Man of the Hour: Jeremy Renner, Part III

Yowza.  According to my Blogger stats, somebody out there sure loves them some Jeremy and it's not just me.

So, let's feed the beast.

Alberto E. Rodriguez/Jason Merritt/FREDERIC J. BROWN/Getty

And, he is a beast, isn't he?  I like the way he's looking at Scarlett.  I love how he actually looks at people.  Like he's honestly engaged with them.  He also looked at her that way at the Oscars last year:

Ivan Vejar / ©A.M.P.A.S.

Or how about when he looked at Carey Mulligan that way at the Oscars the year before?

Wireimage.com

I guess I'll have to put The Avengers on my To Do List so I can look at him that way for a while.

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

We give life to books and, in turn, they sustain us.  Thank you, Moonbot Studios, and congratulations on your well-deserved Oscar for Best Animated Short Film.

Status Update

I finally saw The Social Network.  I definitely didn't love it.  I'm far more interested in intellectual property debates than in wild-success-spinning-wildly-out-of-control tropes so I could have done without most of the last 45 minutes.  That said:

• I still love Aaron Sorkin who still has issues with women.  Technology changes but people stay the same, I guess.  (Kind of the moral of the movie, too, huh?)
• So many people have responded to the Mark Zuckerberg character by saying "He's such a douche."  I think it's more accurate to say "They're all such douches" (with the exception of Eduardo Saverin who, in all probability, was also a douche but somehow managed to garner a sympathetic characterization from Sorkin).  What an insufferable place Harvard must be.
• I'm stunned and rather impressed that this movie did so well in theaters.  No explosions.  No Megan Fox.  No blue aliens.  Just a whole lot of talk talk talk.  Good for you, America!

Logorama

Did you see the short film Logorama? No, of course you didn't because God only knows where they show short films.

Hey, I know where you can see short films. The internets! It's like the whole place is designed especially for showing short films! Perfect!

Except, you can't see Logorama there either because Autour de Minuit Productions has removed it from sites that have posted the whole movie. You can see about 45 seconds of it on their website.

So, congrats, Autour de Minuit. You have utterly failed to distribute an Oscar winning film. It's really a shame, because the film is delightful. I know because I watched it online.

Don't ask, don't tell

On Monday, I wore out the batteries in my remote control by flipping between the morning shows to catch all the Oscar coverage. It's always hard for me to let go of award season after the Oscars.

On the Today Show, Meredith Vieira and Al Roker interviewed some of the makers of The Hurt Locker. At the end of the interview, she alluded to a embrace co-stars Anthony Mackie and Jeremy Renner shared on the set of the Today Show the morning the nominations were announced. The day after the awards were handed out she asked “You hugged him pretty tight, I must say, in the moment. There was a lot of man lovin’ goin’ on last night. Do I have reason to be worried?”

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Kudos to Al Roker for his incredulous reply “Why would you say that?!” Indeed, Meredith, why would you say that? What exactly is it that you are “worried” about?

Well, today, GLAAD posted a statement from Vieira in which she sincerely apologizes: 

During an interview with the cast of the hurt locker on Monday, I turned to actor Anthony Mackie and made a joke about “man hugging” in reference to a hug he and fellow actor Jeremy Renner had shared a few weeks earlier on our air. It was meant to be lighthearted, but some were offended by what they believed to be a homophobic comment. That was never my intent, but that doesn’t matter. Words are extremely powerful and should never be chosen lightly, even in a lighthearted moment. I apologize to any and all that I offended. My support of the gay and lesbian community is longstanding and well documented. It has not and will never waver.

It's a nice statement – none of the usual “I'm sorry if you were offended” bullshit you usually see from celebrities. I accept her at her word; I really don't believe that Meredith Vieira is prejudiced.

