A few thoughts on the 2008/09 Academy Award Nominations, released this morning, Melbourne time...
THE DARK KNIGHT THING:
Come on, AMPAS, stop being so damn prejudiced. In fact, I demand a recount. Go back, vote again, and get back to me when the polls are counted and THE DARK KNIGHT takes its rightful place as 2009's Oscar Colossus, with a record-breaking 15 nominations -- with Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor (x3, for Eckhart and Caine, as well as Heath), Adapted Screenplay, Costume Design, Original Score, etc, on top of the eight it already scored -- befitting the towering, groundbreaking epochal moment in film TDK is.
After all, it changed the way we see movies, has changed hundreds of millions of lives, inspired a generation of filmmakers, and has redefined the art of feature films as we know it -- so, at least acknowledge all that.
*cough*
Okay, so I'm being facetious. But close your eyes, type a random sequence of letters into Google and hit enter. Then click on the nearest blog link and, chances are, you'll be treated to an anti-Oscar diatribe gushing over the film in exactly this fashion. People have lost their collective minds over THE DARK KNIGHT, and I really don't see why. Don't get me wrong: it's a very good flick. But calls of capital-G Greatness are, to be polite, premature. There's an arseload of folks who really need to breathe, have a Bex and a lie down, and get some distance between them and this film.
In my recent 2008 wrap up, it was an agonising, line-ball decision as to whether TDK made my Top 10 list, or my Top 5 Most Overrated list. I had a hankering to put it on both, but ultimately -- thanks to an average year for movies, more than anything else -- it squeezed into the Top 10. Even now, that decision doesn't sit entirely well with me, but it's how I felt at the time of publication, so I'll call it a snapshot and move on. But it could've gone either way.
But 2008 was a fairly average year for movies (particularly if you only count the Oscar-eligible releases, and filter out all that great stuff from the start of the year -- THERE WILL BE BLOOD, JUNO, LARS AND THE REAL GIRL, et al), and maybe audiences just really needed a hero. Not the one we want, but the one we-- um, well, you know the rest. Give me the little boxy robot dude, any day of the week, or the big "broken down piece o' meat". Those two richly deserve a Best Picture spot ahead of TDK.
However... if the real issue here is not how "Great" THE DARK KNIGHT is, but how the Academy Awards continually pisses on genre pictures, then the argument gains both legs and validity. Of the films I saw, WALL-E was the best Oscar-eligible feature film of 2008... but that's why they invented the Best Animated Feature category, so those damn Pixar nerds couldn't take Best Picture Oscars away from films featuring emotive performances from good, god-fearing, good-looking flesh and blood actors, and steal all our jobs, and our women, and refuse to assimilate, and...
*ahem*
The Best Animated Feature category cuts the legs off another popularly acclaimed cash cow, the animated feature (or, more pointedly, the PIXAR animated feature). So comic book films and animations are out. Comedies and non-historical actioners never have a chance, and neither do thrillers (THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS was as big a one-off fluke as the Oscars have ever seen). As for science fiction or horror... bwahahahahaha! Yeah, right. Like that's ever gonna happen. (THE EXORCIST and STAR WARS were nominated in the 1970s, but they're both special cases, from a special decade.) And now we come to my ultimate point: to paraphrase a past unworthy Oscar winner, "Oscar is as Oscar does".
In our heart of hearts, did we really expect the 5,900 or so members of the Academy -- about 3,500 of which are over 50 -- to vote a Batman movie as Best Picture?? I mean, what does the film say about social tolerance, the vagaries of the human heart, social injustice or the endless struggle to find love? (And don't give me any of that Rachel Dawes shit, I'm warning you right now.) Even though I'm not batshit about DARK KNIGHT, I would love to live in a world where something like that could happen.
We've seen this before: a superhero film broke box office records on its way to three-quarters of a billion worldwide and set new standards for comic book adaptations along the way, while the latest offering from Pixar told arguably the most adult story -- in terms of subtext and complexity -- of any animated film ever released by Disney on its path to a crapload of money, uniformly excellent reviews and the love of nearly all who saw it, regardless of their age. Yet, after the dust of the 2004 Oscars had cleared, SPIDER-MAN 2* was nominated in just 3 technical categories, winning one, and THE INCREDIBLES* was cordoned off behind the velvet rope of the Best Animated Feature category. (And as much as people are carping about a lukewarmly recieved film like THE READER pushing out DARK KNIGHT, spare a thought for S2 and INCREDIBLES, hustled out of the Best Pic race by such modern classics as RAY and FINDING NEVERLAND. In addition, THE AVIATOR was strictly a middle-of-the-pack effort for Scorsese, and even SIDEWAYS seems vastly overrated now.)
