The Buzzmeter: Can Brad Pitt's and F1 Invite the Public Back to the Oscars?

COVID brought Hollywood to its knees in 2020, quickly followed by a strident ideology that spread like a virus. Before long, Hollywood became a ghost town. You would not have noticed this if you existed inside the bubble, as almost everyone in Hollywood and everyone who covers Hollywood does. They can decide who gets to stay and who must go. With that power comes control but also fear. No one dares to speak up and speak out, or even dissent or even tell the truth.

Hollywood is still, for ten years running, like this Twilight Zone:

We kept waiting for things to "get back to normal" but they never did. That's because Hollywood is part of the utopia we built on the Left that we believed was permanent. Then Trump won the first time, and mass hysteria spread. Then, it was ten years of "cancel culture" in an effort to purge the undesirables from the utopia/dystopia. They're still at it. If they see anyone in their midst who might be ONE OF THOSE THINGS, a heterodox thinker or a--gasp--Trump voter, they are prepared with their reporters to out them publicly, Invasion of the Body Snatchers style.

Some think it's all over now. I hoped it would be. That was one of the reasons I voted for Trump. I thought if he won, perhaps the mass delusion would finally end. But alas, it hasn't. I'm afraid the utopians, or Woketopians, are not going out without a fight. They think that if they can just destroy Trump, one last cancel, harmony will be restored to the Land of Oz.

But Trump is really more like Goldstein in 1984 than the Wicked Witch in The Wizard of Oz. He's used as a cudgel to mobilize, fundraise, and get people out into the streets and voting. He is also a convenient villain for those at the top (rich, white men) to point to him and his supporters—see, he's the bad thing. Not us. We're good.

People like me, people who are still free to say whatever we want and aren't afraid so much of the mob anymore, or the powers that be -- what else can they do to me, after all -- are a dying breed. What dominates film coverage now is conformity. If you conform, you get to stay. If you do not, out you go.

To that degree, Hollywood hasn't recovered and probably won't ever recover. A whole industry will have to be built anew, with films or art being produced outside the system. What the conformists do, AI can do faster, better and without guilt. AI can work long hours, doesn't need to be paid, and won't sue you for harassment or discrimination. That's what's coming next -- AI because conformity is the death of art, comedy, journalism, and yes, blogging.

Like Barbenheimer, Top Gun Maverick was the movie that almost saved Hollywood. It was made before the strident rules and mandates overtook Hollywood, and thus, it didn't come off like gun-to-the-head hostage videos like so many of the films we see now do. But did it save Hollywood? No, but people remember it fondly as the last time they really loved going to the movies.

I saw Sinners that way too. It didn't make the same money as Top Gun Maverick, especially as people on TikTok wanted it to be more political than it is. It deserves to be seen as a movie too, not just a movie with a message. The more political it is, the more it's used as a "white people are the true evil" kind of film, the less it will appeal to voters, or maybe the opposite is true. Maybe people l like Jimmy Kimmel and Jane Fonda will vote for it for that reason. I think it works as a work of art.

The box office is returning to something semi-normal, but films still don't make money -- like Thunderbolts. It is very different from how the box office used to look.

Take, for example, 2015:

And now look at 2019, just before COVID hit.

And the Top Gun Maverick year, 2022:

That kind of money that year, 2022, when there were just a handful of other major hits, was astonishing. It was enough for the film to be considered for the Oscars, even if it was still a heavy lift for that crowd to pick such a crowdpleaser. I was among those -- or maybe the only Oscar pundit -- strongly advocating for it to get nominated. That was the year Everything, Everywhere All At Once won Best Picture.

I think only Top Gun Maverick will stand the test of time. Maybe All Quiet on the Western Front, but that's it.

F1: The Movie looks a lot like Top Gun Maverick on paper. It stars an older Brad Pitt, and the younger driver, Damson Idris (more or less modeled after super champ Lewis Hamilton), and is centered on Formula One racing. F1 has no reviews yet, but the buzz from the screenings was positive. Like Top Gun Maverick, it's not seen as an "Oscar movie" by the pundits. It sits at about #23 on the Awards Expert app of most predicted.

But all an "Oscar movie" should mean is that it is a good movie that people saw and loved. That's it. It doesn't always have to be something only people who read The New Yorker think is good. It can also be something everyone thinks is good.

Whether this is that movie, I don't know. I'm not getting any special treatment like many other Oscar pundits invited early to see it. I'll be seeing it with an audience in a movie theater like the rest of the Proles, but I'll be looking forward to it as a major fan of Top Gun Maverick.

Brad Pitt has not lost any of his appeal. He's as good-looking and compelling a movie star as ever.

It shouldn't be that hard to find a spot in the Academy's top ten of the year, which is still meant to draw films from different genres, rather than always the same genre. It will have to make money, like maybe even Top Gun Maverick money (there is no way it makes that much, though). It has to be enough for it to have a reason why people might choose it as their favorite film of the year.

I wish I knew those in the Academy who chose Top Gun Maverick, because whoever they are, that is what the Academy needs more of. People with tastes that reflect the tastes of the movie-going public. It's a pipe dream, I know, but so what? Dreaming is free.

The only question is whether some controversy will bubble up over Brad Pitt's divorce from Angelina Jolie. It shouldn't matter—that's their private business. But it's worth mentioning because the Academy will not need a reason not to vote for a crowdpleaser. If anything, they have to be forced into voting for one.

It shouldn't be that actors and films must pass a purity test to get into the Oscars now, but is anyone going to pretend they don't? I'm sorry it all ended this way. I grew up in a different time when the artists supported imperfection and complicated, messy lives. That isn't true now because Hollywood, like so much of the Left, has cast itself as the morally superior side, and they believe they are "good." They want to be seen as "good."

They silence dissent to the degree that they leave people with no choice but to either go along with them or risk exile. I know that the only thing I've ever really loved about the internet, about running this site, and about speaking out on social media is freedom—freedom of thought. Without it, we might as well be AI. But the climate of fear is such that people might shy away from anything they think might generate controversy. I hope not. We'll see.

We could be looking at an Oscar race where these movies are nominated:

Sinners
Wicked for Good
F1: The Movie
The Housemaid
Avatar: Fire and Ash

That would be a strong lineup to fill up the ten slots in a way that makes sense for Hollywood and for the Oscars. Will that happen? I will try to help make it happen if the films are worthy, but there is only so much a canceled Oscar blogger can do inside the bubble.