And here we are at the final installment. It’s time at last to discuss the most major of the majors: Best Director and Best Picture.
And the nominees are:
Best Director
David Fincher for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard for Frost/Nixon
Gus Van Sant for Milk
Stephen Daldry for The Reader
Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire
Best Picture
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire
The Lowdown:
Uh . . . Slumdog. Any questions?
Come on, people. It’s garnered top awards from SAG, WGA, ACE, ASC, CAS, the Producers’ Guild, and that most reliable predictor of Best Picture winners, the Directors’ Guild. Everyone loves this Little Movie That Could.
Is it the very best film of the year? Not in my book. Says here that that honor goes to The Dark Knight. But as I said at the beginning, deserve‘s got very little to do with it.
In rare cases, a movie comes along that is so clearly superior to anything else released that year that its victory is assured. Case in point: 1993’s Schindler’s List. But those movies are the exceptions that prove the rule. The very next year, 1994’s Forrest Gump took Best Picture, beating, among others, The Shawshank Redemption. Now, Shawshank was a vastly superior film in every way, but a seasoned Oscar prognosticator like me could see Gump‘s victory coming a mile off, just as I can see Slumdog’s.
Does it bother me? Well, yeah, sometimes. But even when I disagree with AMPAS, I still love the Oscars. They are, after all, a celebration of movies. That’s what it’s all about. And the awards often point me in the direction of films I might never have otherwise seen. The Academy rarely nominates out-and-out bad flicks for Best Picture. Overrated films, sure (Benjamin Button, anyone?), but not bad. Most of the nominees are at least very good, and a few are great. If you haven’t seen Milk or Slumdog Millionaire yet, you’re the poorer for it.
I often hear how the Academy always nominates movies no one’s ever heard of for Best Picture. We’re hearing it again this year. Uh-huh. AMPAS always recognizes obscure, art-house titles–like Rocky, or The Godfather. And whoever heard of Gladiator before the Oscars? Or what about that little-known The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King? Or worse yet, Titanic? Nobody sees these movies, right?
Gimme a break. Even Schindler’s List was a financial success. It’s actually rare for the Academy to give its top honor to a movie that doesn’t have at least respectable box office. So if every now and again, the Academy recognizes a smaller picture, is that really such a bad thing? I think not.
So while most of you are sleeping as the Oscar ceremony runs late yet again, I’ll be smiling and silently congratulating the big winners.
The party is about to begin. Let’s celebrate this art form we love.
If you’ve read through all these entries–congratulations, and thanks. Hope you enjoyed them.
Time to go fill out my ballot . . .
