2.23.2009

Oscar Tamed

The Academy Awards always make me feel nostalgic, perhaps for the good old days when cinema was an art. There is just this mystical heir of glamor and sophistication looming among those starving actresses in spanks.

It is a night of true appreciation of the highest in cinematic arts...or it is supposed to be.

Last night, the golden man himself left me thoroughly disappointed. When Will Smith got up to talk about achievement in editing in sound--under appreciated, incredibly difficult categories, he also added a one liner along the lines of "my (action) movies have fans." The clips that followed were of this years nominees, which were all across the board, ranging from Wanted--a ridiculous graphic novel brought to life by the larger-lipped half of Brangelina, to Slumdog Millionaire and Wall-e, both big winners in their categories.

Comments like Smith's, began to lower the quality of the evenings presentation, and I could see the little man himself began to tarnish with embarrassment.

I wonder if the future for Mr. Oscar will be left in the hands of Smith's action loving fans. Do we really not care about hard, truthful stories anymore? Do we really just want to watch fast cars and slo-mo bullets? Are indie films only watched once they show up on award's season radar??
In the words of Meryl Streep "I have doubts. I have such doubts." About the future of cinema, that is.



ALERT! ALERT!
:::GROUTFITI UPDATE:::
for all my groutfitti fans out there, news flash, the groutfiti has emerged from the men's restroom, and has made its way to the outside of the door and has lept across the hall to tarnish the women's room door. No meetings scheduled for discussion yet. will keep the world posted.

2 comments:

Stacey said...

I look forward to the Oscars each year and was pleasantly surprised by the sincere and touching details added, but agree that some details (such as the action packed part) took away from the grace and beauty the show seemed to be going for.

Wade Solowoniuk said...

that was just great...missed it myself, for the very reasons you mentioned.