The Most Overrated Movies of 2002

[dave durbin]

Here, here! I've always found the Academy to be nothing more than a big boys club that's easily turned off by an empowered -or strongly passionate- woman. (I'm not forgetting Chicago; I think it's easy for some heteorsexual men to respond to its females because they're not real.) The Hours is being praised to the high heavens and has lots of nominations but really it's just a slick gloss job that feeds off (some) men's attitudes towards women: they're lonely, they're emotional, they're never happy, they're confused, they're crazy, I don't understand them, blah-blah. The last few years especially have shown that it's obviously a male dominated community (Hollywood) and it only favors stories where the dominant alpha male carries the film: American Beauty, Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, The Green Mile, The Insider, The English Patient, Forrest Gump, Braveheart, Unforgiven, Platoon, Rain Man, Amadeus, etc. If you go back and look at the winners and the nominatees for Best Picture over the past few years you'll see what I mean. A few films snuck in there that had strong female roles (Titanic, Silence, Shakespeare) but otherwise the dawn of feminism has yet to see the light in Tinsel Town. It's a shame because I feel there's more depth and complexity with women and their stories: i.e. compare Frida with A Beautiful Mind or American Beauty or Gladiator.