Why We Must Begin To Take New Moon's Oscar Chances Seriously
As you know by now, virtually every American of moviegoing age purchased a ticket to see The Twilight Saga: New Moon since its Friday debut, boosting the critically savaged, but fiercely tween-hearted, sullen-vampire-and-shirtless-werewolf epic to $140 million in ticket sales, the third-best opening weekend result of all time. The staggering success of the film just as the awards season is about to begin in earnest means that whether we like it or not, New Moon has clawed (pun deliciously intentional!) its way into the Best Picture conversation, making us momentarily forget all about the cynical Oscar-bait studios are about to dangle before the Academy between now and Christmas. Confronted with this weekend's turn of events, Movieline is now forced to evaluate the Best Picture candidacy of Chris Weitz's gossamer ode to life, love and lycanthropy.
Those Ten Best Picture Nominee Slots Aren't Going To Fill Themselves
Ten nominees is a lot of nominees, roughly double the number of nominees the Academy has allowed in the Best Picture category since the olden times. Have we even seen ten movies this year? Can we even name ten movies that were released in 2009? Let's try, right now: Up, Transformers 2, GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra, The Hurt Bunker, Miley Cyrus Dancing 3D, and the one where a love-starved Katherine Heigl is tragically killed by her vibrating underthings. That's a mere six movies released in 2009 that come immediately to mind without checking the Movieline archives, a list that contains no more than four likely Best Picture nominees. Surely with a Best Picture field that wide open, there's room for a film that's evolved -- with stunning, mind-paralyzing swiftness -- from a mere teen curiosity to a full-blown, culture-dominating phenomenon. Surely Academy voters are reserving at least one of the ten yawning slots on their ballots for a film that's driving the cinematic conversation from an empty art-house and into a jam-packed, black-lighted aisle at Hot Topic.
New Moon Made A Lot of Money This Weekend
We cannot stress this enough: New Moon made a lot of money this weekend. Accordingly, we must do our best to correlate box-office success with nomination-worthiness, even if we're killed in the process. Just a year ago, nearly twenty entertainment journalists and five Oscar pundits suffered fatal injuries when The Dark Knight was presumably snubbed in favor of turgid, low-grossing Frost/Nixon following months of arguments about how the congenitally out-of-touch Academy desperately needed a lucrative crowd-pleaser in the Best Picture field. New Moon's triumph can avenge, in a significant way, those lost in 2008, even if it's not perceived as being the commercial/artistic achievement Dark Knight was. And based on the various, increasingly more desperate-seeming trailers released for forthcoming hopeful game-changer Avatar, we're still more than willing to hand the "mainstream entertainment that made tons of cash" slot before James Cameron has a chance to dizzy voters with the most realistically rendered pair of CGI alien breasts ever to grace the big-screen.
The Next Generation Of Oscar Obsessives Is Mobilizing
As recently as this morning, mainstream news outlets were reporting that New Moon fans, emerging from their local multiplex freshly ravished by sparkly vampires and body-sculpted werewolves, are making impassioned pleas to Academy voters not to overlook what is already being considered the Titanic of a new generation. "They always give the [nominations] to the boring movies. Let's give young people a chance to win some Oscars. It's time for a change," implored one revolutionary, according to MTV News. Said another in that same piece, "If Twilight got all this publicity for winning awards at the MTV Movie Awards and other awards shows, then obviously New Moon is going to get it. I think all of the movies are going to keep getting it in the years to come," already looking forward to the kudos awaiting Eclipse a year hence. In the coming weeks, the voices of these young Oscar-watchers will grow ever louder, cracking only under the twin weights of their maniacal ardor and the punishing onset of puberty.
Aging Academy Members Need To Drain The Lifeforce Of The Young To Stay Vital
The average age of Academy members creeps ever upward, over the last ten years increasing from 62 to "will probably be found dead next to an unwatched pile of For Your Consideration screeners as the DVD menu for Invictus repeats endlessly." The only hope these superannuated voters have for extending their lives is to feast upon the energy and enthusiasm of their grandchildren, who'll happily scrawl the name of their favorite movie on the ballots their disinterested nanas and pop-pops can't be bothered to complete on their own. Seeing the joy with which their twelve-year-old grandkids attack their first illicitly cast Oscar votes will both rejuvenate their flagging love of cinema and make them feel like they're in touch with the vibrant youth culture that will be driving Hollywood's decisions over the coming decade.