(*Not to mention, in this blogger's humble opinion, SPIDER-MAN 2 & THE INCREDIBLES are far superior to this year's offerings.)
As infuriating as it is, to a certain extent you can't blame the Academy Awards for being the Academy Awards. It's with great interest to me that this year's Best Picture nominees are made up of the following types:
- Epic romance
- Political drama
- Biopic
- Holocaust drama
- Indie Feel Good drama
Now, if you were to hazard a guess as to what kinds of films the post-WWII Academy Awards have fiercely gravitated towards, they would have to be it. Meanwhile, popular blockbuster hits are rewarded with a swag of technical nominations -- the genre film's Oscar booby prize, from DIE HARD to TERMINATOR 2 to, now, WALL-E and THE DARK KNIGHT. This year's list of nominees is a textbook list from a textbook organisation whose relevance has been steadily diminishing for over a decade now. If they don't smarten up soon, they're in real danger of looking like the Grammys. (Who may as well call themselves the "Grammas" for all the edginess they have these days.)
So, before you all moan and cry about THE DARK KNIGHT's snub, look at the facts. It was never. Gonna. Happen.
THE WRESTLER THING:
Because of the Oscars' ridiculous, byzantine rules for qualifying and quantifying the eligibility of competitors for the Best Original Song category, the best song written for a movie in 2008 slips away completely unrecognised. Apparently Bruce Springsteen -- who wrote a beautiful title song for THE WRESTLER, which encapsulated Mickey Rourke's desperately lonely, broken-down title character -- included his song on his newest album, mere weeks before the WRESTLER's soundtrack album got out there. Despite it being, y'know, written and recorded for the film, it isn't eligible, so they get to throw more non-deserved nods in the direction of SLUMDOG OVERRATEDAIRE. A damn shame, and who wouldn't want to see The Boss play the Oscar Ceremony for the first time since '94? (Come to think of it, maybe he whacked the track on his own album to avoid Oscar duty...?)
THE SALLY HAWKINS THING:
MY GOD. Of all the Oscar fuckups this year (and there wasn't an insane amount, despite appearances to the contrary) this reigns supreme. Hawkins carries HAPPY GO LUCKY solely on her eminently charming shoulders, making a potentially atomically annoying character not only palatable, but utterly believeable and downright loveable. So who gets her place... Angelina Jolie? Really?!? While I must confess I haven't seen CHANGELING and can't judge this performance, but I did see her supposedly Oscar-worthy turn in A MIGHTY HEART and found it convincing but totally vanilla. I'm yet to be convinced she can completely disappear into a character. Maybe this is the one, but... surely it isn't the full-bodied breakout performance Hawkins delivers. I could be wrong (but I don't think i will be).
THE SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE THING:
Just as DARK KNIGHT clearly filled a void for movie audiences, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE seems to do so for Oscar voters, or awards voters in general. Are we seriously in need of a feel-good film so badly that we're willing to just anoint this, the usually excellent Danny Boyle's most middling film in nearly a decade? It's a scarcely plausible fairy tale, filled with cliched one-note characters we barely get attached to because we're too busy blasting through shakily shot, jauntily edited, barely plausible anecdotes before reaching a suspense-free conclusion we not only know is inevitable, but we keep being told is inevitable. Just like the Coen Brothers and NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, they're gonna give the award to the right person for the wrong film. No nominations for SHALLOW GRAVE, TRAINSPOTTING or 28 DAYS LATER, but this cleans up. Oscar is as Oscar does...
Other than that, it's pretty straightforward, predictable stuff. Despite being a good film that misses out on greatness, THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON actually deserves most of its whopping 13 nominations; it is an absolute technical marvel, wonderfully acted by Brad Pitt and Taraji P. Henson, and (for the most part) beautifully directed.
SOME STUFF I LIKED:
- As much as I should ideologically be on the other side, I'm ashamed to say I got a small kick out of THE DARK KNIGHT snub. Brings it all back down to earth a bit.
- Michael Shannon's nomination for Supporting Actor. I haven't seen REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, but I really like this actor. Check out William Friedkin's BUG to see a virtuoso performance from Mr Shannon... in a psychological thriller, no less!
