With last night's surprising upset of Moonlight over La La Land for Best Picture, I was thinking about how unusual it was for an independent critical darling to win the Oscar and if this has been changing over the past couple decades. Are Best Picture winners getting better, or, at least, more critically respectable? One way to examine this would be to compare the Academy Awards with a critical consensus website like Metacritic, which aggregrates critic scores to produce a number out of 100. Below are the results, with the number next to the Oscar winner indicating its Metacritic ranking for the year (if not #1) as well as the Oscar winner if Metacritic chose from the nominees (if different than actual winner) and the Metacritic # 1 of the year (again, if different).
Year Oscar
Winner Metacritic Winner Metacritic #1
2016 Moonlight
2015 Spotlight
(4) Carol
2014 Birdman
(16) Boyhood
2013 12 Years
a Slave
2012 Argo (11) Zero Dark Thirty
2011 The
Artist (6) A Separation
2010 The King’s
Speech (8) The Social Network
2009 The Hurt
Locker
2008 Slumdog
Millionaire (6) 4
Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
2007 No
Country for Old Men (5) There Will Be
Blood Ratatouille
2006 The
Departed (13) The Queen Pan’s Labyrinth
2005 Crash
(129) Capote The Best of
Youth
2004 Million
Dollar Baby (9) Sideways
2003 The Lord
of the Rings 3
2002 Chicago
(23) The Lord of
the Rings 2 Spirited Away
2001 A
Beautiful Mind (80) The Lord of
the Rings 1
2000 Gladiator
(122) Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon
1999 American Beauty
(8) Topsy-Turvy
1998 Shakespeare
in Love (3) Saving Private Ryan
1997 Titanic
(21) L.A.
Confidential Maborosi
1996 The
English Patient (3) Secrets and
Lies
1995 Braveheart
(30) Sense and
Sensibility Toy Story
Another alternative would be to use the Rotten Tomatoes aggregrate, which uses an Adjusted Score based on number of reviews (as well as a binary fresh/rotten grade). Here would be the results:
Year Oscar
Winner RT Winner RT
#1
2016 Moonlight
2015 Spotlight
(3) Mad Max Fury Road
2014 Birdman (15) Boyhood
2013 12 Years
a Slave (2) Gravity
2012 Argo
2011 The
Artist (2) Harry
Potter 7 (Part2)
2010 The King’s
Speech (5) Toy Story 3
2009 The Hurt
Locker (2) Up
2008 Slumdog
Millionaire (8) Milk The
Wrestler
2007 No
Country for Old Men (3) Ratatouille
2006 The
Departed (6) The Queen Casino
Royale
2005 Crash (101) good night, and
good luck Murderball
2004 Million
Dollar Baby (15) Sideways The Incredibles
2003 The Lord
of the Rings 3 (2) Finding
Nemo
2002 Chicago
(27) The Lord of
the Rings 2
2001 A
Beautiful Mind (71) The Lord of
the Rings 1 Monsters Inc
2000 Gladiator
(47) Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Chicken Run
1999 American Beauty
(11) The Insider Toy Story 2
1998 Shakespeare
in Love (3) The
Truman Show
1997 Titanic (4) L.A. Confidential
1996 The
English Patient (22) Fargo When We
Were Kings
1995 Braveheart
(30) Babe Toy
Story
Looking at the two charts, there does appear to be a slight trend towards critical favorites. There hasn't been a Best Picture winner not in the Top 20 of either the Metacritic or Rotten Tomatoes list since 2005, when the now notorious Crash upset Brokeback Mountain (although interestingly Capote and good night, and good luck were the more acclaimed films). The most "controversial" winner since 2005 was Birdman from 2014, and even that film was critically respected if not adored. The consensus has turned against The Artist from 2011, but it was no. 6 and no.2 on Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes respectively and was higher ranked than any of its fellow nominees.
The clear down period is 2000-2002, with Gladiator (122 and 47), A Beautiful Mind (80 and 71), and Chicago (22 and 27) all much less respected by critics than the Academy. These are also the type of films, perhaps, that are becoming harder to make in the streaming, blockbuster franchise world, and need critical consensus if they are to thrive. Chicago and La La Land are an instructive comparison here, with director Damien Chazelle's indie cred and art cinema influences giving his film the critical respect needed to compete in today's Oscar race. Initial lukewarm reviews similar to those of Chicago, one guesses, would have sunk its chances. And even with its box office success and high critical notices (5 and 4), it still lost, to the type of small, seemingly niche film that would have only been considered a contender at the Independent Spirit Awards a decade ago.
What is also intriguing is that movies that now have less critical respect, such as American Beauty, Shakespeare in Love, and The English Patient from the late 90s, were critical as well as Academy favorites at the time. Thus, the convergence of Oscars and critics is not to be exaggerated. They have always been closer than perhaps we collectively imagine or remember. But as movies recede in cultural influence and Hollywood can no longer pretend in the franchise age that its box office monster hits have middlebrow critical cred, we may see the critical favorites achieve more success. In other words, it seems less likely we will have another Crash again. And if nothing else, that's a positive.
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