Sorry but this has been bothering me for the last few days and I have to speak on it. Although I'm still very annoyed about Michael Fassbinder ('Shame') & Albert Brooks ('Drive') getting snubbed, I'm slowly becoming MORE annoyed about
'Drive' not getting nominated for BEST PICTURE (and besides, Fassbender & Brooks aren't even the worse snubs in the academy's history). Over the last couple of weeks I've heard way too many people ask the same question: "C'mon, did you REALLY think Drive was gonna get nominated?" At first I shrugged it off and just agreed like; "Yeah, I guess you're right." But when I started to really think about it, what film had more of a cultural impact last year? What film was referenced more on television, parodied as much on viral sites like funny or die, vimeo & youtube and just generally talked about among everyone? 'Drive'! Us guys wanted to be "The Driver" (don't lie, you know its true) and women wanted to be in Carey Mulligan's position. From Ryan Gosling's scorpion jacket that became a popular Halloween costume last year, to the films soundtrack which you could overhear coming out of the headphones of the person sitting next to you on the train (that happened to me)...what other movie besides 'Drive' had that much of an impact last year? I don't remember anyone watching George Clooney in 'The Descendants' and going; "I'm gonna start wearing a Hawaiian shirt so I can be cool like George Clooney!" For those of you who have seen 'Drive'; are you honestly gonna tell me that Ryan Gosling's crazy glare at Carey Mulligan after he stomps the bad guys face in (along with all the other unexpected violence) didn't stay stuck in your head for at least a day? For those of you who saw 'Drive' and actually drive a car on a regular basis; you honestly didn't feel "cool" driving on the highway at night after the first time you saw 'Drive'? Be honest with yourself. Say what you want, but 'Drive' was a MINI-cultural phenomenon for the last quarter of 2011. It gained a cult following faster than any recent film I've seen. Just because the movie isn't about a middle aged man trying to find himself and make peace with his family while his wife is in a coma ('The Descendants') or the loss of a father during 9/11 ('Extremly Loud, Incredibly Close') or an epic war drama about a boy and his horse ('Warhosre') doesn't mean the film cant be great or worthy of an academy award nomination. What's wrong with showing respect to a film that's ultra cool as long as the film is good (or GREAT in Drive's case) and brings something different & new to the table?
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| Conan O'Brien wearing a scorpion jacket from 'Drive' |
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| Anime dedication for 'Drive' which became one of the more popular viral videos of the last few months. I don't remember anyone making one of these for 'Hugo' or 'The Help' |
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| 'Drive Thru' parody from funnyordie.com |
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| Aziz Ansari on "Parks & Recreation" |
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Cover for Symmetry's latest album; "Music for Imaginary Films", which not only got its inspiration for the cover art, but the actual music itself is very derivative of Cliff Martinez's score. Did any musicians pay homage to the music in 'The Tree Of Life' or 'Warhorse'??
Although 'Drive' will never have the same impact as something like 'Pulp Fiction', on a smaller scale, it was essentially this year's Pulp Fiction. 'Drive' referenced and pulled together the films and styles of everyone from early Michael Mann ('Thief' and Mann's use of Tangerine Dream's synthesized score) & William Friedken ('To live & Die in LA') to more "obscure" directors like Kenneth Anger (the scorpion jacket), Gaspar Noe (the extreme violence & the face smashing) & Takashi Kitano (also the extreme violence and specifically the elevator scene), just like Tarantino referenced & pulled together everything from the styles of Godard & Scorsese to Sonny Chiba & Blaxpoitation films in 'Pulp Fiction'. How many neo-noir's can you honesty name that mix the "arthouse" element of Andrei Tarkovsky & Kenneth Anger, with the cool visual technical qualities of Michael Mann along with the blood, guts & violence from vintage Cronenberg or 'Oldboy' and STILL manage to have conventional qualities to please the average movie goer? I'd love to hear what you all come up with (if you can actually come up with anything at all). No disrespect to SOME of the films that got nominated ('The Artist', 'Moneyball' & 'Midnight In Paris'), but when it comes to so some of the others that got nominated...shit just doesn't add up. 'The Help' has done absolutely NOTHING new or progressive and has told us NOTHING new about race problems in America. It's 2012. Unless you have something new to bring to the table in terms of race relations or racism, you're just making a slight variation of the same movie over and over from 'Mississippi Burning' & 'Driving Miss Daisy' to 'To Kill A Mockingbird' & 'Rosewood'. Lets do something new. And I still have yet to find anything outstanding or exceptional about 'The Descendants' (or Alexander Payne's entire filmography for that matter if you really wanna go there). And has anyone actually seen 'Extremely Loud, Incredibly Close' or 'Warhorse'? I don't think I know one person who has. I know I shouldn't get too bent outta shape about 'Drive' not getting nominated because at the end of the day people will remember it years from now (and I'm sure we're going to be seeing quite a few films that draw influence and inspiration from 'Drive' in the near future), while almost half of the films that did get nominated will be forgotten about over time. |