- Melissa Leo's nomination. Again, I haven't seen FROZEN RIVER, but back in the 90s I was a huge Homicide: Life on the Street fan, in which Ms Leo was dynamite, amongst a crackerjack cast of accomplished character actors. So it's awesome to finally see her get her moment. (Same goes for Richard Jenkins, too.)
- Best Director nominations for David Fincher and Danny Boyle, directors I've long loved and admired, respectfully.
- BURN AFTER READING getting shut out completely!!
And, to finish up, a weird stat:
- Best Director nominee Stephen Daldry has made just three feature films (BILLY ELLIOT, THE HOURS and THE READER)... and he's snagged a Best Director nomination for all of them. 3-for-3 out of the gate. Apparently, this is a record.
Soon... predictions for February 22/23 (depending which hemisphere you're inhabiting)!
Later,
TSIK
9 comments:
Point-by-point:
Dark Knight is obviously going to be the big sticking point for a lot of fans, like you say, but I wouldn't necessarily say it was better than The Reader, for example. I'd like to think that Dark Knight lost out on some of its potential nominations because of its many narrative flaws, but you're probably right: the truth is that they could never nominate a Batman film over a Holocaust drama.
Good points about Spider-man 2 and The Incredibles lasting over the forgettable Finding Neverland and Ray. But when was the last time you watched Sideways? Give it another spin in the player. Definitely not overrated.
The animated film category would have more credibility if the nominees looked like (ignoring the year of release): Wall-E, Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Waltz With Bashir, Persepolis and Spirited Away. That would give the category some worth. As much I really enjoyed both Bolt and Kung Fu Panda, including them looks like they're just filling out the numbers.
Yeah, what happened with the Best Original Song thing this year? I don't even remember there being two songs in Slumdog Millionaire. I'm guessing they added another one to prevent people from squirming as Cling warbles about his Gran Torino. I'm not kidding. If you see GT, stay 'til the end credits and try not to bury your face in your hands.
I agree completely about Sally Hawkins. How did they exclude her? Ridiculous. I'm guessing they didn't see the film. I also think Not Seeing The Film is how Felicity Huffman didn't win for Transamerica, a middlingly average film with an unparalleled central performance. I also would have thought Changeling's awful reviews would have destroyed any nomination chance, but there you go.
Michael Shannon is very, very good in Revolutionary Road, but I suspect he got his nomination because he has the "wacky" role, playing a former asylum inmate who speaks his mind when nobody else does. It's a showy role, but it is a good one.
Frozen River may be very good, but the trailer is terrible, and turned me off seeing the film. But I, too, loved Homicide: LOTS. (That's an acronym, not me expressing how much love I have for it.)
Daldry rocks.
Our disagreement for this blog: No Country For Old Men is phenomenal, their most subtly brilliant film ever.
Our agreement for this blog: Burn After Reading. I actually think they were entirely successful in the film they were trying to make, I just wanted *one* character in there who wasn't thoroughly unlikable.
That is all. Nice blog.
I COMPLETELY disagree with you, Paulie, and am entirely offended by your cheap lies!!!
This blog didn't offer "a few thoughts". There were HEAPS more than a few!!
You effin' scoundrel!!!
I don't have much to say here, as I agree with most everything you said.
However, I will do my best to fill up your comments page with my usual verbose rubbish; just for tradition's sake.
1. Dark Knight
I'll tell you what happened here, with all the Oscar hubbub. In the space of two years, the Oscars has gone through a significant historic hiccup. Going from rubbish like Crash and Million Dollar Baby for Best Picture to Scorsese/The Departed and the Coens/No Country. A very significant shift.
So, after two years like that, yes, I think you could reasonably believe IT COULD HAPPEN for TDK (a nomination, at least).
But, just as what happened in the early 90s, going from Silence of the Lambs and Unforgiven to Schindler's and Gump, all we saw was a small blip on the radar, and not a sustained change in Academy behaviour.
Shame that. For as much as I think TDK is nowhere near worthy of a Best Picture nom, it would have confirmed something VERY special was happening in the Academy. Alas, we're back to boring with a vengeance.
2. Springsteen
Springsteen is a vastly overrated musician, and while he definitely should've been nominated, I don't like him, so he can get stuffed. Plus, we love Peter Gabriel.
3. Hawkins
This is very odd. I think Lee's point is valid - I guess no-one saw it.
4. Slumdog
I don't get it. A very generic fairytale. What's the big deal? Not the best film of the year, but there's really no obvious stand-outs either (discounting Shine A Light, of course).
5. Other things
Not too happy about Revolutionary Road's shut-out. Mendes had it too good too early apparently.
