Oscars
Oscar picks
27/01/12 16:48
Flattery will get you everywhere in Hollywood. So it is that the films leadingt he nominations haul for this year’s Osars – to be presented on Sunday 26 February – are both love letters to movie making. But what about stand out, edgy films like DRIVE, SHAME, DEVIL’S DOUBLE, etc. Are the old fogies at the Oscars--drag out Billy Crystal again? I mean, really! Hugo is, essentially, about the need to preserve film history, couched in a kid friendly paen to George Méliès, the early effects pioneer. Michel Hazanavicius's The Artist is a Frenchie’s lust for old Hollywood itself. Academy voters in their retirement homes must be lapping it up – art telling old artists their art was important, and still is.
In a digital era of 3D, Sony 4K, Imax, iPads and streaming video, not evenAndy Serkis’ motion-capture performances in The Adventures of Tintin or Rise of the Planet of the Apes have made it, either as feats of modern acting or as game-changing special effects. Instead, we get old hat vets like Scorsese, Spielberg, Woody Allen and Terrence Malick are back on top. Hell, even old “school negro” maids--“Gone Wit the Wind” anyone?-- are providing the entertainment – Help! There's not an iota of the experimental about the Oscars this year, nothing daring, nothing new, except a counting system that leaves us with nine nominations for best picture, a move that ends up looking like someone's made a clerical mistake.
In a digital era of 3D, Sony 4K, Imax, iPads and streaming video, not evenAndy Serkis’ motion-capture performances in The Adventures of Tintin or Rise of the Planet of the Apes have made it, either as feats of modern acting or as game-changing special effects. Instead, we get old hat vets like Scorsese, Spielberg, Woody Allen and Terrence Malick are back on top. Hell, even old “school negro” maids--“Gone Wit the Wind” anyone?-- are providing the entertainment – Help! There's not an iota of the experimental about the Oscars this year, nothing daring, nothing new, except a counting system that leaves us with nine nominations for best picture, a move that ends up looking like someone's made a clerical mistake.
