Q: The film industry of today.
I paid little attention to the TV part of the Golden Globes (Except Best Comedy Series---yay Glee!) and instead waited for the film categories. At the beginning, I was doing fairly well...then it went downhill.
Best Supporting Actress was pretty much given. Mo'Nique was incredible in Precious, and that paid off. Her speech was a wonderful way to start the evening, with a check mark for "WON" on my predictions sheet.
Several more accurate wins went my way---Meryl Streep in Julie and Julia, Up for original score and animated feature, and The White Ribbon for best foreign language film. All was well. A couple losses ("Winter" by U2 for Original Song, "Inglorious Basterds" for screenplay) and I'm going down.
Suddenly, EVERYONE is losing. Best Director, Jason Reitman? Goes to James Cameron and Avatar. Stanley Tucci for supporting actor? Carey Mulligan in drama actress? Morgan Freeman for drama actor? DANIEL DAY-LEWIS for comedy/musical actor? All lost.
The Best Picture awards really made me believe they pick the winners out of a hat. Out of Nine, 500 Days of Summer, The Hangover, It's Complicated, and Julie & Julia, guess who won Best Movie Comedy/Musical?
The Hangover. Yes. Really. No joke. That just about made me cry at how low our standard have sunk that THAT prevails over something like Nine or 500 Days of Summer. I don't even know how it was nominated.
I don't want to beat around the bush, so out with it: Avatar won Best Picture: Drama. Box office success? Yes. Nominated? Oh, certainly. Better than Precious and Up in the Air?
Not so much. It's Pocahontas in blue wash. The story is paper-thin. It's not original. Nobody accomplishes anything (except someone gets his legs or something). It's just James Cameron trying to prove what he can to. It'd be really impressive for a talent-dump, actually. That's pretty much what it is: a mixture of good stuff without much purpose and without much drive.
If the Oscars go like this, I'm going to be writing some very angry letters.
Sunday, January 17, 2010
A: What have I just about lost faith in?
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4 comments:
Great analysis. Unfortunately, the movie industry has been trending down for years. Brilliant performances frequently take second place to popularity, or worse yet, the box office take!
Exactly! It's a real shame :(
'Tis a shame indeed. I don't even want to touch light on the subject of how horrendous Disney is nowadays. In my opinion, Disney was at its summit when Walt Disney was still alive, when he created the classics. After he died, there were still a few good ones in the 90's, like Beauty and the Beast and the like. When 2000 came along, though, it all went downhill. None of it was original, and it was all corny sequels (rips off the classics). The only good ones weren't even truly Disney. Narnia, for instance. Disney paid to have their name stamped on the DVD covers and in the movie titles and credits, but they never really contributed that much to the actual making of the movie (aside from the financial stuff). Modern day Disney is simply AWFUL. Entertainment just quite isn't the same anymore. :( Perhaps we can save it, bring about a Renaissance in these Middle Ages with our skittling, eh, Alicebelle?(:
Haha XDD Quinn, I just discovered your comment, and it seriously made my day. I agree---Disney's best movies were before he died. There were some charms afterwards, though (Like "Tarzan" and "Lilo & Stitch"---the later not totally Disney like, but still a cute movie). All the sequels and rubbish like "Home on the Range" are all just...barrrrg. (And yeah, stuff like Narnia and almost all of the Pixar movies aren't even really Disney)
And YESSS we simply must bring these Dark Ages to a close with our own wave of enlightenment. I concur 100%, Lady Quelice :)
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