With all due respect to critics and members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the Academy), how much a film makes, not whether it wins an Oscar, is the generally recognized measure of its success. Especially considering that winning an Oscar is more the result of crass political campaigning than any assessment of artistic achievement.
Indeed, it might surprise, if not disillusion, many of you to learn that studios covet the Oscar for best picture primarily because — as Sumner Redstone, the owner of Paramount, conceded in a moment of extraordinary candor — it guarantees millions more in box office receipts.
I’m on record stating how much I dislike the annual Academy Awards show (the Oscars). Because I have little regard for preening, pampered poseurs showing off their borrowed frocks and bling-bling as a prelude to a three-hour show — only six minutes of which anyone really cares about (i.e., the time it takes to present Oscars for actor and actress in a leading role, actor and actress in a supporting role, best director, and best picture)…
And, remarkably enough, the host comedians do little to relieve the boredom of the interludes between these carefully spread-out moments.
(“My Review of the 2008 Oscars,” The iPINIONS Journal, February 25, 2008)
My annual rant aside, there are great expectations that the interludes will be a little more exciting this year. Not least because the entire world is waiting with bated breath for host Chris Rock’s color commentary on the #OscarsSoWhite outrage.
But I’m on record warning – in “#OscarsSoWhite! Duh. But Boycott? Nah,” January 22, 2016 – that Rock’s performance anxiety might make it impossible for him to rise to the occasion.
I hope Rock does not take this race bait. Because nobody wants to tune in to a celebration of Hollywood, no matter how lily White, just to hear a rich black host bitching all night about how racist and unfair life is for rich black actors.
Besides, we all know that black comics rule when it comes to jokes about thuggish behavior among blacks in the hood. By the same token, and for the same reasons, I submit that white comics should rule when it comes to jokes about racism among whites in Hollywood, especially on this occasion.
In any event, there’s bound to be no shortage of stars looking to use this occasion to vent Oscars-So-White outrage, hoping for an additional 15 minutes of fame.
(“#OscarsSoWhite! Duh. But Boycott? Nah,” The iPINIONS Journal, January 22, 2016)
All the same, I wish him well.
I delineated in this same commentary why blacks share some blame for the Academy nominating whites only in the six major categories for a second consecutive year.
For, instead of working year round to integrate Hollywood at all levels, blacks treat its lack of diversity like an annual cause for viral outrage and grandstanding protests.
Sure enough:
Sharpton’s National Action Network announced Thursday a ‘nationwide TV tune out’ of the Academy Awards broadcast Sunday night, and a series of demonstrations and rallies to protest the lack of women and minorities in the movie industry in general and in this year’s major Oscar nominations in particular…
Sharpton, a pro at organizing instant protest rallies for issues he cares about, will lead a rally in front of Hollywood High School at 2 pm Sunday, not far from the Dolby Theater where the Oscar ceremony takes place. Similar rallies are scheduled in front of local TV news stations in Ohio, Michigan, New York, Miami, Washington, D.C. and Miami on the same night.
(USA Today, February 25, 2016)
No doubt Sharpton will get a few people to join his march of folly. But I suspect even they will be home in time to watch the Oscars, despite his clarion call for a nationwide tune out.
Enough.
Here are my picks in the six categories most people care about:
Actor in a Leading Role
Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant: Because mainstream-media critics and social-media trolls have prevailed upon the aging Academy to compensate for snubbing him on so many previous occasions – five to be exact. Never mind that a less senile Academy snubbed no less a leading man than Al Pacino seven times before compensating him.
But Bryan Cranston in Trumbo deserves honorable mention: First, he affirmed the critically acclaimed acting he wowed so many with in Breaking Bad. And second, he carried a film about McCarthyism that was second only to Spotlight in socially redeeming value. The latter of course is about the sexual abuse of children by Catholic priests.
- Actress in a Leading Role
Cate Blanchett in Carol: Never mind that this would make her a three-time Academy Award winner. Or that I was more impressed with what screenwriter Phyllis Nagy said on the January 9 edition of NPR’s Fresh Air about Patricia Highsmith than with what I saw of Blanchett’s acting on screen.
Nagy adapted the screenplay for Carol from Highsmith’s 1952 novel, The Price of Salt. Suffice it to know that the way she spoke of Highsmith made Highsmith seem a more like “Carol” than the way Blanchett portrayed her.
- Actor in a Supporting Role
Sylvester Stallone in Creed: For milking his Rocky franchise like a poor African dry milking his one cow.
- Actress in a Supporting Role
Rachel McAdams in Spotlight: Primarily because this film, with its powerful message of not only speaking truth to power but holding the powerful to account, deserves at least one major award. But also because, if heavily favored Kate Winslet wins for Steve Jobs, she might begin to believe the hype about her being the next Meryl Streep.
Mind you, I have no issue with Cate Blanchett being hailed as the next Katharine Hepburn. Blanchett has the talent, style, and sophistication to be eminently worthy. And, if she wins, she would be well on her way to matching Hepburn’s record haul of four Academy Awards.
- Directing
Alejandro G. Iñárritu in The Revenant: For having the good sense to cast sentimental favorite DiCaprio as his lead, and then riding his coattails all the way to Oscar glory – just like he did last year with Michael Keaton and Birdman Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).
- Best Picture
The Revenant: Because it only reflects the senility of Academy members when they award the Oscar to a film whose director they snubbed.
Related commentaries:
#OscarsSoWhite…