Even The Razzies Are Getting Political This Year

Considering how fraught the U.S political climate currently seems, it's hardly a surprise that the majority of us are expecting to hear some political statements at the 2017 Oscars on Sunday, Feb. 26. Frankly, I think most of us would be a little disappointed if that wasn't the case. But, just to momentarily deflect from that fact, there's also one other important awards show that deserves our attention, and that's the Golden Raspberry (Razzie) Awards. Celebrating the worst movies of 2016, the 37th Razzie Award winners for 2017 were announced on Saturday, and boy, did they still manage to pack some political punches.

Leading the awards with four Razzie wins each were Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and the hugely contentious documentary, Hillary's America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party. Both of which, it's worth adding, featured weak portrayals of absolute wonder women.

Batman v Superman won in the categories of Worst Supporting Actor (for Jesse Eisenberg), Worst Screen Combo (for Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill), Worst Screenplay, and Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off, or Sequel. Hillary's America, on the other hand, managed to win in the categories of Worst Actor (for filmmaker, Dinesh D’Souza, as himself), Worst Actress (for Becky Turner's portrayal of Hillary Clinton), Worst Director, and Worst Picture. Ouch.

So basically, if the Razzies were a Mortal Kombat character, then the award show just managed to pull a metaphorical major fatality move against Hillary's America — K.O., guys. Game over.

As is tradition for the leading award winner of the Razzies, D’Souza accepted his trophies on camera. As well as cracking jokes (or at least, I hope they were jokes) about his Razzie Awards being the result of people being "very upset that Trump won," D'Souza also made the observation that his Razzie wins were good for his career. Because, yeah, fantastic — sure.

Considering that Batman v Superman was easily one of the most publicly criticized Hollywood movies of 2016, it feels like quite the accomplishment for a documentary to be able to sweep in and win such a number of Razzies over that movie. But Hillary's America wasn't just any documentary. When it was released, it drew a continual backlash from movie critics who questioned its skewed portrayal of history, facts, and the Democratic party as a whole.

Indiewire graded the film with an F, calling Hillary's America “a profound failure of unprecedented proportions, an embarrassment for Republicans, Americans and pretty much the rest of humankind." The Hollywood Reporter, on the other hand, called Hillary's America an "irresponsible film," which was "lacking in nuance and any sense of proportion."

The decision to heap a fair amount of Razzie Awards onto the movie isn't too much of a political statement in itself, but the categories for which Hillary's America won definitely are. By awarding Razzies to the movie in the categories of Worst Actor and Worst Actress, as well as nominating the movie for Worst Screenplay, the alternative awards show is framing the documentary as more of a work of fiction, than as a reputable execution of facts.

Considering that our current president, his administration, and the Republican party appear to be the proud purveyors of alternative facts (while simultaneously damning what they consider to be "fake news"), these Razzie awards feel all the more timely and hilarious. So, here's to you, Golden Raspberry Awards. High fives all round.