Awaiting the Oscars

The movies don’t thrill, 

but inclusion and diversity might

     The Oscars are around the corner and there probably won’t be a lot of surprises with the winners.  However, there should be some verbal fireworks from Chris Rock.  I hope so because there isn’t much diversity in movies or television except for white, able-bodied straight boys.  The recent Annenberg study confirms what we know:  Hollywood executives make obscenely expensive B-movies for boys (and the girls who want to date or stay married to them) to see and preferably more than once.  

Sidney Poitier's 1964 Oscar Win

     Historically, blacks have always led the charge for equality, followed by women, other ethnicities, LGBTQ, and the disabled.  When was the last time a disabled character was in a movie or TV show?  Although TV has done and does a better job of including female characters, the recent increase of action professionals’ shows (cops, hospitals, firefighters) and superhero shows and decline of family oriented dramas (except on Freeform, which was ABC Family) and both daytime and nighttime soap operas has resulted in more tokenism and greater inequality.

     So, Hollywood trots out its “Art” from late September to mid-December and has to rely heavily on the Independent studios, some of which are boutiques of the majors and that actually care about entertainment and edification.  The take-away from the Annenberg study is that a female director or series creator will result in more diversity in front of the camera.  Spike Lee thinks that more diversity in executives would lead to more diverse projects getting the green light.  I think black, Latino, and female stars need to singly or collectively become moguls.  It’s how Féla, On Your Feet, and Selma were recently produced.

     Rock will address this in some way, though he was almost as awkward in 2005 as David Letterman was in 1994 so here’s hoping the script is better this time.  The problem is that outside of the diversity issue, there isn’t much that will surprise.  However, in 2009, the Oscars changed up Best Movie from five nominees to up to ten. Couldn’t the acting nominees be variable based upon number of votes?

Saoirse Ronan in Brooklyn

Movie:  We loved Brooklyn, a wonderful romance, and The Martian, which was the smartest, most spectacular comedy of the year.  Neither has a chance because neither is nominated for Director.  The Revenant will win because it’s won all over.  Will we see it?  I don’t know.  Brenda described it in enthralling detail to me, but she thought it was violent and a bunch of hairy bears (animal and human) dragging through the mud for two and a half hours could be more of a slog than I can take.

Our take:  Couldn’t Steve Jobs have been nominated?  Couldn’t Straight Outta Compton have been nominated?

Director:  Alejandro Iñárritu for The Revenant is a lock because the movie and director are generally conjoined categories.

Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant

Actor:  Leonardo DiCaprio for The Revenant because he’s won everywhere else, this is his SIXTH nomination, and he’s made billions for Hollywood and, oh yes, he’s incredibly talented.

Our take:  We thought Michael Fassbender was pretty great as Steve Jobs.  Couldn’t Michael B. Jordan have been nominated for Creed?  Stallone and DeNiro were nominated for boxing roles.

Actress:  Brie Larson has won everything so far for Room, a movie we want to see, and she’ll take this too, though we loved Saoirse Ronan in Brooklyn.

Our take:  Couldn’t Lily Tomlin have been recognized for Grandma?

Best Supporting Actor:  Sylvester Stallone in what will be a touching moment.

Our take:  A strange group this year because I thought Billy Crudup gave the best supporting performance in Spotlight and why couldn’t Idris Elba have been nominated for Beasts of No Nation?  I haven’t seen the movie, but he’s sensational in the clips and that’s all most viewers will see on the Oscars anyway.

Jennifer Jason Leigh
in The Hateful Eight

Best Supporting Actress:  A competitive category because female actors find more secondary than leading parts thanks to the overriding sexism of the movie industry.  It would be a lovely moment to see the great Jennifer Jason Leigh win on her first nomination for The Hateful Eight!  I can think of a number of times when she could/should have been nominated and she’s taken more risks than almost any other actress of her generation.  However, the movie didn’t take off in the way Tarantino’s most recent ones have.  Rachel McAdams is a joy in anything, but I think her nomination for Spotlight is about recognizing the ensemble, rather than her specific work.  However, Kate Winslet gives a quietly devastating turn in Steve Jobs, pulls off the tricky accent, and is practically unrecognizable.  She’ll win.

The tragic (and I use that term correctly) Amy and the simultaneously joyful and heartbreaking Inside Out were the best movies I saw this year so I hope they win their respective categories – documentary feature and animated feature.  

The Martian

I’d like to see The Martian win in its technical categories since hundreds (thousands?) worked on the movie and its production design is sumptuous.  Brooklyn should have been nominated and won for costumes.  Since it wasn’t, I don’t care.  Carol had the artiest – not necessarily the best – cinematography so it will probably win.  

For many people, the Grammys and the Oscars have become fashion shows.  Many do not see the movies that are nominated so they are more interested in the clothes. However, how many tube dresses are really that fascinating?

