates movies that are super successful. There's a bias within the membership that a financially successful movie has no artistic merit. Which is total bullshit of course, but it's part of a trend in mentality between the so-called elite and hoi poloi.

Second, Barbie is based on a popular toy. It doesn't matter that the cast and crew used this toy to used to slice apart and comment the social and emotional inequality forming our culture that harms all genders. According to adults, the sheer existence of a toy isn't mature or serious enough to merit an award nomination.

In an ironic turn to America Ferrara's excellent monologue, Greta and Margot were deprived of Oscar noms for the very contradictions Gloria lists in her speech.

Maybe it does come down to Greta and Margot being women.

And that totally sucks.

However, America's speech totally netted her nomination as Best Supporting Actress. If you haven't seen the movie, here's her clip:

Rewards

After spending the last four days catching up on tasks related to Kickstarters, I took this afternoon off and went to see to Barbie again. Why do I watch certain movies repeatedly?

Because I get something out of any story I love when I watch/read multiple times. I read A Game of Thrones twice to identify Jon Snow's parents. I didn't notice the dice in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon until my third viewing of Star Wars. I didn't understand how adult Spongebob Squarepants was until GK made me set down and watch the show with him.

Did I catch more during the second viewing of Barbie? Yep. It's even more woke that the Maga snowflakes realized.

It equally criticizes feminism and toxic masculinity. No one's perfect, and the harder you tr to be, the less perfect you are. Doublespeak doesn't help anyone.

It enforces why I believe the Wiccan Rede--And ye harm none, do what ye will. Life is that simple and that complicated at the same time.

Life, The Movies, and Everything

Last week is the first week DH and I haven't gone to the cinema in a month. Instead, we crashed over the holiday weekend. We caught up on a few chores, but we spent most of our time as recliner potatoes and eating good food.

However, we did watch Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves on streaming. It was a rather adorable gender-bender of tropes. Chris Pine and Michelle Rodriguez were absolutely cute as best friends. We also plowed through the second seasons of Picard and Ted Lasso.

My crimping tool and crimp tubes arrived over the weekend. While Tacky Glue on knots works well, it's not as an attractive finish for beaded bookmarks. I'll be working on those for an hour or two every day until I can get my arts room cleaned out and arranged to my liking. I say "arts" because there's Barbie face painting and hair rerooting in addition to the sewing and beadwork. Plus the stickers I plan to design will be a wacky mix of Dia de Los Muertos and Barbenheimer.

Yes, I already bought the t-shirt above. It's available at TeeFury.com

Why am I going to all this trouble? I need something to do besides writing and crocheting during movies and TV at home in order to keep my mind active and my fingers nimble. I want to be as crochety and active as FIL and the dad of DH's best friend when I hit 90.

Monday Movie Mania Is Back! - Barbie

Quick Note: Look up the Barbie movie on Google to see what happens!

Yep! DH and and I are going to the public movie theaters again! I'm still a little nervous about going to public places, but so far, everyone in the theaters have been self-spacing, which is a relief. (It was right up there with the pilot telling the passengers on my first leg of my Columbus to Boise to keep their damn mouths shut about those of us wearing masks.)

And no, I didn't wear a mask in the theater because I wanted POPCORN!

Seriously, you need popcorn while watching Barbie.

It was fun! It was fabulous! Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling were perfect as Stereotypical Barbie and Beach Ken!

A lot of folks pick one side of the political spectrum or the other to paint their dislike of the movie. However, Greta Gerwig and her writing partner Noah Baumbach made equal fun of the patriarchy and feminism. The only thing that surprised me was that Mattel signed off on the script though it made their executives look like a bunch of dumbasses.

I'm not bothering with a spoiler warning because the media has dissected this movie enough, but here's my loves and hates:

LOVES
1) Kate McKinnon killed it as Weird Barbie. She's the only Barbie doll from the movie I want. (She's currently on pre-order on the Mattel website.)

2) Gloria's speech to the Barbies. America Ferrera killed it as the mom who just wanted to share something with her daughter.

3) Ariana Greenblatt as Gloria's self-righteous daughter Sasha was perfect in the trope twist. (The kid doesn't want to save the doll. As Samual L. Jackson's character said in The Kingsman, it's not that kind of movie.)

4) Rhea Perlman kicked butt as the spirit of Barbie creator Ruth Handller.

5) Helen Mirren as the narrator had all the best lines.

6) John Cena obviously didn't feel his manhood was threatened by playing Merman Ken.

7) WIll Ferrell played Mattel's asshole CEO to perfection.

8) Michael Cera was adorable as the only Allan doll.

9) And a shout out to all the actors playing the citizens of Barbieland--You had fun with your roles and it showed.


HATES
1) Not once did the movie acknowledge that Midge married Allan, and that's why she was perpetually pregnant.


What's the star score on Barbie? I plan on seeing it again in the theater, so Barbie gets the double-score of 20 STARS!

How Was Your Cyber Monday?

Currently reading - Heaven's Spite by Lilith Saintcrow

First of all, yes, I know I'm taking a unusual amount of time to finish Saintcrow's latest.  Assuming I sleep, teach, and work, I'm usually done in thirty-six hours.

DH is bugging me since he graciously allowed first dibs, but now he wants to read it, dammit!  This is not a slam on Lilith.  Unfornutantely, my only fun reading time has been during my fifteen-minute break at work.  (We're not counting the two flat-on-my-ass sick days last week.)  So I'll have to finish it tomorrow because I've got a crit partner's proposal to review.

In the meantime. . .

I had to get holiday shopping done, and frankly I love doing it online!  No people, no parking, no poopy attitudes.  Just me, Isabella, and the credit card.  Of course, the one absolute, must-have for the youngest niece-who-must-be-corrupted was Computer Engineer Barbie.  And she's freakin' back-ordered!

WTF?  Are there that many Barbie geeks in the world?

Anybody else get their shopping done online yesterday?