'Mad Max' Declared Best Film of 2015 by National Board of Review - Why Does This Matter?

On Tuesday, the National Board of Review announced "Mad Max: Fury Road" as the best film of this year. Why should we care that it is?

"That a critical body deems worthy a high-octane franchise film replete with fiery chase scenes seems to signal a lowering of the brow," Time's Eliza Berman reasoned. "Crowd-pleasing, the award tells us, can sit comfortably with critic-pleasing."

Perhaps a new age in award-giving is coming, where juries have widened their horizons enough to consider action flicks worthy of glittering gongs, which may, in turn, encourage the development of better-quality, diverse action flicks.

"The second reason to pay attention is that 'Mad Max: Fury Road' is, by most accounts, a feminist action flick," Berman went on to observe. "Vagina Monologues scribe Eve Ensler served as a consultant. Its heroine, Charlize Theron's Imperator Furiosa, is as far as a character can get from the damsel in distress: She is a fierce leader, and the land to which she leads is a matriarchal one."

On that note, a number of reviews of the movie had relayed that the real star in the movie is, oddly, not the titular character Max Rockatansky, played by Tom hardy. Instead, it's Imperator Furiosa who really carried the film, as noted by Digital Trends and Tech Times.

"She is the real star of Fury Road: from the moment she appears on screen, her quest for redemption drives the film forward," the latter source said.

Further, Reuters' Lunn Stuart Parramore declared that Imperator Furiosa is the "hero for our age."

"The female savior-hero took a while to get to cultural center stage, but in the form of Furiosa, her presence is so powerful - even with only one arm - that many male action-film fans are enraged that she has stolen the show," Parramore said.

"Though Mad Max comes along for the ride to offer assistance and a few grunts of dialogue, Furiosa is the gravitational center," she went on. "A few men may be helpful to the cause, but it is a matriarchal band known as the Vulvani who will ultimately save society from evil oppressors in this flick."

And to have an award-giving body recognize a film that had a strong female lead is a compelling move, especially in a male-dominated industry and in the wake of calls for paycheck equality among male and female actors, as well as the growing number of movies led by a female cast or protagonist.

However, the recognition given to "Mad Max" does not guarantee it or even predict Oscar glory. Despite this, the citation appears promising for the entertainment industry and the feminist movement where gender equality is concerned.

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