Anne Hathaway and James Franco at the 2011 Oscars

David Bowie – Au Revoir to Whoever You Were

     As most anyone who cares about rock music knows by now, David Bowie died on January 10.  It was a head scratching moment because there were no public reports that he was ill.  However, Bowie’s career longevity was based on surprise and this was yet another and one that cannot be topped.  He instinctively understood that popular music in concordance with the exploding media venues of the 1960s meant that physical image was as important as the song.  He took Concept to its metaphysical end by turning his performing persona into a concept depending on what his next album required.  He displayed discretion and maturity by rarely revealing much about his own personality or background – that was usually done by those around him looking to shine in his reflected glory.

    Bowie was labeled as a chameleon so many times that it stuck even though I could always tell when he was singing.  He had a voice that always sounded like it was on the edge of strain.  His vocal tone was flat, though his gift for melody and joy in trying different production settings for his songs made up for it.  Unlike Dylan whose voice declined over time, but who tried to make up for it with phrasing that veers from the obscure to the bizarre or Neil Diamond who successfully smothered his intriguing lyrics with a third generation commercial saloon veneer that verges on glop, Bowie kept his singing very real even with – or maybe despite – the wildness of his physical appearance.  It was this incongruity that lent him power and longevity.

     As a child in England, I thought he was weird, but secretly delighted that he was so public.  I lumped him in my ten-year-old consciousness with Elton John, but I knew about half a dozen of Elton’s songs as compared with only “The Man Who Sold The World” and “Ziggy Stardust” by Bowie.  My uncle who’d recently been a DJ sent me Lodger as well as Pure Prairie League’s latest as a birthday gift in 1979.  PPR was okay, but the new Bowie was an adventure in itself.  I didn’t know quite what to make of it.  Only when I started college did I find others who felt connected to Bowie, but were already looking on to The Talking Heads, The Replacements, and R.E.M. 

      By the mid-‘80s, Bowie was enormous and everyone liked him.  I think this was most evident in his “Dancing in the Streets” cover with Mick Jagger.  He surprised again by backing off and re-thinking what else he wanted to do with his music and himself.  I sort of lost touch with his music since my attention was taken by the American Alternative rock groups of the ‘90s and various other performers of the past fifteen years.  However, I’m thankful that he was fearless in visually presenting whatever he might have been feeling or thinking about.  It wasn’t until I heard he died that I realized how much he meant to me.

The House of Redgrave

A gossipy, sometimes poisonous 
account of a complex acting family

     I saw The House of Redgrave:  The Lives of a Theatrical Dynasty by Tim Adler in an independent Canadian bookshop and I bought it because I doubted it would ever be released in the U.S.  The Redgraves are a big deal in England and Canada, but most Americans are probably aware more of Vanessa Redgrave and Liam Neeson than the rest of the family.  They’ve been actors for five generations and though it seemed like Adler would provide

The Lucy Desi Center for Comedy

A working museum honoring the couple

and poised for the future of comedy in Jamestown, NY

Desilu Studios

     I grew up watching I Love Lucy, as has every generation since mine. They were somewhat my pseudo parents and Little Ricky the brother I never had. When we picked Chautauqua Lake to be our "wedding destination", Lucy's

Mariner’s Pier Express

A lunch spot that’s a hot spot in Jamestown, NY

What to Order?

     While on the way to picking up a marriage license in Jamestown, New York, we ran into a local who graciously

Mariner's Pier Express

recommended a couple of restaurants for lunch.  Around the corner from the city building, we stopped at Mariner’s Pier Express at 122 East 3rd Street.  I use the address because it’s the sort of place that people might walk by and not think twice about.  This would be a shame because the food’s great and the back-story fascinates.

Chicken Strawberry Salad

Black and Bleu Burger

     Lisa ordered the Chicken Strawberry Salad, a special that day, which was generous and beautifully presented.  The chicken was

Joan Rivers: Our Little Secret

Whether you like her or not, Joan Rivers nails the laughs

Joan Rivers

     The other night, we were watching one of our TV guilty pleasures:  Fashion Police on E!  We don’t watch it weekly, but we’ll turn it on while channel surfing and usually stay with it until the end.  It repeats a number of times weekly so it’s not too difficult to find.  Joan Rivers is the host and den mother with panelists Kelly Osbourne, who has an almost

Stanley Tucci: Actor/Gourmand

Stanley Tucci as Flickerman in The Hunger Games

     Stanley Tucci is one of those excellent performers, a so-called ‘character’ actor because he isn’t conventionally good-looking, who has quietly given heft to some of the most charming and sinister roles of the past twenty years.  He came to prominence with his mysterious and duplicitous portrayal of

