Roger Simon didn’t vote in the Oscars, and I don’t blame him
Although I’m not an Academy member (unlike Roger), I’m in 100% agreement with this:
I’m fed up with the Oscars and everything they represent. The sight of red carpets, particularly celebrities mouthing off on red carpets, makes me nauseated. It also make me nauseated to see them mouthing off with gold statues in their hands, maybe to the point of having to run to the loo. I guess I have a low tolerance for sanctimony.
And then there’s the #metoo movement, about which I have rather mixed feelings, that undoubtedly will dominate this year’s event. Like any normal human being I think the likes of Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey belong in jail, hopefully for a long time. But all this posturing from women who have suddenly discovered what’s going on between the sexes (gay and straight) in Hollywood is yet another cause for la nausée.
The casting couch has been in existence since the silent era. Either these women somehow had lobotomies when they first got off a plane at LAX or, one way or another, they made their peace for most of their careers with this uncomfortable reality that has been known to practically everybody for decades. I’m perfectly happy it seems to be finally coming to an end, but self-satisfied women swanning around in strategically revealing black evening gowns is not a form of political protest I find particularly impressive.
The combination of naked ambition, preening self-righteousness, self-aggrandizement, and hypocrisy is not a pretty one, despite the lovely and/or hideous gowns (which I probably will pay some attention to, however).
Roger Simon points out two more things: the incessant Trump-bashing that goes on, and the poor quality of most of the movies.
In that last vein, I’ve been struck by the negative or at best lukewarm reviews of the movie “Red Sparrow.” I couldn’t help but notice this particular movie in advance of its release because it’s been so heavily promoted in ads on TV. The studio must have thought they had a winner.
But “sparrow” Jennifer Lawrence (some of whose previous acting has been impressive; and yes, I’m aware of her politics but I don’t judge acting on that) seems miscast in it. She’s supposed to be very very sexy (I think; I haven’t seen the movie, though), and although Lawrence is indeed a very attractive young woman, somehow she’s no sexpot and even in the ads she didn’t quite pull it off. Her Russian accent is somewhat of a caricature and—as in so many movies in which an actress is supposed to be a ballet dancer—she did not come across as a believable ballerina.
This may seem to be a rather obscure complaint from me. But I’ve long been bothered by that sort of thing, which has been rampant in the movies both now and in the past, although I understand the need to cast a huge star in these vehicles and huge stars are not usually ex-ballet dancers (although Audrey Hepburn and Leslie Caron come to mind). But—at least in “Red Sparrow’s” trailer and ads, which are all that I’ve seen—Lawrence doesn’t stand or move much like a ballet dancer, despite the fact that she apparently was coached in ballet for months in preparation for the movie. She does some portion of the dance sequences, but a professional ballet dancer body double does the bulk of them, as in most movies of the sort.
Here’s a review of the film from National Review:
Trash like “Red Sparrow,” the Jennifer Lawrence spy movie, represents the garbagey essence of most Hollywood movies. What’s worse, the film’s story of a Russian ballerina with the laughable name Dominika Egorova (Lawrence), who is trained as an espionage agent and killing machine, combines shameless prurience and violence. It’s meant to titillate something rotten in the political psyche, like a big-screen dirty dossier.
I went to the movies recently and saw a film I considered decadent and soulless, “Phantom Thread.” During the coming attractions prior to that film, one of my companions leaned over and whispered somewhat sarcastically, “We are all doomed!” But movies always both reflect common culture and drive it, and it really does seem as though the movies express something rotten and lost in modern life, as well as norming and even promoting further decline.
“… she did not come across as a believable ballerina.”
I’d just observe, driving by, that the vast, vast, vast majority of this culture hasn’t the slightest idea what a ballerina actually is.
‘she did not come across as a believable ballerina’
For you it is ballet for me it is golf. I have played golf and been involved in golf for 40 years and there is nothing that kills a performance in a golf themed movie than an actor that is obviously not a good enough player for the role (looking at you Costner in Tin Cup).
