Exit from Eden

What follows are some thoughts on nostalgia and how it may blur critical assessment, prompted by yesterday’s post on this year’s Oscars show.

I’d like to preface them with a quote from an interview that Stefan Blitz (now founder/editor-in-chief of Forces of Geek) and I conducted with comics writer Brian Michael Bendis back in 2001 for my magazine Comicology. After I stopped myself literally in the middle of referring to Stefan as a DVD connoisseur, Stefan made my point for me — by admitting that he owned the 1983 movie Krull.

“You know what’s funny about that movie?” said Bendis. “I remember seeing that
movie [at 15] with my mom and my brother, and sitting in the movie theater having
my first realization that movies could suck.”

The Bloom Is Off the Gilded Lily

I wasn’t going to write about The 85th Annual Academy Awards.



Really. Not outside of some comments on other blogs, anyway. And it ain’t because producers attempted to chuck the formality and rebrand this year’s show purely as “the Oscars”. I’m not above a linguistic gotcha; however, this is not such a gotcha. I honestly expected to be too fatigued and just plain iffy about the telecast that I was happy thinking about not writing about it.

But last night’s Oscarfest, hosted by Seth MacFarlane, was so disappointing that I
kind-of can’t help it.

I don’t have much to say about the content of the show. My anticipated mixture of indifference and irritation was pretty spot-on. It’s that during the telecast I finally came to — hmm... not a realization or epiphany, exactly, more of a rubicon I suppose — a rubicon in terms of my relationship with the annual event. I found myself curiously indifferent about my irritation.

Pre-Oscars Post

As you might’ve heard, the Oscars are tonight.



The big show starts at 8:30 p.m. ET / 5:30 p.m. PT on ABC — whose Go site has a complete list of nominees. If you’re into seeing Oscar hopefuls, presenters, and other celebrities on the red carpet, you’ll want to check those good ol’ local listings.

I’ll probably pass on a review of the show; then again, I’ve thought that before and yet — after a bout of Oscars poetry in 2009, when the blog was all of a few days old — I ended up doing post-Oscars posts in 2010, 2011, and 2012.

Indie Race

Last Saturday morning the 2012 Film Independent Spirit Awards ceremony was held, airing that night on IFC. Seth Rogen hosted and past host John Waters served as Voice of God.

I started this writeup a week ago, but it petered out because no video was online yet and life distractions were abundant.

Rogen smartly referenced Brett Ratner’s Oscars controversy by asking if anyone was really surprised that Ratner showed himself to be a “horrible bigot”. It was a double zing — he’s a creep and we should’ve figured — as well as a singularly nifty way of pointing out that the (rightful) disapproval of Ratner’s usage of a gay slur had a whiff of the double standard about it, since bad behavior in Hollywoodland tends to be tolerated among the successful until it becomes news that puts authority in a difficult position.

He went on to say that Ratner would’ve been better off producing the Grammys than the Oscars, since “you could literally beat the $#!% out of a nominee and they ask you to perform twice” — a reference to the Chris Brown / Rihanna situation, which took a turn for the WTF recently when news came that the two were collaborating on a new track.

I also liked Rogen’s line that Drive “made Jews look so scary, I thought Mel Gibson directed it” and his comment about the star of Martha Marcy May Marlene: “I learned there’s a whole other Olsen this year. Where were they hiding her? She’s the best one!”

Crystalized

I’m sure that the world doesn’t need another Oscars analysis. And while that hasn’t stopped me the past couple of years, real-life concerns have me too distracted right now to forge ahead with any prolonged insight; neither my head nor my heart is in the game.



Billy Crystal’s return as host was more triumphant in terms of his professionalism
than of rollicking humor, which may be what the doctor ordered. There was some good, yet not much bad or ugly — mostly things were perfectly fine but unremarkable, unless that was just my personal mood — and it’s the controversy, the unexpected, the WTF moments where quick-minded emcees (with backstage writers at the ready for good measure) like Crystal shine. I noticed and appreciated his ease at moving the show along, perhaps due to the particular contrast with recent hosts, while at the same time wishing for wittier material.

My dislikes, although they were mild, include...

Pre-Oscars Post

This post is currently down for maintenance.

Siteseeing

If you’re looking for a laugh amidst pre-Oscar fatigue (or just because), I direct you to
a gallery of doctored movie posters over at The Shiznit.



Ali Gray has reworked posters for the annual glut of prestige films to give them titles and taglines bluntly reflective of what the viewing public and/or the promoters think about them.

Kodak Moments

The Oscars brain-trust was ostensibly going for a fresher, younger feel in tapping James Franco and Anne Hathaway to host the 83rd annual ceremony. So naturally the big hits in the Kodak Theatre on Sunday night included 62-year-old repeat emcee Billy Crystal, a frisky but stroke-impaired 94-year-old Kirk Douglas, 73-year-old Original Screenplay winner David Seidler, the 1953 avatar of the late Bob Hope, and James Franco’s grandmother.

James Franco’s Grandmother is my new band name, by the way.

Guerre des Noms

So the ballyhooed face-off between Avatar and The Hurt Locker — two very different movies about soldiers dealing with crucial, only-man-for-the-job missions — finally came to a head last night at The 82nd Annual Academy Awards.

Oscars Beat

EW.com is holding an Oscars poetry contest.

You’re supposed to be able to enter via the PopWatch blog, where you can also read
the poem from a 16-year-old reader that launched the challenge, but as of yet there isn’t a link for that. I sent in the following by E-mail.



A Free Verse
Meditation
On the Oscars

I liked Dave Letterman
Call me crazy
He’s certainly better than
Some we’ve had host
But I realize that most
Folks
Want someone squarer
Star power of Jim Carrey
Temperament of Jim Lehrer

Jon Stewart worked for me
So did Ellen
(Tho’ both were better on the Emmys
Which went to hell in
A proverbial handbasket
This year
No fear
The producers will realize
That more is less
But I digress)