I don’t really like this movie…and I can freely admit Margot Robbie and Greta Gerwig were snubbed. Barbie was totally and foolishly snubbed from receiving Oscar nominations for lead actress Margot Robbie and director Greta Gerwig, and I don’t even think this is that debatable.
Greta Gerwig must have egged the houses of the Oscar voters because they REALLY don’t like to nominate this woman!
Despite being the highest grossing movie of the year with great reviews from a majority of the masses, Barbie got completely robbed of a deserved Best Lead Actress nomination for Margot Robbie and Best Director nomination for Greta Gerwig. And, even though I don’t really like the movie at all, I can still say that the Academy once again crapped all over a fan-beloved movie.
Now, let me get this point 100% clear before I get deeper into this issue: I don’t like Barbie.
It was never my kind of movie to begin with because…well, I’m not a teenage/twenties girl/woman, and I stopped watching it a little over halfway through. Sorry, but it’s just not really all that great in my opinion and I personally believe the hype, praise, and box office success this movie received was vastly overdramatic. But my opinion is in the minority on this one.
As we all know, not only was Barbie the highest grossing movie of the year with it racking up approximately $1.45B at the box office (which made it Warner Bros. highest-grossing movie OF ALL TIME), but it also saw a massive amount of critical praise and, more importantly, a lot of praise from the masses. From normal people.
This movie currently has 59% of mixed (5/10-7.4/10)-positive (7.5/10+) on Metacritic, while the movie is sitting at a 72% fan approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Are these mind-blowing numbers that blow the greatest and most beloved movies of all time out of the water? Well, aside from that box office haul, no. No, they are not.
But the movie IS liked by more than 50% of the average moviegoer which is the most important factor in determining if a movie is universally good or not (each person’s opinion is obviously their own and many do not like the film, so I won’t say categorically liked). Thus, Barbie should have gotten Oscar nominations across the board for all people involved in this film…which it did aside from the two points of contention: Best Lead Actress and Best Director.
I really don’t know how you can nominate a film for 8 Academy Awards, nominate it for Best Supporting Actress (America Ferrera), Best Supporting Actor (Ryan Gosling), Best Adapted Screenplay (although, what book or work did this film get adapted from LOL?), two Best Original Song nominations, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, AND Best Picture and not give the two most prominent crew members their just nominations?
I mean, Margot Robbie is literally the titular character of this film and didn’t get nominated for a Best Actress award? Seriously? Even though I didn’t like the film, I still would have given her the Best Actress award (not just a nomination) as she had a really great performance as Barbie.
(Warner Bros. Discovery-Barbie-Main Trailer)
And what about Greta Gerwig?
Now, I don’t subscribe to the belief that the Academy is sexist or excluding woman from nominations or whatever the foolish media outlets will shove out en masse when the award show rolls around, but I do now believe that the Oscar voters can’t stand Greta Gerwig!
How does the director of a Best Picture nominee, the highest grossing box office movie of the year, a film that received 8 Academy Award nominations in total, and who has already been nominated (and won a BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay) for other majors awards not get nominated for one of FIVE Best Director spots?
Okay, Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon) and Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer) were nominated for their noteworthy films (and Nolan should win for Oppenheimer) as one would expect, but who the hell even heard about The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer directed), The Anatomy of A Fall (Justine Triet), or Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos)?
Why are they nominated over the director of the most profitable and one of the most acclaimed films of the year?
The Anatomy of A Fall ($23.5M) and The Zone of Interest ($1.5M) all grossed under $25M at the box office, while the only notable things about Poor Things was that Emma Stone won a Golden Globe for her part in it. And, what do you know? This film came out just four days before the Golden Globe nominations were announced and made nearly app. $8.4M or 25% of its TOTAL box office revenue in the ten days before and after the Golden Globes were aired.
Isn’t that funny how this film pretty much just exists to be an award-bait film?
Anyway, this snub is yet another example of Hollywood and these award shows being COMPLETELY out of touch with actual good filmmaking and the likes and interests of us normal movie goers.
Images Source: Featured Image: (Warner Bros. Discovery) (Barbie | Main Trailer – YouTube)
In Text Image 1: (Warner Bros. Discovery) (Barbie | Main Trailer – YouTube)
