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All the tears, trash and talent of the Oscars

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by Con Nats

25 Feb 05:55am

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Filed under: Academy Awards, Cinema, Entertainment, Film, Movies, Oscars

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Forget worthiness. The Oscars are as much about politics, payback and persuasion than talent and if there’s one town where money it talks, it’s Hollywood. So it’s worth looking at what the money has been saying in the last few weeks about the 84th Annual Academy Awards.

Hey knuckleheads, did someone say trash? Pic: AP
Best Animated
A controversial category as two of the contenders – A Cat in Paris and Chico & Rita - never managed major releases while Spielberg’s Adventures of Tin Tin featured eye-popping animation and didn’t win a nomination. I would have chosen Puss In Boots but the dark and highly referential Rango is the raging hot favourite. Great visuals but this animated version of Chinatown meets Clint Eastwood lacks any originality.

Ah Hollywood, you’ve blown it again. Winner: Rango.

Best Original Screenplay
Won’t it be a treat to see Woody on stage accepting for Midnight In Paris? And deservedly so. The Artist is a close second favourite despite being a silent film. Bridesmaids is at surprisingly long odds, as is Margin Call while A Separation is another surprise nominee and non-contender.

Winner: Midnight in Paris.

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Descendants is a very short-priced favourite here and a reward for it being such a brave and intensely human script. Hugo and Moneyball are in equal second place. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a big firmer, but is still out in the betting; a shame considering the considerable effort to convert a tomb into such a fine film. 

Winner: The Descendants.

Best Cinematography
The Tree of Life is odds-on favourite here ahead of The Artist, Hugo, War Horse and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Cinematography is the one award it richly deserves, despite the appearance of that random dinosaur.

Best Artistic Direction
Hugo is the long-odds on favourite ahead of The Artist, War Horse, Harry Potter & The Deathly Hsllows (why bother with this token nomination?) and Midnight in Paris. As one of the most visually lush films in many years, Hugo deserves its award. Now pleases go back to adult films Martin. The kids want more than just effects.

Best Supporting Actress
Great to see Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids¸ get nominated but there’s no Oscars for crapping in a sink. Janet McTeer, who was very impressive in Albert Nobbs and lucky-nominee Jessica Chastain, The Help, are also at long odds. Berenice Bejo, is luminous in The Artist, but will lose out to the inspired performance of Octavia Spencer in The Help. Best bet of the night. 

Winner: Octavia Spencer.

Best Supporting Actor
Did I say best bet too early? Christopher Plummer is up against a hot field – Kenneth Brannagh was great in My Week with Marilyn¸ as is Max Von Sydow, Extermely Loud and Incredibly Close, and it will be third time unlucky for Nick Nolte, Warrior – it’s good to see him play against type as a recovering alcoholic - and even Jonah Hill will wonder what he’s doing here amongst this lot. Christopher Plummer was so commanding as the coming-out father in The Beginners, I expected him to be nominated in the Best Actor category.

Highly deserving winner: Christopher Plummer.

Best Director
Scorcese’s Hugo is a wonderful film, but it’s not as good as Martin’s previous winners and he’s second favourite. The same can be said for Woody Allen. Terence Mallick’s The Tree of Life divided many people and is the rank outsider. Alexander Payne, who showed a very deft touch in The Descendants, is the knockout hope. This award is too closely tied to the Best Picture victor.

Winner: Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist.

Best Actress
What a magnificent field of talent here. Rooney Mara, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, didn’t quite surpass the original and Glenn Close was too stilted and unconvincing in Albert Nobbs - they’re both outsiders. Heath’s ex, Michelle Williams, sears as a goddess in My Week With Marilyn but the big market mover is Viola Davis from The Help. She was originally equal second with Williams in betting but has firmed into favouritism just ahead of thespian chameleon, Meryl Streep, who was long odds-on when nominations were declared.

Anyone who can make Maggie Thatcher empathetic, offend Janet Albrechtsen and has had 17 nominations deserves her third award, but maybe not as much as Davis’ stoic and moving portrayal.  And it’s time Hollywood stopped rewarding portrayals of Kings, Queens and dastardly politicians.

Winner: Viola Davis.

