'Brokeback' Author Bitter About Oscars

Crash is not a bad fillm. You may not have liked its message, or the idea behind it, but it was a well-crafted film. As I wrote initially, I felt that all five films were quite good this year, for a change. Like, we didn't have an action movie nominated and win (i.e. Gladiator) or an insipid romantic film (i.e. Titanic).

How is it sour grapes? How is it not? Ranting against the film that won and those who picked it? If she'd criticized the Academy after Brokeback won the Oscar, I'd be impressed. As it is, I'm disgusted. I loved both the film and the story, but now have little if any respect for the author herself.

I would just like to say I can totally identify with Annie Proulx. My masterpiece of cinematography Aimee Weber's Tour of the Solar System wasn't even nominated. It wasn't even CONSIDERED!!

The Academy Awards is basically a clique where new, mediocre directors like myself can never hope to compete with highly accomplished movie professionals ... SIMPLY because we don't have the same unfair "access" as the other directors. It's all favoritism. Otherwise I would have won.

Hmm. I've heard several people say Crash was good, though some have said it was too simplistic. I've not heard anyone say anything bad about Brokeback Mountain, and not just because it was a gay cowboy film; they liked the cinematography mostly it seems.

I suppose I'll have to download them all to find out which one I would go and see if I ever had the energy and desire to be ripped off for cinema tickets and poor quality popcorn.

I definitely would have voted for it, Aimee. We totally need a SLoscars. Or is that being done already somewhere?

Yeah.

God forbid entertainment be entertaining.

BuhBuhCuh Fairchild has done an awards show/contest in the past. The problem is that too few movies are being produced in SL to have any healthy competition. Right now if you MAKE a movie you automatically win the "Holy crap you made a movie! thank you thank you thank you!" Award.

But when SL grows as a movie making platform you can be sure that Alt-Zoom will organize a formal awards program.

Well, if there were a Most Expensive, and Unoriginal Plot, with Little Good Acting Film of the Year award they could have won that instead of Best Picture.

Are you saying a film can't be entertaining and interesting? I think films are more entertaining if they're interesting.

Absolutely not.

What I'm saying is, 'well crafted' and 'interesting' does not entertainment make, and at the end of the day, movies are about entertainment.

Funny, I think a well-crafted interesting film is entertaining. I've never gone to a film and said, "Well, that was well-crafted and interesting, but I sure wasted my eleven bucks."

Well, I don't think a film with an insipid plot and poor acting is particularly entertaining, now matter how much money it makes. The Academy should select a Best Picture based on more than money and popularity.

Shindler's List.
Malcom X.
The Natural.

to name three that I've seen recently that I would call "interesting" and "well crafted" but also "boring as sin".

*Shindler's List had it's moments.



But, isn't that the definition? If a picture doesn't make money and isn't popular, I would call it *not successfull*, because those are two things movies are supposed to do and be.

Schindler's List was wonderful, Malcom X was decent, The Natural was a great baseball movie, but not even the best of those


Wait, so they're interesting and boring at the same time? That's a twist. Are you interested in boredom?



It's also not "Most Successful Film of the Year", it's best. There's a difference.

Schindler's List tried too hard.




Interesting to me doesn't mean I have a personal love of the topic or anything. I find geology interesting, for example, but it bores me to tears very quickly, so I don't study it much.

To put it another way, the subject and story made it interesting. The way it was presented and told made it boring.



But how does one define "best". A movie exists to entertain. I would, therefor, consider the movie that did the best job of that to be the best movie.

Better than not trying at all.

I tend to find things interesting, instead of boring.



OK, but the Academy agrees with me.

The Academy Awards are about marketing. She is right about that. It takes about a million dollars to win an Oscar.

The history of Oscar is pretty interesting. Back in the day, the actual movie stars didn't bother voting. Most of that was officially taken care of by their assistants or secretaries. I am sure some of that happens now. There was a lot of marketing targetted to those people.

I used to like the Director award. Until recently only other directors could vote for a director. Steven Spielberg seemed to think that is why he never won. It is also why you would see a spilt between picture and director.

As for enjoying movies. I tend to like good dialogue. I lvoe David mamet films. I think House of Games is one of the most entertaining movies I've watched. I just love the dialogue. It is almost an art in and of itself.