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I admit I said Andrea who?  I initially confused her with Alba Rohrwacher, whom I had seen in I Am Love and Hungry Hearts.  So, I checked out Andrea Riseborough on IMDb and found she had small roles in Birdman, Nocturnal Animals and a few other movies I had seen.  I was finally able to place her.  

There has been a lot of fuss made about her nomination but pinning the blame on her for Viola Davis and Danielle Deadwyler being passed over is a bit much.  I haven't seen any of the movies in question so I can't really say who deserves an Oscar nomination, but I was struck by no women being nominated for Best Director after women won the last two Director awards.  This seemed to be the greater controversy, if we have to generate one. #OscarSoMale

Cate Blanchett called it a patriarchal pyramid in her acceptance speech at the Critics Choice Awards.  She sounded genuinely caught off guard by the best actress award but soon used the moment to praise all the actresses nominated for the award, including Viola and Danielle, and those not nominated such as Andrea Riseborough.  This seemed to be the beginning of the #AndreaForOscar movement that got the Academy all upset.  Andrea's Academy friends, which included past winners Kate Winslet and Gwyneth Paltrow, held screening parties and made sure all their Academy friends knew who Andrea was.  I suppose you can say it is a white girl thing.  When they cast their ballots they made sure Andrea was on the list.

The problem though is how Hollywood sees the White people vs. Black people confrontation.  I tried to watch You People last night and it was a cringe fest.  I gave up after the scene where Ezra meets Amira's parents.  His parents, played by David Duchovny and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, were bad enough but now Eddie Murphy played a disgruntled "Mr. Tibbs" blaming his wife (Nia Long) for her mixed parentage as steering their daughter in the wrong direction.  It was supposed to be a comedy but it felt that Kenya Barris, the director, was going out of his way to make everyone feel uncomfortable for no reason at all.  Is miscegenation really still a thing?

Hollywood's general view of Blacks remains one mired in the Civil Rights era, given some of the big productions we have seen of late like Green Book and Till.  Basically, it is a way of redressing the past.  A mea culpa, if you will, for all the wrongs that have been committed.  I was surprised Will Smith didn't get another nomination for his portrayal of a runaway slave during the Civil War, but then he is still held in disgrace for last year's slap.  

Most people like contemporary movies.  At least You People got that right, even if Barris was essentially bending Look Who's Coming to Dinner every which way but loose.  We are made to feel guilty for harboring all these racial tropes, even if most of us don't even think about them anymore or never did to begin with.

This was the problem I had with Spike Lee movies.  He was always bludgeoning the viewer over the head with these guilt trips.  I put off watching BlacKkKlansman for a long time but finally did on Netflix and was surprised to see a much more witty film than I imagined.  I'm glad he finally won an Oscar for his screenplay.

This OscarSoWhite hash tag has worn thin.  The Academy is trying to redress its past sins of omission not just in regard to Blacks but also to the Asian and Hispanic communities, which it had similarly ignored for so many years.  The 2023 nominations are loaded with Asian performers, and Ana de Armas is deservedly nominated for Best Actress for her performance in Blonde.  A young Cuban woman convincingly playing Marilyn Monroe.  How's that for role reversals!

Yet, for some reason Andrea Riseborough comes off as the "bad girl" for cleverly finding a way to circumvent the nomination process by appealing to Academy voters directly, thereby stealing a place at the table from Viola Davis and Danielle Deadwyler.  You have to admit that took a lot of pluck!  Maybe it is as Cate Blanchett said, a patriarchal pyramid, and we shouldn't pay any attention to these award shows.  Recognize everyone, she shouted, insisting that no one performance is better than another.  Of course, it is easy to say when you are the winner, but I think she really meant it.  

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