Tuesday, 15 February 2000

OSCAR MORNING POST-NOMINATIONS

As expected, the morning at the Academy Award nominations announcement was full of surprises, both pleasant and otherwise. The pleasant? Well, I was thrilled to find that 2 of my 4 "Memo to The Academy" suggestions ended up with nominations. (The two I hit were Best Song for South Park: Bigger Longer & Uncut and Best Cinematography for The End of the Affair. The one that missed was The Matrix for Best Picture.) Also, I was pleased to find that the Academy's security was still secure…but more on that later. (Particularly on page 2, which was written before the nominations were announced.)

The otherwise? I thought that The Cider House Rules was okay, but I surely didn't think that a second place 7 nominations was remotely called for. The genius of Tony Angelotti and Miramax marketing wins yet again. What a fool I was to ever doubt them. The documentary nominations managed to leave out both favorites, American Movie and Mr. Death, and the wonderful dark horse, Amargosa. I was perfectly happy to see Buena Vista Social Club, Genghis Blues and On The Ropes (one of Roger Ebert's memo suggestions) make the cut. And there is nothing wrong with Speaking in Strings and One Day in September, but someone must have a real problem with Errol Morris, who just can't get a nomination on a bet even though he is the most inventive and complex documentarian working today.

And what has Jim Carrey done to piss off the Academy? Well, I think that one reader got it right, at least about Man On The Moon. He didn't make enough money. Another case of too many mixed feelings about the movie itself. And unlike The Hurricane, controversy and all, the film opened and died months ago. Too bad. It was a great performance.

There was no surprise at the top, with American Beauty taking 7 nominations. It's the only film that is more-or-less universally agreed upon. Likewise, 7 nods for The Insider confirmed suspicions. But the 7 for Cider House and the 6 for The Sixth Sense really stand out, though I understand one more than the other. The Talented Mr. Ripley managed to make 5 nominations seem quiet and I still think that film was underhonored. But yet again, a movie that people honestly disagreed about.

I'm as pleased that Richard Farnsworth got nominated for The Straight Story as I am disappointed that Harry Lennix didn't get a nod for Titus. (Lennix told me off-air at KABC that he was pretty sure that the Academy wouldn't be nominating two black men in one category. He was right.) The only performance nomination that I think was a rank roll-over was Meryl Streep for Music of the Heart, a dog of a movie with a decent performance from one of the world's greatest actors not worth a nomination. But for all the Academy hyper-age-aware, Catherine Keener, at 38 years of age, is the eldest Supporting Actress nominee. And for those who were worried about "too many Brits", there were only 5 non-American acting nods (Caine, Collette, Crowe, Law and McTeer) and every single one played an American.

The New York Film Critics managed to get Topsy-Turvy 4 nominations, though only Original Screenplay could be considered a major nod. The Red Violin was enough in voters' minds to get an Original Score nomination, but it apparently fell through the cracks of being a foreign language film and a Best Film contender. The L.A. Film Critics were rewarded for getting behind The Insider, but their awards bring up two huge missing pieces…Christopher Plummer in The Insider (he can blame Michael Caine) and The Iron Giant, which didn't manage a single nomination, though there was no long-format nomination category this year (I still say they can blame South Park for that).

And as for Mr. Knowles' List, as of 6:49 a.m., all the mail about what is now page two of today's Hot Button has attacked me for attacking Harry. With due respect, especially given that all of these letters were from regulars, the issue is not about what you want. It's not about my failure to understand what the people on the Net want. It is about what is good for the industry in which all of us movie Web people, including Harry, work. Again, when Harry really was an outsider, this kind of thing was cute. Now, he wants us all to take him seriously and not only does he cross the line, in my opinion, by running the list at all, but it turns out that the list was a complete phony.

So, what I want to know from all of you who wrote in is, what do you think now that The List turned out to be an utter load of crap. In 17 categories listed, there were 16 misses. 16. That would be a hoax. And how does Harry respond? By removing the false information and making no mention of it, much less an apology. Jeff Wells, who did a nice job of reporting the story, talking to Harry, Moriarty, a couple of Oscar insiders and to the Academy, has, as of our most recent conversation, simply pulled the whole story down off of his site out of embarrassment for being sucked into what I still assume was an unintended hoax. So, since none of the major national newspapers or the trades or the wire services picked up the story, I suspect that the story will be forgotten quickly, except by those who like to smack Harry around (a group I do not consider myself a member of), still referring to The Tears Of Armageddon whenever possible. But this story should not be forgotten. Sweeping it under the table simply allows it to happen again…and again…and again…and again.

And I know some of you think that early information on everything is cool. But it's not.

Truth is cool. Standards held by people who have some perspective are cool. Movies are cool.

And Tuesday morning, the Oscar announcements were as cool as ever. Some were great, others sucked, but cool? Absolutely.

It's now 8:30 a.m. And Harry Knowles has added yet another foot to his mouth.

Harry has clarified the situation with the Academy list. It was extrapolated from the Academy's pre-written Nomination SideBars that they give to the press right after the nominations are announced. And that information was taken off of the Academy computer by way of good old-fashioned TCP/IP transfer. Apparently, someone just told Harry where to look. So what has Harry done? Now, he's given the world instruction on how to break into the Academy computer to get the same info! Why? Beats the hell out of me! Perhaps he thinks that he will regain credibility by sending hoards of people to break into the Academy computer.

I don't get this guy. First, he extrapolates information that wasn't what he thought it was into a story that wasn't what he claimed it was. Then, when he gets busted for his error, he tells people to go break into the Academy computer for themselves. People write me and say, "You take him too seriously!" Well, this is serious stuff, people. Maybe it is a victimless crime, but it is a crime and none of you would want anyone hacking your bank account, for instance. Would you?

And his "apology?" "I guess I f**ked up. Que sera…I'm off to sleep."

And so am I. I'm not going to tell you what to think. You all do that perfectly well on your own. So whatever you think about it, I ask only one thing. Don't forget about it and let it pass until it happens again. Hold all of us who command your attention to a standard that you believe in. That's all I ask. Because in truth, you don't have to worry about journalistic standards along with me unless you are a journalist. If you are "just" the audience, the effects of any of this won't actually be real noticeable. But excuse me if I do chose to worry about the world in which I earn a living.

Until tomorrow…(actually, until page 2…)

"Ain't-It-Cool to Beat the Oscars to the Punch?"