Best Actor
A weaker and controversial field. Demian Birchir is probably wondering what the hell he’s doing there, and so do I. Gary Oldman’s superb performance in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy isn’t enough to challenge, and neither is Brad Pitt’s slick performance in MoneyBall. But there’s been another big market mover here. Jean Dujarin, The Artist, has firmed from second favourite to odds-on favourite ahead of everyone’s favourite, George Clooney, The Descendants. I’m not sure why. Dujarin spends most of his time ‘mugging’ at the camera like the old silent film days while Clooney’s portrayal is all conflicted heart.

Hollywood has been waiting for any excuse to give that charmer, Clooney, his just reward and his best ever performance warrants it. I’m going to ignore the plunge.

Winner: George Clooney.

Best Film
What a huge field, but it still lacks a classic that will resonate beyond the presentation. The Tree of Life was either brilliant or rubbish, take your choice. Moneyball was riveting but lacked emotional depth. Midnight in Paris showed Woody back to his best, but not his best ever. Extermely Loud and Incredibly Close won’t be anywhere near a chance and shouldn’t be here. The Help is powerful, moving but a little sentimental and War Horse is even more mawkish.

Hugo is a visually stunning film mixing nostalgia with modern effects but it’s a childrens’ film which bores kids. There’s been a big buzz around the excellent and quirky The Descendants, which is second favourite, but Hollywood will be awarding the Oscar to a black and white silent love letter to itself - The Artist – which is the long odds-on favourite here. If ever a town swooned at self-indulgence and failed to understand the irony of rewarding a silent film in the 21 century, it’s Hollywood. It will also prove what a lean year it has been, dominated by sequels, remakes and superheroes.

Winner: The Artist.

To Cry during acceptance speech
Do tears of boredom during Billy Crystal’s intro count? The Best Supporting Actress is slight favourite ahead of Best Actress. I would have bet on George or Meryl, particularly if they miss out, and Elton, but he wasn’t nominated.

Most commented

12 comments

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    • nihonin says:

      05:25am | 25/02/12

      ‘Forget worthiness. The Oscars are as much about politics, payback and persuasion than talent’, as is being in the position of Prime Minister at the moment, so it seems.

      Reply

    • stephen says:

      09:02am | 25/02/12

      I like The Descendants - right down the line.

      And The Tree Of Life should get nothing.
      His The Thin Red Line is a masterpiece, but Mallick has spent too much time trimming beards and his talent, now, appears on the cutting-room floor.
      Too bad.

      Reply

    • TheRealDave says:

      03:16pm | 25/02/12

      The Thin Red Line was utter crap. After Saving Private Ryan wowed us all the TRL was an arts school graduates ‘vision’ of fighting in the Pacific in WW2 and not even its over the top celebrity cameo’s could save it.

    • stephen says:

      06:05pm | 25/02/12

      I cried at the cemetery too.
      Everyone does, but I have to admit that the first 17 minutes of the film with its depiction of death at the landings was impressive.
      There were some very impressive scenes in SPR.
      Spielberg is very good at structure - small and large - and everything in the film was clear.
      We got the message.

      But Malick’s picture is a microcosm.
      It’s like a drop of water, the surface is bent and everything floats and the drop moves via action, and then ... the script takes another turn.
      The Director wants his actors to be physically creative, and it works.
      (Paul Newman once said that if the script is no good, then he won’t do the picture.)
      Fair enough, he knew more than I, but Malick is a specialist at giving his Actors suggestions and impressions for scenes and making them move first, then talk.
      I like that.
      And I can see it when it is done well.
      His war movie is really excellent, though it is different than ‘Platoon’, another first rate picture of war.
      Nothing in Platoon is hidden, nothing is in men’s minds except outward conflict and unquiet moments.
      That’s war, but there are no Poets in it.

      But my favourite, really, is Full Metal Jacket.
      This is a beautiful film.
      A real lament for the hunted.
      Look at the second scene when the female Viet-Cong sniper is cornered and she dies, in front of her killers, slowly, and without drama.

