The Boo Birds are out on the Oscar show last night.
And really… they couldn’t be more wrong.
The main reason I think they are so wrong is not because we hold different opinions, but because so much of the criticism I read or hear comes back to the same old problem… it’s the Oscars, stupid.
It's not going to be two hours. It will not be free of artifice. Every speech written will not be sensational or delivered brilliantly. It is not, in the end, a movie. It is the biggest award show of them all. And attention is paid, no matter how blase' some pretend to be.
Plenty of people on the blog have been complaining about the show on the basis of who won and who was or was not nominated. Fine… not the issue for me.
I loved the opening number by Jackman, which was smart and funny and light as air.
I am a fan of the five former winners presenting each acting nominee. Some are not. And yes, some of their comments – with 20 to watch – didn’t play strong and the idea of a relationship for each presenter to each nominee didn’t always work.
But what worked so very beautifully about the idea was that it really did honor the idea of the performers and what they brought to the table and the community that The Academy is meant to represent at its best. And even better, it washed out the too-long-lived clichés of the event… clip package, live shots of each person, 10 seconds of anticipation, one is thrilled, four put the best face on it they can…. people say it was just an honor to be nominated. This concept seemed to take the talent out of their heads in the moment and to make them actually present for the experience, not just trying to smile when their head is just spinning off its axis.
Even Sophia Loren, having a hard time getting out the Streep speech (and promoting a Nine nomination for next year)… who else could be the elder to Streep? Jane Fonda? Maggie Smith? That’s about the whole living list who I can think of befitting the moment.
Maybe they need to use the idea just for Lead and to figure out another way to do Supporting, though the way the evening is built, Supporting is in the first third and both Leads are in the last. So, maybe it just needs to be even more refined. Imagine the amount of interest that the annual discussion of who should be presenting to whom would create… and both the pressure and excitement around the moment when it actually happens in that theater, hopefully not spoiled ahead of time.
This is a new tradition that can absolutely get better and better. Yes, you always have the person who won the last year in the gender-opposite category. But whom do they present to and who are the other four? That’s weeks of chatter that might actually be compelling to read about and think about.
But again, the best thing was that the dynamic was changed for the better by the event of it. Speeches were less forced and shorter. No one was played off. But no one seemed rushed either.
Even Jerry Lewis got on and got off.
Clip packages were hit and miss. The Apatow piece skewed young, but I really loved the stoned laughing at the dramas and the James Franco/Milk joke. The doc piece was disappointing, coming from The Great Maysles. The idea of packaged for genres was not a bad one, but the issue of whether they were focusing heavily on nominees or the entire genre was seemingly unsettled. The Wall-E one worked best because it had the structure of Wall-E watching and actually appreciating other animation. None of the others were as clever that way.
Sadly, I thought the Baz Luhrmann number was the weak sister of the musical numbers. The idea of just wasn’t clear enough and there was too much Baz and not enough Kelly, Donen, and Fosse. The part of it that was most smart was the three generations of singers and dancers together.
The Original Song mash-up worked for me, though I didn’t think the show director was really able to capture it on television as it must have played in the theater. It was very Taymoresque. But there needed to be more distinction between the two Slumdog songs visually, so when all three mixed, you could really see them blending into a whole. There were also tech issues, like John Legend not being loud enough when they started mixing the three songs.
I really, really liked the package for screenwriting. I thought In Memoriam worked and was the absolute right idea, but was, again, imperfect on a television directing level. Loved the idea of the exposed back wall of the theater for the backstage categories… smart. It could have been better directed visually. The multiple screen idea is very now and should be honed.
We can all argue this moment or that… was Ben Stiller funny or did it go to far… was Jack Black funny or embarrassing… did all of those presenters belong on this show?
But in the end, it is still The Oscars. Stars read Teleprompters, people win awards and give exuberant speeches, and giving out 24 awards takes over 3 hours. You could have cut 15 minutes out of last night’s show… and they did dump Bennett Miller’s piece altogether (it was shown in the theater, but not on TV). But that wouldn’t have made the hour-plus between Best Supporting Actor and Best Director any shorter.
I keep asking the same question of people who I hear complaining about the show last night… when is the last time you saw a better Oscar show?
One friend’s answer was, “Norman Jewison’s show.” That was 28 years ago. Another said, with a straight face, “I liked it better when Bob Hope did it.” The last time he did was 31 years ago, but it was 41 years ago when he ended is long run of hosting gigs.
On top of the ancient history, there is this. If you want it to be a comedian and as quick as possible, etc… aren’t we talking about the Same Old Oscars?
Classically, people ask for something different… then when they get it, they want it to be what they said they were sick of seeing just hours before.
This was the first modern era Oscar show. Some things are instant keepers. Some things need a little refining. Some things need a lot of refining. And some ideas just need to go. Two musical numbers should probably be the rule of thumb from now on… nominees and one other.
But no matter what, it’s still going to be The Oscars. Ratings will rise. Ratings will fall. But it brings more people into the tent than anything but The Super Bowl and a few big episodes of certain shows. So tread carefully. Or just keep whining because that is what people like to do.
Read the complete post at http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/archives/2009/02/the_first_moder.html