Advertisement

Movies & TV

Same old Oscars

Well, that was the opposite of fun.

Opening with Billy Crystal’s excruciating self-regard and closing with the ordained triumph of The Artist, the 84th Academy Awards spent three and a quarter hours celebrating one of the most mediocre lineups of nominees in a decade or more.

It wasn’t all terrible. The Help’s Octavia Spencer gave a moving acceptance speech when she picked up Best Supporting Actress Christopher Plummer, Best Supporting Actor for Beginners, was pure, perfectly rehearsed class. Asghar Farhadi delivered a moving plea for international compassion on winning Best Foreign-Language Film for A Separation.

And seeing Jim Rash, who plays the antic Dean Pelton on Community, vamping with his statuette while sharing the Best Adapted Screenplay award with Nat Faxon and director Alexander Payne for The Descendants? That was bliss, I tell you.

But then we get to the other stuff. Meryl Streep winning for the wretched Iron Lady. Woody Allen winning his third Original Screenplay award for the warmed-over nostalgia of Midnight In Paris. And the empty, marketing-driven inevitability of The Artist.

Look, it’s not that The Artist isn’t a pleasant night at the movies it’s just that it’s a resolutely two-dimensional replica of a silent movie from a director who’s made a career out of appropriating genres and styles. And if the Academy was familiar with Michel Hazanavicius’s earlier work, it never would have got this far.

But Harvey Weinstein who picked up The Artist at Cannes, knows how to play the game.

Banking on the Academy’s ignorance of international cinema, he gambled and won, just as he did when he pushed Roberto Benigni’s execrable Life Is Beautiful to Best Actor, Best Original Score and Best Foreign-Language Film.

I am not saying that The Artist and Life Is Beautiful are equivalent films The Artist is watchable and charming, while Benigni’s film is vile manipulation. But both were sold as novelties to an easily snowed audience, and the fact that the Academy embraced Hazanavicius’s empty nostalgia so eagerly just sticks in the craw.

I mean, I know The Tree Of Life was never going to walk away with Best Picture. But I’d have been fine with The Descendants or Hugo or even Moneyball all three of those movies are about something. The Artist pays lip service to Old Hollywood, but it’s really just about itself.

But I guess in a year where Billy Crystal’s trotted out to do the exact the same thing, you can’t be surprised that it won. The mood was right, I guess.

And the Oscars went to…

Best picture: “The Artist.”

Actress in a leading role: Meryl Streep, “Iron Lady.”

Actor in a leading role: Jean Dujardin, “The Artist.”

Actress in a supporting role: Octavia Spencer, “The Help.”

Actor in a supporting role: Christopher Plummer, “Beginners.”

Directing: Michel Hazanavicius, “The Artist.”

Cinematography: “Hugo.”

Art direction: “Hugo.”

Costume design: “The Artist.”

Makeup: “The Iron Lady.”

Foreign language film: “A Separation,” Iran.

Film editing: “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.”

Sound editing: “Hugo.”

Sound mixing: “Hugo.”

Documentary feature: “Undefeated.”

Animated feature film: “Rango.”

Visual effects: “Hugo.”

Original score: “The Artist.”

Original song: “Man or Muppet” from “The Muppets.”

Adapted screenplay: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, “The Descendants.”

Original screenplay: Woody Allen, “Midnight in Paris.”

Live action short film: “The Shore.”

Documentary (short subject): “Saving Face.”

Animated short film: “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore.”

Advertisement

Exclusive content and events straight to your inbox

Subscribe to our Newsletter

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

By signing up, I agree to receive emails from Now Toronto and to the Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.