"coco" and guillermo del toro

ABC

Last week on "Real Time With Bill Maher" the eponymous host welcomed back besieged New York Times columnist Bari Weiss to help unpack some seriously mislaid liberal outrage in the wake of her ill-advised tweet surrounding Olympic figure skater Mirai Nagasu. Weiss' intimation, borrowed loosely from the hit musical "Hamilton" simply read, "Immigrants: They get the job done." The first American woman to successfully land the triple axel, a fellow tweeter took to the social media site in defense of Nagasu, citing that she was in fact born in California, and not as Weiss had proclaimed, ever been an immigrant. Weiss quickly apologized, deleted the tweet, and expressed her regret publicly, affirming that she felt the "poetic license was kosher." Several high-profile Asian American celebrities immediately clapped back on Twitter, including Chrissy Teigen, who admonished Weiss for treating all children of immigrants as foreigners. Not too long after, Maher and Weiss spent the remaining interview commiserating over their disdain of liberal-on-liberal violence, aka the "social justice-pixel warriors," and shifted the topic of conversation to this year's Oscar Awards, Black Panther, Wonder Woman, and why Hollywood, the so-called liberal beacon of the the "freest country on earth," just can't seem to take a joke at its own withering, superannuated expense. 

Bill immediately dug into Guillermo Del Toro's "fish-fucking film" "The Shape of Water," and defended his stance for not supporting Black Panther or Wonder Woman, neither of which he likely had any intention of seeing. Weiss, jumping on Maher's decades-long liberal vs. snowflake furor, quickly reminded him of Emma Stone's attempts to criticize the Academy for its lack of female nominees, echoing Natalie Portman's "here are all the male nominees" line at this year's Golden Globes. Ultimately knocked by sites like Jezebel and HuffPo as a tone-deaf "white {woke} feminist" for failing to recognize Jordan Peele and Guillermo Del Toro, Stone was essentially knee-capped on social media nearly as fervently as Tonya Harding. As two males of color equally as deserving of the best directing nom as Gerwig herself (or Dee Rees and Patty Jenkins), it was a tense and bittersweet moment, especially since Peele's sharp genre debut "Get Out" won for Best Original Screenplay while Del Toro scored not one, but two prestigious Oscar wins. While Del Toro's win was certainly well-deserved and historic (he is now the fourth Mexican Director to win Best Director in the last 5 years), it can not be ignored that Stone and Portman's intentions were calculative and disruptive in the most well-meaning form possible, and in no ways meant to invalidate or tranish the efforts of others.

It was not until Frances McDormand stormed the stage like an allied soldier from "Dunkirk," that the two sides were finally able to bridge their grievances. After a rousing speech demanding "inclusion riders" in her contract, McDormand helped paint a hopeful picture of what the future could look like, and Del Toro, upon winning the Best Picture trophy, similarly held out hope for a brighter tomorrow; where artists could eliminate the lines in the sand that politicians like Trump are so desperate to exploit. Though, before these two awards were doled out, there was another odd moment that flew under the radar; "Coco's" upset win over "Mysteries of Love" for Best Original Song. "Remember Me," not necessarily regarded as a shoe-in, but a definite audience favorite, seemed to stand very little chance against Sufjan Stevens' tearjerker track from "Call Me By Your Name." However, not even the all-star lineup of St. Vincent, Moses Sumney & Chris Thile could prevent Robert Lopez and his wife Kristen Anderson-Lopez from becoming the first pair of double EGOT winners in history, and the fact that they're part of a Latino family added to the laundry list of contentment and delight that was unthinkable nearly a decade ago. Those rooting for "Call Me" were left understandably upset, but again, the ire was misplaced — both songs received received ample stage time, and the euphoria was there even if a tiny statue wasn't handed out to second place. We should never have to rank the #MeToo Movement above or below our nation's daily ICE deportations, or The Dreamers, OR Gun Control advocacy OR Civil Rights OR Criminal Justice Reform OR glossy gold medals, but should be instead working to take our fight to the real enemy lying outside the gates, rather than battling behind the front lines amongst ourselves. Our future selves deserve it, and our future selves depend on it. Órale pues.