30 Oscar losers that should have been Oscar winners

George Miller (Mad Max: Fury Road) losing to Alejandro G. Inárritu (The Revenant) – Best Director (2016)

The Winner

The Revenant, AKA the one that got Leo his Oscar, to the joy of the internet. From the legit AF director of Birdman, it’s a tale of vengeance set in the 1800s. A fur trapper, who has significant injuries from a bear attack, seeks revenge on a guy who killed his young son. It’s DiCaprio vs. Hardy – Battle of the Aesthetically Pleasing White Dudes.

The Loser

Mad Max: Fury Road, a full-on steampunk dystopian fantasy. While Max plays an important part in the movie, the real story is about Furiosa. She goes against the water-hoarding dictator to free his wives from him.

Why It Was Wrong

I can’t describe how much I love and respect Innáritu as a director. I know I’m taking him down in this piece, but I just have to say that I think he’s amazing and deserves accolades and awards. But here’s my argument for why Mad Max was better.

George Miller did an incredible job creating the world of Fury Road, down to every last detail. Did you notice that the gas pedal on Furiosa’s rig is one of the things that measure your foot at a shoe store? The work he did creating a world that felt like a real future dystopia was astounding. The way that he told the story of the women in the rig without sexualizing them was excellent. This movie could have been totally silly and ridiculous and action-porn-y. Instead, it was an epic.

Innáritu, who, again, I love, also did a great job telling the story of The Revenant. No one will argue that. But not only did it not live up to Mad Max, but it also was nuts on set. As an actor, I have a huge problem with this whole “real pain and danger makes better art” philosophy that some Hollywood types seem to have.

Leo is a big perpetrator of this. But I can’t abide by a director who would just let his actor torture himself “for the good of the art.” I definitely also blame DiCaprio for being this weirdly method, but it’s Innáritu’s set. And the Oscar he received felt like a reward for the gimmick of eating raw bison liver and sleeping in animal carcasses. If you can’t get a good performance out of somebody without letting them get hypothermia on set, you’re doing it wrong.

I will stick with Miller and Fury Road. Safer. More relevant. Better use of Tom Hardy.