I was really looking forward to watching “Selma” in a U.S. movie theater because I wanted to see the audience reaction (as I found out, the audience here very often reacts explicitly to what’s happening on the screen). Specially after the events that took place in Ferguson and in NY in the last few months (and I saw it on Martin Luther King Day). However, to my surprise, there was no reaction to this movie in the session I attended.
Nominated for 2 Oscars (best picture and best original song), “Selma” focuses on the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in 1965, led by Martin Luther King (David Oyelowo), to secure equal voting rights. It has good moments, but I felt it took too long for the story to actually “begin”. I get it that they were trying to establish the environment in which the events occurred, but they could have done that with shorter scenes, in my opinion.
Finally, I’ve heard a lot of complaints because (i) David Oyelowo wasn’t nominated for best actor and (ii) Ava DuVernay wasn’t nominated for best director and, as a result, all the actors nominated are white and all the directors nominated are men. Hopefully I won’t be misunderstood, but I honestly believe that the other 5 actors nominated did a better job than him and the 5 directors did a better job than her. It’s as simple as that to me. As a woman, I would love to see more women being nominated in a category dominated by men, but I’m also able to recognize when men do a better job, which is the case here, in my opinion. As for the actor category, it’s the most disputed one this year, with excellent performances by all of them. Including him just so there’s no complaint would be unfair to the others and would not solve the problem. If we really want to see more African American nominated, the directors and producers should cast more African American actors in movies. By the same token, if we want to see women nominated as best director, there has to be more opportunity for women to direct movies.
