The Snooze Button

Interesting potential feud over what’s neo about neo-neo-realism brewing soon. Stay tuned.

For those who landed here looking for Neo, check out allmovie.com.

Rob weighed in with his thoughts on Oscars present and past (and future).

…on your oscar takes … yeah, overall it was still kind of lame, though better than recent years.  it should be a simple, classy affair, i think.  should match the tuxes and dresses in tone.  fuck the attempts at humor and “entertainment” (song-and-dance numbers, etc.).  somebody like that Sid Ganis academy president guy should host it (which would be just saying welcome to the oscars and here is the presenter of the first award).  anyway, just show the damn movies.  like you said, that’s what the show is for — to promote them and get people out to the theaters. i would set it up like this:

the show should be only two hours long (9-11 east coast time). that leaves half an hour for commercials and one and half hours for the show.  allocating 10 minutes for welcome to the oscars and other transitional b.s.,  that leaves 80 minutes for the awards themselves.  here’s how i’d break it out.

i would have the following categories.  each category would have four (not five) nominees.  each nominee would get a video clip to promote their movie/performance/etc.  for some awards (best picture, actor, etc. ) they would mostly show clips of the movies or performance, like a trailer.  the others (director, cinematography, etc.) would be like mini-documentaries or dvd extras.

Feature film awards

Production

1. Best Picture …  two-minute clips x 4 = 8 minutes.

2. Best Director … one-minute clips x 4 = 4 minutes.

3. Best Original Script … 30-second clips x 4 = 2 minutes.

4. Best Adapted Script … 30-second clips x 4 = 2 minutes.

(+ 4 minutes for set up/transitions/award goes to = 20 minutes)

 Acting

1. Best Actor … one-minute clips x 4 = 4 minutes.

2. Best Actress … one-minute clips x 4 = 4 minutes.

3. Best Supporting Actor … 30-second clips x 4 = 2 minutes.

etc.

final thought: no acceptance speeches and no walking down the aisle to the stage.  the winners would just hug and kiss the people sitting around them if they want.

- Rob Morano

1. Last night’s Academy Awards ceremony was one of those times when the award ceremony far outstripped the material being awarded. Can anyone name a year with less deserving films all around?

2. The worst thing about the above comment is that you can’t really complain about any of the winners, which is a bummer.

3. The best thing is that it kept the ceremony relatively short and circumspect. Was not the year to bring down the house, but personally I’d prefer they put effort into classing it up every year rather than trying to find new ways to wow people. 

3. I hope that’s the last time I ever have to hear “Jai Ho” again. Ever.

4. Get a real emcee, for Christ’s sake. Unless you only want to appeal to middle-aged women and lovers of song-and-dance numbers, it’s not difficult to find someone good and relatively hip. Obvious is fine. I’d pick Conan O’Brien, although with ABC the broadcast partner that wouldn’t work. I don’t love Jimmy Kimmel, but he is the network’s late night guy. I just don’t get Hugh Jackman.

5. Hated the ode-to-the actor thing. More clips would have been better.

6. The above can’t be overstated. Every year the one glaring omission from the Academy Awards is the movies themselves, which are barely shown. Actors are only part of the pictures. Yes, the vast majority of the movie watching audience thinks in terms of stars, but the thing is whenever you are showing clips of movies you are showing stars. If these films aren’t worth taking a longer look at, why are they being celebrated?

- WM

Here’s an interesting take from The New Yorker.

February 23, 2009

Oscar in the Rearview Mirror

Every Oscar night has its W.T.F. moment, and tonight’s came when Liam Neeson opened the envelope for Best Foreign Film. The winner, the Japanese film “Departures,” directed by Yojiro Takita, has never been released in New York. Regent Releasing acquired it for distribution in early January and scheduled it for the summer (though I’d be surprised if, under the circumstances, it doesn’t come out much sooner). I haven’t seen the movie, so I can’t say it’s unworthy of the honor; but there’s something wrong with a system in which an essentially unreleased film can qualify, let alone win.

In the main categories, there were no great upsets, though the touts and oddsmakers had picked Mickey Rourke for Best Actor. (I had expected Sean Penn to win: never bet against an actor playing a real-life hero.) The biggest surprise was the new format, in which a quintet of previous winners of the acting awards introduced the five nominees with fulsome, Hallmark-like tributes, when slightly longer clips from the nominated performances would have been more to the point. Read the rest of this entry »