Film Courage: How many best picture Oscar winners can you name
starting in 1990 all the way through today I'll give you one hint there are 33 33.
Erick Weber, Editor-in-Chief of Awards Ace/YouTuber: Okay let's start with with
most recent Coda we'll go back we'll do Parasite we'll do Nomadland, Spotlight,
12 Years A Slave damn let's go to Titanic let's go to Argo
oh man I'm feeling miserably at this and I call myself the awards ace this is a problem
okay great I gotta think of you okay so the thing obviously okay what should have won I can tell you
right now just doing this list and what already annoys me that I'm doing this that I'm thinking
that the Social Network did not win best picture and for that the whole thing just makes me just
want to ah I mean this is you're talking about a film in my estimation it's perfect so when
you when you watch the Social Network and you find out the king's speech one best picture over
it that just makes me furious why do you think that is because there's so few films that we see
that are truly spectacular across the board really exemplary in every single aspect and
when you watch the Social Network you're looking at a film that obviously direction screen play
cinematography score the resonant raw score is is I think that's the cherry on top that's what makes
that film the true masterpiece that it is that it's the choices that resident ross did in that
score from that opening scene when he's walking across Harvard square you say oh my this is unique
and this was not a choice that most composers would do and in the fact that Fincher allowed them
to work in that space and create something again if you give that to any other composing duo
composer singular you're talking about a different film because they're not going to come up with
that score and I think that is really what cements that as a masterpiece but performances everything
in that film is is perfection and the fact that it didn't win best picture is again just I think it's
got to be the biggest crime in the history of the oscars the fact that it did not win best picture
and then the king's speech what is it about that film or maybe it's nothing it's just in comparison
that's what it is it's not about it's not about the king's speech it's about selecting for me it's
really about identifying what's the best film what is the best film that we saw this year that hits
everything that you're looking for and I think when I watch a film and I try to say more of a
film evaluator than a film critic you look at it and you say what are the aspects that shine here
what what is truly worthy of spotlighting this for an awards purposes and when you watch a film
like again Social Network you see it in every single category you're looking for literally
everything even production design which is lower down the list for that film but it still creates a
world which is very hard to do and I think that's one of the key components for for any film is
world building and that is production design and I think that when you when you have a film that hits
everything and it doesn't win that's what that's the hard part that's the thing for me it's like
yeah it's at the end of the day it's just a trophy that says you're the best film doesn't mean it is
but it should have been that film that year and that's what I think it is it's not about
King Speech it's about Social Network being truly perfection well it's public acknowledgement too
and and acknowledgement of a group of sort of gatekeepers that say okay you're worthy
and so 2011 King's Speech did you know going in there's no way the social network's going to win
no I thought for sure listen at the end of the day you still have hope they're going to pick the
right the number one film right and yours might be different but overall when you look at in your you
know you watch hundreds of films a year and you see the one that is very clearly the best film
I mean I go back obviously they got it right with parasite another film that is true perfection
occasionally they are going to miss it's just gonna happen it's just the law of averages are
going to say that it's going to go to something else I mean this year I wouldn't have Coda
for sure I mean I think I think coda is is a very likable film do I think that it holds up
to the you know when we look back at Oscar's 2022 are we going to say coda is filmmaking
that is truly going to you know pass the test of time I don't think so I think it's a likable
film but I just don't think it hits again when I watch a film for me it's really technical it's so
important to a film the tech for me is where I really get dialed in like when I watch the batman
I mean I see Matt Reeves and I say this is a director when I go back and I much let me in
you just know that this is a a person that has a skill that is extremely unique and they have
a vision that is singular and those are the things that for me as I'm assessing you know
awards value for a film you're you those are the films that you want to see succeed
so a director like Ti West who's creative and edgy
will he ever receive an Oscar not for x I mean he's not he's not going to win for x but when you
watch and I go back and I remember innkeepers from Ti West and I don't remember thinking too much of
