Reay Jespersen

While having done some movie reviews for both my website and friends who don’t hit theatres as often as I do, I’m by no means a movie expert. Having said that, I tend to see more movies than most people I know, which gives me at least a bit more insight into cinematic goings on than some. And I’ve got to say, when the Oscar nominations came in, not only wasn’t anything there that particularly surprised me, but nor did any of it even really interest me. Again, I’m a movie fan; shouldn’t the Oscar nominations have generated a least a little interest for a pretty regular moviegoer?

But look at the contenders for Best Picture. I grant Slumdog Millionaire was very well done - and I think both for its small/underspoken origins and the momentum it’s gained over the last few award shows, it’ll take the Oscar as well; everyone likes a Little [blank] That Could story - but there’s nothing else in the contenders that really interests me. Slow-moving dramas and/or biopics? They’re doubless well done, but seriously… meh.

Maybe it’s just the kid in me (the one that will never grow up), but where’s all the… well… cool stuff? Why wasn’t The Dark Knight nominated? Granted, I thought it was a wee bit long (and I realize I seem to be in the minority on that), but at 166 minutes in total, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button clocks in at 14 minutes longer. And Benjamin Button is, by some recent buzz I’ve heard, a very long-feeling 166 minutes. The Dark Knight didn’t feel nearly as long as it was. How does a movie that well done, which so engrosses you that you literally lose track of time, passed by as a Best Picture nominee?

It would’ve been awesome to see a superhero movie nominated for best picture, but given its overall quality, its being passed by makes me wonder if such a thing ever could happen. Does the Academy have it out for superheroes or flash-bang action/thriller pics, even if they still manage to hold their own cinematically despite what genre they’re pigeonholed in? Does something have to be a drama (or combined genre thereof, as each of the Best Picture nominees are) to get the Academy’s green light? A quick check of the last few years of nominations would seem to suggest so.

So if you make a great movie that’s hugely entertaining and rakes in hundreds of millions across the globe from its popularity (which it’s going to owe in part to quality; word gets around and sinks even big name, super-hyped movies in short order if they aren’t well done), it doesn’t mean a thing and will get passed by for Best Picture if it’s not some type of drama? And it doesn’t stop there. The Best Leading Actor and Best Leading Actress categories are also all for dramas (again, as they have been for at least the last few years). What is it about the drama genre that makes an actor/actress somehow more worthy of a nomination than any other genre? To take a quote from arguably my favourite performance of the year, why so serious?

It’s not all about my take on things, of course - everyone has an opinion; in cases like this, based on their own tastes; and it’s the opinion of the Academy that these five movies are the best of the year - but somehow this time around I expected to be pleasantly surprised by the Best Picture nominations.

Perhaps I’m my own Curious Case. The older I get, the less interested I become in some things that older people are supposed to be into, while “younger” things become more prominent. Though doing it for research to help gear some of my own writing toward it, I’ve been reading more kids’ books in the last few years than ever before. And my wife bought me a Nintendo DS for my birthday last month, as another for instance, which I’ve been playing entirely too much. More to the point, however, I’ve got to say I’m more interested in the MTV Movie Awards these days than in the Oscars. Not only standard categories like Best Picture and Best Leads, but Best Villain? Best Comedic Performance? Best Fight? Best Breakthrough Performance?

I don’t know that I’ll care too much if I miss the Oscars this year, but with its more interesting categories and apparently broader scope of what constitutes “good”, when the MTV Movie Awards are on, pass the popcorn and turn up the volume. And hands off my DS!