Over the weekend, I had the chance to see The Wrestler, Darren Aronofsky's unflinching look at the life of aging, broken down professional wrestler Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke, seen below performing his finishing move, the Ram Jam). And you know what? It makes me want to throw around words like 'brilliant' and 'stunning' and 'elegiac'. But those words don't capture the sheer power of this movie. Surely, I thought to myself, this movie will sweep the Oscars.
But then I realized that it won't. And do you know why? BECAUSE IT WASN'T NOMINATED. No Best Picture, no Best Cinematography, no Best Director, no Best Screenplay. Sure, Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei got nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role and Best Actress in a Supporting Role, but this movie deserves so much more.
I know the Oscars have a history of just plain getting it wrong. Chicago. Titanic. The English Patient. Shakespeare in Love. A Beautiful Mind. Million Dollar Baby. And don't even get me started on Crash. That very well may have been the worst movie of 2006. To not even nominate The Wrestler for awards that it so clearly deserves frustrates me to no end.
Lucy, you say, how can you possibly say that this movie deserves recognition when you haven't even seen the other nominees? That's easy. Because The Wrestler is objectively the greatest movie of the 21st century.
So, in response to its failure to recognize objective greatness, I am adding the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to my Enemy List. God help the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences if I ever run into its collective membership in a dark alley, because if I do, I will treat each of them to some facetime with Sweet Lady Brick.
Oh, and in case you are wondering, I am removing my bookie, Lenny Grabowski, from the Enemy List because we've reconciled and he's agreed to allow me to bet the balance of my 529 Plan on a Steelers' victory this weekend in Tampa.
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