The Oscars Do it Right By Giving "Parasite" The Big Awards

I did not watch the Oscars last night, no reason to, but when I woke up this morning I was pleasantly surprised at the news I saw.

A little preamble before I get into why I was happy. My wife has been sick the past two days, a smallish fever, and we were lounging in bed together watching TV. She asked me who was winning the awards because I was checking some news out on my phone. I told her I wasn't sure, as I had forgotten that the Oscars were on last night. So I googled the winners, and wasn't shocked at who had won at that point. Brad Pitt and Laura Dern won as expected. I am not too interested in the technical stuff. "Toy Story 4" won the animated feature award, but I haven't heard of the other four nominees. It was pretty much going as planned. I then saw that "Parasite", a movie you all know I am very high on, won original screenplay. I thought this was great. I wanted this movie to win every award, and am still a little annoyed none of the actors got nominated, so to see that it already won a pretty big award made me happy.

I then checked the major awards, and none of best actor, actress, director or movie had been given out. I thought this was weird because it was right around 2 and a half hours into the show. After seeing that "Parasite" won original screenplay, I then saw that it won best foreign film. This was when I told my wife that I would bet a good amount of money that this was the Academy's way of giving this great movie enough of their praise, and that they would fall into their normal habits. I assumed that Tarentino was going to get the director award because his movie is porn nostalgia for the boomer culture. I was pretty sure that Renee Zellwegger was going to get actress, and that DiCaprio was going to get actor, and truth be told, I still am unsure of who won each of those awards (editor’s note: Renee Zelwegger did win Best Actress, Joaquin Phoenix won Best Actor). And I was so certain that they would give "1917" best picture. For some weird reason the Academy is obsessed with war movies, and even though I haven't seen it, I'm sure "1917" is a solid war movie. I assumed "Parasite" was done winning awards.

This is where I get to why I was shockingly, and pleasantly, surprised when I woke up. First off, Bong Joon Ho won best director. This is amazing to me. He is one of my favorites, I have loved every movie of his I have seen, and I still think "Snowpiercer" was robbed when it got zero nominations. The fact that he won this award over guys like Sam Mendes, Tarentino, and stupid ass Todd Phillips, makes me so very, very, very happy. Of all the nominated movies I have seen, "Parasite" was far and away the best directed movies. Joon Ho has almost perfected his craft. He is becoming the Michael Jordan of directors. He and Jordan Peele are directing better than anyone out there right now. There, I said it. After seeing that Joon Ho won, I was even more amazed when I saw that "Parasite" won best picture.

This is astounding for so many reasons. First off, it is the first foreign language movie to win best picture. It is pissing off all the hipster movie fans who claim they "don't get it", or "what was with the third act" crowd. I adore Neal Brennan, and will be forever grateful that he co created "Chapelle's Show", but his little Twitter rant about this movie is why hipster people who claim to not like very, very good, award winning movies, are so pointless and dumb. It makes people who say this movie is no good sound dumb. "Parasite" is a god damn achievement.

Which brings me to my next point. This movie, as I wrote after I saw it, is not only great, but it is very important, and will be remembered and studied. It's not simply just a great movie, it is so, so, so much more. It is vital. It points out our obsession with material things. It tackles people's relentless drive to be wealthy. It is an important movie. I also love that the Academy is making up for last year, when they gave best picture to "Greenbook". That is the cliché movie, with the "white savior" character, that the Academy goes ape for. This year, they picked a foreign language film, with no real good or bad guys, and chose the movie with the best story that was told to perfection. They rarely do this, but this year, they got it 100 percent right.

Finally, I am also glad that the Academy strayed from the war movie, and the clown going insane movie and the nostalgia boomer porn and whatever other clichéd movie was nominated. They picked the right movie last night, and when they do the correct thing, I will sing their praises. I am thrilled that "Parasite" won the majority of the important awards last night. I'm glad it pisses off hipsters who claim they don't like, or don't get, the movie. I'm glad that someone other than a white person won the directing award. This was all good, and hopefully this is a sign of things to come. Maybe next year we can get some females and non white people nominated in the major categories as well.

Congrats to the Academy for doing the right thing last night, but importantly, congrats and thank you to Bong Joon Ho, and everyone that worked on the masterpiece that is "Parasite". All of these awards were well deserved.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

Follow Ty on instagram and twitter.

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.