Worst Oscars Ever
I was quite pleased when I woke up this morning, shook open the newspaper and saw this aptly-titled article by Peter Howell, the even-handed reviewer for the Toronto Star.

The announcement of the Oscar nominations for 2008 yesterday generated a healthy and renewed dose of cynicism and vitriol from yours truly, given that many of the finest films of the year were almost completely ignored to once again highlight the Holocaust, the Epic and the Underdog.

It’s about time that more mainstream media called out the fact that these Oscar choices aren’t just ridiculously out of whack with the artistic and technical merit of the films, and the people involved in creating them, they’re alienating to viewers of their increasingly bloated and boring awards ceremony. The actual merit of the films to be judged is rarely under consideration during Oscar season, as we see year after year, and for the most part, the trend continues with a vengeance this year.

I’ve seen most of the films nominated this awards season, with the notable exceptions of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Rachel Getting Married. I fully expect these films to be quite good but I am skeptical that they are as cohesive, powerful and rich as many of the films skipped over. The Dark Knight and Gran Torino, easily two of the best films of the year, are nowhere to be found in the categories of Best Picture and Best Direction, which, in my opinion, negates the authority of the Oscars this year.

As bad as things are, there are a few very interesting nominations that I don’t know if I would have expected in advance but are very welcome surprises, even though the people in question have basically no chance of winning their categories. In particular, Josh Brolin in Milk for Best Supporting Actor is a bit of a surprise to me, but a welcome one, given that he acts his way through what is basically the greatest drunken scene ever, worth watching this well-made but ultimately standard biopic solely to bear witness to its awesomeness. Penelope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona for Best Supporting Actress is another great performance that can easily be said to have elevated that movie from a mildly amusing exercise in late-career Woody Allen to a hilarious film full of memorable moments that I don’t think any other actor could have provided, and I’m not even a huge Penelope Cruz fan. Robert Downey Jr is pretty much always award-worthy in my opinion, the script for In Bruges was really well-written, and I truly hope there is no question that Man On Wire will win best Feature Documentary, being one of the best movies in any category this year.

And with that I’ll leave the rest to Peter Howell, who sums up the rest of the disappointment and diamonds in the rough in his article. I used to be a champion of Geoff Pevere over Peter Howell in The Star, but since Pevere has moved on to writing book reviews, Howell is now the only reliable reviewer with whom I have a long frame of reference, which is important if you’re going to spend any time reading film reviews, and he proves himself admirably with this article.