Oscar, keep patting yourself on the back
I watch the Oscars every year, and every year I am surprised to
learn that with all the movies I’ve seen throughout the year I
haven’t seen many of the films up for top prizes, or even the films
that are nominated for some of the more obscure categories. So far
I’ve seen none of the movies nominated for best picture, though I
had planned to see
”
Slumdog Millionaire
”
when I came down with the flu during its short run in Morgan
Hill.
Oscar, keep patting yourself on the back
I watch the Oscars every year, and every year I am surprised to learn that with all the movies I’ve seen throughout the year I haven’t seen many of the films up for top prizes, or even the films that are nominated for some of the more obscure categories. So far I’ve seen none of the movies nominated for best picture, though I had planned to see “Slumdog Millionaire” when I came down with the flu during its short run in Morgan Hill.
It is a studio tradition to release some movies for a short theater run, just so that they can be nominated for the Academy Award while they are still fresh in the minds of voters. There is a reason so many of the films that are nominated for best picture come out in the last quarter of the year. Usually any movie that does well will suddenly see a wider release in early March.
The Oscars are an interesting look at the Hollywood psyche, especially this year. The movies that get picked for best picture are rarely ever something one would describe as fun. One is about an assassination. Another is about a fallen president. Another is about children growing up in slums. The Oscar nominations certainly don’t take into account the box office totals. It is really a chance for Academy members to pat themselves on the back for the toughest subjects they tackle and to honor people they might not have a chance to honor again.
It is no surprise that the Oscar for best supporting actor went to Heath Ledger, for a comic-book movie, no less. Ledger was up against such hard-hitting actors as Philip Seymour Hoffman, Josh Brolin and Robert Downey Jr. Ledger created a mania to his Joker that overwhelmed the screen, but it is impossible to know how many votes went his way because of his untimely death rather than because of his performance. Did his performance as the Joker deserve a win more than his acting in 2005’s “Brokeback Mountain,” in which he was nominated for actor in a leading role?
One of the other mysteries of the Academy Award is how a movie can win almost every category it is nominated in, but not receive any recognition for the actors. “Slumdog Millionaire” took home eight Oscars: writing (adapted screenplay); cinematography; sound mixing; film editing; music (score); music (song); directing and of course, best picture.
The most accessible part of the evening for the average moviegoer was probably Hugh Jackman’s bouts of song and dance; and a series of movie montages that played throughout the night. They showed clips of movies released in 2008 from different genres such as romance, action, comedy and animated films. But for the most part, the clips of actually nominated movies in the montage were few and far between. It seems that while Hollywood takes pains to recognize these serious films once a year, they get that during the rest of the year we are going to see the fun stuff.
Here is my take on some of the nominated films I actually saw and whether they are worth seeing:
Richard Jenkins – actor in a leading role for “The Visitor”
Jenkins embodies a withdrawn Connecticut university professor who has given up on life since his wife died. When he is sent to a conference in New York, he discovers squatters living in his usually empty city apartment. Rather than tossing them out, he gets to know them and becomes reconnected with life. Jenkins is the perfect blank slate for the character, and he warms up to the couple just slowly enough to make it believeable.
Angelina Jolie – actress in a leading role for “Changeling”
Angelina Jolie plays a mother whose son goes missing in 1920s Los Angeles. Police deliver a boy home to her whom she suspects is not her son, but when confronted with the discrepancies in the boy’s physical attributes the officers attack the mother. Jolie, the queen of tabloid fodder, made me forget all the tabloid stuff while I watched the movie. Also nominated for cinematography and art direction, the film does capture the look and feel of 1920s Los Angeles.
“Wanted” – sound mixing and sound editing
Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy star in this action movie based on a graphic novel. In it McAvoy plays a guy with a humdrum life who suddenly finds himself chased by assassins. He is recruited into an underworld of secret weavers who believe they are meant to keep the world safe from evil. With all the gun shootouts, and the high-speed car chases, the movie did have some good sound but that doesn’t make up for the really bad plot.
“Hellboy II: The Golden Army” – makeup
They turned Ron Perlman into Hellboy. Enough said. But more than that the filmmakers create a world of mystery creatures to fill the screen.
“Iron Man” – sound editing and visual effects
I still haven’t quite figured out what the difference is between sound editing and sound mixing, but it seems that lots of action films are nominated in these categories. Iron Man is about a billionaire tycoon, played by Robert Downy Jr., who is forced to create a suit of armor as a weapon of mass destruction. He uses the suit to escape terrorists and decides to become a crime fighter. It is a fun, but predictable comic-book movie with lots of explosions and high-tech equipment, and I don’t really remember the sound, which maybe is the point of good sound editing.