      Could Steven Spielberg, or anyone else, have done this scene so well ?
      Not even Malick.
      War pictures are really Westerns, but without the social impact.
      They must remain oblivious to personal insurrections and stick to the big issues.
      (Westerns are my favourite format, if only because they invoke the purely social imperative of good versus bad, but in a prehistoric setting.
      How goods that, heh ?)

      Malick’s film is superior, but ‘The Jacket gets my geurnsey.

    • bruce says:

      10:43pm | 25/02/12

      Clooney’s portrayal is all conflicted heart? Ha! Clooney’s portrayal is the same facial expression over and over. He bored me to tears in this film. Honestly, he was better in the perfect storm.

      Reply

    • highway says:

      10:11am | 26/02/12

      totally agree.
      Clooney is overrated and gave an ordinary performance.
      Not much to choose from this year.
      Best picture for me is Hugo. streets above the rest.

    • Pat says:

      03:38am | 26/02/12

      Stephen: “But my favourite, really, is Full Metal Jacket.
      This is a beautiful film.”

      I sugget you go back and examine Full Metal Jacket a lot, more closely And to think at the time around its release, people were hoping Full Metal Jacket would rival Coppola;s Apocalypse Now…...We know the answer to that sad idea!
      KUBRICK is a most over rated director! Regarding the above mentioned film, the first half does work. Up, till the bullied army recruit goes mad and fatally shoots his superior officier in an army men’s toilet. Kubrick apparently wanted to make the big labored point that all men are class -equal at a urinal! Full Metal Jacket then descends into forgettable trash with a capital T.T he second half of the film….laughably, utterly collapses. The jungle warfare scenes were plainly filmed ...in an English garbage dump, with just a few false (transported) jungle palms as props,  and some burning car tyres for smoke effects (talk about a bit of air polution- in spades!) .Remember this was supposed to be all happening ....in a hot steamy dense tropical locale. ” Don’t worry….forget all about that…Gee whizz,  Kubrick, made it, you see!!! ”  The scene you mentioned from it:  the ‘death of the female Viet-Cong sniper’ is embarassingly risible..The pleading ‘shoot me ..shoot me’ business is a tacky attempt at some depicted form of orgasmic snuff - with a final begged bullet delivered by a male soldier…. of course. Then what connotation should we all make, of Irene Papas delivering that bullet to Gia Scala as the inside traitor in the film Guns of Navarone??? Writing about Kubrick’..I cannot stop laughing at the stupidity of his alleged artistic visionary work.. You also said and I quote ” Could Steven Spielberg, or anyone else, have done this scene so well ?”  In answer : I just refer you to that terrifying scene, very late in Speilberg’s Saving Private Ryan (in a house under attack) where a German soldier uses twisted and soothing words, while he most very slowly ...drives that fatal long knife into that struggling, helpless and wounded American soldier. It is chilling and shocking, in the extreme.  Case rests!

      Kubrick’s final disaster Eyes Wide Shut, also plainly revealed something important; about so many of his films - the matter of noticeable shoddy production values, openly on display.  Once again,(I,E:  just like his Lolita film .)  he clearly uses a English filmed locale yet he was trying to kid the viewer ‘the subject matter is set in USA’ . O.K he got his ‘English setting’ fairly right, in Clockwork Orange. Though then, one notices.’ clangers’,  such as ...he used a particularly well known concert hall,  as supposedly a hostipal in that film. He was credited as THAT young director, of Spartacus ,yet, that then in fact -  conveniently airbrushes out the work of the famous director Michael Mann did on the film . Before he was in turn,  subsequently fired and Kubrick appointed to finish it.,  One does not have to be Einstein to work out Kublick was definitely a O.C.D person. A person perhaps alienated,  by sheer personal nature : with an inability of creating or conveying warmth and proper feeling, His efforts seemed to just come straight out of his mental deep freezer The screaming clinical evidence for it, is all there there, on screen.  . I shudder to think, what approch Krubrick would have used,  had he lived and directed the film A.I. - : instead of Spielberg, who finally made it.

      Reply

    • stephen says:

      11:29am | 26/02/12

      I’ll never look at a garbage dump the same way again ... but I thought you were gonna say something gargantuan like, say, ‘2001 : A Space Odyssey’ was filmed, well, in space.
      And we do know, of course, the A.I. was filmed in a robot factory, but HAL got jealous, Equity got on set and the robots were set free.
      (This is where Pink Floyd gets all its inspiration from.)

