I didn't mind the size; cutting down on the bloat that has accumulated around
this broadcast is something to be welcomed. Nor did I mind the lack of song and
dance. To be honest, hearing the nominated songs, I could not have told you one
from another even as they were playing. Now that original musicals are as dead
as Arthur Freed, this is a category the Academy could easily lose.
I'll state up front (in case it wasn't obvious) that I think competitive award
shows for the arts are stupid. I thought "Nomadland' was beautiful to look at,
but condescending to the very people it pretended to venerate. Others found it
moving and profound. Which of us is right? I thought Hopkins's performance was
one-note with no evolution. (It didn't help that I'd seen Frank Langella play
it on Broadway to devastating effect) Others were moved to tears. Are they
wrong? Am I? It's all a matter of choice and taste, and Oscar has decades of
making lousy decisions behind him.
What I objected to is that, if they're going to do a show that celebrates the
art of film and entertainment, that they almost have an obligation to be
Entertaining. I don't mean an evening of jokes and skits. I don't want Billy
Crystal or Kevin Hart (or even the guy who did the trivia; the less of him, the
better). I do want sharp, clever, and observant writing -- hell, even Sorkin
could have done that better -- that talks about the place of the movies in a
year like no other. What I got a self-important gasfest that looked cheap (I'm
talking quality of image; not the venue itself, which mostly looked good) with
too-long acceptance speeches that were mostly ill-conceived.
Maybe the one thing I did like was the way the end fell apart. There are just
too many past cases of "sure" winners who crapped out at the end to take the
chance of Boseman winning, so focusing the broadcast to build with that was a
capital mistake I happy to see blow up in their faces. That it left a guy like
Phoenix who would rather have been anywhere else on Earth to clean up the mess
was the icing on the cake.
--Dave Sikula
On Monday, April 26, 2021, 8:04:04 PM PDT, PGage <[email protected]> wrote:
I am not surprised to be in the minority on this, but a little push-back
against the Compact Majority:
1. Marin is repeating a complaint on Twitter that simply is not true. They did
have clips for; they never have clips for all or even most categories. I guess
the biggest difference was for the acting categories, which they sometimes, but
not always have.
2. It’s odd to hear people criticize it for being too small; COVID restrictions
are such that I would have thought the main critique would be it was too big.
The comparison should be with the Zoom based award shows of the last 4 months,
not the traditional shows of the past. A live band was precluded by health
safeguards, for example, which did not dictate but added to the decision to
move the songs to the pre-show (I think most of them pre-recorded). Again, I
thin keeping in mind the many limitations, they did a fantastic job.
3. I’m surprised people seem to miss the big production numbers and lame
presenter patter, since for me this is always the worst part of the show.
Clearly the worst part of last night was the one comedy bit they did try.
4. Award shows are about the acceptance speeches, that’s what they are about,
thats what I like about them. If you don’t like them then yes, I can see why
you don’t like the Oscars. I think Soderbergh thought it would be a good idea
to have the presenters comments be a way of sharing something personal about
each nominee, which does sound good in the abstract, but in principle was
longish and kind of boring. I would do less of that, and bring back the style
where they have 3 professional comics come out and do 3 min each through the
show to add some humor.
5. I like the movies. I like in particular Oscar type movies, which is to say
middle brow films that are not quite art but aim for artistic entertainment. (I
also watch my share of higher brow films, but rarely enjoy them as much, and
lower brow films, but rarely enjoy thinking about them after as much. I grew up
in Southern California, and while not connected to the film industry I grew up
with the children of lots of famous and not so famous actors, and hair stylists
and editors and whatever, and I am interested in what they do, the people who
do it with them, and the end result. I don’t watch the Oscars for a production
that resembles is a bad movie version of itself, but to appreciate and
celebrate the craft of movie making.
--
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