Failed Oscar Campaigns: "Battle of the Sexes" (2017)

Scene from Battle of the Sexes

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.

Review: "Battle of the Sexes" is a Fun Yet Uneven Match of Two Great Performances

Scene from Battle of the Sexes

Even if the film takes place in 1973, the rhetoric in Battle of the Sexes should sound a bit familiar. It's a contest to see whether men are better than women, and the cameras are on a self-proclaimed chauvinist named Bobby Riggs (Steve Carrell) and female activist Billie Jean King (Emma Stone). If it is a reminder of the 2016 presidential election, then co-directors Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton have succeeded thanks to a script littered with scenes and phrases meant to invoke a social liberal utopia. The match is a metaphor for greater change in the world. While the film does an adequate job by its characters, there's a certain underlying tragedy to 1973 going a bit differently than 2016. As upbeat as Battle of the Sexes is, it can't help but feel a bit deluded from the surrounding conversation. It's an enjoyable biopic, but maybe has its heart too much in the right place.

At 10 Years Old, "Little Miss Sunshine" is Still a Proud Super Freak

Scene from Little Miss Sunshine

It was the Little film that could. When one reads the plot description to co-directors Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton's Little Miss Sunshine, you'll be forgiven for thinking that it's stretching for laughs. The central cast features a beauty pageant dreamer, a failed salesman father, an aspiring fighter pilot son who remains silent, and a drug-addled grandfather. It's the stuff that would barely work in Arrested Development, yet somehow came to define an unprecedented indie hit that among other things received a Best Picture nomination along with a Best Supporting Actor win for Alan Arkin. It was a comedy that challenged the notion of dysfunctional families while also connecting on something deeper and more human. After 10 years, it still is a film that captures the essence of following your dreams, even if you're shut out for being different. It may have a lot of bizarre tassels to get over, but what it ends up being is sweet, sincere, and one of the most original independent comedies in recent history.