Unfortunately, she's not the real problem here. That question wasn't asked as a spur-of-the-moment time-filler. The producers had the original clip all cued up and ready to roll. It wasn't a lighthearted moment; it had been decided ahead of time that Meredith would ask the question. The problem is that while Meredith isn't prejudiced, the producers believe that their audience is. They think that people care about Anthony Mackie's sex-life. They believe that titillating questions about Jeremy Renner's sexual orientation will boost their ratings. And it's entirely possible that they're correct – after all, you should never underestimate the stupidity of the American public.

In any case, I'm glad I wasn't the only person who was offended by the comment and I'm glad Meredith apologized. And I'm very glad that award season is over so I can go back to not watching morning shows.

And the Oscar for Worst Song goes to...

In a couple of recent online and print articles, Entertainment Weekly has been exploring how out-of-touch the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is when it comes to the Oscars for Best Song. At www.ew.com, Leah Greenblatt kicks off a reader debate by suggesting these are the "worst nominations ever."

"Ever" is a pretty long time and, of course, no one on the internet can be bothered to do the sort of research it would take to justify such a statement. Setting aside Greenblatt's hyperbole, there does appear to be a disconnect between the use of music in movies and what the Academy chooses to reward.

Part of the problem stems from the Academy's rules. The official rules say that a song must be "written specifically for the motion picture" and cannot have been previously recorded or performed.  This means that an eligible song must be the creation of a musician working in tandem with a director and can have never been workshopped or performed publicly.

The Academy broke its own rules in 2008 when it awarded Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová the Best Song Oscar for “Falling Slowly”from Once. The song had been performed live prior to its use in the movie – a clear violation of the Academy's eligibility requirements. The New York Times' Carpetbagger does a good job of summarizing the controversy and includes the Academy's justification for the song's inclusion. Essentially the Academy said the audiences for the live performances were small and inconsequential (even though their rules say nothing about what size or composition of audience is or is not acceptable). To me, it sounds like the Academy fudged their own rules to allow for an obviously brilliant piece of music that did not technically meet their eligibility requirements. “Falling Slowly” went on to win Best Song because, honestly, who would argue that the three songs from Enchanted and the song from August Rush were superior? Certainly not the audience in the Kodak Theater that night; check out their reaction.

If the Academy is willing to bend its rules for this kind of excellence, perhaps it's time to consider changing the rules to accommodate additional perfect pairings of music and film? Ever since Quentin Tarantino revolutionized movie soundtracks with his must-have compilations for Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, I have been arguing that the Academy needs to change their Best Song rules. Instead of only recognizing brand new songs, I propose a Best Use of Song category or an award for Best Music Supervision. The Academy should celebrate the talent and skill of directors and music supervisors who underscore a film with compelling, moving, pitch-perfect music, regardless of when that music was composed or recorded. The right piece of music can utterly transform a critical scene in a movie and, likewise, a powerful scene can forever change the perception of an existing track. Directors and music supervisors deserve recognition for this achievement.

In the meantime, we are left with the original question: are these the worst Song nominations in Oscar history? It's hard to answer such a large and subjective question but definitely there are excellent movie music moments that are going unrecognized this year. Lykke Li's plaintive “Possibility” from New Moon, Mary J. Blige's soulful “I Can See in Color” from Precious, even Ed Helms' “Stu's Song” from The Hangover should all be receiving commendation. We don't have any hope of learning the thought-process behind the decision to exclude these songs, but I will continue to argue that changes should be made to prevent such mistakes in the future.

Let the Oscar race begin

Oscar nominations were announced this morning and I'm thrilled that District 9 is up for Best Picture.  

Don't get me wrong - I don't have any delusions that it stands a chance of winning.  But if a nomination will bring it to a wider audience, I'll be satisfied.


If you haven't seen District 9 yet, go rent it right now.  That's what a science fiction movie should look like.  It's futuristic but not unrecognizable.  It's thoughtful but not preachy.  It has super-cool special effects but still manages to be completely believable.  God, I love that movie.


Who's hungry for some cat food?