When did decent movies start winning Oscars?

THE DESCENDANTS IS THE BEST MOVIE OF THE YEAR!!!!!!!1

...that's what we've been hearing ever since this movie showed up in theaters a few months ago. Usually when a film gets such a generous amount of praise, I remember it. I tell myself, "Self, you've got to watch this movie before awards season so you know what's going on, okay? You don't want to be the only loser come Oscar night who hasn't seen The Descendants."

But then I watched the trailer, and I thought...meh. This just looks like your standard "family drama". So weeks and weeks passed, and I kept pushing it off in favor of other films that looked to be more up my alley.

Then, finally, I went to see The Descendants last night. And I'll tell you what--it might just be the most decent film of 2011.

That's right. Decent. There's nothing terribly wrong with this film, but at the same time there's nothing to write home about either. The Descendants is about a man, played by George Clooney, whose wife falls into a coma after knocking her head in a jet-skiing accident. For the "juicy drama" part, we find out the wife was cheating on him before the accident. After hearing this news, Clooney, with his two rebellious daughters in tow (and some random stoner character I assume we're supposed to find endearing), go on a mission to find this man and...well...he's not entirely sure what he's going to do after he does. It's a situation rife for drama, and The Descendants capitalizes on it completely. The performances are about as good as can be, particularly Clooney, and it brings into question the fragility of family relationships.

Is there anything special about The Descendants? No. It's a well-executed take on a story that's been told many many times before (not necessarily the coma part, but the 'omg my spouse is cheating on me' part). So why does this film have such good odds of winning the Oscar later this month? Is it because Hollywood is so scared of recognizing genre films (Drive and Super 8, for example, which I would argue were much better than The Descendants) that they'd rather fill up their queue with completely ordinary films?(*) Or are they just so far up George Clooney's ass now that anything he's in automatically gets placed in the Best Picture pool? (hint: the answers are yes and yes)

[*Not that there's anything wrong with ordinary films. If we're describing ordinary films as non-genre or non-stylized movies, than The Help falls into the category of ordinary films--and The Help, too, was far better than The Descendants.]

I think the question Hollywood needs to ask itself is what are they giving out awards for: films that push boundaries and do something different, or films that do the same thing we've been seeing for decades now really, really well? Well folks--if The Descendants wins Best Picture this year, I think we have our answer.

4/5