I’m mad about Mudbound. I just decided how mad I’m going to be about Mudbound and that’s very. Very mad. There wasn’t much else to get fired up over this year so I’m going to pour all of my frustrations over missed nominations and people who went home empty-handed who shouldn’t have (ahem, MARY J. BLIGE, ahem) into justice for Mudbound.
There were a lot of montages last night. To me, it seemed like Mudbound was heavily featured in many of these montages and yet, it wasn’t nominated for Best Picture. Its director, Dee Rees, was not nominated for Best Director. Rachel Morrison became the first Oscar-nominated female cinematographer, which is amazing, but she didn’t win. Mary J. Blige garnered a much-deserved acting nomination but we all knew she was going to lose to Allison Janney. That’s OK. What’s not OK is that Mary J. Blige lost the Best Song category to Coco’s Remember Me. I f-cking loved Coco but that song is sh-t. No disrespect to Miguel, Natalia Lafourcade and Gael Garcia Bernal. Mad disrespect to Gael Garcia Bernal’s voice though. That was painful.
Compared to Mary J. Blige’s breathtaking, mid-song standing ovation- inducing, GLORIOUS rendition of Mighty River, that Coco performance looked like a local adult community theatre production. Good lord, this performance. People started standing halfway through because they realized it would be disrespectful not to stand while witnessing THAT. Mary DID THAT. Right before the choir kicked in, I swear I had a spiritual experience when she hit that note.
I’ve been writing all award season that Mary J. Blige went through a painful divorce and channelled that into her performance in Mudbound. She brought the same vulnerability and gut-wrenching authenticity to this performance. Can an Oscar performance win an Oscar? GIVE MARY J. BLIGE HER OSCAR.
I’m mad that Mary J. Blige didn’t win. I’m really mad that Mudbound didn’t get the chance to compete for Best Picture when it is a classic Oscar-bait movie. It’s a beautifully-constructed period piece with stellar performances. My theory is that if a director with more industry “experience” than Dee Rees had directed Mudbound, it would have been in there. But Netflix! Mudbound was probably just a victim of the Academy’s reluctance to get on board with Netflix releases and streaming services and blah, blah, blah, the movie is BRILLIANT. I’m mad.
I’m just going to stare at Mary J. Blige’s ridiculously good Versace dress and hope the next time she’s nominated, the Academy puts some more respect on her name.
