Post Oscar Something

I actually watched the benighted thing last night, so I suppose I have to comment. Had to see Altman get his, though I also had some reading I had to do but didn't really want to do, so guessing there would be a lot of dead time, I figured I could go back and forth between Jon Stewart and commodity fetishism and keep sane. Worked pretty well. So then - the Oscars....

1) Crash winning is a travesty, though not all that surprising - the Academy has a nose for picking the worst available film. The odd thing is that the last couple years, the nominations have not been embarrassing at all. Not the best bunch of films, but respectable - maybe a turd here or there... they managed to step in one.... What's odder, actually, is that if you hadn't seen Crash, it doesn't sound half bad. Oh, the potential for disaster was always there (especially if you're familiar with Paul Haggis, the rotten script he wrote for Million Dollar Baby, say), but so was the potential for something good. Without seeing it - it sounds like a challenging, socially conscious, humanistic. serious film about race in America - it sounds edgy and thoughtful, maybe more serious than the old style romance with a twist that Brokeback Mountain was. (None of the other three films seemed to have a chance, even if they might have been better than those two.) But you see Crash - and I fail to see how you can not see what a lame, hackneyed, contrived, false piece of pablum it is.

2) It doesn't matter though. It will be forgotten before the week is out. It was forgotten before it got nominated for the Oscar, and will be forgotten now, except as a cautionary tale. Probably not the run screaming type of cautionary tale Dances With Wolves or Forest Gump are, but the kind that people just shake their heads and marvel at - what could they have been thinking?

3) On a happier note - Altman was amusing and charming and modest, in an arrogant way - the way he hinted that they were taking him away from his work, interrupting his play in London, his promotion of his new movie, the little hints that they were telling him to go sit in the corner and be quiet, old geezerm and he wasn't about to do it.... Nice. The intro, Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep clowning Altmanesquely [yellow card from the adverb police!] was - odd. Actually kind of nice - maybe a silly conceit, but it was fun watching them.

4) Ben Stiller's bit was an odd conceit too, but he sold it, doing his clueless dipshit routine. Likewise, the attack ads were very amusing.

5) I spent half the day with that damned pimp song running through my head.

6) Altman should have said, "now I'm tied with the 3 6 mafia!" Or did he go on before they won? I can't remember. Nevertheless...

7) Memoirs of a Geisha served a useful purpose, finally - something to cheer against through all the technical awards, way too many of which it own. It can't have deserved any of them.

8) Finally - I kept thinking about what could have been. The films actually nominated for the big awards weren't bad - nothing outstanding, but not bad (except Crash, of course, and again - in theory, it isn't half bad.) Think of what could have been - Memoirs winning all those technical awards - a few years ago, it would have been up for the big ones, too. What if Cinderella Man had been nominated for something? (I haven't seen it, but it's a Ron Howard film - who needs to see Ron Howard films?) If Hollywood is really moving away from rewarding that type of shit, we are all better off.

At the same time, I'd get a reminder, every now and then, of what was on the other side. An original screenplay here - an adapted screenplay there - a cinematography nomination yonder... What if - 1, 2 or 3 of those films (The Squid and the Whale, History of Violence, The New World) had gotten a best picture nomination? a best director nomination? There's a kind of shadow Oscars - the genuinely good, even great, films, nominated here or there, but staying at the margins....

Thinking thus, I had a small epiphany. Something I probably knew, but tried not to think about. I've taken some shots at the Malick film - I wasn't hugely enthusiastic about the Cronenburg. But the fact is, I have seen History of Violence twice (and The Squid and the Whale, but I loved that without reservation) - and with some reservations, probably want to see The New World again. In fact - I'd rather see any of those films again than see any of the best picture nominations again, even if most of the best picture nominees are, maybe, better than the Malick film. It's just that The New World, whatever it's flaws, is interesting - I wish people would talk about that instead of Crash and Brokeback Mountain. Good bad or indifferent - it's alive.