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entertaining u newspaper: your weekly guide to entertainment
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Because I Said So
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by rick grant rickgrant01@comcast.net
The Academy Awards’ televised gala is the gold standard of the many awards presentations. An Oscar carries a lot of weight and can either enhance an actor’s career or curse the winner, because their peers didn’t think they deserved the honor in the first place.
On Tuesday, January 23, the Oscar nominations were announced. For the worthy indies that no one but movie critics viewed, it means a chance for second life at the box office. In some cases, the movie gets a significant bump in ticket sales. Still, there are DVD and foreign revenues to bail out low box office achievers. In some cases, such as Babel, a film that didn’t deserve an Oscar nomination, it’s a political choice for the 5,000 Academy voters. Why? Indeed, many factors of promotion, the respect for the director, the high-profile stars, the accomplishment of shooting in five different countries, all contribute to this undercurrent of influence.
The screen adaptation of the 1981 musical, Dreamgirls, bagged the most nominations with eight. Babel, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s globe-trotting epic, came in second with seven nominations. More significantly Dreamgirls was tapped for best picture and director. Of course, Dreamgirls will gain the most traction from its eight nominations, boosting its box office revenues. In contrast, Babel, a film with a convoluted plot and a confusing, murky script will gain only a smidgen of box office bump.
After Martin Scorsese won a Golden Globe for The Departed, it was re-released to gain more viewers, although it did better than expected at the box office on its first run. It will probably stay in the theaters through the Oscars (Feb. 25) to pick up some more viewers if Scorsese wins his elusive Oscar for the film, since he’s been nominated eight times in the past and never won.
Helen Mirren was deservedly nominated for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II during the crisis after Princess Diana’s death in The Queen. Justifiably, for the same film, Stephen Frears was tapped for best director and best screenplay. This picture will move on to DVD and gain a modest audience bump, if the film wins in all categories in which it was nominated. Mirren won two Golden Globes–one for The Queen film and one for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth I in the TV miniseries. Yeah, Mirren is one red hot chili pepper queen!
The sleeper hit of the season Little Miss Sunshine eared nominations for best picture, best supporting actor (Alan Arkin) best supporting actress (little Abigail Breslin) and best original screenplay. I loved the film and it deserves all its honors. However, traditionally, comedies never do well in the big arena of the Oscar awards. It’s already on DVD, so a win or two will boost DVD sales only slightly.
Clint Eastwood’s seminal Japanese-language Letters from Iwo Jima was nominated for best picture, best director, and best original screenplay. The picture deserves any Oscar it gets. But the nomination pits Scorsese against Eastwood for the second time in three years. In 2004, Eastwood won for Million Dollar Baby, beating out Scorsese’s Aviator. Will the picture benefit from multiple wins? Traditionally subtitled films do not fare well with mass audiences in America. It might do well on DVD as a result of any Oscar wins.
Forest Whitaker, with Golden Globe firmly in-hand for his remarkable performance as Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland, is in the Oscar-running for best actor. Also, 74 year old Peter O’Toole is pitted against Whitaker in the same category with a nomination for Venus–an aardvark film about an aging theater icon rejuvenated by his mentorship of a brash young woman. Whitaker is a safe bet to win.
A dark horse pick was Ryan Gosling for his performance in Half Nelson, which is already on DVD. Even if he miraculously wins an Oscar, the film is too obscure for to benefit from it.
Clearly a righteous nomination and one of my best picture choices is Little Children, which received Oscar nominations for best actress (Kate Winslet) best supporting actor (Jackie Earle Haley) and best adapted screenplay. Again, this is an art film destined for obscurity. A win might boost its DVD sales slightly, but it has no mass market appeal.
Leonardo DiCaprio has come a long way from his boyish look in Titanic. He’s successfully progressed beyond teen idol status to being a respected actor after working with Martin Scorsese in the Aviator and Gangs of New York. This year, he was honored with two Oscar nominations for best actor for his performances in both The Departed and Blood Diamond. Oscar rules prevent him from winning two Oscars for the same category. So that might cancel him out altogether. A win would give a slight boost to both pictures, which are still in theaters.
Let the good times roll and the cleavages plunge as we live vicariously through our royal movie stars and imagine our lives in their place. Ah yes, the money–the fame–the rehab, and yes, the divorces with big settlements to the gold-digging wives. Aye, it gives me a headache just thinking about it. Besides, I hate wearing a tux. Yeah, like that will ever happen.
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