Perennial Oscar loser Kevin O'Connell got snubbed for his work on Hotel For Dogs. He cannot catch a break.
Good to see Pixar's Presto getting a nom and, logically following, another win.
Foreign Language Film - Waltz with Bashir vs The Class. What a heavyweight bout that is. Very tough to pick. The Class for mine.
How dark is Baz right about now?
And is anyone else alarmed at the size of Dustin Lance Black's credit in the Milk trailer? What's up with that? Who the fuck are you?
I’m going to start by disagreeing that 2008 was a very average year for film. I think it was a very good year for film. Granted, the list of Best Pics for the Oscars would suggest otherwise, but 2008 (for me) saw more films released that I actually had an interest in seeing and unlike most other years I was rarely disappointed. Admittedly, very little blew me away but I thoroughly enjoyed what I saw and am very excited to get into the long list of films from 2008 I was very psyched about, but wasn’t able to get to (or have only just been released here).
It took a few readings of your blog for me to grasp why you thought the Academy should consider TDK Best Pic for 2008 when it barely made your Top 10 list. I appreciate that it’s just an example of a genre film that people went nuts for and yet didn’t make the final cut, but you’ve got to remember that you’re dealing with film nerds. Despite their different expertise in the field, they are, essentially film nerds. Like anyone in almost any specialised field, they’re going to go with the mainstream, obvious choices and like you said, most of these guys are over 50 – they’re not going to be breaking with tradition anytime soon. They say that physics advances with every funeral – the same can be said with the film academy. Maybe I’m being naïve, but I’d like to think that in half a generation’s time, it will be publicly acceptable to nominate a genre flick or a Pixar film for Best Picture. Until then, the Best Picture nominees are going to be pretty stock standard and encourage film makers to create the same pics over and over again.
I feel the need to defend Slumdog. I liked that the flash-back/story telling moments weren’t laboured upon: it helped me realise that these horrific evets were just moments in this guys life and weren’t (and probably wouldn’t be) out of the ordinary for kids of that age living in that sort of environment. I thought ‘giving away’ the ending was clever because by the time you get to the ‘cliff hanger’ moment, you actually don’t give a shit because the part of the story you’re invested in has already resolved itself (sorry if that was any kind of spoiler…). I understand that if you’re going in expecting an arty film, there’s a chance you’re going to feel let down, but I saw it at Village cinemas with my pop cinema loving mum, so I wasn’t expecting it to change the way I look at the medium or anything. I say this to everyone I discuss this film with, but I personally think (hope) that Slumdog will do for foreign film what American Beauty did for Art House. I realise that Slumdog isn’t a foreign film, much in the way that American Beauty wasn’t Art House, but I think they’re a non threatening introduction for the greater movie going population into an area of film that is often neglected by anyone who isn’t a film student or arty wanker.
And just to put it out there: I liked Burn After Reading. I know it’s not brilliant and I agree that it’s not Oscar material, but I thought it was pretty good…
Controversy all round!
Shannon:
- YES!!! about Dustin Lance Black!!! I was flabbergasted when I saw the MILK trailer and this dude's name literally filled the screen at the end of it. He's a first-time screenwriter and his name was bigger than Penn's AND Van Sant's, not to mention he's on the poster, too. I haven't a clue why, all I know is... I want this guy's agent!!
- Baz would've had time to prepare for this I imagine... he's been feeling the hurt since Thanksgiving weekend '08.
- And, yes, YAY for Presto! It's my favourite Pixar short, and will be about the only Oscar win I'll be invested in. That and Mickey Rourke.
Kelly:
- That's funny, cos my view of '08 was almost the Bizarro version of yours: while there were lots to be excited about, very few really delivered for me. I really don't want to be one of those people who rag on everything in an attempt to be all cool and disaffected, I genuinely want to LOVE every film I see. And, while, not every film can be a life-changer, too many films just felt like time-killers. No emotion or visceral charge, just studio product. Conversely, most independent output I saw was just blah. (And, come on, some of '08s big films even rubbed Joely the wrong way!!! If that's not a statement, I don't know what is!)
- Yeah, I was hoping people would get sucked into my faux-fellation of TDK... hee hee. It was naughty, I know, but I just got sick to death of reading pretty much the same thing verbatim in blog after blog after blog, especially like it was something new.
