The advertising slogan “Image is Everything” is what I base my career on, and this applies especially
to the world of film. With the Academy
Awards a few days away, I’d like to make some observations about how image
affects a film’s success and its award nominations, for better or worse. The easiest way to do this is to go film by film. Now I need to say that I have not seen Zero Dark Thirty, Django Unchained or Amour
because I just don’t want to. But I did
see A LOT of films in 2012…
Let’s begin with
Silver
Linings Playbook, a very well made indie film that makes an interesting
statement about the pervasive and at times, elusive nature of mental
illness.
That’s it.
It is NOT an Oscar caliber film.
But with Harvey Weinstein at the helm working
his marketing & publicity magic, the film has received a lot of attention
and the cast secured nominations in all four acting categories (not done since
Reds in 1981) and none of the
performances blew me out of my seat.
I
fear that Jennifer Lawrence, who granted - is talented, will win for Best Actress very
prematurely (she’s only 22!) and this will set the tone for her career.
And the Jacki Weaver nomination (Supporting
Actress) is perplexing because she barely did anything and I saw many other
performances that were more worthy – namely EVERY woman in
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
There’s a little tiny indie called Beasts of the Southern Wild and I am pleased that it has received
recognition, and I am rooting for 9 year old Quvenzhane Wallis to take the Best
Actress prize. But how is it possible
that Dwight Henry who plays the young girl’s father has not received ANY
nominations? Not even an Independent
Spirit Award (which take place the night before the Oscars)?! His was arguably the most powerful
performance of the year. Maybe it’s
because Mr. Henry is a baker in Louisiana who has never acted before and so he
didn’t campaign for it. I’m not sure but
it boggles my mind that he is not a contender.
Next we have
Lincoln.
Daniel Day Lewis is astonishingly good (so good
that a friend said he should get an Oscar just for the poster!)
Tommy Lee Jones, Sally Field and a few other
actors give memorable performances and the script by Tony Kushner is
excellent.
Despite all this though, is
it a great film?
No.
There are good elements but as a whole, it
really is like a pretty good TV movie.
The reason it has done so well is the idol worship of Steven Spielberg -
and hype.
Enough said.
I am not a fan of Quentin Tarantino (I mean really, is all
that blood necessary?) However, he has a
cult following and Django has a cool
cast so again, I don’t know if it’s worthy but it could simply be a case of the
public wanting to support a cult hero…
Now there’s Life of Pi
– from the book they said was “unfilmable” by Ang Lee, who is one of the most
unique, risk taking filmmakers of our time.
(I met him once and actually thanked him for the gift of Brokeback Mountain). But I wonder if the same film would be
nominated if it was a small indie by an unknown director…
There has been a ton of speculation about why Ben Affleck
did not get an Academy Award nomination for Best Director for
Argo.
Maybe it’s because the Academy decided to expand the number of Best
Picture noms and so now it’s impossible to honor each film’s director.
Interestingly though he won the Golden Globe, the BAFTA
and a slew of other directing awards. In this case, having no hype surrounding
him and little respect as a director may be the key to
Argo’s success.
No one knew that Mr. Affleck could pull
something like this off.
As George
Clooney said in Entertainment Weekly, Ben Affleck was in “actor jail” prior to
Argo. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again
here.
Argo is a perfect film.
Great story, stellar ensemble cast, funny, dramatic, suspenseful and maintains a
great pace.
I think it may be a dark
horse victory to take the big one on Sunday night.
It deserves Best Picture because it is THE
best film of 2012.
The thing that saddens me the most is the amount of great
work I saw in 2012 that received no accolades. The Perks of Being a Wallflower has a great script and was a
critical success so how come no love, even for Best Adapted Screenplay? Also how is it possible that John Hawkes is
not up for Best Actor for The Sessions
but Helen Hunt is honored (again inexplicably!) with a nomination when she couldn’t even
keep up her Boston accent throughout the film?
Is it because she already has a golden statuette on her mantel and she
took her clothes off at 48? And she’s a
household name and Hawkes isn’t? It’s
very frustrating. John Goodman was hilarious
in 2 great films – Flight and Argo – how come no Supporting Actor nom
for him?
I also think there’s a problem when great actors get
nominations for good performances in terrible work. No one respects Philip Seymour Hoffman more
than me, but The Master was simply unbearable. Amy Adams is very well respected in Hollywood
and another example of getting a nomination for just standing there. And don’t even get me started on Joaquin
Phoenix… Should we really be honoring actors who publicly retire from acting
and criticize the whole concept of awards?
I feel that now I just need to list all the un-recognized great
work I saw last year. Jeff, Who Lives at Home, Ruby Sparks, Bernie, Seeking a Friend for
the End of the World, Hope Springs,
(Steve Carell was great doing dramatic work in the last two – when will he get
acknowledged?), Your Sister’s Sister, Any
Day Now. I will end with one thought in the gifted prolific actor-diverse body of work-never gets any recognition
category - Alan Cummings.
