13 December 2000

THE BIG-DOLLAR PLAYER

Gladiator -- I think that DreamWorks may be prepared to make this into a serious Big Five contender. How? Money! DreamWorks decided to put its money where its movie was, and they spent what had to be more than $150,000 on an evening at the Academy celebrating (ha!) the DVD release (ha ha!) of Gladiator. The real event was a kind of back-door pilot for "Gladiator: The Oscar Candidate!" And I think it will work. It seems to me that DreamWorks is the only studio that will be willing to battle the Oscar war with money this year. Miramax is backing in. Universal has the Brockovich lock and Billy Elliot as an indie (read: indie money for the campaign). Fox’s Quills is a Searchlight movie, and Cast Away will either float or sink on its release campaign. Disney isn’t really playing. Paramount has You Can Count on Me via Paramount Classics, and I think they have already lost their enthusiasm for a big Wonder Boys push. Sony is finding a strategy for Finding Forrester (see below), and Sony Classics may be overmatched, financially and strategically, with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. I don’t see anyone going Big Money this year... except for DreamWorks on Gladiator. And they can win that battle.

THE MISSED OPPORTUNITIES?

Finding Forrester

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon

These two movies, I’m afraid, are about to become the lost Oscar movies of 2000. And that would be a shame. In both cases, I see strategic missteps as the dangerous elements. Columbia is finally showing Finding Forrester this week, and they are still obsessively worrying about review dates. What is that all about? They’ve missed the train? Why? They have blamed Gus Van Sant for not being ready for reviews, even positive ones. But this is the same Van Sant who showed a 12-minute preview of the film at the Portland Creative Conference back in September. I don’t get it. There are critics who will choke on the good intentions of the film and its clear connection to Good Will Hunting. But this is the kind of feel-good, feel-important movie that the Academy could eat with a spoon. Now, I think that Columbia is going for the Miramax strategy, opening late in December and building as the Academy voters start the nomination process. But will they fight as hard as Miramax traditionally has? If Columbia blew it by being too precious with the film, that would be a shame.

Precious is also a relevant word on Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Sony Classics keeps telling people that it has high hopes for this film, which has won every Audience Award for which it’s been eligible. It will be on most Top Ten lists, as it will rank as many critics’ Best of 2000. But, the aspirations are still for 800 screens and as much as $50 million. And I keep screaming... reach higher. This is not Life Is Beautiful. Miramax did a brilliant job with that film and made it into more than it could have ever been expected to be. But, as much as some love it, Life Is Beautiful will not be remembered by history as one of the great films of all time. Crouching Tiger will be. And it could change the entire face of foreign-language film in the United States... if they let it. But they need to signal to the Academy that this is a major film, not an art house darling.

THE SURPRISINGLY SILENT

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Almost Famous

The Contender

Billy Elliot

Dancer in the Dark

Girlfight

Wonder Boys

Can you hear the crickets out there? I just got an Academy package from Disney…. No O Brother tape or any mention of the film as "on the way." DreamWorks will push for Joan Allen in The Contender and for Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous screenplay, but that’s about it. Billy Elliot is popular, but the wave seems to be slowing as we speak. I know that Stephen Daldry is in town doing TV this week, but they need to ramp up. Dancer in the Dark is still out there... way out there. Girlfight didn’t take off at the box office in the summer and Michelle Rodriguez seems to have done every single magazine cover in the known universe... do they have any more in the tank? And the re-release of Wonder Boys was kind of quiet. Critics will have to relaunch the film a third time to give it a shot.

THE FRESHLY DEMISED

Proof of Life

Unbreakable

The Claim

The Gift

All the Pretty Horses

Thirteen Days

Various degrees of good, bad, and indifferent... but not a likely nomination in the lot.

THE READERS WANT... BUT WON’T GET

American Psycho

The House of Mirth

Spring Forward

The Yards

Nurse Betty

I’ve gotten e-mail on all five of these films, but I don’t see any magic happening. All of the movies have likable qualities... but to get Oscar nods for films like these, they need to overwhelm people. No such luck.

I don’t really see the need to going through every category again at this point. I think you get the idea. There are lots of possibilities and lots of fights to be fought.

Here is my message to the studios and publicists... FIGHT HARD! Enlist your fans in the professional ranks. Use every opportunity to get your talent in front of Academy voters. Be clever. Find a special place in people’s hearts... even if you have to embarrass yourself. I now believe that the teams that fight the hardest this year will win the day and get the nominations. To quote Traffic... no one gets away clean. Well, no one with a movie that has a real chance.

READER OF THE DAY: Here is one clear "no" vote on Chocolat, from Must Be an Angel -- "Went to the premiere of Chocolat last night. Mind-blowing party -- sponsored by Godiva with enough chocolate to kill the entire world’s dog population. The movie is, however, pure, unrefined ca-ca. (That is actually a misquote from the film itself, when the narrator is extolling the virtues of "pure, unrefined cacao" and its mystical powers.) I took a friend and he made me give him a dollar every time someone in the movie licked chocolate off their fingers."

E ME: Ouch. But back to me! What’s missing? Who doesn’t belong? What did I get right and what did I get wrong?