OSCAR CHAT

 

TWENTY EIGHT OUT OF SIX HUNDRED is less than 5%. Other things that are less than 5%:

• The number of voting members of AMPAS that are black.

Steve McQueen stands a great chance of becoming just the 29th black man or woman to win an Academy Award, and the first to win a Best Director award. Since the inaugural awards, there have been 600 Oscars handed out. Having suggested a nomination for handsome Hollywood hero Robert Redford here last week I now feel a bit embarrassed to have overlooked this weirdly archaic statistic. It seems difficult to believe that not a single black director has won an Oscar - in the entire history of the Academy Awards, only four films made by a black director have been nominated.

There are two ways to look at this. The first concerns the above numbers; whilst no one (i.e. me) is suggesting the Academy is institutionally racist, another statistic on their makeup is pertinent: more than half of the makeup are sixty or older. America has changed dramatically since 1953, when Sarah Keys became the first African American to challenge the 'separate but equal' race law in Carolina. That's important. From a demographic perspective it's hard to suggest America's rewarding it's film-making talent. Incidentally, McQueen is British.

The second is a knottier question and therefore a little more difficult to answer. How many films made by black directors deserved to win an Oscar? And, one step back, how many black film directors are there working in the industry? It's knottier because there are smaller considerations that flow into bigger subjects like national politics and macroeconomic policy, and those considerations are much harder to quantify.

For example: the age old debate on equality of opportunity and how that affects career trajectories. The US Social Security Administration (SSA) recently released data showing more than half of Americans earn below $30,000 pa, which is about $3,000 above the 'federal poverty line' (the line delineates who is in living in poverty and who isn't). That was for 2012. As this heat map shows, many Americans in the South live below the poverty line. The US Census Bureau suggests the majority of African Americans live in cities and suburbs within the South (although the suburbs are undoubtedly more affluent than they once were). CNN Money thinks the average public college education (i.e. open to all) is $8,200 pa per student. So allowing for a reasonable margin of error, a good percentage of African Americans will never get to college, and therefore find a door to film-making closed. And that's just part of the question - why are they in that position in the first place?

Demographics do make a huge difference - the most recent American census put the African American population of the US around 12%, so naturally more white Americans will be getting the opportunity to make an Oscar-winning film. But 12% of 381 million people is just under 45 million people - that's the equivalent of Ukraine or South Africa. It also doesn't answer the much more subjective question of quality - how many black directors are making Oscar-worthy films?

So in short, there does seem to be something wrong with the current set-up - but how much of that is in the Academy's hands is difficult to say. One final and interesting thing: the four previously nominated films made by black directors/ producers are The Color Purple, Precious, Django Unchained and The Blind Side. For anybody who's seen those films, there's a certain underdog theme to each, and three explicitly concern slavery. I think the Academy's right to promote these films as great social commentaries but they should be broadening the net more - it does ask an awkward question of what the voters are interested in watching.

Pic from Shetland Arts

Academy Awards Article No: 236243614893

Beards, bow ties, Bond songs,  Ben Affleck... I'm out of Bs. Here's some pictures from the 85th edition of the Oscars

So. The Academy Awards, as they were (and will no longer be) known, were shown last night. I didn't watch them but of course I know what happened - as though it were pre-ordained, Daniel Day-Lewis won Oscar number three - a stupendous achievement, sarcasm aside - and Ben Affleck was bedecked with the unfortunate 'Comeback Kid' moniker until someone else equally famous really goes off the rails.

Ang Lee surprised a few people, and well done Jennifer Lawrence - I thought you were great in Silver Linings. But really, the reason I like these awards is the opportunity it presents to reacquaint reality with tabloid gossip throughout the year. Underneath the exquisite gowns, the miles of sequins and diamonds, and tuxedos I'll never be able to afford, there's a chance to see real human beings sort of acting like themselves - not their roles.

