Links
Monday, January 18, 2016 at 5:00PM Your Evening LOL
Elite Daily "A Letter From The Oscar Board On Why Carol Was Totally Snubbed"
Link Love
This Had Oscar Buzz Joe Reid's hilarious tumblr of lost (on-paper) dreams
MNPP Pic of the Day Tom Hiddleston welcomes you to High-Rise... without pants
Coming Soon Steve Coogan and John C Reilly will headline the upcoming biopic Stan & Ollie about the movie comedy duo Laurel & Hardy - any guesses as to who pretends to be supporting for the Oscar campaign?
CHUD on the major changes from book to screen for The Revenant (obviously spoilers) including its completely different ending
Twitter Assassins Creed starring Michael Fassbender is a wrap. It's still nearly a year from theaters though (Dec 21st)
Variety Anne Hathaway to headline the sci-fi comedy The Shower which is being described as 'a cross between Attack the Block and Bridesmaids.' Hmmm
Variety apparently Connie Nielsen has replaced Nicole Kidman as the Queen of the Amazons for Wonder Woman. (Is this really Connie Nielsen in the photo? She looks nothing like her old self)
Salon Glenn Frey, lead singer of The Eagles, has died at 67. 2016 is not letting up.
The Guardian David Lang, Oscar nominated for his Youth song "Simple Song No. 3" talks about musicians he loves from Adele to Shostakovich
#OscarsSoControversial
Stereogum because no Oscar year is complete without a Best Original Song controversy now there's online hubbub that Lady Gaga only contributed a few words to tbe Diane Warren song that won her an Oscar nomination "Til It Happens To You"
The Gold Standard is rooting for The Big Short's political aisle crossing to take home the Oscar -- I am stunned to hear that they're recommending it on Fox News since Repubs are so anti-regulation and the movie shows how important regulations are at preventing horrific abuses of the system. Did they misunderstand the message of the movie?
Will Packer (Executive Producer of Straight Outta Compton) slams the Oscars on facebook
Spike Lee boycotting the Oscars over the lack of black actors nominated
Variety John Singleton (Boyz n the Hood) isn't upset about it, citing that time will sort things out as it did with Oscar snubs Do The Right Thing and Singin' in the Rain, telling Variety:
It’s like every year people complain. People even complain even when we have a lot of nominations. It is what it is. I’ve been in the game for 25 years. You never know — it’s the luck of the draw for you. To me, I’m not surprised. I’m not disappointed either, as much as other people are disappointed.
...I know there are other works that will be recognized by a more diverse Academy and I know there will be other years when work that is really deserving doesn’t get recognized.
That last sentence is the truest sentence ever spoken about the always volatile Oscars -- unlike the Emmys they have an entirely new crop of work to judge each year. Sometimes they make good calls. Other times...
Reader Comments (32)
There really wasn't too much in the way of oscar-nominatable African American performances this year, unlike in some years, but the Michael B Jordan pass does grate, especially since they obviously saw Creed. Jordan is better than at least Brian Cranston and Matt Damon and on par with Fassbender (and that's saying a lot)... I have not seen Redmayne or Leo yet.
That "Letter from the Oscar Board" was genius. Thank you for sharing/linking. 😂
Honestly, I don't know how you cast a Queen of the Amazons that doesn't begin and end with the name, Uma Thurman. Was she unavailable?
Oh, and Bill Clinton actually got the ball rolling on deregulation of the financial services industry. The screwing of America was, despite perceptions, a wholly bipartisan effort, so the Democrats' hands are just as dirty as Republicans (another case for independence).
I get the outrage and support some points but my guess is if Straight Outta Compton did get a lone Best Picture nod along with screenplay we will still have an OscarsSoWhite controversy (similar with Selma last year) so I just don't know, I guess there is no easy answer and I don't think a boycott does any good but good for Spike Lee for sticking to his principals.
I just hope next year there are great performances by POC championed by critics and 'put into the conversation' which I don't think happened much this year.
I just read Cheryl Isaacs statement. So they are essentially doing a review of their membership recruitment. Which doesn't sound like it will do much to alleviate the problem, because the problem, it seems to me anyway, is the views of current/long term members, not the newbies.
Knowing the basic premise of the Assassin's Creed video game series, I have no idea how Justin Kurzel is going to adapt a non-laughable version of this to the screen without jettisoning its central conceit.
Ez -- i keep reading this but it doesn't bear out in history, at least that's my interpretation.before these two years we had a good stretch of several black actors WINNING not just being nominated. so i find it hard to stomach everyone's "all the old oscar members are racist" cries. if they were racist because they didn't nominate people this year, how does that explain their behavior from like 2001-20013?
I think people blame the older members because they don't know what else to do. It's a very complicated problem but it obviously starts with who gets cast in roles in the first place and in which type of roles.
as for the michael b jordan thing... i'm just scratching my head that he couldn't get traction. .where were all of these angry fans of the performance for the past two months when he actually needed their vocal support?
Nathaniel, I think we tend to forget that 99% of people, even devoted movie fans hardly know how or even when awards season works. They don't "campaign" for their favorites (they don't even know there are awards campaigns) and when does that really work, anyway? You can't blame the fans. And I've seen nothing but vocal, warm praise since the release of Creed on social media of Creed and MBJ, moreso than most movies since it was also a box office hit.
I was referring to Isaac's statement in terms of all kinds of diversity, not just the race issue. No doubt the current POC controversy spurred her to release this statement, but when I read it, it seemed to me that she was referring to diversity in all of it's forms, including sexual orientation and gender.
