PODCAST: Mysteries remain after Nat'l Board of Review, Kris says
Now that the National Board of Review has proclaimed "No Country for Old Men" best picture, "Has it cleared up any answers" in terms of what's ahead for the top Oscar? asks Kris Tapley of InContention.com and Variety.com. "I feel that the questions are still there."
While last year there were lots of frontrunners at this point in the derby — Helen Mirren, Forest Whitaker and Jennifer Hudson — Kris and I now dish how frustrating the current derby is. CLICK HERE to download the MP3 file of our podcast chat and listen in. (Note: You may need to hold down your computer's control key while clicking.)
"If I just had to go on intuition, I'd have to say 'Atonement' is the frontrunner" for best pic, he says. "But there is no frontrunner. After today and the fact that 96 percent of critics are behind it, according to Rotten Tomatoes, people would say that 'No Country' is the frontrunner, but there are no frontrunners in any race. I think that's awesome."
Yeah, that sure makes this derby fun to try and track, but hugely confounding for pundits like me and Kris, too. Nothing fits the old Oscar pattens anymore.
"Ten years ago 'The Great Debaters' would be considered an academy movie," he adds. "Today? I don't know. Is the academy the same breed of people that Harvey Weinstein had wrapped around his finger 10 years ago? It's a different group of people. 'Lord of the Rings' wins best picture. A bloodfest like 'The Departed' wins best picture. 'Crash' comes out of nowhere, completely rewrites history. Precursors are supposed to determine that 'Brokeback' wins best picture, but 'Crash' wins. (Voters) do what they want to do, increasingly."
I can’t agree totally with the above mention that “(Voters) do what they want to do, increasingly”. In a way it may be true but, if there is one thing that the Best Picture win by a film that was nothing more than a patronizing and moralizing made-for-TV-movie (Crash) over one of American Cinema’s greatest masterpieces (Brokeback Mountain) which won virtually every precursor “Best Picture” Award prior to the Oscars, it is that ACADEMY VOTERS LET THEMSELVES BE INFLUENCED MORE THAN EVER BY AGGRESSIVE COMMANDO OSCAR CAMPAIGNS. We have all read that Crash’s production budget was $6.5 million and that they put in an additional $4 million in the Oscar campaign (an incredible ratio!). What does that tell us? It tells us that with money, YOU CAN MAKE PEOPLE BELIEVE ANYTHING. In the end, Crash’s Oscar win surely increased the DVD rentals, but is the film any better? No. Let’s keep in mind that we are talking about a film that was not even nominated for Best Picture at the Golden Globes and that ranked as low as 58th in Premiere’s 2005 review round-up. Yes… and that won Best Picture!
Posted by: daniel | December 06, 2007 at 08:16 PM
I thought one of the most interesting choices was Julie Christie... I really haven't seen any sort of campaign for the movie besides sending out screeners, and I thought Marion Cotillard was a shoe-in so it surprised me... I think NBR will probably stand alone in this instance though. Maybe they just related to Christie's plight since most of them are old and forgetful as well. :)
Posted by: Edward Douglas | December 06, 2007 at 03:28 AM