The Snubby Awards: 1998 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 1998 Oscars, which was a mostly great selection of movies.  I really liked four out of the five, with two of them being downright incredible  The nominees were: As Good as It Gets, The Full Monty, Good Will Hunting, and L.A. Confidential with the winner being Titanic. Did Titanic deserve to win or did another movie get snubbed?  Let's find out!

#5. As Good as it Gets

This movie is about a racist, sexist, and homophobic writer and the relationships he forms with his gay neighbor and a single mother.  As Good as it Gets won Best Actor and Best Actress and I think both of those Awards are definitely deserved.  Jack Nicholson and Helen Hunt both do a fantastic job with the characters and are really the only thing that save this movie.  This film has not aged well in the slightest.  It's one thing to have a terrible person as your main protagonist.  That can certainly work in this kind of movie as you watch the character get challenged and change.  What badly hurts the movie for me is that it's a romance between Nicholson and Hunt's characters.  There's a very large age gap between the two, which is uncomfortable enough on its own, but I just don't buy that these two would end up in a relationship by the end.  If this movie had just been about these two becoming friends, then yeah, I'd be on board for that, but the romantic aspect is just gross and unbelievable.  It's worth watching for the acting, but just barely.

 6/10: Okay 

#4. L.A. Confidential

Set in 1953, L.A. Confidential follows three different detectives as they work on cases and discover a sinister connection between them.  L.A. Confidential is a really solid movie that makes me want to play the video game L.A. Noire.  The cast is exquisite with some excellent performances with Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, and James Cromwell being the biggest standouts.  It's a mostly standard police/mystery thriller, but a very well made one.  I don't really get why Kim Basinger won Best Supporting Actress for the movie though.  She wasn't bad, but she wasn't all that memorable.  Anyway, the only thing preventing this movie from being higher in my ranking is that it didn't have the emotional impact the other three movies had.

 8/10: Really Good 

#3. Good Will Hunting

Good Will Hunting is the story of a young janitor at MIT who is discovered to be a genius.  This is an iconic movie that I had actually never seen before.  I knew what it was about and am familiar with some of the memes, but what I didn't expect was how much of a dick Will Hunting would be.  The guy is such an absolute jackass for the vast majority of the film, which is surprising trait for our main protagonist.  I'm not saying it's a bad thing, just that I wasn't expecting it.  The performances of the actors are the highlight of the movie for me.  Everyone brings it and we get some iconic scenes and moments from pop culture.  Robin Williams absolutely earned his Best Supporting Actor Award and I think Minnie Driver was snubbed from getting Best Supporting Actress.  She's awesome in this.  I also think Ben Affleck is fantastic when he gets his moment in the spotlight.  It's just a really well-acted film.

 9/10: Great 

And now for the Top 2 Movies in no particular order.

The Full Monty

This movie is about a group of men who are struggling to find new jobs when the local steel plant closes down, so they decide to become strippers in the vein of Chippendales.  This is one of the funniest movies I've ever watched in my life.  I was dying of laughter and actually had to rewind the movie a couple of times because I was laughing so hard that I missed some of the dialogue.  The Full Monty is a brilliant movie and I don't think it gets talked about enough.  The writing and the performances are simply perfect.  Going in, I kinda thought this was be a very female-gaze-focused movie with lots of dancing and nudity.  I was thinking it might be like Magic Mike or something.  But that isn't really the case.  There's plenty of dancing, but it's really about male bonding and actually opening up and dealing with the various problems they are facing.  There are quite a few dark and serious themes going on in this story and the movie isn't afraid to deal with them.  It can get serious, but it doesn't get away from the humor for too long.  I think it manages to get the blend just right.  And then it all leads up to the show itself, and you know what?  It's pretty goddamn fun and ends on the perfect note.

 10/10: Amazing 

Titanic

The Best Picture winner follows a woman in 1st class and a man in 3rd class who fall in love while onboard the doomed voyage of the Titanic.  I had actually never seen this entire movie, only the last half hour or so on TV one time.  There was a lot of hype and expectations going into this for me.  I knew I was going to love the disaster sequences, but I wasn't so sure about the romance.  I was stunned to see how much I enjoyed the romantic elements. I really enjoyed the performances of both Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio.  I bought into the feelings they had for one another a lot more than I was expecting and I enjoyed the depth of Rose's character.  As to the sinking sequences, I was shocked at how early in the movie the ship hits the iceberg.  I had no idea the sinking sequence went on for such a long time.  It's masterfully done, completely thrilling and engaging, and looks fantastic.  This is a incredible film by a talented filmmaker who has completely mastered his craft.

 10/10: Amazing 

  And the Snubby Award goes to...!

  

The Full Monty!  I'll admit that this one was very close and I'm not mad at all that Titanic won.  It's just a matter of taste.  If I had the best apple and the best orange of all time, the apple would win because I simply prefer apples to oranges.  Both are incredible films and maybe my opinion will change if I rewatch these movies.  The Full Monty just affected my emotions a bit more than Titanic and I laughed so damn much.  It was a cinematic experience that I simply enjoyed more and that's why I'm giving it the Snubby.

Next time we'll be looking at the 1997 Oscars.  Did The English Patient deserve to win or did another movie get snubbed?  Stay tuned!