The Snubby Awards: 2000 Oscars

It's that time again: The Snubby Awards!  For those of you who don't know, the Snubby Awards take a look at all of the Best Picture nominees from a given year and determine if the best film won or if another was snubbed.  If that's the case, they win the coveted Snubby Award!

This time we'll be taking a look at the 2000 Oscars, which was a good selection of movies.  I liked all of them to some extent, but one was clearly the best and one was clearly the worst.  The nominees were: The Cider House Rules, The Green Mile, The Insider, and The Sixth Sense with the winner being American Beauty.  Did American Beauty deserve to win or did another movie get snubbed?  Let's find out!

#5. The Cider House Rules

The Cider House Rules basically follows a young orphan being trained up as a doctor and learning to perform abortions, even though he is morally opposed to the procedure.  The acting is the best part of the film with solid performances from Tobey Maguire, Michael Caine, Charlize Theron, and Paul Rudd.  The rest of the movie is mostly fine, but ultimately unmemorable.  The subject matter isn't explored nearly as much as it should be and it's a story with a lot of potential.  The 3rd act of the film loses me quite a bit as the film gets unexpectedly nasty out of nowhere.  And when I say nasty, that's underselling it.  The attempted redemption for the villain left a bad taste in my mouth as well.  The performances carry the film a long way and it's still a decent movie, but it had no business being nominated.

 6/10: Okay 

#4. The Insider

The Insider is one of those corruption exposing movies, where the characters are trying to prove that "They knew and they let it happen!"  Recent examples include Spotlight and Dark Waters.  This one follows a producer for 60 Minutes trying to expose a tobacco company with the help of a corporate insider.  Again, this is another one where the performances carry the film.  Al Pacino, Russell Crowe, and Christopher Plummer are all incredible and the story is another one that will make you really angry.  I've just seen other movies like this, but done better, which is why The Insider only gets 4th place for me.  That said, the direction and the music really do a great job of ramping up the tension and making you feel paranoid.

 8/10: Really Good 

#3. America Beauty

Yep, the Best Picture winner falls to 3rd and I do think another movie was snubbed.  This is a movie I like, but has aged very poorly.  American Beauty follows a man going through a mid-life crisis.  The problem is our main character, Lester, starts lusting after a high-school girl, which kicks off the plot.  It's extremely creepy and the movie never fully addresses just how creepy this is.  To make matters worse, Lester is played by Kevin Spacey, which makes the whole thing even creepier.  I also find Wes Bentley's character far too pretentions and I don't think Thora Birch's performance is very good.  All that said, I do find this to be an interesting and entertaining movie.  I was never quite sure where the story was going and it's an excellent time capsule of 1999.  There were simply stronger movies that were more deserving.

 8/10: Really Good

And now for the Top 2 in no particular order.

The Green Mile

The Green Mile is a movie about the death row in a Louisiana prison and how the guards and inmates react when one of the prisoners is revealed to have a supernatural power.  I'm a big fan of Stephen King, so this was a movie I was very interested in watching.  The performances are wonderful.  We get probably the most likable crew of prison guards ever (with one exception) thanks to some charismatic performances from Tom Hanks and David Morse.  Michael Clarke Duncan is amazing as John Coffey and should have won Best Supporting Actor.  We also get two utterly despicable villains thanks to some wild and unnerving performances from Sam Rockwell and Doug Hutchison.  It's definitely too long, but it's an emotional journey that shows the best and worst of humanity.

 9/10: Great 

The Sixth Sense

The Sixth Sense follows a child psychologist who works with a young boy with the ability to see ghosts.  This was the second time I had seen The Sixth Sense.  I'll never forget the impact of watching this film for the first time and I was pleased to see that even on the rewatch, this movie holds up and is still impactful.  This movie is famous for having a big twist at the end and I was fortunate enough to not know it when I watch it for the first time.  It's an absolute gut punch of a twist and blew me away.  On the rewatch, I knew it was coming, so I was able to revel in the emotions of the ending instead.  I was definitely tearing up.  The movie has a great premise, incredible performances from Bruce Wills, Haley Joel Osment, Toni Collette, and Donnie Wahlberg, and one hell of an ending.  I think this is hands down M. Night Shyamalan's best film.

10/10: Amazing

And the Snubby Award goes to...!

The Sixth Sense!  Where American Beauty has aged poorly, The Sixth Sense holds up even when you know the twist.  It's hands down the Best Picture of the nominees and should have won over American Beauty.

Next time we'll be looking at the 1999 Oscars.  Did Shakespeare in Love deserve to win or did another movie get snubbed?  Stay tuned!