You have probably heard this by now, but just in case you haven't, both the Director's Guild of America (DGA) and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) gave their top prizes to Tom Hooper's "The King's Speech". This all but assures it of winning Best Picture come Oscar night, and it looks more and more like Tim Hooper will win Best Director too. As I said before, I think this is a real shame. It's not that "The King's Speech" is a terrible film, I would say it is a moderate to slightly good film, but "The Social Network" is a terrific film (it made #86 on my all-time list) that is leaps and bounds ahead of the stereo-typical, most agreeable to everyone, "The King's Speech". I can't help but feel that this is somewhat of a reactionary move due to the overwhelming praise "The Social Network" has received from critics, and that seems to be the paradigm of modern media and it's audience: Build something up, and then when you tire of it, tear it down. I'm sure there are many Academy members who simply like "The King's Speech" better than "The Social Network", but I do wonder if you could take all the members out of the media bubble and let them view each movie on their own terms, if "The Social Network" would not still win. In the end, obviously the Academy is an arbitrary organization whose opinions don't mean anymore than the opinions of anyone else, and this definitely wouldn't be the first time the Academy has awarded mediocrity over excellence, but I can't help but be a little disappointed if "The King's Speech" beats "The Social Network" come Oscar night.
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