that film or the direction but whatever happened between innkeepers roughly a decade ago and x I
mean x is when you watch that film you are looking at a director who has again that skill that is in
the artistic vision that most people don't possess and it's it could be a traditional remake of Texas
Chainsaw massacre right and it's not it is it's got so many layers to it and I think the choice is
the landslide scene in x you know the Fleetwood Mac I mean that is
truly when you watch that film the way it's edited the way it organically flows from the film and
just all of a sudden he starts on the guitar and it starts into the montage of through the years
it is that is the best sequence that I have seen in several years as a singular sequence of a film
the landslide sequence in x do I hope Ti West will be a best director one day absolutely and
I think he no question he possesses the skill but he's been working in the horror realm let's hope I
know he's got pearl coming up later this year they shot him back to back right they shot the prequel
and during well they shot x so pearl's coming out this fall and I can't wait to see that as well but
he's someone that's on the radar as somebody who you know going forward I would not be surprised
if this is somewhere we're talking about in the in the Finchers in the Nolans you know if we'll
know so when we get up to that top level Ti West is absolutely going to be there one day sure sure
and he's still very young oh yeah I don't even know how old he is he's probably his late 20s 30s
but he's got such a I think that's when you watch a film when when I go to see films you're really
looking for that talent that pops and you say wow this is again remarkable skill and singular vision
that the average person you know you see so many films and you see decent direction you see above
average direction and then you see what Ti West did or David Fincher in Social Network or any
number of films obviously from Fincher but when you get to those that that level of skill is is
that's the treat that's the cinematic treat that we're all looking for so 1990 driving miss daisy
1991 Dances with Wolves 92 Silence of the Lambs 93 Unforgiven 94 Schindler's List 95 Forest Gump 96
Braveheart 97 The English Patient 98 Titanic 99 Shakespeare in Love 2000 American Beauty
2001 Gladiator 2002 A Beautiful Mind 2003 Chicago 2004 The Lord of the Rings The Return of the King
2005 one of my favorite excuse me Million Dollar Baby 2006 another favorite Crash
2007 The Departed 2008. No Country for Old Men 2009 Slumdog Millionaire
2010. Oh I loved it anymore yes you do love Danny dave when we have yes yeah you can keep okay.
oh my yeah okay all right so we're paying homage to anyway 2010 Hurt Locker 2011 The King's Speech
2012 The Artist 2013 Argo 2014 12 Years a Slave 2015 Birdman yes 2016 Spotlight
20. yeah 2017 Moonlight 2018 The Shape of Water 2019 Green Book 2020 Parasite 2021 Nomadland
2022 Coda okay I mean overall when you when you list off the when we go back to 1990 you look at
those films I there's not a whole there's not a film in there that I say wow this is not worthy
of being best picture I don't see there's not one even crash I mean listen I'm not suggesting
the crash is is the all-time best movie ever made but I understand how people respond to the film
I think that's one of the things that you have to be able to do when you go in and you critique a
film or evaluate a film is you're trying to for me is figure out what is the audience for this film
and do you understand how this audience for the film will be able or will not be able to embrace
this film and I think that when you watch a film like Top Gun Maverick you you see it I saw it
you know three weeks ago before it opened and I said this is a film that will be loved by
99 of the people that see it 99 because it is that it's it gives you everything that you want for a
movie going experience for the average moviegoer right understand the spectrum of moviegoers
is extremely wide and and but at the end of the day when you're talking about a film that's going
to appeal to a large swath of the movie going public you have to identify something like
top gun maverick is going to work and it did I said it's going to get a plus cinema score it
did which means perfect word of mouth right that means people are going out of topcoat maverick
and they're saying you have to see this film which doesn't happen very often that that true organic
love for a film that spreads like wildfire because everybody who goes to see it comes run out and
they become an apostle like hey you gotta go see top gun maverick and that's what's happening and I
think when you look back at from 1990 on to most these films most of those films have that even
Coda which I said I have plenty of issues with from a filmmaking perspective it still has that
aspect of word of mouth being strong where people say oh I really liked Coda and you need to have
that because that's in king's speech is that way so you understand how that happened people
like the feel that The King's Speech gives you conversely I understand how the Social Network is
not an uplifting film but it doesn't have to be like there's no law that says films have to be
uplifting one of the things I love about a film from the past two plus decades up in the air is
