Something’s
in the air, and it’s not spring fever, whooping cough, or love.
A
few days ago my mom said something to me about all of the positively
rated movies in theaters now. A popular movie review site that I’ve
mentioned frequently in posts, rottentomatoes.com,
as of November 28th
has
eight positively-reviewed movies that are included in the top box
office, which includes ten total. That’s a really strong percentage
but, for this time of the year, completely normal.
“Do
you smell that, Mom?” I asked. “It’s Oscar season.” (She
answered with a, “What the hell are you talking about, Mason?”,
but that’s not important. I was right.)
Any
movie that wants a good chance at winning an Oscar in February is
released a month or two before the deadline for nominations is. That
way, the movie (actors, script, director, even the sound-mixing and
cinematography (whatever the hell that is)) is fresh in the voters’
memory when they get their ballot in the mail.
I
mean, imagine if Obama had only campaigned for the 2012 election at
the beginning of his first term of office and Mitt Romney campaigned
for a year up to voting day. Hardly anyone would even remember
Obama’s campaign, Romney would’ve probably won, and we would now
be getting ready for that.
Since
late October, the number of movies certified as “rotten” (meaning
less than 60% of critics gave it a good review) on RT has gone down
each week. The weekend of the 26th, the number of “fresh”
movies was only three (two of them barely making the cut). The first
weekend of November had four, then there were two weeks of six. Now
the number is eight.
I
have sort of a love-hate relationship with this pattern. I go to the
movie theater a lot more often during this time of the year and my
parents leave me home alone to do the same (which I totally love
because then I can do whatever I want, which usually ends up being
watching movies on TV or going on Tumblr; this is ironic because it’s
what I do when they’re home, too). The hate part comes in when I
open my wallet to see if I have enough money to see a fourth or fifth
movie for that month. I don’t. (About
the worst time for a bunch of awesome movies to be released is during
the buy-a-gift-for-everyone-you’ve-ever-talked-to (pronounced
kris-muh s)
season.) Instead I have to sit in my house, watching movies on TV or
going on Tumblr.
Because
most of the hard-hitting, amazingly-written, well-acted, perfectly
edited movies are released in the last few months of the year, this
leads January and February to be kind of a crap sack. And not that
great movies don’t get released during the first nine months of the
year (after all, Inception came out in July of 2010 and won for
visual effects, cinematography, sound editing, and sound mixing at
the following Oscars), these gems are just slightly rare.
