Garrett dumped a nice little Oscar rant down on the blog a few days ago and made some decent points.
I would like to make some better ones.
Garrett thought Up in the Air should have beaten out Hurt Locker. I agree that Hurt Locker should not have won best picture, but I think Avatar should have. Up in the Air is relevant to a bad economy, sure, but it's not a best picture. It's a good movie, very crisp West Wing type dialogue, but a best picture is often an epic, sweeping achievement in cinema. George Clooney looking suave and in charge probably stopped being an achievement after he got out of middle school.
Hurt Locker is also good, I left the theater feeling like my soul had been stolen for the duration of the movie, peed and pooped on and then unceremoniously boiled in stanky cheese and lentils. It was powerful, it was awesomely ambiguous on pro or anti war, but it wasn't great. It didn't do anything grand, it was good minutiae.
Avatar though, holy god, the thing was spectacular, the visuals, the language, even the cliched but effective story had some levels to it. It was exactly what a best picture of the year should be. No one is going to give a flying fuck about Hurt Locker next year, hell maybe even after the next Iraq movie (Green Zone, coming out right now) but Avatar will be shown, watched and talked about for a long time. I felt similarly in 2006 when Brokeback lost to Crash, but I may have been wrong.
Anyways, the main thing about watching the Oscars for me was anger.
It makes me angry that anyone, let alone the Academy of Motion Pictures would recognize Sandra Bullock for her acting "talent". Especially in a preachy proselytizing semi racist "sports" movie, give me a break and yes, I would do Meryl Streep even at 60.
This entire "Kanye" moment made me angry, although it was also hilarious since I'm removed from the palpable emotions that the slighted director was surely feeling.
The pre-show interviews made me angry. The interviewers could not have been worse or less funny with their job. They cut people off, tried to buddy up to stars who wanted to leave and finally got gloriously punk'd by Steve Carrell and Tina Fey who just don't give a fuck.
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On some other notes, Karl Rove: What a guy!!!!
I am leaving for Guatemala until the end of the month so I am hoping Drew and other bloggers will emerge from hibernation to keep ze blog humming.
Good call on the Sandra Bullock thing. Though given what's happened the last few days, maybe Meryl doesn't want it. BTW, you just simultaneously added another 60 year-old to the "list" and admitted you agree with the premise :)
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'm 'proud' Karl Rove is an American. Real 'proud.'