Covering film in Toronto
[The Oscars have] got nothing to do with standards of good moviemaking. And I mean nothing, as in what’s left when you take zero from zero, multiply it to infinity and divide it the number of times Alfred Hitchcock, Howard Hawks, Ingmar Bergman or Akira Kurosawa won for Best Director. (Which was zip, by the way.)
Geoff Pevere is spot-on in his hilarious lambasting of the Oscars. But I’ll still probably watch them.
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The nominations were announced for the Oscars yesterday. I’ve been seeing fewer feature films lately, but I do manage to catch more documentaries. Of the five nominees, I’ve only seen two so far, but I plan to try to see all of them if I can before the Academy Awards are handed out on February 25.
The nominees for Best Documentary are:
It’s nice to see that documentary film is serving some of its most important purposes in these films: to bear witness, and to kick us in the conscience. It’s interesting to note that two films deal with Christianity (both deal with forms of toxic Christianity, in my opinion), two deal with the Iraq war, and one with a global crisis. No uplifting films, this year, sadly. Times are tough.
If you’ve seen any of these, what did you think? Who’s your bet to win? My money is on Al Gore’s sobering PowerPoint presentation on climate change. Not the most creatively filmed, but certainly the most urgent, and it managed to present information in an entertaining and mostly guilt-free way that made me want to make some changes to the way I live.
UPDATE: In a bit of cross-blog linkery, I’ve listed the losers in this category for the past few years over at Runner-Up! Check ‘em out!
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I have surprisingly little to say about last night’s Oscar ceremony. I was pleased that Chicago didn’t sweep everything. I was pleased that The Pianist got some recognition. I enjoyed Adrien Brody’s speech, especially the snogging he laid on Halle Berry. I was disappointed that three of the year’s best movies were essentially ignored: About Schmidt, Adaptation, and Far From Heaven. I wasn’t surprised that Michael Moore made an ass of himself (but I still like him). And though I don’t like Eminem, I’m glad his song won. I liked Steve Martin’s low-key but sometimes biting humour. And I’m happy that they finished by midnight. That is all.
Some friends told me that the Independent Spirit Awards were much better, and I’m disappointed that I wasn’t able to watch them.
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As is her custom, my wife Brooke tries to make us see as many of the Oscar-nominated films each year as possible. Last night, we watched Unfaithful, starring Richard Gere and the Oscar-nominated Diane Lane. I don’t have a lot to say about it, other than that it was an above-average thriller with some mildly spicy sex scenes.
Two things are interesting about it, though. First, it is a remake of a French film, Claude Chabrol’s La Femme Infidele, which is loosely based on Madame Bovary. This makes me want to see the original, which is probably sexier and more thrilling, or at least sexier. Second, I recognized a piano arrangement of the Radiohead song “Exit Music (For A Film)” and it turns out it’s performed by Brad Mehldau, and a live version was included on the CD Mix Of The Month for May 2002, sent to me by Josh Benton. He’s so way ahead of the “cool curve,” it’s scary.
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Ok, the grouch is me. The nominations for the Oscars were announced today, and I was a little disappointed. I enjoyed Chicago as much as the next guy (and even more than I thought I would), but I think its 13(!) nominations are way out of line. Nothing against Queen Latifah or John C. Reilly, but I really didn’t think they did all that much to deserve their nominations.
Especially galling is that Dennis Quaid’s fine fine work in Far From Heaven was overlooked, as was director Todd Haynes. I was also surprised to see both Adaptation and About Schmidt shut out of the Best Picture and Best Director nominations.
I guess that with a war looming, Americans would rather see escapist fluff like Chicago than more quirky, difficult, challenging, or yes, depressing movies. Which is why I think it will sweep most of the awards it’s nominated for. And that’s too bad, since it’s not a terrible movie. It’s just not a great movie.
Another surprise was that Talk To Her, the acclaimed film from Pedro Almodovar, was not submitted by Spain as its entrant for Best Foreign Language Film. I bet it would have wiped the floor with the other nominees, though I haven’t seen it yet. It gives me a little hope that one of my favourites, The Man Without A Past, might have a chance. I wrote a little about that film here.
As always, I covet your comments.
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