I haven't seen Into the Spider-Verse, but on you guys' recommendation, I'll definitely check it out.
But just wanted to point out that I think BP was nominated not because it had Black characters - there are a lot of movies, every year, that do feature Black actors; but instead, because it was so well put together, and became a cultural phenomena, and because it was truly a good movie.
In saying that though, I've come to realize there is a disconnect between what Black people think about Black Panther, and non-Black people. And there's nothing wrong with that.. I experience cultural disconnects every fucking day being married to a foreigner. But to give you an idea, I saw the movie with friends as well as my wife; and my Asian friends thought it was great but ... they didn't really get it (oddly, my Mexican friends did). My wife, who is Asian, didn't really get it either, but she thought it was still great.
But Black men and women in the audience do understand the symbolism and the narrative, and the subtle challenges and push-backs in the film because Ryan Coogler spent no time explaining Black culture through exposition but instead just immersing the film within it.
Now understandably, this isn't a majority Black country, and the Academy isn't a majority Black institution; so, there's reason to believe that most of the Academy members, like most audience members, won't see the film in the same light as African-American audiences.
Many will think that it's a cultural phenomena, and there's tremendous buzz, but that the art itself is lacking compared to other films that have been nominated. I think that's understandable, and that's why I think so many are pushing the film right now because the narrative, scope, and messaging in the movie is actually fundamentally Black, that it's very easy to miss. For many, it might be analogous to watching a Japanese movie that's immersed in Japanese culture, not meant for export, and then trying to really understand it (an exercise that I've frequently done in the past, and it's not intuitive).
And BP is actually a lot like this - it's actually quite a bit like a foreign film in that, the symbolism and cultural undertones that are weaved throughout the movie are so uncommon on the big screen that they might seem alien - and simply tolerated as being a far out vision of a comic book. In that process, the subtlety of what Coogler is doing is likely lost, because what's happening on the screen is minimized in the process. The gravity of the personal experience he's presenting, yes through the lens of a superhero, isn't as well understood or appreciated by non-Black audiences, and again, simply due to not living that experience and already being in that culture. And admittedly, part of that lack of understanding is a failure on the director for not conveying it in a way that it could be understood - however, I think Coogler deliberately avoided too much exposition as a statement to make the counterfactual normative claim that 'this should require no explanation.'
Now, all this being said, do I think BP is the greatest film of all time? No. It's probably not in my Top 10 or even Top 20 films. I'm not sure if it's even close. So I want to say that to establish some ground truth here - the film is often overrated by many, but also underrated by some as well.
But compared to it's contemporaries, the current nominees for Best Picture - I can't see how or why BP would lose?
Bohemian Rhapsody is among the worst movies nominated; but it's nomination was assured since it's a biographical portrayal and these films historically do the best at the Oscars. The same goes for Vice, and The Favourite.
BlacKKKlansman, and A Star is Born are obviously both high-reviewed and well liked films, but I wasn't a fan of ASB even though I did think the movie was very well put together. I find myself having a hard time actually agreeing that these movies were better than Black Panther; or even some of the nominees from last year including The Shape of Water, Lady Bird, Dunkirk or Get Out.
Now, obviously much of this is subjective, and I haven't really delved into what I think makes BP such an awesome film (I've done that a few times already in this thread); but, I just wanted to establish the framework with which I'm operating in 2019 and why I would say BP should win Best Picture (and yes, I think it absolutely should).
IMO, if BP were not to win, given how beloved it is, how well received it was, how well made it was, and how powerful that movie is to those who it was intended for (which is not automatic, again, look at the numerous films with Black actors in them); then I think that would probably illustrate just how wide the gulf is between the Academy and African-American culture. And again, that isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it'd be an interesting observation nonetheless.