We Just Thought Of A Few More Movies From This Year, And: Eh, Whatever, Next!
Nine, Invictus (see above), Precious: Based On The Sapphire, and Up in the Air. Even after remembering some of the movies fretted over in the awardsosphere, we're not willing to elbow New Moon out of the Best Picture conversation. We haven't seen any of those yet and we're already sick of hearing about them, quite frankly. Thinking about New Moon still makes our skin leap to life with the intoxicating tingle of Oscar buzz.
Team Jacob!
We mean, come on! Do you really want to tell us that you prefer that pasty, tortured, smell-oversensitive bag of stale blood to the fitness-obsessed hunkboy whose tattered shorts are shredded into denim confetti each time he transforms into a giant, crudely animated wolf? If you're all up in Edward Cullen's vamp-business, you're so totally living in 2008. R-Patz is last year's obsession. Taylor Lautner is the hot-now. This doesn't really connect to our overall thesis about New Moon's Best Picture candidacy in a linear way, but it seems crucial to take a stand here. Anyway, see you in late January, when we're proven correct!
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Comments
'"I think Taylor Lautner [should be nominated]," said Jhanel Huggett. "I really do. He did such an amazing job to transform, so I think he really deserves it."'
I think what we all really want, and it's clear, is for Taylor Lautner to be incorporated into our lives on a much more consistent basis.
Maybe we needn't sully the Oscars (though he should be a presenter! Team Jacob!) by pretending that we want more out of this than we truly do. It just makes things messy.
I find it hard to believe you are at all serious, and if you are I am a little concerned about you.
Oscar season happens in the winter. All those unfilled Oscar slots? They'll be chock-full of all the real movies that haven't been released yet. The Twilight Saga fanbase is a stupidity-machine driven by delusional morons and unaware teenagers; there's no way this failboat is making it to the Oscar carpet as anything other than presenters and maybe some sort of technical award.
I'll be honest, I didn't even realize Lisanti wrote this while I was reading it. I thought it was Kyle or Seth being basically serious.
I wouldn't put it passed ST, either; 'I'm just saying'™.
One word for you: Crash.
The only thing above I'll take credit for is the illustration, which is far worthier of an Oscar than the film it references.
I was so confused that New Moon didn't have Sam Rockwell in it.
By this rationale, though, we shouldn't discount the chances of Crank: High Voltage, the greatest movie of the year. It's gross was about on par with Frost/Nixon
shakira warned us of this...
there's a she wolf in your closet
let it out so it can breathe
if this succinct comment doesn't make comments of the week, i'm going to transform under the moonlight
okay you all joke but new moon has broke records and will the fan base keeps growing with eclipse. I mean reality is that who decides who should really be able to decide who wins the oscars? shouldn't it be one who actually goes and see's the movies, and what percentage the movie is raking in? Why should a boring dull movie win oscars because old people like it? Does it make it better because the older audience understands it more? I think not.... Oscars in my opinion should go out to the film that makes the most, in this case will be new moon for this year. it doesn't make sense for a film that groses half of what new moon will for this year to be acclaimed best picture. I mean does it really make sense? If your saying a film that grosses maybe lets say 120 million deserves best picture over a film that grosses 140 in its opening weekend alone. It doesn't make sense. You can agrue the teens or young children that love it. But who really freaking cares, when it comes down to it... your film can change the world but if it doesn't make enough money to cover it's costs and then some what does it really do, NOTHING... because noone is listening?
Crap like New Moon is the reason God created The People's Choice Awards.
The Teen Choice Awards just raised a slighted eyebrow.
With Oscar ratings declining spectacularly year after year, they're going to have to do something to get people watching.