Mia Farrow amusingly - and not a little spitefully? - tweeted on the drug use amongst audience members and it's great when you suddenly recall that most of these guys and girls are actually made up of real, bodily parts. Incredible, I know. Here's a few photos of them behaving like themselves, whatever that is. That's surely the most interesting role of an actor, right? Avant!

Here's Mr Justin Theroux and Ms Jennifer Aniston, shortly to wed. This picture encapsulates both Aniston-camps - her legions of fans shedding a little tear for that touching intimacy as she straightens her fiancé's bow tie, her legions of detractors seeing the crazed spinster Aniston maintaining her clasp on fuzzy-wuzzy Justin through straightening his bow tie. 'She'll say she's doing him a favour here,' will write one blogger/ journo, 'but this is classic controlling behaviour. No wonder Brad left.'

To the left we have undoubtedly the most commercially successful singer in the world today looking quite distinctly like a grieving vampire (I prefer the long form over 'vampish'). Adele my dear, this dress is most unbecoming. I believe my maternal grandmother wore something similar to a hotel ballroom in Llanddudno for her husband's (and my grandfather's) 70th birthday. Spending time with other young multimillionaires must be a bizarre climate for even the most grounded of individuals, and Adele's rise to something approaching national institution amid adoration from vessels as diverse as Pitchfork and The Daily Telegraph is good going. She performed the Skyfall theme on Sunday evening to an apparently rapturous reception. How do you keep going when you've hit the front at her age? I'd love to see her disappear off the map a la Scott Walker, but something about that dress and much-fussed hair tells me that might not be at the forefront of her mind. Where will she be in five years?

Daniel Day Lewis. He deserves a sentence all to himself as he pushed himself into uncharted territory with his third Oscar win for his portrayal of a man only received through historical testimony. It's worth bearing in mind that Lincoln died a decade before Edison invented the phonograph, and therefore all the critique of Day Lewis's performance is based on found knowledge, not first-hand experience or recordings. There's an argument that says that makes the job easier, and it's a stupid one. Conceiving a Lincoln that captured the preconception of an audience of tens of millions is a huge challenge and it's no surprise to hear Day Lewis stayed in Kentucky character for months, including the entire duration of the shoot, to ensure an exact replica was created. The performance is typical of the man and makes him so interesting; his consummate ability to disappear completely beneath the emotions of his character is, to me, unparalleled in cinema, and he deserves all the plaudits he receives.

Jessica Chastain looks infinitely better as the model for classic Hollywood woman than aviator-totin' ball-buster Maya in Zero Dark Thirty (inc., aviators in the military - West Point needs an eyewear rethink) I strongly suspect this beautiful lady, along with January Jones and Christina Hendrix, have all come from some sort of internal lab within those famous hills that sculpts Golden Age actresses, then animates them one particularly stormy eve. I'm baffled.

Three guys, three different beards. The Oscars 2013 was most definitely the year where not shaving - for weeks - was the done thing. Viscount Bradley Cooper seems to be playing a millionaire playboy with combed back fringe and vulpine features, whereas President Affleck is looking veeeeerrrry stoic and perspicacious with that supremely well-trimmed effort. Professor Clooney meanwhile appears to have grown - literally - into his role as the godfather of serious American cinema. He was here on behalf of Affleck's Argo. Good work gents.

OK fine, here's new and improved Joseph Gordon Levitt in a charcoal grey tux with patent leather shoes and a narrow bowtie. Swoon all you want - but then look at the picture below! That's the JGL I know and love, the giant goof. And who's that mugging with him? Why, it's the only other beardless guy in Los Angeles, Daniel Radcliffe (ironic because he looks way better with one)! What a pair of silly faces - and metaphorical hats off to you both for not losing your gurnability in the face of critical and commercial success. Clooney, take some lessons from these two. You can take the  man out of Third Rock, but etc etc.

