Failed Oscar Campaigns: The Weinstein Company

As awards seasons pick up, so do the campaigns to make your film have the best chances at the Best Picture race. However, like a drunken stupor, sometimes these efforts come off as trying too hard and leave behind a trailer of ridiculous flamboyance. Join me on every other Saturday for a highlight of the failed campaigns that make this season as much about prestige as it does about train wrecks. Come for the Harvey Weinstein comments and stay for the history. It's going to be a fun time as I explore cinema's rich history of attempting to matter.

The Movie

The Movie

The concluding column of this year's Failed Oscar Campaigns was originally set up to be about Tulip Fever, which is a film about the tulip-smuggling business with plenty of erotic scenes thrown in for good measure. In a lot of ways, it's the quintessential failed campaign because of how it refused to gain traction. But then the real story came about while contemplating how to write about it. This was The Weinstein Company's final shot at any Oscar glory given their current trajectory. So, instead of attacking a film that was shelved and barely released, I have decided to dedicate this entry to the campaign that failed harder than any film: The Weinstein Company themselves. It wasn't long ago that they were gaining Best Picture nominations and wins, but upon a recent announcement of its bankruptcy, that isn't going to happen ever again, and thus an era of film is officially over, though it'll be tough to grapple with its legacy.

Remove the forces being The Weinstein Company, and it's easy to see why they're a powerhouse in the film industry. They have produced so many great movies with talented directors that it's impossible to not feel dirty when adding objectivity. These aren't necessarily just films that reflect the sadistic forces behind the company, but titles that embody groundbreaking and progressive cinema that has changed, even improved the medium in infinite ways. If adding Miramax to the equation, the impact of these two companies is hard to ignore, if just because it has been ingrained as the essential indie powerhouse studio for over a decade. It would be difficult to topple someone with a catalog that rich.

But 2017 was one of the company's most influential years ever for a different, and more negative reason. If you add objectivity to the equation, suddenly it's impossible to praise the likes of Harvey Weinstein, who was an Oscar campaign manipulator unlike any other. Still, there was an air to him that he was always a bit creepy and manipulative in another way. While I can't avoid saying that I like movies from The Weinstein Company as recently as 2015's Carol, I think it's a relief that things have taken the turn that they have. In some ways, it benefits from the various Failed Oscar Campaign columns I've written in previous years, detailing Weinstein's inability to land Oscar nominations, or even market a movie as successfully as he once did. Still, it was present in the Golden Globes opening monologue as to how much this one man changed Hollywood in 2017. To quote Reese Witherspoon, time's up. This is the end of an era, whether we like it or not.

The Campaign

As I said before when this news originally broke, I don't wish to participate too directly with detailed accounts of sexual harassment. This is a blog about cinema first and foremost. I will fully endorse the idea that what Weinstein did was reprehensible and he needs to have legal action taken against him. I believe all of the women who have come out against him, and the stories are just too disturbing and detailed to avoid derailing this piece entirely. With that said, I have trouble ignoring the belief that this year's defining theme has been the Me Too campaign, where women have spoken out against injustice in the patriarchy. I apologize if this has seemed too redundant and common in Failed Oscar Campaigns (especially in Manchester By the Sea, Wonder Woman, and Wonder Wheel entries), but it has been something that has felt more prominent, sinking campaigns that probably would've done so hot in any other given year. This is an overview and not meant as a definitive record of events.

In some ways, the story starts when Weinstein is at his most vulnerable. While Lion had acquired Oscar nominations including Best Picture, the era of The Weinstein Company topping awards season was waning. There's even been years where the studio didn't get an Oscar nomination. Even in 2015, one could look at the misguided releases of films like Burnt and Carol and see a studio desperately trying to capture its former glory. All things considered, Tulip Fever was both their Oscar push and the sign that things were about to turn nasty. It was a poorly received prestige period piece that had been shelved, producing very little interest thanks to bad marketing - a usual height of The Weinstein Company releases. Instead, it whimpered and failed to receive any traction by the time a bigger news story came out, and one that would consume the entertainment industry for the rest of the year.

