Well I believe in diplomacy with our allied countries, and in the case of South Korea, they are already a suburb of the United States, so I don’t know why we have to show them we love them anymore, because Parasite does not deserve the 2020 Academy Awards it got, particularly the Best Picture Award. When you put that picture in company with Richard Jewell, Joker, Judy, Ford v Ferrari, The Irishman, Jojo Rabbit, 1917, Little Women, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, and Marriage Story, and you are buffaloed into spending 2 ¼ hours of your time looking at a picture that you have to read in subtitles, you should come to the realization that the Academy Awards has sold out to political influence, as well as social pressure, and that the true Best Picture of the Year possibly should be the Best 10 Pictures of the Year, because all of the pictures I mentioned deserve to be Best Picture of the Year and not Parasite.
I also get very tired of looking at the same star actors, like Willem Dafoe, when there are hundreds of actors who can play that part, who need a break to be able to make a living in acting, who never get the recognition that Willem Dafoe has gotten. Don’t get me wrong, I like Willem Dafoe. But I know that that waiter working down there on Hollywood Boulevard, trying to get a part, is just as good an actor, if not better, than Willem Dafoe. And that actor, waiting on tables, may never get an opportunity to feel whole and complete and actualized, because they think that the star power will sell the film.
I liked The Lighthouse, and I liked Robert Pattinson’s performance. But I have a friend who always wanted to be a cowboy actor. He’s in his 70s now and never got that break, so he ended up going to Tombstone and doing some O.K. Corral acting and theater acting, and he’s one of those non-actualized actors, because Josh Brolin, Sam Elliot, and Tommy Lee Jones keep on getting the tough cowboy roles. You would think that they are the only men in the world.
Paul Walter Hauser, a new face on the acting scene, did an outstanding performance in Richard Jewell and should have been nominated for Best Actor. But of course they never nominate breakthrough actors. No, there’s a thing in the film industry called “paying your dues.” It’s bullshit, but the industry seems to live by the bullshit, and he probably won’t win an Academy Award for Best Actor for another 10 or 15 years, if he can live to stay in the business and get enough parts to survive as an actor.
I did like The Irishman. I have to confess I like those tough-guy mafia films. But you know what? I get tired of seeing Robert De Niro, and Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci, and Harvey Keitel in the crime films. I like all these guys. They’re great actors. But you know what? There are a thousand other actors out there just as good, if not better, who will never get an opportunity for their talent to come out, because the industry keeps on using the same Italian and Italian-look-alikes to play those tough-guy, streetwise, made-guy parts that those thousand other actors can do just as easily, if given an opportunity.
And whenever a great film like 1917 or Midway is made—and multi-millions of dollars are spent with these wonderful special effects, that take a lot of time and thought by numerous people—when a film like Parasite wins Best Film over 1917 and Midway, I don’t want to ever watch an Academy Awards show again. I tell myself that every year, and then I look at it because I’m optimistic to think that the Academy will grow up in their consciousness. But I doubt it—probably not until Puff The Magic Dragon shows up.
Then there’s Knives Out, which was nominated for Best Original Screenplay, written Rian Johnson. It’s too bad it was up against Parasite, because of course Parasite won and its writers Bong Joon Ho and Han Jin Won. And Quentin Tarantino, who wrote Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, lost for Best Original Screenplay to Parasite. So did Marriage Story by writer Noah Baumbach.
With Parasite, the only original thing in the movie was a recluse living in the basement of some rich people, who they didn’t know about. If you look at Knives Out, it has more twists and turns than Hollywood Boulevard. It’s definitely a very interesting film that makes you laugh just as much as Parasite. But when you’re laughing at Parasite, it’s like when you first watch Godzilla—you’re laughing because it’s so stupid, not because it’s funny. It’s a different kind of laughter. I call it “stupid shit.”
I’m glad that Renée Zellweger won Best Actress for Judy. Isn’t it strange that the Best Film of the Year, Parasite, and the Best International Film, did not have an actress or an actor nominated? Because if there was, they would have won over Renée Zellweger.
So Parasite was also the winner for achievement in directing, over Martin Scorsese for The Irishman, Todd Phillips for Joker, Sam Mendes for 1917, Quentin Tarantino for Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. But nooooo, Bong Joon Ho won Best Director for Parasite. Not only did I scratch my head, but I scratched my you-know-what.
Guess what else Parasite won? Best International Feature Film of the Year, over Corpus Christi, Honeyland, Pain and Glory, and Les Misérables. When they announced that—that it won over Les Misérables, directed by Ladj Ly—I almost shut the TV off. I didn’t yet see Parasite when that was announced, but I was thinking, “Boy, it must be a great film. Can’t wait to see it.” Needless to say, in company with the other films that I just mentioned, Parasite shouldn’t have even been on the list.
Well, I could go on forever, speaking of the injustice of Parasite winning all these awards, when it shouldn’t have won any—unless they won the award for “Most Elegant House Used In A Motion Picture.” But that’s about it.
I’m certain that all of the ones that lost, who were up against the elegant-house film, were thinking they really need to go see Parasite, based upon all the awards it won, and fell for the same political propaganda that I fell for and millions of other Americans and people around the world who watched the Oscars.
It just makes you think “I wonder who had a cut in the profits of that film?” because whoever did sure had some clout. It’s like when you watch a boxing match and you know who the winner is (very obviously the guy who almost knocked out the other guy 3-4 times during the fight), and then the judges give the fight to the loser, who usually is from another country.
I still watch boxing though, despite that it’s fixed sometimes. But I don’t know if I’m going to watch the Academy Awards next year. At least in boxing you could watch a good fight, if you don’t care about who wins, because it’s a good fight. But the Academy Awards, if you haven’t seen the films, you’re going to get buffaloed to spending $10, maybe $20 if you go with your wife, maybe more if you have grown children and take them, and it could be a $100 night with that popcorn, and drinks, and candy.
Hmm, I just realized who might be the ones getting the cut: the National Association of Theatre Owners. They have to do something to get people to stop watching Netflix on their TV monitors at home, to get them to get up, get out of the house, and go see a film, and pay for it. So I’d like to call Parasite “The Great American Sting.”