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January 22, 2003
There’s something very sleepy about this week in Los Angeles…
The Globes parties were exhausting, there was a three-day weekend, and many are at Sundance. Miramax is dancing in the streets and, suddenly, the Academy Award race looks pretty boring. Actually, the entire awards season went, in one dull thud, from interesting to very, very boring.
Of course, we in the media are deserving of a lot of blame. We react to everything like it is the start and end of all reality. Before the last two awards at the Golden Globes, The Hours was dead. That was the word. Two awards later, it’s the only film that can compete with Chicago. Ridiculous. But like trained parrots, we nod our heads and wait for the next “definitive” piece of information.
The New York Times, normally a reliable source of information, got the idea that the six weeks between an Oscar nomination and the awards ceremony is where all the money is made. But the example they cite, A Beautiful Mind, grossed only 23 percent of its total during the nomination-to-awards period. That was down from the year before, when Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon garnered 36 percent of its total during that allegedly magical time slot. Traffic took in 30 percent of its gross in that period. Chocolat came closed to generating 50 percent of its gross during those six weeks… but it did it by restricting itself to under 1200 screens until a week after the Oscar nominations. But was it the Oscar nomination or the natural ascent of a film that had months of publicity before coming to a theater near you? Last year, Black Hawk Down had a very similar trajectory to A Beautiful Mind… but without an Oscar nomination to credit/blame.
Then there were yesterday’s DGA nominations. More proof! Of course, only once in the last decade did all five DGA nominated directors get Oscar nominations. That was 1998. But even then, Peter Weir’s The Truman Show didn’t get a Best Picture nomination. In 1999, it was Spike Jonze who got a DGA and Oscar nomination without his Being John Malkovich getting a Best Picture nod.
As I wrote on Monday, the loser is the one who blinks. Never assume anything.
Oscar ballots are due in a week. And then the real nap period begins.
MORE STUFF: There were three profiles (Emily Mortimer, Janusz Kaminiski and Menno Meyjes) in the final version of yesterday’s column. If you only saw one or two of them, you might want to check them out. And Sundance coverage, including reviews of the new Al Pacino film and the newest Oliver Stone can be found at www.moviecitynews.com..
READER OF THE DAY: SEXY REXY writes: “This is how I saw it all from up here in London, UK
First the jingoistic view. The win by the Hours (Picture-drama and actress) was good for us Brits, since Stephen Daldry(the director) is one of us and the most talked about role was that of Virginia Woolf as played by Nicole Kidman -kudos to her. Nice to see there opening up a competition for the Best Actress category at the Oscars (assuming the three of them get nominated) Nicole, Julianne and Renee. It was looking more like a sewn up deal for Julianne-like 2001 (not 2002) when Julia won every precursor award leading to the big night. I guess the outcome of SAG will make things clearer -- last year's win by Halle Berry cemented her Oscar chances a week later.
Meryl Streep's win for Adaptation gladdened my heart -- she is after all the doyenne of American Actresses working today, so how come she only has two Oscars to her name and jack has three, gunning for his fourth - Oscar voters take note! I am tired of seeing Meryl on a list year after year with no win (she last won an Oscar in 1983, Jack won in 1984 and 1997)Finally, unlike 1997, when Titanic more or less cleaned out Oscar 70th, Oscar 75 is looking more competitive and less predictable-that is a good thing for the Film industry as symbolized by the almighty Academy Awards!”
TOMMY’S BROTHER adds: “gosh! what a farce. renee and richard? i'm sorry but where is the justice in that? CZ-J was ROBBED i say! renee's singing was flat, dancing was rather mechanical and acting was... seemed like she was somewhere else all of the time. and richard? it's just HFPA's consolation prize for not having won anything and never winning anything... EVER. nic cage (and nic cage, so aptly mentioned by... who was it again?) and hugh grant turned in (easily) their career best and they get sidelined? let the oscars do them justice!!! U2 winning best song was also just wrong wrong wrong!!! c'mon give the props to eminem. is there any other song last year that captured the essence of a movie as much as that song did?
thank god for sharon stone & lara flynn boyle (sheer entertainment value and cringe factor), jack nicholson & larry david (speech! speech!), edie falco (erm... no speech?), meryl streep (best onstage breast adjustment!) and nia vardalos, who looked like she was having a grand time!
p.s. i still cannot get over the fact that goldie hawn got NOMINATED for banger sisters...”
ONTARIO DAVE says: “What did I think of the Golden Globes?
Well, since you asked...
One, I didn't watch, because as far as "competitions" and "winners" go -- not to forget actual suspense and relevance -- the AFC Championship football game was televised at the same time on another network. In football, the spoils go to the team that wins on the field, not the team that uses lobbyists and extortion behind closed doors. Better yet, you can always look back at the history books and believe with some conviction that the team that won the SuperBowl in, say, 1994, was the best team in the NFL that year. Can anyone say the same thing of the Oscar winners that same year...? (And thankfully, the weepy-eyed victory speeches in football gaames are restricted to a minute-or-so of post-game interview banter, not the raison d'etre of the event like award show coronations).
Two, the Golden Globes are crap awards voted by useless star-struck twats and fart-catchers.”
And BOBBY BABY asks: “There's been a hot debate about Andy Serkis' performance as Gollum in The Two Towers. People are starting to realize his performance is up there with the other supporting actors. Should he even be considered on the critic's scoreboard? because what I'm feeling here is a huge surprise come oscar nomination time. If the votes are in and he gets a nomination, everyone's gonna go nuts. What do you think will happen?”
