Pu-pu Surprises
From: Lynda Obst
To: David EdelsteinPosted Sunday, March 24, 2002, at 8:06 PM ETWho are these people?
Dear David,
I'm sad that you are depressed in advance of the big event, and I feel responsible. Perhaps you are unused to the debilitating cynicism it takes to survive here. 9/11 only cramped it for a month, and now I fear it has
infected you. Perhaps our Oscars are our revenge for your (not personal, but critics in general) 10-best lists, for dismissing our product all year. For diminishing our best—constrained by the marketplace—offerings. But you love movies, and I know it, and hopefully Laura Ziskin, the evening's producer, will allow for sufficient histrionics to re-ignite your enthusiasm. Maybe someone will be rude. Sadly, unlike the Globes, they don't serve liquor—there is usually a wine bar somewhere in the Siberian outposts, but people are afraid to search for it, or they will lose their hard-fought seats.
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I adored Kate Winslet's performance, as you know, and find her incandescent. She will never be a loser, her reign is only begun. Marisa was also great. This is traditionally the first award, and then we sit
motionless for hours. I am serving Hawaiian BBQ. Pu-pu platter, as it were. With any luck, tonight will be full of pu-pu surprises, and not just the clothes or the platter. Take heart, too, that I am always the big loser in my family poll. But then again, I vote with my heart and the head always wins. Till then ...
Pu-pu Surprises
From: Lynda Obst
To: David EdelsteinPosted Sunday, March 24, 2002, at 8:06 PM ETDavid Edelstein is Slate's film critic. You can read his reviews in "Reel Time" and in "Movies." He can be contacted at . Lynda Obst is producer of How To Lose in a Guy in 10 Days
and author of Hello, He Lied.
Photograph of Halle Berry on Slate's Table of Contents by Gary Hershorn/Reuters.
Notes From The Fray Editor:
Dira Necessitas said "I love Denzel, but Crowe was robbed" and touched off a long argument. Other topics of interest were Halle Berry's speech (many posts, few defenders), Gwyneth Paltrow's dress (no compliments), and Russell Crowe's choice of roles (one post, strong if slightly wild views).
Reader Comments From The Fray:
See, this is what really depresses me about Hollywood and its movies. Ron Howard makes consistently squishy, feel-good movies that are just next-door-to-really-good enough that he gets Oscars, or is at least a real contender for one. He could put that manipulativeness to work for him and turn out some really brilliant films if he could get rid of the Here Comes the American Hero attitude (I think he played the Opie and Ritchie Cunningham roles too long.) A bit of a darker, more cynical attitude could have boosted several of his films to another level altogether. Imagine Apollo 13 directed by a cross between Howard and David Lynch. Doesn't that sound like a good idea? Actually, given Lynch's films, he would have been a much better choice for director of A Beautiful Mind. We would have gotten a really good view of a schizophrenic mind, I think...
--Kathleen
(To find or answer this post, click here.)
So maybe the Academy gave into some sentimentality and political correctness. So what? If it was the triumph of style, it was not at any great sacrifice to substance. Rather, I think Hollywood brought substance to the rest of us this year with their stylistic choices. Through some partly deserved and partly symbolic gestures, they set an example and gently reminded the rest of us as a society that of which we are capable but have yet to achieve fully. Indeed, in Hollywood at least, the only two remaining groups snubbed by Oscar are wizards and hobbits - and there is always next year!
--The Bell
(To find or answer this post, click here.)
(3/25)
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Notes From The Fray Editor:
Dira Necessitas said "I love Denzel, but Crowe was robbed" and touched off a long argument. Other topics of interest were Halle Berry's speech (many posts, few defenders), Gwyneth Paltrow's dress (no compliments), and Russell Crowe's choice of roles (one post, strong if slightly wild views).
Reader Comments From The Fray:
See, this is what really depresses me about Hollywood and its movies. Ron Howard makes consistently squishy, feel-good movies that are just next-door-to-really-good enough that he gets Oscars, or is at least a real contender for one. He could put that manipulativeness to work for him and turn out some really brilliant films if he could get rid of the Here Comes the American Hero attitude (I think he played the Opie and Ritchie Cunningham roles too long.) A bit of a darker, more cynical attitude could have boosted several of his films to another level altogether. Imagine Apollo 13 directed by a cross between Howard and David Lynch. Doesn't that sound like a good idea? Actually, given Lynch's films, he would have been a much better choice for director of A Beautiful Mind. We would have gotten a really good view of a schizophrenic mind, I think...
--Kathleen
(To find or answer this post, click here.)
So maybe the Academy gave into some sentimentality and political correctness. So what? If it was the triumph of style, it was not at any great sacrifice to substance. Rather, I think Hollywood brought substance to the rest of us this year with their stylistic choices. Through some partly deserved and partly symbolic gestures, they set an example and gently reminded the rest of us as a society that of which we are capable but have yet to achieve fully. Indeed, in Hollywood at least, the only two remaining groups snubbed by Oscar are wizards and hobbits - and there is always next year!
--The Bell
(To find or answer this post, click here.)
(3/25)