the fact that it isn't a buttoned up ending in bow tie and everybody he gets the girl that's
what makes up in the air the film it is same with la la land exact same thing is I think that's what
makes the the film what it is is the fact that it's not a perfect finish to a film but some
audience people members do not like that they want they want to have they want to go home feeling
good and so I think that's that will that's why people don't like la la land as much or up in the
air I remember my ex-wife at the time was like I hate it up in the air why you didn't get the
girl I'm like that's why it's good that's exactly why it's good where did you see the first top gun
yeah once a while yeah I was I was you know an 80s kid and top gun came out and it was listen
you go back to the 80s and you know I mean listen we grew up a similar era and and you you say to
yourself what a difference it was back then right because back then it was just you didn't you had
three networks okay and pbs we didn't even have fox at that time you had television you had radio
that was it right and you had movies and you went to a movie and that's all you had so you had this
just everyone would talk about one thing which we don't have as much anymore these days because
there's so many choices to what you can spend your free time on your entertainment time on back then
it was movies network television or radio and when we would go to the movies and I saw top gun
and it just you know I was a young kid growing up I'm like I want to be like maverick I want to be
that guy and you know this the soundtrack you came we all had the cassette not the cd cds weren't
around not the vinyl although I had vinyl didn't have the vinyl that had the cassette wore it out
cbs records I remember going backwards and forwards backwards and boards on that thing
because in the old days for those of you who don't remember the the cassettes were pain in
the butt to go for the next song you had to fast forward and hit it perfectly at the right time
but but that film was a phenomenon I mean it was what everybody was talking about top gun
was the thing I remember being in high school and they had the top gun we had like assembly
and and the cheerleaders went out there and danced to like two different songs from top gun
it's like that's how it was a phenomenon right and it's hard to find that these days I think that's
the magic of of 80s of of top gun or any real major film in the 80s go back and look at the
lost boys oh lost boys you know these are films that that really shaped who I am and we had so
many great films in the 80s I mean I i saw all these films in theaters too you go back to e.t
empire strikes back return of the jedi aliens cocktail my a cocktail for as as absolutely
fluffy forgettable as it is it is a film that I love it's one of those guilty pleasures right
and there's so many of those in the 80s but I mean the lost boys was a film that I saw and I said
wow this is cool I just love that's a film that is if you had 20 best films I've ever seen lost boys
is on the list even vision quest and I'm not a wrestling fan but there was something about
that opening with the journey song and that they're the best and and it got you excited
and and I feel like some of that's lost these days well you know you say that it's funny
like you cocktail the beginning cocktail like you said the beginning that the starship song
that he gets on the bus and he's going off to New York to be this big famous business guy is you
remember those things and like you said there's just something about about the way 80s films were
made and I think that's what you when you watch top gun maverick you see that right when you see
what kaczynski did at the beginning of that film with the intro with the top gun theme bleeding
into danger zone it's that's an 80s start right it's just here's your here's your credit scene
you're you're beginning credit scenes which you don't usually get in film these days and it was
such a smart move and I think that sets you up for everything it delivers but the 80s were I mean
again you could list a zillion movies even going back to the you know garbage slasher films these
are all the things that they got me into film sure all the right moves they all got you yeah
yeah I mean the diversity right the diversity no the diversity of all the films that that we had
in the 80s just it was just anything goes and I think that you know some people devalue 80s films
and say they're forgettable fluff their this and that but but I think of so many I mean one of my
favorite comedies of all time is real genius with Val Kilmer I mean the character that Val Kilmer
is in real genius reminds me a lot I often wonder did Ryan Reynolds watch real genius because
his persona and I love Ryan Reynolds I think he's great he's very good at that sarcastic snarky guy
very quick-witted you go back and watch Val Kilmer in real genius you're like
that is very much like what Ryan Reynolds is these days I think Val Kilmer in top secret same thing
he's just Val Kilmer’s such an underrated actor I think we're all coming around to that now with
Top Gun Maverick and seeing him in the film and and certainly the documentary from last year but
you know real genius is just what a great comedy I could I've watched that film probably 30 times.