In 1920s Copenhagen, an artist (Eddie Redmayne) dresses in women's clothing while posing for his artist wife (Alicia Vikander in a strong performance), discovers he is a woman, and signs on for the world's first sex change operation. I wanted to use this opportunity to discuss the Oscarssowhite controversy, a controversy I shrugged off as another unwarranted Al Sharpton/Spike Lee entitlement cry until I saw Tom Hooper's The Danish Girl, some glossy, barely thought out topical tripe boasting a truly pathetic performance from Redmayne which recently garnered him another Oscar nomination (not to mention his win last year for another pitiable Oscar bait performance). Now I feel Redmayne's placement would have been held better by a Creed's charismatic Michael B. Jordan or even Will Smith and his earnest turn in Concussion (I should also mention Idris Elba's great disregarded supporting performance in Beasts of No Nation). But does this mean that the Academy is racist? I think all this tells us is that the industry doesn't make enough strong roles for minorities of all persuasions and that the Academy is (as it always was) incredibly finicky, voting how they're told by studios, managers, and friends or for every undeserving, political movie to come down the pike.
0 stars out of ****
