And now, my top five pet peeves, and top five highlights of the 2012/13 awards season:
Top 5 Pet Peeves of 2012/13 Awards Season
This controversy
made very little noise down in Hollywood where it mattered, but up
here north or the border I couldn't avoid it! Many of my fellow
Canucks, led by the Toronto Star's foremost critic and Oscarologist
Peter Howell, were annoyed with Argo's unabashed
Hollywoodization of 'The Canadian Caper'. Indeed, the rescue mission
depicted in Ben Affleck's Best Picture winner was actually more of a
collaborative effort between the Canadian and U.S. governments, but
nitpickers like Howell have blinded themselves to the one fact that
should be obvious: Argo is a damn good movie. The fabrications
of the script are what make it such an efficient, structured, and
dramatically focused story.
The film that took
the biggest hit from the press this year was Kathryn Bigelow and Mark
Boal's Zero Dark Thirty. The film's unfeeling depiction of
torture was apparently so uncomfortable for some that they developed
the false idea that the film was endorsing torture. Anyone who takes
a good hard look at this journalistic procedural should be able to
tell that it isn't endorsing or indicting anything, but the flawed
perception caught on, and it wasn't long until regional critics
groups started jumping ship to Argo. At the end of the day,
the once-presumed frontrunner was lucky to walk away with one Oscar
(by a single vote).
As soon as
nominations came out I reserved a spot on this list for this pet
peeve. It was just so obvious that 10-time nominee Roger Deakins,
11-time nominee Thomas Newman, and 16-time nominee Greg P. Russell
were all going to lose again, and on the same night, and for
the same film. The fact that Skyfall's other two nominations
for previous winners Per Hallberg & Karen Baker-Landers, and
first-time nominees Adele & Paul Epworth both resulted in wins
only adds insult to injury. Seriously, Academy, I'm getting sick and
tired of this.
I hate to bestow this title upon a
movie that I actually liked, but Searching for Sugar Man was
the most overrated film of the year. In a season chalk full of
excellent documentaries, watching this relatively slight profile of
obscure musician Rodriguez win literally every industry award a
documentary could win became taxing and anticlimactic. Surely the ACE
could have sprung for How to Survive a Plague? Was it too much
to ask that 5 Broken Cameras or The Queen of Versailles
or The Invisible War win something? Group-think is a terrible
thing. Sure, it made predicting the Oscar easier, but at what cost?
I know I'm in the minority on this, but I honestly didn't think this
year's Oscar show was that bad. Maybe after three consecutive years
of telecasts that ranged from lacklustre to flat-out bad, I was more
willing to let the sub-par material of this one slide and focus on
what I liked about it. Apparently that's impossible for most people,
who are quick to judge the show and its host entirely on what they
did wrong, while giving no heed to what they did right. I suppose it
was a doomed enterprise from the start. As soon as it became apparent
just how musical the show would be, I knew the critics would have
their knives out. I just didn't think their hyperbole would bug me so
much.
Top 5 Highlights of the 2012/2013
Awards Season
After three years of being forced to
put up with Ricky Gervais, I couldn't be more pleased with this
year's Golden Globes, hosted with knock-out hilarity by Tina Fey and
Amy Poehler. It was a quick, spirited affair that spread the wealth
and ended up being fairly predictive of the Oscars in many
categories, including Argo for Best Picture. This was one of
the first big turn-around wins for Ben Affleck's film, which had only
recently suffered the “blow” of a Best Director snub a few days
earlier. All said, it was quite an enjoyable evening.
Surprises at the Academy Awards are
rarities in this day and age, but there were a few that made last
Sunday's worth watching all the way through. Whether it was a
surprise performance like Shirley Bassey or Charlize Theron &
Channing Tatum, or whether it was an unexpected result like Lincoln's
inspired victory in Best Production Design or that shocking tie in
Best Sound Editing (indicative of how tight a year it's been), they
were highlights that I'll not soon forget. At least, not until it's
time to start thinking about next year's Oscars!
I could have
lumped this in with the Golden Globes, but really, Foster deserved
her own spot. When she first started her acceptance speech of the
Cecile B. DeMille Award it was rushed and all over the map. I
honestly couldn't tell what she was going on about. I heard her
mention something about “coming out” -- and how she already did that
to her friends years ago -- before segueing into a plea for privacy,
and something about this speech suddenly felt important. I have since
re-listened to it a couple of times, and have come to recognize it as
a brave and honest record of our celebrity culture, beautifully
written despite a slightly frantic delivery. It might go down as one
of the most memorable and significant award speeches of the decade.
I might have been
miffed by Ben Affleck's surprising exclusion from the Best Director
lineup if I weren't so elated by the surprising inclusion of another
Ben(h), who directed the best film of the year but had been largely
written off by pundits. The directors branch dug deep in their
nominations this year, and Zeitlin's was an awesome one, even if it
was obvious that neither he, nor his film, would win anything. Yes, I
am a little irked that Beasts was the only Best Picture nominee to
go home empty-handed, but let's face it, the four nominations it
reaped are its reward, giving it some valuable exposure for potential
audiences post-Oscars.
My big cinematic
love affair of the year began in November when I sat down to watch
Disney's Wreck-It Ralph. I had read in a review that Disney
had produced a delightful short to play before the film, but was not
prepared for how much I would absolutely love what I saw. The
gorgeous line animation felt familiar, and yet its combination with
CG-rendered characters looked like nothing I had ever seen before.
The charming, unspoken romance played out in just over six minutes,
but every second of it was perfect. As soon as I left the theatre I
wanted to buy another ticket just to see Paperman
again! I downloaded an MP3 of Christoph Beck's beautiful score for
the film, and listened to it frequently. When Disney had the savvy to
make it available online once voting opened, I eagerly rediscovered
its visual and narrative splendour. I superstitiously refused
to predict it for the win (given how seldom the studios win Best
Animated Short), but it was my biggest rooting interest of the
season, and it was a pleasure to bang the drum for it all the way
from the theatre to the Oscar stage.
And that concludes my Oscar coverage for the season. Thanks for reading, and I look forward to next year. I'll be back in spring with some advanced predictions for the 2014 Oscars, and I'll toss up reviews for new movies as see them.
Ta for now.
