Now that I’m a few weeks removed from seeing La La Land, I’ve gotten used to the idea that it’s going to win a lot of Oscars and my anger about that has dissipated somewhat. I still believe Moonlight is a superior film, and I still hope that Moonlight wins Best Picture and that Barry Jenkins wins Best Director. But I’ve resigned myself to the idea that at best, I think those awards will be split, with La La Land picking up either Picture or Director and Moonlight picking up the other. Who know though? There is a quiet backlash against La La Land, so maybe that backlash will be flourishing by the time the Oscars roll around.

A few weeks back, artist Elon Rutberg – perhaps best known for his collaborations with Kanye West – tweeted that La La Land is “fascist” because it’s being used to sedate the populace, and that the escapism is a way of weaponizing “dangerous naïveté.” Rutberg also said the movie was “an act of destructive naïveté in a historical moment requiring depth, clarity, and refined thought.” If I had to guess, I would say that Rutberg meant that at this particular moment in America, we don’t need a film about white people saving jazz and singing weakly and acting twee. I bring up those now-deleted tweets because Barry Jenkins made a funny reference to them.

Moonlight writer-director Barry Jenkins just got back from an European tour promoting the movie, and he was shocked at what this year’s Oscars race has done for his profile. “When I was in Holland, my face was everywhere!” Jenkins said on The Awards Show Show this week, recalling the strange sensation of people honking at him on the street to lend support. With 8 Oscar nominations, Moonlight is second only to the 14 given to Damien Chazelle’s modern musical La La Land, and Jenkins laughed at the notion that both directors have suddenly become big in Europe. “Everywhere there was a newscast in Germany or Holland about the Oscars, it was ‘Damien and Barry Jenkins,’” he said. “It’s like we’re in a battle royale.” Moonlight is touted by some as the only film that can defeat La La Land … an awkward narrative for Jenkins, who has become good friends with Chazelle over this awards season.

“I wasn’t on set thinking, ‘I’m going to make a film that can take down the ‘white, fascist musical,’ just like I’m sure Damien wasn’t on set thinking, ‘I’m going to make a movie that can take down the gay, black, hood love story told in an art-house way,’” said Jenkins. “It just doesn’t work that way. Just like all these movies [like Moonlight, Fences, and Hidden Figures] are being framed as a response to #OscarsSoWhite — I think they all arose in a vacuum, and they just arrived at this moment. It’s great for people out there who need a narrative, but we’re just trying to make art.”

That’s not to say that Jenkins isn’t conscious of all the strategizing that goes into the Oscars race. “I’m on this podcast, so very clearly, I’m participating in awards season,” he told Awards Show Show hosts Kyle Buchanan and John Horn. “So much is at stake with the results of all these things we’re going through … and yet I don’t want those results to affect my feeling, my appreciation, my pride in the work that we did.”

And at the very least, awards season gives his eloquent cast the chance to speak passionately from the heart, as Moonlight’s Mahershala Ali did last weekend with a highly praised speech at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. “It’s much easier to be silent than it is to speak up,” said Jenkins, who admits that he watched Ali’s moving speech “through blurry eyes.” And if Moonlight does prevail on Oscars night, will he follow suit? Jenkins smiled: “If I’m so lucky to give a speech, maybe I’ll say a little somethin’.”

[From Vulture]

Ha, I wonder if Barry Jenkins – who is nobody’s fool – knew that if he said the words “La La Land” and “fascist” together, that would be the headline everyone used, even if he was actually making fun of that idea. I believe that Barry and Damien have probably become friendly over the awards season, just as I believe that both men are both actively campaigning and working to win those Oscars. In any case, while I wouldn’t go so far as to say that La La Land is fascistic, I will say that I have my fingers crossed for a substantial La La Land backlash.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Getty.