Foxtrot Oscar

"Show me someone who's genuinely interested in glamour and I'll ask you why you've introduced me to your twat of a friend."

After reading that, think I may have fallen a little in Love with David Mitchell. Despite appearances, he is quite a badass. This was one of the objections he raised in last weekend's Observer column. He was sick and tired of the annual pomp, sensationalism and high profile nonsense which surrounds the Oscars. And he has a point. The cult surrounding the ceremony is so waaaaay out of proportion to its significance.

Even the panel of judges who aren't incredible authorities on film. Honestly - did you know that 14 year old Dakota Fanning is a member of the guild? I'm not saying that the majority of guild members aren't terribly talented. But I do feel that they represent a very narrow set of perspectives on film, and the ingredients which produce a good film.

I mean, what is a good film? A film that makes you feel so upset you cry, a film that tells you about a world and events you knew nothing about? Yes. Maybe. Probably. But haven't we seen all those things MANY MANY MANY times before? If this is what we're after lets just run a cocktail of Schindler's list, titanic, and Steel Magnolias from now until eternity.

It isn't exactly breaking down the boundaries.

Even the 'thoughtful' one-sided representation of the world of film and does not deserve to be taken as seriously as it is. Frankly, I feel like all it takes to get considered for a best motion picture award is a bit of budget, take on a tricky historical topic but deliver it only through the channel of a heart-rending love story to make it more palatable to the masses who have already been brainwashed by decades of Oscarism teaching them that a good film has a goodie, a baddie and a moral. It's patronising crap. And makes it so so terribly difficult for all those interesting film makers out there. The oscars are just SO uninteresting.

I've never really cared or understood the Oscars and always attributed this to the fact that I'm not much of a film fiend. But that is often because I feel like most films are crap. They really are. Perhaps I was spoiled by poncy (as some might say) foreign language movies in formative years French and Spanish cinema studies at uni. Nonetheless, spending a tenner to go to the cinema to watch a hollywood film where it is entirely clear within the first 20 minutes who the baddie is, who you must hate, who you must like, what the moral of the story is going to be... harumph.

I'd rather spend the money on a new top. Which, ironically lumps me into David Mitchell's 'twat of a friend' category.