I think this is a version of the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect where the things we know the best we judge harshly then we watch some other movie and assume the portrayal is accurate.
I’m not a martial artist by any means but I have taken several years of karate, kung-fu and tai chi. I’ve seen black-belt-level people move in that silky-precise way they have, so it’s always obvious when I see a Hollywood actor on screen who trained for a couple weeks and consequently looks like a white belt.
Griffin:
And then there was Tony Perkins in “Fear Strikes Out,” as a baseball player who didn’t throw like one.
I like Perkins a lot, though.
When I see a movie in which the “accountant” is wearing a green visor I know he’s never stepped foot in an accountant’s office.
The Academy Awards are soooo political. A couple decades ago my brother had a few minutes of TV face time next to the red carpet as a entertainment journalist. They asked him what was going to win. He rattled off his predictions (not picks) for the top 8 categories. He was 100% accurate. He just knew the political pulse of Hollywood.
Along with Tony Perkins, pretty clear Tim Robbins was no pitcher in “Bull Durham”. Of course, acting ability more important than athletic ability. I’d disagree on Costner, he’s a decent athlete.
I think it will be quite difficult for actors to be quite as sanctimonious as usual at the academy awards given the Weinstein revelations. And Streep, always making moral judgments, saying she knew nothing is not in the least bit credible. And they have that bizarre disconnect where they are constantly defending Roman Polanski. So they’d be well advised to stick to just saying thank you, except I don’t think they will.
Patrick,
Agree that Costner was a decent athlete but if I remember correctly he was like a 10 handicap at the time of Tin Cup which is so far from being good enough to play on Tour as to be laughable.
Cheech Marin as his caddie on the other hand was perfect casting.
I haven’t paid attention to the Oscars for decades. Or seen a first-run movie in years for that matter.
“I haven’t paid attention to the Oscars for decades.”
I don’t pay attention to Roger Simon now. Virtue signals from the alleged right are no better than those from the left.
I happened to read the novel RED SPARROW, as I sometimes will read crime or spy novels if they don’t seem too dumb. I never finished this one, however, as it became extraordinarily stupid almost at once. I doubt that I made it through 50 pages.
When I saw that it was a film my reaction was “Oh no!”
Supposedly the mark of a really good publicist is the ability to achieve a great opening weekend for a bad movie, before reviews and word-of-mouth have had time to get out. I don’t know whether they made back their money on RED SPARROW or not. The novel no doubt has a large of publicist-padded 5-star reviews and the author can say, “They screwed it up,” and rest content with the fact that he got paid.
“Three Biilboards”, on the other hand, does have a moral point to it and well worth seeing. T’will be interesting to see how it does in the Oscars.
I keep running into good word of mouth on “Three Billboards” so maybe I’ll give it a try, though my experience of indie films about scrappy female protagonists has not been good, nor of indie films in general.
It was another strike against the film when I saw the real-life person behind the “Billboards” story was the father, not the mother.
As much as I like Frances McDormand, I’m getting tired of how adult white males have disappeared as main characters in film. Last night I was looking through a list of best 2016 films and the only film that looked interesting with white male leads was the action comedy, “The Nice Guys,” with Crowe and Gosling in a throw-back buddy movie.
Huxley, please do try “Three Billboards”. Woody Harrelson goes completely against his past characters and is the “nice guy” of the movie. Not to spoil it but I could stretch it and even say there are Christ-like similarities in his role.
Just saw Red Sparrow and I loved it. Better than the book. Different ending.
The criticism of Jennifer Lawerence is very misplaced.
Neo,
Agree completely about the Phantom Thread. What a self-absorbed and utterly selfish character Lewis plays. There is nothing even remotely attractive about him, except that he dresses women well. Or he does if you like the clothes, which I didn’t. And the one who turns out to be a keeper is his match, but also manipulative. It is a strange tale, with little to redeem it. What an odd choice of a movie to end Lewis’s acting career.