Nominating Fangboy McSparkles and his dog Jake for best picture (or at the very least, throwing them a bone for costuming or makeup) sounds like a smart idea to me.
Yeah, Teen Choice beats People's Choice hands down.
And let's not forget Mtv Movie Awards, the "in between".
You are a highly myopic, boorish, and xenophobic person. Averages of only 13% of Americans dislike twilight, 11% are undecided and a whopping 76% of Americans are fans or have respectively enjoyed the book series. The twilight saga has broken records, made headlines and won hearts and minds of others like no book I’ve known since the famed Harry Potter series. Over 20%of world wide book sales are credited to the twilight saga series, and the New Moon movie has already beat out The Harry potter series. Your utter stupidity and ignorant stature is a poor reflection on your education and social mobility. To say that the twilight franchise is "pointless" or "Stupid", is to disparage literature and the very human imagination that brings literary work to popular standards!
This is why the Oscars are so prestigious. Because it is not selected by the fans. I understand your comment about calling one movie "better" than the other if it is not as successful financially, but that is exactly what the People's Choice or MTV Movie Awards are about. The Oscars have been around since 1929. The award in itself is about older (I say this because I assume you are a female between 12-17) people in the industry voting on what they feel is the best picture of the year. That is why everyone wants it. Because it is respected. If it was about who makes the most money...then why not just call it the Grammy's?
If Iron Man, Dark Knight, or Spider-Man 2 didn't have enough to get a best picture nom, then New Moon should be closer to the bottom of the "should be nominated" pile.
And how about the academy narrow back down the number of nominated spots for best picture, instead of eventually allowing any piss poor movie into the running. The Oscars are, or rather used to be, about art, not about which made more or who's leading or supporting actor was dreamiest.
**shoots self in face**
John the Craptist wins the discussion.
"Can we even name ten movies that were released in 2009?"
LOL. Oh good lord. This may be the most retarded article I've ever seen.
New Moon got trashed by critics-- it's not getting anything besides those idiotic awards that people vote on from the internet.
There's another Moon that you should be seriously considering for best performance, and while the article does bring up some good points, the Oscars are a way to get incredible films that people may not have caught the first time around and bring them to the public attention. While the ratings for the Oscars have dipped each time a top grossing film was not in the best picture category, I do believe that Cameron's Avatar will bring enough of an audience to allow people to forget about the New Moon craze for a bit.
Now, getting back to my original mention of Moon, not New Moon, the incredible character driven piece with the highly underrated Sam Rockwell and sophomore directorial effort by Duncan Jones. It's a movie that screams Oscar for Rockwell, and suggests big things in the future for Duncan Jones. It's a movie that may not have been seen in many theaters, but it's a movie that Oscar voters will get, and hopefully will get a larger audience on DVD.
New Moon may get a nomination, or they may wait until the next chapter in the Twilight slew of movies, but the Oscars are setup to give incredible movies a moment in the sun. It's not setup as a popularity contest. Although, TV executives may want it to be more along the lines of ones, during the airing of the Oscars. That's what we have the MTV awards for.
On a side note, you should also watch The Road and then decide if New Moon should be on a comparable scale.
OMG
are you serious? New moon - is the most stupid, boring and pointless movie of the year. actors can't act! make-up and directing are horrible! not to mention the idiotic plot.
teenage girls all over the world went crazy. my theory is that they've been hypnotized. or they've lost their brains.
and it's so stupid to compare Twilight series and the Harry Potter saga . the HP books are awesome, and I also love the films. people do them with much more diligence.
I concur. A perfect comment if ever there was one.
Good Lord! I agree "New Moon is the most stupid, boring, pointless movie of the year." I read the Twilight series books and New Moon is the most boring. I cannot get through it. I just kept fast forwarding to get to the end so I can move on to the next book... and the movie was the same. I wish I had a remote control in the theater so I can fast forward. And I cannot believe that I actually sat through the movie and not walked out.
Why are trolls and paragraphing always mutually exclusive?
What a coincidence, I was just thinking that Mrs. Meyer has single-handedly disparaged literature and the very human imagination that brings literary work to popular standards. What are the odds...
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