We all know the months that have led up to the upcoming 91st Oscars telecast have had the kind of veracity that can only be described as nothing but a shitshow. Forget about the incredulous backlash towards films such as “Green Book” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” for a sec, I’m talking more about the three major faux-pas that the Academy did, starting from August of 2018 until this past week. (a) the Best Achievement in Popular Film Oscar idea, (b) the Kevin Hart fiasco, and (c) handing out Cinematography and Editing during commercial breaks.
Who exactly was in charge of these dim-witted decisions? Was it the board? Was it Oscars President John Bailey? It is very clear that they were made in order to make the show more viable for the mainstream, since Oscar ratings have been steadily declining for the better part of a decade now. They don’t want to be perceived as has-beens, even though for the majority of America they kind of are. A vaudevillian self-congratulatory jerk-off session of epic proportions, the Oscars are way past their due date, we live in an era where this kind of ceremony feels pre-historic, a relic of the dinosaur era, even I as a major movie fan find no comfort whatsoever in seeing prizes handed out to movies and actors whose job is to create art.
This all rather makes for an, oddly, anticipated telecast on February 24th. No, I’m not kidding, all of these ghastly controversies have now made my yearly dread of having to watch the four hour Oscar ceremony turn into the kind of curiosity-seeking mission i didn’t think possible, a sort of excitement and hunger for a what-in-the-living-hell-can-possibly-happen high. The speeches are sure to be politically-driven, not just Trump stuff, but deliriously self-absorbed Hollywood creatives that live in their own loony universe, and that have no clue that they sometimes come off at odds with what a normal homosapien would say or do in their daily working-class lives.
Consider me intrigued by the upcoming, yes hostless, ceremony.
Hell, despite it not even making my top ten list, wouldn’t it be something if Peter Farrelly’s immensely likable “Green Book,” a film so shunned by social media mass hysteria as the most racist depiction imaginable of the black experience (not true in the least bit) could actually win the Best Picture prize? It has a shot, after all it did win the PGA last month. Imagine the meltdowns that would occur if it pulled off the win. It’d be glorious, It would make sitting through this 4 hour ceremony worth every minute.
I can confirm that Joel Coen’s “Jack of Spades” is based on Frances Frederica Montrésor’s 1901 novel “The Alien: A Story of Middle Age.” It’s a ghost story. A gothic mystery.