Access Atlanta > Movies > Blog > Archives > 2007 > February > 26 > Entry
Oscars: What a mess
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hollywood — My gal pal, Helen Mirren did the most sensible thing of anybody at the 79th annual Academy Awards. She brought a drink to the backstage print interview room. A vodka Gimlet to be exact.
Who could blame her. As the way-out-front best actress frontrunner for “The Queen,” if she had lost she would have been even more embarrassed than Eddie Murphy.
It was the first time in months that Mirren actually seemed like herself. I had grown tired of her latest performance - appreciative actress for all the various awards attention and jolly-good responsible Brit in the wake of portraying Queen Elizabeth II.
Oh, but to be an expected loser and be allowed to act normal at this ubercelebration. “Little Children” actress nominee Kate Winslet’s most memorable quote on the red carpet was to look back and give a little shout out to Helen McCrory (“The Queen”). Winslet intoned, ahem, “nice (mammaries)!”
After the red carpet, I sat backstage through the whole Oscar show mess - is it Thursday yet? It feels like it - and it feels like Hollywood is bombarding us with its idea of what we want even sometimes when we don’t want it.
I’m thankful that “The Departed” won best picture only because it is the only movie in the top five that had any real semblance of major public acceptance at the box office.
I’m thankful Forest Whitaker (“The Last King of Scotland”) and Jennifer Hudson (“Dreamgirls”) won because they deserved Hollywood’s highest honors.
But I heard dressed-up presenters call out movies as Oscar winners - like “Babel,” “Letters From Iwo Jima” - when they’ve had hardly any moviegoing attention at all.
For sure, I’ve heard the word that everyone’s repeated here over and over again — globalization.
“Cinema is the language of the world,” German director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (“The Lives of Others”) spouted on the red carpet during a pre-show foreign-language film photo op.
Everybody talked of Mexican directors and a certain Japanese actress (nominee Rinko Kikuchi of “Babel”) and diversity and a smaller world.
Like former studio exec Sherry Lansing backstage at the ceremony: “We are becoming a global industry and if you become a global industry, then you appeal to everybody.”
That’s wonderful and it really is all good and great. The Mexican directors who were nominated in various categories - Guillermo del Toro (“Pan’s Labyrinth”), Alfonso Cuaron “Children of Men” and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (“Babel”) — are first-rate. But as my good “Die Hard” friend John McClane might say, “Welcome to the exploitation party, pal.”
Hollywood has a habit of latching onto trends and turning them inside out. Anybody remember 3-D?
A whole bunch of studios are going to want subtitles now, whether it’s integral to the story or not. “Anaconda: The Chase for the Scandinavian Pearl.” Why not?
And why is it that in its unpredictableness, the Oscar show is so easily predictable.
I didn’t put it in my Oscar picks, but I should have known the politically left-leaning academy would vote for Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth.”
Here’s what they think: Let’s send a message to the world. Doesn’t matter that the film they chose, no matter how important the message, is more of a science class than documentary as art.
But that’s what these Oscars are. They’re subjective. And the smartest thing the academy does is that they put themselves on the highest pedestal.
They make the event hard to get into. They make just about everybody who comes wear a gown or a tux. They ignore the concept of a time limit (this show went well past midnight). And, except for a token category here and there, they snub their collective noses at the movies everybody goes to see: “Casino Royale,” “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” and “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.”
It’s enough to make anybody ask Helen Mirren for a sip of her drink.
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: Alan Smithee
Comments
Commenting is now closed for this entry.
By Sarah
February 26, 2007 12:32 PM | Link to this
Where are all the people who do the film editing come Oscar time? Take this long, drawn out, dated gala and trim it to two hours tops. The only way to watch the show is to record it and fast forward through it. Do we need a four minute speech from the guy who won for sound editing? Yawn, who really cares? This year turned into a Gorefest, after the umpteenth time he was asked about running, I did just that, I ran from the show. Ellen was not funny, she was a major disappointment to me, I was expecting so much more than I got from her. I did agree with some of the winners, its just how long it took to get to them, that was what caused me problems.
By War Eagle
February 26, 2007 12:39 PM | Link to this
The Oscars, I believe are fixed. “Pirates” was one of the top grossing movies, people liked it and Ricky Bobby-hated The Departed and look who wins-The Departed. Loads of Blogs from people saying they went to tsee “The Departe” and they departed 30-45- minutes into the movie. This is all a sham. Like it’s really going to make an impact on our movie viewing. Listen up movie theaters-we are sick of paying $10+ per person to get in and then a Ritz Carlton price for your concessions. No one says “let’s go to this movie, it’s Directed by an Oscar winner and Produced by an Oscar winner and has an Oscar winning Costumer, when they have Joe Blow, Mary Who Cares, Tom Cruise and the entire Scientology Tabernacle Choir in the movie.” That’s like baseball fans voting for the best Ushers and Beer Men for the All Star game. Oscars. Grammy’s, Emmy’s Tony’s NOBODY CARES any more-it’s all glorified holywood and their sack jumping crew.
By Maria
February 26, 2007 1:04 PM | Link to this
Hey now. Perhaps I’m a first-class weirdo, but I loved both Talladega Nights and The Departed. Both of them work, in their own ways: great writing, great acting, and stories that satisfy. Scorsese’s film has a leg up in the directorial style department (not that it can touch GoodFellas, though in my mind, little can), but Ricky Bobby brilliantly satirized everything from NASCAR to Applebee’s. Awesome. I’m glad that Oscar recognized a comedic “small” film in Little Miss Sunshine. I hope they swing that way in upcoming years, too. I’m tired of the Best Picture category being filled with Big, Sweeping Epics, especially those that couldn’t find a receptive audience in moviegoers OR critics.
I stayed up for the whole show because I wanted to watch Scorsese get recognized at long last! It was a nice moment, but I’m not sure it was worth my extreme tiredness today. If I, as a 26-year-old small-time writer and native Atlantan, can easily identify an hour of that show that could have been cut, surely the industry folks have some ideas up their sleeves to keep the viewers interested. Surely? I’d like to write Oscars producer Laura Ziskin and tell her that even this film buff and Oscar trivia geek had her patience tested by last night’s show.
By baba O'Riley
February 26, 2007 2:46 PM | Link to this
Maria, Talledega Nights has great writing and acting? Surely you are kidding. If you compare “The Departed” to “Talledega Nights” your movie going priveleges are revoked immediately. Satire is a legitimate art form but in the case of “Talledega Nights” there is no art in satirizing NASCAR and Applebys. Both appeal to the lowest common denominator. Satarizing NASCAR is not art it is a sport unlike NASCAR which is sports entertainment.
By Lis
February 26, 2007 2:47 PM | Link to this
The show was boring & corny & too long, but it wasn’t Ellen’s fault. She did her best [as a matter of fact - if it wasn’t for Ellen - it would’ve been worst], she wasn’t boring, but something was missing from the show, it just wasn’t as lively as usual this yr. I know if ANNIE was here - she would’ve SPICED it up. When stuff feels lifeless like how that Oscar show did last night - that’s when you need someone EXTRAORDINARY to liven it up [even if they’re drunk].
By justDoninGeorgia
February 27, 2007 8:12 PM | Link to this
Briefly; Liked Ellen D. pretty much. Thought Jerry S. was a nothing [why was he there anyway?] Think I enjoyed those backlit people but they really were “new.” About the time consumed, five times too much! It wasn’t “glitsy” and the Algore political deal wasted a lot of time for a dumb cause. Oh, did he mention his home consumes in one day the energy it takes the “average” family to consume? I am really sick n’ tired of these political “rants” from rich “know-it-all” movie people.