What I learnt from the Oscars 2013: Jennifer Aniston is still a really nice person and all those people who like to patronise her should just go suck a lemon or something.  Daniel Day Lewis deserves to enter acting lexicon in the same way Lawrence was permitted the adverb 'Olivieresque'. Jessica Chastain might be the human version of Jessica Rabbit. Adele should wear jeans and a t-shirt if someone advised her on that dress. And beards, when done well, instil hitherto unknown depths to all manner of gentlemen. Grow it back, Daniel. You just look better.

Pictures courtesy of The BBC, guardian.co.uk, E! Online, mirror.co.uk, Yahoo! Movies Australia, ABC News

The Fall and Rise of Ben Affleck

The Argo director completes a remarkable renaissance following Bennifer, Matt Murdock and 'jaw-droppingly awful' Gigli

There's a moment in Good Will Hunting, the film that brought Ben Affleck to the world's attention in a positive sense where Chuckie bawls Will out for his lack of ambition and apparent fear of committal and sacrifice. "Cuz tomorrow I'm gonna wake up and I'll be 50, and I'll still be doin' this shit. And that's all right," he says.

And for a long time, in a weirdly prophetic way, it almost looked as though this would be the pattern for the two leads' careers. Damon went on to huge success with the Bourne trilogy and stepped into serious, sober film making with Soderbergh and Clooney, focusing on smaller pictures which grooved on weighty subjects like liberty, morality and personal redemption.

Affleck, meanwhile, appeared to have got the short end. Whilst he drew flak for the shallow Pearl Harbour and disinterested Daredevil, his well-published relationship with J-Lo seemed to pull him into a spiral of poor choices and awful films. I've seen (some of) Gigli, and it deserved the hype, so to speak. Worse, it spoke ill of a promising career and gave the perception of an actor who treated pastiche with the subtlety of... Chuckie. If the shoe fits, right?


CGI in 1994 was not a pretty thing to behold.

Which might go a small way to explaining the interest in Affleck's renaissance as a director and his critical success with Argo, already an awards magnet and widely touted to get the Best Picture gong ahead of Steven Spielberg's Lincoln at Sunday night's Oscars ceremony.

Personally, I guess I'm here pleased here. I've found it almost impossible to dislike the guy, even in his nadir (admittedly the travails of his career didn't exactly keep me up nights). His unabashed honesty, which doesn't appear calculated is a good barometer in as bizarre an environment as Hollywood, and his work since that much, much reported split with Lopez appears to engage Affleck as an individual, channelling his experience into real human portrayals. It might also help that he's now married with three children.

It seems lots of his critics feel the same way, as though he were an errant child who just needed a bit of straightening out (that Good Will role was really prescient in more than one way). The aforementioned Argo currently holds an average critical score of 86 over at Metacritic, whilst The Town boasts a 74 rating and Gone Baby Gone holds a 72 rating.

The interesting thing about Affleck's return to the public eye is that his directing role seems to fit him better; there's a definite trend of better reviews as a director - typically mid to high 70s - than films he has only acted in, whereupon the score drops to mid-60s. It may be that control of his environment was all Affleck needed to make his mark. That's another reason I find him kind of endearing; like he was being asked to spin too many plates and was eagerly running around after them. Singular focus seems to have improved his output.


All this seems to prove a decent case for the maturation of the man first; the actor and director second. Perhaps Affleck should have made the move to directing earlier. He evidently has a real flair and particularly in his first two directed films, a locale, an ear for interesting conversation and an economic mentality towards plot. 

Perhaps it's merely the passage of time that has improved Affleck's radar. There's no doubt that spending years in the company of gifted actors and directors has rubbed off on his professional side; check out the getaway scene in The Town (above), in which the quick editing between angles and shots making the slow, hanging shot between robbers in rubber nun masks and confused police officer all the funnier.

An interweaving tale of fabricated stories and real-life drama, Argo seems to represent the ultimate statement on Affleck's career so far. His roles in Extract and Hollywoodland showed a man presenting elements of his life in his characters (his bartender role in the former is hilarious). As nailed on as he appears to be for the Best Picture this Sunday, it'd be great to see him repeat the trick in years to come.

Pictures courtesy of BlogWillHunting and Tumblr