The Most Overrated Films (with explanations)

This film won the Oscar for Best Picture. Racism still exists in America. We don't live in a "post-racial" society like some people say. Today, racial discrimination is often subtler and more psychological, found in private discussions amongst family members or close friends, and often visible through the production of decisions made behind closed curtains--i.e. job discrimination, promotion and salary disparity, etc. However Crash is anything but subtle--it's a hackneyed representation of what racism in America appears to be in the eyes of mainstream media. Basically, Crash resorts to showing stereotypes of stereotypes. Also, a film with a "socially conscious message" is quite insensitive in how it portrays certain races. Furthermore, as a Korean American, I found their portrayal of "Kim Lee" quite inaccurate and offensive. In my opinion, this film should not have even received critical acclaim, let alone an Oscar for being the best film of the year.

This film also won the Oscar for Best Picture. While I enjoyed this film, it did not deserve to win over Saving Private Ryan. And sure enough, as I read articles about the aforementioned movies, it seems that Harvey Weinstein's lobbying is the main reason why this movie won over Spielberg's classic.

This is "Fellini's masterpiece," and it won a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar. Fellini is a genius, however, he also hangs the lantern via a Producer character in the film by saying (roughly translated), "A Film has to make sense, otherwise it's arrogance, hubris." I couldn't agree with that character more. Enigmatic, visually stunning, but perplexing works of art are often confused with genius. However, I'd like to respectfully disagree with that sentiment--it takes a genius to make a film that engages the audience to emotionally relate to the things on-screen. Examples of fantasy-like films that are done exceptionally well (in my opinion) include Spirited Away, Fantasia, and Mullholland Drive.