The Academy has long been known to deliver serious snubs and outright atrocious nominations. Years and years of injustice roll out once the nominations are announced, and this year was no different.
Frontrunning films like “Oppenheimer” and “Killers of the Flower Moon” led the race in most nominations, and rightly so. Everybody saw those coming. Those nominations were assured. The stars were crossed for those films. But we all thought other stars were aligned as well.
Surely the highest-grossing film of the year and most impactful pop culture phenomenon will see a clean sweep of nominations. Surely Barbie and Ken will both get nominated. Their duo was unstoppable. Their duo is still making waves in the media circuit, promoting the groundbreaking feminist film. Surely the Academy Awards will recognize that.
They didn’t. They only recognized Ken and left Barbie in the shadow of the patriarchy. Ryan Gosling raked in his third Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Ken. He raked in a nomination for making literary geniuses such as “Kenough” and “Mojo Dojo Casa House” legendary.
Hours and hours of excruciating research about playing, in his words, “a crotchless doll,” paid off. This performance is getting the same nod from The Academy as his portrayal of Sebastian in “La La Land”, a role where he had to learn how to seamlessly play the piano through months and months of lessons.
I’m sure Gosling had similar preparation for his showstopping performance of “I’m Just Ken.” I’m sure the difficulty of solely bearing the entire patriarchy on his shoulders while it took hit after hit from every other character in the film must have been excruciating. The artistic gravatas it must have taken to accurately portray the job of “beach” are evidence enough that Gosling clearly deserved the Oscar nod.
Gosling took a public stance on the nominations, saying that it goes against everything the movie set out to do. His full statement reads:
“I am extremely honored to be nominated by my colleagues alongside such remarkable artists in a year of so many great films. And I never thought I’d be saying this, but I’m also incredibly honored and proud that it’s for portraying a plastic doll named Ken. But there is no Ken without Barbie, and there is no Barbie movie without Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie, the two people most responsible for this history-making, globally celebrated film. No recognition would be possible for anyone on the film without their talent, grit and genius. To say that I’m disappointed that they are not nominated in their respective categories would be an understatement. Against all odds, with nothing but a couple of soulless, scantily clad, and thankfully crotchless dolls, they made us laugh, they broke our hearts, they pushed the culture and they made history. Their work should be recognized along with that of the other very deserving nominees. Having said that, I am so happy for America Ferrera and the other incredible artists who contributed their talents to making this such a groundbreaking film.”
A billion-dollar success isn’t enough money to pay off The Academy. They are going to choose serious films. They are going to choose eclectic films. They are going to choose filmes on the edges of the mainstream. “Barbie” is too mainstream for a Best Actress and Best Director nod. But it was just successful enough to get recognized for Best Film and, of course, a nod to the male character in the film.
No way would the ninth nomination ever of a female in the Best Director category go to someone who made a movie about a plastic doll. Justine Triet was nominated for Best Director for “Anatomy of a Fall”, making her the eighth woman to be nominated in that category in all of history. Because this film is far enough on the edge of the film industry to receive accolades. (Who has even heard of this movie?)
I’m not arguing that the Academy should have given the broom to “Barbie”, letting it sweep the Oscar stage. I’m just saying that nominating Ryan Gosling for his satirical performance of the all-powerful patriarchy is a bit of a power play from that same patriarchy.
Nominating “I’m Just Ken” for Best Original Song is borderline disgraceful. It reinforces the notion that we all have been thinking for years now that the Oscars are a joke. We can’t take these nominations seriously when Gosling’s performance of Ken is acknowledged. Period. The end of the sentence. But it is even more outrageous that “I’m Just Ken” is getting recognition. Those two nominations, combined with Robbie’s and Gerwig’s snubs, are proof that the Academy has no credibility.
In Ken’s own words, “I love patriarchy.”
Joanna Hayes can be reached at [email protected]