“For Best Supporting Actor, the award goes to Christopher Plummer, Beginners.”

That announcement has been made at the SAG Awards, the Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, the Golden Globes, and very well might be said at the upcoming Academy Awards. With such an across-the-board track record in awards, one would rightly think that this would be the performance that would everyone would be talking about. One rightly thinking would be wrong, and then “tarred-and-feathered” by uninformed, closed-minded people trolling the Internet.

In fact, more attention is being paid to how and where Bridesmaids get nominated and WHO THE FUCK snubbed Albert Brooks in Drive. The same attitude has been given towards Woody Allen cleaning up in the Best Original Screenplay category for Midnight in Paris.

How is it that when there is consensus agreement on who is the best/funniest/most original, etc., that there is no story to be had? How is no one talking about what everyone was calling great being awarded for being great?

It’s almost as if there is a collective thought that says, “Yeah, we know this is great/hilarious/amazing. We’re over it.” Yet, at the same time, there is a same collective thought posed by the same minds that says, “ROBBED! EVERYONE WAS ROBBED!” and can’t let it go. “That piece of shit should be up for a Razzie.”

This is not an endorsement that everyone should be in agreement on everything. With the SOPA scare, society is close enough to Orwell’s 1984 than it should ever be.

Christopher Plummer as Hal Fields is one of those amazing characters that will live on in the annals of cinema history. He plays a a former director at an art museum that’s dealing with his new identity as an older gay man, but hiding another new identity as a man dying of cancer. It’s one of those enlightening performances that make you question your own sensibilities in a very funny, endearing way. Yet, the “powers that be” that represent the deciding discourse in pop culture would rather focus on who isn’t getting nominated for an award that isn’t them.

Who wants the Oscars to be the “written-in-stone” opinion on the entire canon of cinema anyways? If you’re up for an Oscar or a close relative a person that’s nominated, it should matter. Outside of that, the Oscars are just a big pat on the back of the entertainment industry by the entertainment industry then broadcasted for all to see by said entertainment industry because it just can’t get enough of itself. The voting process for the Oscars itself is flawed to the point that actors who are members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have a considerable influence because they outnumber everyone else in the Academy.

So, instead of asking why Beginners isn’t getting more accolades because the AMPTAS might be biased against comedy, just don’t ask why at all. Tell your friends about it, how hysterical and captivating it is. Go buy it instead of illegally downloading it or even get on Netflix and watch it with other people. You don’t have to make a .gif of your favorite moment unless you want to and REALLY have enough free time. It’s the “word of mouth,” “the talking about,” etc. that supersedes what any organization that can afford a dozen or so metallic statuettes. Hordes of people go out of their way to not only see The Big Lebowski and Rocky Horror Picture Show, but they dress up in the most ridiculous costumes years after either movie had been released. That’s better than a statue.