Poor Oscar.
For the Golden Boy of Escapistville, there’s been no escaping the world’s more vexing and contentious realities.
And when tonight’s too-close-to-call contest between “Birdman,” and “Boyhood” is decided, it still will not be the most interesting thing about this year’s Academy Award season.
Not by a long shot.
In the months-long run-up to the telecast of the , events have buffeted Hollywood’s popular guy. Were he not such a smooth fella, Oscar’s brow would be furrowed, his mouth turned down. Right about now he wishes he had something as trivial as the NFL’s “DeflateGate” to reckon with.
Instead, there’s barely a degree of separation between his reel life and our real lives. Even the typically, mostly pleasant partisan “will win/should win” back-and-forth Oscar debate has given way to more heated riffs.
Certainly, there have been years in which the movies vying for best picture have been stark and dark. The best year in recent memory, 2007, saw “No Country for Old Men,” “There Will Be Blood” and “Michael Clayton” duke it out alongside British World War II drama “Atonement.” That year’s bright spot? “Juno” — a film about teen pregnancy.
This year is different. And the films aren’t the issue, exactly.
Yes, documentary contenders “Citizenfour” and “Virunga” take on issues of mass surveillance, civil war and resource exploitation. But the entangling of art and the thorny is what we expect from documentaries.
Instead, the issue is the way that quickly unfolding and roiling current events (and Hollywood’s own flaws) have narrowed the comfort zone between the cathartic and contemplative space of movies.
The day that I watched a screener of the haunting, best foreign language nominee “Timbuktu” — set in Mali as fundamentalist jihadists begin exerting their will on the devout but also initially dismissive locals — news broke that the Islamic State had posted video of the beheadings of 21 Egyptian Christians in Libya.
Oscar is living in strange times.
An estimated 23 million viewers were treated to “American Sniper” star and Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper canoodling with octogenarian good-time gal Betty White on “SNL 40.”
Meanwhile, the man accused of killing Navy SEAL Chris Kyle — the subject of Clint Eastwood’s hit — is on trial in Stephenville, Texas, for the murder of the Iraq War vet and friend Chad Littlefield.
Months before “Selma” was released, the summer was pockmarked with incidents of unarmed black men dying at the hands of police officers. Organized protests as well as violent spasms followed. One of the more searing scenes in “Selma” — about one of the most significant protest marches in our nation’s history — bears witness as an unarmed Jimmie Lee Jackson is shot by an Alabama state trooper. Though the movie found painful resonance in the headlines, it was the controversy that erupted when director Ava DuVernay wasn’t among the best-director nominees that has persisted.
No matter what Oscar host Neil Patrick Harris does tonight — and he should face the challenges head on — the Academy’s uncomfortable season will (and should) extend beyond tonight’s telecast.
On Wednesday, of anonymous Academy members discussing their ballots (voting closed Feb. 17).
The headline was catchy, maybe even exploitative: “Oscar Voter Reveals Brutally Honest Ballot: “There’s No Art to ‘Selma,’ ” ‘Boyhood’ “Uneven.” “
What followed suggested a few things: that anonymity makes “brutal honesty” if not a lie, an oxymoron; that the Academy is made up of 6,000 opinionated people with shared but also divergent tastes; that good filmmakers would do well to steer clear of this “longtime member of the Academy’s 378-member public relations branch.”
Here’s some of what that Academy member told reporter Scott Feinberg: “What no one wants to say out loud is that ‘Selma’ is a well-crafted movie, but there’s no art to it. If the movie had been directed by a 60-year-old white male, I don’t think that people would have been carrying on about it to the level that they were.”
Let’s for a moment forget — Anonymous did — that “Selma” ranks No. 2 among the best-picture contenders on review aggregator metacritic.com.
And let’s all — champions and detractors of the nominated and the snubbed — remember that Oscar has turned a cold shoulder to many gifted filmmakers and performers over its 10, decades. “Snubs” are as much a part of its storied history as victories.
Anonymous’ colossal misunderstanding here is the notion that a white man would have made the same movie as director DuVernay. Yes, he could have made a different one (we’ve seen ’em), a strong one even. But there are nuanced artistic choices throughout “Selma” that speak to the filmmaker’s history as a person of color.
Alas, the conversation centered on “Selma” has prodded but also hampered a deeper reckoning with what ails Oscar’s hometown.
Once the awards ceremony is in the rearview mirror, the Academy must engage in a less brutal, more honest conversation about its own role, the film industry and the importance of big-screen American storytelling.
Like I said, poor Oscar.
He’ll have his work cut out for him tonight as he celebrates the deserving bunch, but acknowledges that he is not only in, but completely of, this riven world.
Lisa Kennedy: 303-954-1567, lkennedy@denverpost.com or twitter.com/bylisakennedy
