Dear Kevin Smith, how’s it going, buddy? We’ve been following you on Twitter and couldn’t help but notice you had a rough go of it yesterday with those Indie Spirit Award nominations. No love for Michael Parks, John Goodman or Melissa Leo for "Red State"? That’s tough. Melissa’s probably okay with her Oscar, but we know what you mean—she was good in “Red State.”
Let’s take another look at what you wrote: “How the fuck did the @SpiritAwards NOT nominate Michael Parks? Nor John Goodman? Nor Melissa Leo? Fuck your idiotic organization. #FakeIndie.” Ouch. That’s a tough one. We know how you feel. Nobody likes to be looked over when they think they deserve some acknowledgement for their work. And Twitter is a great place to express your frustrations about life, in general.
Here’s the thing though: This sort of thing happens all the time. Films get overlooked, great performances go unacknowledged and it’s a shame, but perhaps we should leave the indignation for cases where harmful ignorance is the issue, like “Do the Right Thing” getting passed up at the Oscars in favor of “Driving Miss Daisy” or “Brokeback Mountain” losing out to “Crash” because old white dudes didn’t want to see two men in love.
Also, your film is a horror movie, a genre that is typically not acknowledged by any major awards body. Perhaps your point is that this exclusion should be changed, but this is not the way to do it.
You need to take into account that even though this is the “indie” awards, schmoozing, glad-handing and general campaigning is still very much a part of who gets nominated for these things. The Spirit Awards will always be a lot more accurate than the Oscars in terms of acknowledging quality films, but throwing a pity party on Twitter is exactly the reason you were not invited to this party.
We just think you should spend some time apart. Let Twitter do its own thing, and you go off and take care of your SmodCast empire. See how you feel about it in a few weeks. Who knows? You might realize that these things happen for the best.
Sincerely,
The Playlist