- Brilliant, genre-defining, genuinely genius popcorn films have been getting the shaft from Oscar forever, and for films far, far, FAR better than TDK: where was TOY STORY 2's Best Pic nom, or NEMO's, or THE INCREDIBLES'? What's more, what about SPIDER-MAN 2 (the flick that ACTUALLY changed the shape of comic book films), SE7EN, FIGHT CLUB, ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND... some of these films actually HAVE changed people's lives. And, while I don't necessarily believe TDK deserved a Best Pic nomination, I'd like to live in a world where such a thing that could actually happen, but it IS a generational thing. But I like Shannon's point about DEPARTED/NO COUNTRY lulling people into thinking the Oscar voters had gone through a major attitudinal shift. I totally agree with that view, suddenly it all makes sense.
- Yeeeeaaah, I appreciate what you're saying, but can't go with you on SLUMDOG. I wasn't expecting an "art house" film -- quite the opposite, actually! I was expecting a classic feel-good story of unbreakable love against impossible odds, like the very best popcorn love stories... and felt no empathy with the protagonist, no feeling between these two people that there was any love or chemistry at all, and no suspense whatsoever that the twin outcomes would occur at the end. You just get blasted through this kaleidoscope of poverty and pain and chases and often wildly implausible anecdotes before being spit out the other side where you've connected to nothing or nobody and you're left with... "Meh. That was fun, I guess". And it's not that I wanted them to labour the anecdotes, I think the anecdotes simply needed to be better. You can establish love with a look and a gesture, and SM didn't do either effectively, in my opinion. Millions disagree, and that's fine. It didn't pan out for me.
Awesome! I love all this debate... I've really missed the blogisphere!
Firstly, Baz is quite dark at the moment thank you - just come back from hols in the sun.
Secondly, TDK!?!? For the first 412 paragraphs I thought you were talking about the revolution that was the TDK VHS cassette tape! I still have about 50 of them stacked up with episodes of Alf, the Gummy Bears, Renegade/Highlander episode doubles and Street Hawk. The Arnie Schwarzenegger special TDK (my first recordings after 'LP' mode was introduced) still glistens with the beauty of 12 Monica Belluccis in a Turkish hotbath.
Thirdly, thank God you finally came to some sense about Sideways - it is just rubbish. I wish people could watch it again and realise that. It was never good, it will never be good, the actors should never appear in another film again.
Finally, 55%!!! Geez, I must have forgotten how long the last one was!!!
Keep up the good work P-Diddy
Basil: STREETHAWK? So YOU were the one! Why am I not surprised...?
Lee: You're right about the Animated Category needing to recognise higher-end animated product, although PERSEPOLIS WAS nominated last year, and BASHIR was likely just submitted for Foreign Film. So, in light of this, they've probably got it right this year. Then, of course, we COULD make a case for Anime releases...
And, despite Basil's protestations, I'll give SIDEWAYS another shot sometime. I do have a copy after all... I just remember seeing it on Foxtel a couple years back and not loving it as much as I did on the big screen. We'll see...
Spanky: I will be sure to constrict myself to one solitary thought next time! (Some would suggest that's the way I roll regardless...)
Oh, and Shannon: HOTEL FOR DOGS is 2009, so 20-time Oscar nominee Kevin O'Connell would've been up for SPACE CHIMPS and THE RUINS. Seems he wasn't really trying this year.
TSIK
Curse my poor research!
I love your blogs - great to have them back Paulie!
I've never contributed here before, but I can't read this and not say something about Sally Hawkins. *sigh*
She is one of the most versatile actors I have seen in a while, and she is always captivating on screen. Watching her over the last 6 years develop from All or Nothing, to Vera Drake and now, Happy Go Lucky has been a fascinating experience. Mind you, these are all Mike Leigh films (surprise, surprise, coming from me!) but I think that HGL really shows that Hawkins is more than capable of carrying a film - especially one that relies so heavily upon its lead.
While I'm disappointed about Hawkins, I'm encouraged that Leigh has been nominated for Best Screenplay. After the BAFTA snub, it would be nice if he won this one, even just so that he can secure better funding for his next project!
And for what it's worth.. I love Danny Boyle, but Slumdog Millionaire? I don't know. I enjoyed it, but I doubt that I will watch it again, as opposed to Trainspotting and Shallow Grave which I happily revisit over and over. What I loved most about his early work was Boyle's dark sense of humour, but it seems as if the themes of his later films are overwhelming it. Don't get me wrong, I love where he's going, he seems to be exploring new territory with each film that he makes - which can't be said for too many filmmakers. I just miss the darkest black comedic sense that makes me applaud the end of Shallow Grave. Speaking of which, I want the young (and Scottish) Ewan McGregor back..
Post a Comment