Frank Langella & Stephen Fry – Takes on the Celebrity Memoir

The Fry Chronicles: An Autobiography

Stephen Fry in Jeeves & Wooster

     Stephen Fry is probably best known to PBS audiences for his performance as Jeeves with Hugh Laurie as Bertie Wooster in Jeeves & Wooster and rarefied roles in various movies like Peter’s Friends and V for Vendetta and as Oscar Wilde in Wilde.  He’s also

DICK

Even in 1999, Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams were going to be acting stars

     It’s been forty years since the Watergate hearings and there’s currently a self-congratulatory documentary by Robert Redford about All The President’s Men then and now to commemorate that anniversary, but Dick (1999) starring Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams says more perhaps about ‘the long national nightmare’ than the more serious works.  Dunst and Williams play teenagers who accidentally involve themselves in the Watergate break-in, while trying to mail a letter

Linda Cardellini brightens “Mad Men”

This performance is the stuff for which 
the Guest Star Drama Emmy was made

The Drapers Entertain the Rosens (and Dexter)

     Mad Men always finds itself referred to as ‘not as good as it was last season.’  And yes, we’re some of the biggest whiners of all.  Part of the reason is because of its ambition to recreate one of the watershed eras of modern American life by going

Agnès Jaoui: Actress, screenwriter, director, (and singer)

1/3 Tina Fey + 1/3 André Téchiné x 3/2 Chekhov = Jaoui

Agnès Jaoui

     Agnès Jaoui has acted professionally in French since her early twenties and has written, directed, and played parts in her own movies for the past dozen years.  I saw her first creation The Taste of Others at the Esquire in 2001.  I think

Ingrid Bergman

The glow of sensibility and sense

     Turner Classic Movies has run a few Ingrid Bergman movies over the past few weeks and they reinforce the American Film Institute’s selection of her as the 4th greatest female film star.  She was known for her ‘naturalness’ where

The Beatles Celebrate a 50th Anniversary

Their debut album, Please Please Me, was released in the United Kingdom on March 22, 1963

Yep—That's Me with a Beatles Haircut

      The Cavern, where The Beatles first played, was originally thought to be the place to record their first album live, but technical constraints moved the venture to EMI Studios (now Abbey Road) in London.  Please Please Me took 9 hours and 45 minutes to

Kim Novak

A TCM Retrospective leads to a new appreciation

Kim Novak Exposing All During the TCM Interview

     Turner Classic Movies ran an interview last week that Robert Osborne conducted with Kim Novak during their annual convention.  Osborne said it was one of his favorite interviews and it made sense because Kim Novak was so honest about the Hollywood studio system of the 1950s.  She outlined her life and was ruthless in revealing where she’d

And the Oscar Went To…

Argo and Life of Pi  the Big Winners!

Adele with "Puppet" Kristin Chenoweth

I was watching Kristin Chenoweth interview Adele on the red carpet and I can't figure out if Kristin is that small, or Adele is that big!  Neil and Eric thought that Seth MacFarlane started off a little shaky, only to find that it was all planned—setting the

Our Votes for the 2013 Academy Awards

DEXTER'S PREDICTIONS

As you can see from my list, I'm really partial to Lincoln.  That's probably because he loved cats.  Did you know he was the first president to bring his son's cat, Tabby, to the White House?  My other favorite was Argo because it was so

Susan Messing: A Chicago Improv Legend

She’s been hilarious professionally 

for over 20 years and must be seen to be believed

Melissa McCarthy on SNL

     Last year, Melissa McCarthy guest starred in arguably the best episode of Saturday Night Live that season for which she was Emmy-nominated.  There was one priceless sketch in which she performed various activities with a Mylar balloon.  This past weekend, Kate McKinnon, who’s turning into a breakout performer on SNL played a two-hander with Louis C.K. in

Star Power: Edward Steichen's Glamour Photography

For a lesson in fashion photography, head to the Taft Museum

Lee Miller for Vogue, 1928

      Edward Steichen was offered the chance of a lifetime back in 1923.  He became the Chief Photographer for Voque and Vanity Fair magazines.  Along with the title came fame and

Please crown Melissa Rycroft DWTS All-Star Winner Now

How many more weeks left of this endless season when Melissa is clearly ahead?

Melissa Rycroft and Tony Dovolani

     I’ll admit that I liked, but didn’t really think Melissa Rycroft was terrific when Dancing with the Stars All-Stars premiered this fall.  I forgot she came in third behind Shawn Johnson and Gilles Marini on season eight.  Even more significantly, I forgot she replaced an injured Nancy O’Dell with only two days to

Rosanne Cash: The Gritty Cosmopolitan/ The Disarmingly Modest Artist

     Rosanne Cash has been one of the most idiosyncratic American writers of the past thirty years.  She began with songwriting and has added children’s fiction and a memoir, Composed, to the mix.  Music’s commercial establishment has always wrestled with typing her because an artist i.e. ‘brand’ is easier to sell to the masses.  She was country, alternative country, country/pop, alternative, and