THE OSCARS
This use to be an anticipated event for me, but I feel so indifferent this year. I saw Crash on DVD and I haven't seen any of the other Best Picture nominees. My gut is that I'll enjoy CAPOTE the most and that I'll admire GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK despite the politics, while Munich and Brokeback will be less impressive.
First, I don't understand why Ang Lee continues to be treated as a major film artist. Now I didn't see his early Chinese language films and I'm told they're pretty good, but his stuff in the last ten years is overrated in my mind. I liked SENSE AND SENSIBILITY enough, but could ICE STORM been more depressing? Could CROUCHING TIGER been more silly. Could THE HULK have been slower? Now probably any director would have been nominated for BROKEBACK, but I don't get the Ang Lee glow just the same.
I think MUNICH puts a different spin on SCHINDLER'S LIST. I originally thought SCHINDLER was Spielberg getting in touch with his Jewish heritage, but to make a movie about the Munich situation and base it on the discredited book Vengeance means that even Schindler's was less about oppression and more about fashion. It wasn't that Jews were victims, but that they were victims of Nazis. Or maybe the holocaust is important because America ignored it. It's our shame. Now that we're Israel's biggest supporters and in a sense doing what some wish we would have done sooner than 1945, it doesn't count for squat either. I mean doesn't it seem like the fashionable just sit back and wait for America to take a position so that they can take the other side?
One more thing. . . This suicide bomber film, PARADISE NOW, makes Pat Buchanan 1992 convention speech about the culture war seem naive and understated. It's one thing to make endless McCarthy demon pieces, but to treat the murder of women and children as a valid political statement and its participants as normal people is diseased. What was it about the Holocaust that they didn't like again?
1 comment:
This is the first Oscars since 1987 that hasn't gotten me all aflutter, sneaking out for double features to catch up on the hype.
The only major film I have seen this year, besides the animated features, is CRASH, which I enjoyed. The only thing I would really vote for from this film is Matt Dillon, Best Supporting Actor, and without looking, I'm not even sure if he is nominated. I also think a nod for Original Screenplay would be deserving.
I've got nothing against gay cowboys or liberal propaganda, so I imagine I'll see most of these films eventually. I just didn't feel rushed to see them before the Oscars like I ususally do this time of year.
Since I watch The Daily Show more religiously than movies now, I am mostly looking forward to watching for John Stewart rather than the awards themselves.
Post a Comment