The 81st Academy Awards are in the books and, since this is what blogs are for, I'm going to sound off on them. More specifically, on awards that people care about (How many people know the difference between Sound Editing and Sound Mixing anyway?). Slumdog Millionaire won 8 awards, which isn't much of a shock. The Director and Picture Awards seem to be a package deal these days-you win one you win both. This tradition is has only been broken once in recent memory-when Ang Lee won for Brokeback Mountain. That was basically a consolation prize because Hollywood was (and still is) too much of a pussy to give Best Picture to a film concerning homosexuals. Don't get me wrong, Slumdog is a solid film and was well made, but I believe Milk never stood a chance since it offends people. Same goes for The Reader. It's about underage sex, and that's controversial so it's out of the running almost immediately. I can't help but wonder if Penn's Best Actor nod is another consolation prize to the film in general. Some may say that this whole thing is too cynical-maybe Sean Penn just did a better job the Mickey Rourke and the other nominees. Maybe, but when you're dealing with actors and art of this caliber, it's much easier and less headache inducing to let politics decide the winner instead of actual opinions, which are notorious for being different amongst large groups of people. This is why Penn won, and this is why Slumdog Millionaire, an underdog film about love with a dash of white guilt concerning conditions in India, beat financial and technical juggernaut Benjamin Button, the only other film that stood a chance at taking home little Oscar this year.
-This article written and directed by Tom. Produced by The Gordric Brothers and Nothingbettertodowithmytime Entertainment.
No comments:
Post a Comment