The story broke in October 2017 suggesting that over a dozen women accused the producer of sexual assault and even rape. In the months to come, the number ballooned to triple digits, and actresses like Rose McGowan would write detailed accounts of their uncomfortable times with Weinstein. His image was shattered. Everyone came out against him and broke the silence for one of Hollywood's worst kept secrets, especially considering that Seth MacFarlane once joked about Weinstein's misdeeds five years prior when announcing the Oscar nominations. It's been known, but now it was going to destroy Weinstein's career. The history of a manipulative man who did everything to keep tabs on his enemies to the point of hiring secret organizations to blackmail others proved that he was worse than could be imagined. It's the type of revelations that make you relieved for anyone who could publicly break ties with him, even in his own family (though brother Bob Weinstein wasn't without his own controversial behavior).

It started an avalanche that would come to be called the Me Too movement. It was in which women and some men would recount examples of sexual assault. The names even included men like the muscular Terry Crewes, suggesting that the issue was far more complex than one could understand. It's a move that caused Kevin Spacey to be removed from All the Money in the World, Louis C.K.'s I Love You Daddy to never be released, and arguably why Woody Allen's Wonder Wheel is the worst performing film from the director period. 2017 wasn't the first time that sexual assaulters were brought to question (Bill Cosby and the president both had notoriety before Day 1 of the year), but it was the first time that it was a major phenomenon, with news stories breaking almost weekly. Not only that, but actors were being blacklisted from formerly budding careers. One could even argue that it's why Casey Affleck backed out of this year's Oscars presentation gig, if just because of the imminent backlash to come.

Even if the list has grown, Weinstein will always be the name that comes first when people think of rapists in Hollywood in 2017. It's easy to see why, largely because he has a more serialized and demoralizing approach than any other person who was accused. It also forced actors to publicly condemn him for giving them careers, including Kevin Smith who donated what he saw as the sum of money he made from Weinstein to charity. While there were some more controversial takes, such as by Quentin Tarantino or Ben Affleck, it was the moment where The Weinstein Company had to accept defeat. Their dirty secrets were revealed and symbolized a corrupt portion of Hollywood's history. There was no choice but to change the name, or face a bankruptcy that only a few years prior would've seemed ridiculous.

The Payoff

While it's not the most direct message to takeaway, the success of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri during awards season would suggest a symbolic version of Weinstein's demise. It's a story about a woman seeking revenge for a system that let her down. It's not hard to see the parallels, though the film is also cryptic in how it deals with redemption and whether it is ever deserved. Other films such as I, Tonya reflect another side to the equation in which women get a more fair representation in the media after being denied that right. The Me Too movement pushed hard to make this year especially inclusive of female stories, which in another way is perfectly symbolized by the comparatively quaint Lady Bird, which shows a teenage girl figuring out her identity in mid-00's California.

Unlike most other years, this is one that feels like it's going to mark significant change. Along with Me Too, Hollywood has created the Time's Up movement in order to bring awareness to sexual harassment issues, and has even instated on set rules for filming to combat this. Even if this is the first year where The Weinstein Company wouldn't be allowed within five continents of The Oscars, its influence is definitely felt. People are changing their mentality about men using their power irresponsibly, and now they're also having careers revoked as a result. The question now is how much of that will stick in the future, and will the change be effective enough to make future generations of filmmakers safer.

The ironic capper to The Weinstein Company story is not only that the company went bankrupt, but that it happened the week before the Oscars ceremony. It's usually the moment where campaigns are getting their last push in and headlining every website's prediction polls. This is where Tulip Fever could've been if Weinstein's reputation wasn't ruined. In fact, four or five other movies from the studio could've been here instead of being shelved and sold to other distributors if things were different (though one of them, Paddington 2 has been a sleeper hit in recent months). Still, it's a time of great change, and one can only hope that this is the start to something greater, even if it will be difficult to convince a new generation to love anything with Weinstein's name on. The man was horrid, and unfortunately some masterpieces will suffer as a result. It's just the reality we're living in.