The Problem With The Razzies Nominating Good Performances In Bad Films
Written by Andreas Babiolakis
We’re less than a week away from the Academy Awards, and that’s good news for us (since we spend an alarming amount of time towards covering the nominations and build up to the actual day, and by we, I mean I do). Whenever there are Oscars, there are Razzies, and they’re back to being revealed the day before the Academy Awards (last year, these awards were pushed due to COVID-19, whereas the Oscars weren’t). Of course, the Razzies aren’t meant to be taken seriously, especially with categories purposefully built for the convenience of each year (this year, for instance, has an award for the worst calendar year ever, and 2020 is the only nominee). Reading too deeply into these awards, which reward the worst works of each year, is as silly as the awards themselves.
However, I’m going to bring up the one disservice that the Razzies create: the negative attention brought towards decent-to-good performances in terrible films. For some reason, the Razzies have been guilty of this since the very start. Angelina Jolie for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Colin Farrell for Alexander. Robert Pattinson in Remember Me. Are these stellar performances? No, but I think these performances being slammed by these kinds of “worst-of” awards is wrong, and I’ll give you the rundowns as to why. First of all, a rule of thumb I want to drill into the minds of any reader is that most bad performances are because of other bad elements, whether these be bad direction (a director calling for the wrong mood or tone, for instance) or bad writing (some terrible dialogue may be impossible to pull off, no matter who you are).
Secondly, I feel like it’s just easier for the Razzies to blast the actors and actresses in these bad films (to populate their acting categories) than to try and seek out the actual worst performances. Do these terrible films actually have bad performances? Usually, yes. That isn’t always the case, and I think it’s a bit dishonest to blame someone like, say, Robin Williams in Bicentennial Man by nominating him for Worst Actor, when it’s the dull screenplay that was stymying him. This topic comes up because of Glenn Close’s rare dual nomination for Best Supporting Actress (Oscars) and Worst Supporting Actress (Razzies), both for the same role in Hillbilly Elegy. Now, before I even try to defend her outright, I dare you to find any other actress who could have made it out of that film unscathed; even Amy Adams has never felt worse. Close is the only performance in the entire film that is remotely noteworthy, and she actually saves the film from being purely torture, if anything. So, why does she deserve to be a contender for the worst of anything? As much as I hate the film, Close deserves love for pulling off what is — quite frankly — a miracle.
Acting is a bit of the meeting point for so many different cinematic elements; what a director desires, what a screenplay says, how costumes and makeup dress someone, and more. There are absolutely terrible performances, and I could spend all day discussing them here, but that isn’t my point. It’s deceptive to insinuate that these faces, who are usually the fall people for bad films because they’re the easiest to blame for common movie goers, are actually bad when they may actually have been the only saving graces of these stinkers. I don’t think Razzies ruin many careers, especially with nominations as shallow as these, but this still doesn’t sit well with me. Blame Hillbilly Elegy. Don’t blame Glenn Close who is the only great (nay, tolerable) element of the entire picture. The performers who fight through garbage dialogue, misguided direction, and somehow survive sloppy editing, shouldn’t be recognized as bad unless they actually are bad.
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.