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I Comment on the OSCARS!
Yes, I’m commenting on the Academy Awards. It seems stupid to mention the Oscars on a horror website, as horror movies don’t usually get awards, and anyway this commentator finds the whole subject pointless. However, there’s an issue with this Sunday’s telecast that seems relevant: the omission of the decidedly horrific DARK KNIGHT from the nominees (Best Supporting Actor aside).
This
has caused an unusual amount of fuss, with countless newspaper and internet
columnists screaming about how THE DARK KNIGHT’S omission proves the Academy is
elitist and ignores populist cinema in favor of limited-appeal art films. This
is news?
I agree that THE DARK KNIGHT is better than all of
2008’s best picture nominees, and probably should have been nominated,
but then I also think LET
THE RIGHT ONE IN, SYNECDOCHE NEW YORK, THE WRESTLER, THE FALL and MY
WINNIPEG should have been acknowledged (I know better than to hope
INSIDE and CLOVERFIELD
would ever have a chance at Best Picture nods). It’s a fact that my
favorite movies each year rarely ever get nominated for Oscars, and you know
what? I’m not too broken up about it.
To view the Oscars, a ceremony that bestows awards
based largely on the campaigns mounted by the nominees, as a genuine indicator
of quality filmmaking is naïve, if not outright moronic. Do you actually
believe SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE won Best Picture because it was a great movie? How
‘bout CRASH? I don’t think I’ll get too many arguments that those awards were
due largely to the expensive publicity machines of their respective studios--and
I do mean expensive: the well-funded Paramount Vantage literally
destroyed itself last year from the intense Academy Award lobbying it conducted
for NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. Fox Searchlight is currently shelling out a pretty
penny to ensure SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE stays on the minds of Academy voters: an
Academy member colleague currently owns many pricey SLUMDOG do-dads sent him by
the studio, including a glossy mini-booklet, the published screenplay and an
opulently packaged screener DVD.
(I should add here that I’m a little surprised Baz
Luhrmann’s AUSTRALIA didn’t get any nominations. I’m not sure what sort of
Oscar campaigning it received, but Luhrmann has a definite gift for talking his
films up and making people believe they’re far more than the shallow yawnfests
they are. In other words, Luhrmann’s considerable powers of persuasion ensure
that his crappy movies receive lots of Academy attention--note the many nods
accorded the pukeable MOULIN ROUGE.)
To continue with the topic at hand, I’ll confess to having seen all but one of this year’s Best Picture nominees. That lone holdout would be THE READER, which never seemed too promising. As for SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, I liked it a fair amount; I don’t share the views of those critics who feel it’s some kind of masterpiece, but I liked it. BENJAMIN BUTTON? Liked it too, even though it’s overlong, overindulgent and overly reminiscent of FORREST GUMP. FROST/NIXON was another solid film, though clearly intended for the Boomer crowds, who have a boundless fascination with Tricky Dick that I, being a couple generations removed, don’t share. MILK I didn’t get. Yes, Sean Penn is impeccable as Harvey Milk, but there’s just not a whole lot to the film you couldn’t get from a mediocre documentary on the subject.
I’ve also seen a fair amount of the Best Actor and Actress contenders, but I’ll spare you my opinions on those. I’m not over the moon about any of the Best Picture noms, and feel the same way about the Best Actor/Actress picks. Correction: I do feel Heath Ledger fully deserves a posthumous statuette for his work as THE DARK KNIGHT’S Joker--and a good thing too, as that award is said to be all-but locked up by the late Mr. Ledger.
As to the Academy Award ceremony itself...well, it is what it is. I was recently asked if I felt there was any way the presentation could be improved. After some serious thought I answered, truthfully, “No.” The whole thing is by nature boring, archaic and nonsensical.
If you ask me the best award show ever was last year’s Golden Globes ceremony
(don’t even get me started on the merits of that award program!).
Crippled by the writer’s strike, the show was whittled down to a simple reading
off of the winners--which of course is the whole point of any awards show, with
the jokes, music numbers and speeches serving as the interminable wrap-around.
Come to think of it, maybe the ideal way to improve the Academy Awards
presentation is to follow the format of that fabled 2008 Golden Globes
telecast--or even better, don’t have it at all! And no, in such a scenario I
don’t believe THE DARK KNIGHT’S makers will have anything to worry about.
--2/21/09