Not To Be Dramatic, But The Spice Girls Deserved Oscars For ‘Spice World’
Let’s be real, Spice World was amazing.
The year was 1997. The Spice Girls had just released their heavily-anticipated feature-length film Spice World, which – to no surprise – took the world by storm.
On a budget of $25 million USD, Spice World grossed $151 million USD at the box office worldwide and made an additional $100 million USD via DVD sales. Which brings us to the question, with so much success, why was there also so much hate for this film?
Much to my surprise, while doing a Spice-related deep-dive, I uncovered that there were many people critical of the Spice World film. Critics apparently hated it, the film nabbed a mere 34% on Rotten Tomatoes and the movie also nabbed 11 nominations at the Golden Raspberry Awards, including Worst Picture, Worst Screenplay, Worst Actress, and so on.
But, thank goodness, we have the power of hindsight because I would like to argue against these haters. Ultimately, I believe that Spice World is a fantastic film, and the Spice Girls all deserve Oscars for their work.
Let’s get into all the reasons why Spice World is an amazing film.
#1. The Acting
Let’s get this out of the way straight away. The Spice Girls were incredible at acting. Like, literally incredible. I can not stress this enough.
Upon reflection, anyone critical of their acting ability is flat-out denying that campness was the norm in ‘90s comedy flicks. How dare you come for the Spice Girls and not come for Kate Winslet in Titanic? The clownery of it all.
Furthermore, the Spice Girls knew what they needed to do and they did it. They knew they were playing themselves and they knew they had to ramp up their caricatures. Don’t drag them for this. They had a brand and this movie cemented that brand into ’90s pop culture.
#2 The Casting
Okay, so this actually has nothing to do with the Spice Girls themselves, but we have to shout out whoever did the casting for this movie because getting Hugh Laurie, Elton John, Meatloaf, Jennifer Saunders, Stephen Fry, and Jonathan Ross in the same film is proof that if you’re ambitious enough, you can do anything.
#3. The Self-Awareness
Bringing it back to the Spice Girls – you absolutely have to respect how self-aware they were. This movie is literally about the corrupt media trying to catch the Spice Girls off-guard so that they can use images and videos out of context in order to take them down. Is this art imitating life or life imitating art, you feel me?
#4. It’s So Meta
Okay, let’s talk about the screenplay. Talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show-stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique. The movie literally follows screenwriters as they come up with the plot for Spice World. No movie has ever been this adventurous with its plot. Honestly, Spice World walked so that Tenet could run.
#5. The Fashion Was Superb
Shout out to the costume designers, too. Whether you related to Scary, Baby, Ginger, Posh or Sporty, the Spice Girls always looked distinctly unique but also part of a greater whole. Not to mention, the amount of colours in this film, I challenge you to find a shot where there isn’t a complete rainbow on screen.
#6. Finally, The Soundtrack
The film was released on Boxing Day in 1997, just a month after the Spice Girls released their sophomore record, Spice World. As a result, this film subsequently had the greatest soundtrack to any movie ever. Every few scenes, the audience is bombarded with world-class, quality pop hits and for that, we are forever thankful.
So shout out to Spice World. I am sorry that you ever received hate because, in my eyes, you are pure perfection.