      Michael Mann was a Director of much psychological depth, and a bloke with a metal turban on and gold woven loin-cloths would have, I might suggest, made a poor subject for a morality tale.

      I would have liked Kubrik to have directed a show like ‘Clash Of The Titans’
      I’ve got the earlier version on DVD.
      He is a fine director of set-pieces, and with his, apparently, vast knowledge of antiquities, would have done justice to the story, quite apart from the dismal second effort now on offer.

      ...and I forgot about her last words ... ‘shoot me, shoot me’.
      (shit I’m not perfect after all. what a shock.)
      Still a very good overall movie.

    • M.Mouse says:

      04:56pm | 26/02/12

      Meanwhile, as a reason to ban Sacha Baron Cohen from making them all look ridiculous, we are told: “We don’t feel it’s appropriate to use our Oscar red carpet as a venue for a movie promotional stunt,” an Academy spokesman said. And there’sme thinking the Oscars was all about promoting movies.

      Reply

    • stephen says:

      07:44pm | 26/02/12

      Ha, yeah I read that, but I think they wanted SBC to behave himself, and the offered statement was the best way to dissuade him from playing up.

      ‘Play up Sacha. It’s what you do’.
      And he’s the very best, too.

    • Pat says:

      06:48am | 27/02/12

      Stephen:  replying further to your comment on Kubrick and that of film, generally . Proper discussion of film requires , having almost a savant mind, Being able to quickly mentally cross reference with an almost photographic mind., where various influences , certain ideas or downright plagiarism was used by script writers and directors . And where some of their ideas , originally may have come from. Even to notice the simple things in films such as Kubrick’s Clockwork Orange (which I have only ever seen twice!)  It is clearly laid out ’ on cue’ into sections. Totally in line- with the differing movements of the Beethoven Symphony, he uses in the film. Then (as for that Kubrick alleged attention to fine detail! ) in what was then -his futurist 80’s film, Kubrick slipped up- badly. Just as he does later in the film using a renowned known concert hall as a big hostipal.  His character Alex has a Transcriptors record turntable in his room,  yet he then instead, proceeds and uses a ‘pre Dolby’ DG brand cassette of the Beethoven symphony, There was certainly nothing time -furturist about those displayed articles, used .as props in that film. Sloppiness and faux pas ..does not make ..for .a creative genius! 
      Still I scatch my head and wonder how Kubrick got away with making Lolita in 1962 without any of the same fuss that Ardian Lyne the director got decades later, doing a remake. The Australian censorship rating for both versions is also puzzling. .Kubrick’s version was certainly not opaque or backwards in the slightest, showing what the uncomfortable subject matter of the film was . Yet It only got a crazy ‘Not Suitable For Children’ rating in ‘1962. ( One up from a kid’s G rating !)  Adrian Lyne’s got a R-18 rating while pollies and church folk were also wanting to ban it.  Yet Lyne’s version is any more shocking or disturbing to watch , than Kubrick’s. And neither - could it be said,  that Kubrick was able to use or claim the added weight of it ‘coming from a great director -status’  in ‘62…That time was even before, he had made ‘2001 A Space Odessey’. 
      As some films date , their content may become ever more significent, or stay the same worthless bits of forgettable throw-away entertainment diversion of their time. While still others may become, by accident - perverse   examples of the then prevaling ‘norm’ attitudes , representing correct social behaviour propaganda - for when the films were first made.
      I.E : Can anyone keep a straight face watching ....all those ‘pious epics’ a la Cecil B de Mille any more? Where people watching , were once promised and guaranteed ‘wickedness, debauchery, so much sin, drinking, and ... dancing girls to show what represented - temptation’ .
      Or, those late 1950’s 20th Century Fox Cinemascope social message movies’ as pleas for good clean living: aspiring middle class…. suburban - oriented pot boilers, about wild teenagers and the consequences of having sex in the back of a car.  How ironic :it was exactly, the very thing 50’s drive-in patrons whike watching these same films were doing, in the back seats of cars!

      Reply

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      09:38am | 15/12/12

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