I don't think that the Academy is full of old, white, racist men, but I do think that at times (both recently and decades ago) that the organisation has demonstrated a more conservative slant, when what could be termed more progressive options have been available to them.
Happy to see Nicole passing on playing Wonder Woman's mother. There is something to be said for maintaining one's dignity. Is there really an Oscar controversy that involves you as a television actress, Jada?
I agree with Nathaniel, I think the "old, white, straight, male" finger-pointing is grating, and certainly doesn't solve the issue at hand. Also, many of these old, white men likely worked in cinema during the '60s and '70s, at the height of the civil rights movement and one of the most exciting and groundbreaking times for films.
And I totally am on board with Michael B. Jordan and think he would've been a very worthy nominee, but why on earth are people upset that Will Smith missed? All of a sudden people are upset he missed a nomination when I've virtually heard no one talking about Concussion or his performance. It also got negative reviews and underperformed at the box office. And now all of a sudden he's a huge snub??? Okayyyy....
It makes sense that Spike would make such a statement, but Jada? Would she be calling for a boycott if Will had been nominated? Serious side-eye...
"Did they misunderstand the message of the movie?" - I certainly wouldn't put it past Fox News, no.
As for the race thing. Thing, there are probably too many old white people, but this is the trouble with using a very wide brush to paint a picture. For all we know the new members just have terrible taste. I mean, isn't Russell Brand a member now?
Actually "Til It Happens to You" is quite similar to other Gaga's songs. And I'm not a Germanotta's fan
The problem does start also with casting directors and directors themselves. Why not cast "outside the box"? Furiosa didnt have to be white, for example. But the roles are few and in between. Like Viola said, you cant win awards for roles that arent being written. You cant be nominated if you are not cast.
And the reverse of the problem- the roles the did win for:
Forest whitaker- African mass-murderer dictator
Octavia Spencer-maid
Lupita-slave
Jamie Fox- ray charles. Musical biopic. They couldnt cast ryan gosling ir fassbender for that one role.
Viola Davis-nominated for playing a maid.
Chiwetel-nominated for playing a slave.
Djimon Hounson-nominated for playing a super poor man who is almost enslaved and whose son is turned into a child soldier.
Will smith-nominated for another biopic they couldnt cast a waspy macwasp in the title role and playing the less stereotyical role out of all the mentioned above in persuit of happiness.
Part of me doesn't even blame Diane Warren for the controversy around Lady Gaga. She's been hunting for that Oscar for so long and if recent years have been any indication, the Academy is back on a "hits and/or major stars" streak like they were in the 1980's, and Warren after seven nominations was fine putting Gaga's name on the nomination if it meant she finally won that Oscar.
That being said, it seems pretty obvious that Gaga didn't contribute much more than vocals to this song, and probably should have recused herself from being a nominee, but she's got the Oscar thirst (and maybe more compellingly, the one-up Madonna thirst) and wouldn't dream of passing up a trophy, which she'll likely get on name alone.
Yeah, I don't think the older members are necessarily the problem. I actually think some of the retired members may see more films and put more effort into voting than some of the younger members. I saw a tweet the other day from James Gunn (blergh) in which he was complaining about having to watch movies to vote on the Oscars. This attitude is an issue - as someone mentioned in the podcast, perhaps you should be watching movies all through the year (I.e., like we do). Also, shouldn't he have been watching movies before, you know, he turned in his nomination ballot? The nominees become so set in stone in a category like Best Actor that people don't see the films and just end up voting for "the five."
Amanda -- but again this is reducing people. Viola Davis didn't play any maid. She played a very specific character who worked as a maid and imbued it with enormous humanity. You can reduce a lot of "roles" to stereotypes if you want. Like the numerous white actresses who've played hookers to win Oscar's attention.
maybe because i worked in the hotel industry for many years before writing full time but i've never understood people's view of maids. It's an honest profession and they work hard and they get no respect. I get touchy about this issue -- the media is so insensitive to blue collar workers regularly casting their professions as something to be ashamed of when discusing broader political issues. A lot of CEOs actually have more shameful professions given what they do to their employees and to the world with their political lobbying.
Suzanne -- this! Older "inactive" members actually DO watch more films. At least from my anecdotal perspective of talking to them at functions. When you actually get a chance to talk to the more famous members they're all like "i haven't seen that yet"
Amanda, that list is very selective. Eddie Murphy didn't play a stereotype in Dreamgirls, neither did Jennifer Hudson or Quvenzhané Wallis or Marianne Jean-Baptiste or Taraji P Henson or Davis in Doubt or any number of the (varied) Denzel Washington or Morgan Freeman roles that have been nominated and won. Should there be more diversity in casting and in parts written for minorities and POC absolutely, but like Nathaniel said you can find a stereotype in just about any role if you look hard enough.
Wow Nathaniel. I think it was actually mean and slightly disrespectful of you to say that I dont respect maids. I do. I respect any worker, any honest and hardworking member of the work force. Any one who does an honest job and works hard and does their best. Specially women. I am a working mom and I know how hard it is.
I am from Brasil Where the maid situation is much deeper and more complicated than you could possibly imagine. The maid here used to be a cultural institution. They were part of Our structure. They were formative and fundamental members of Our identity. The situation is just now beggining to change. You should have a little more respect for your readers who you know nothing or very little about.
The debate about roles for black actors is much more complicated, deeper and more painful in Brasil than you could begin to imagine and it has been going on for a long time nos. This debate does not belong to you, holier than thou north-americans.
And yes, viola obviously should have won. They will have to live with that embarassment for the rest of their lives.
And yes, many CEOs are the scum of the earth. When did I say I worshipped CEOs? Dont be só quick to judge.
It's not an Oscars problem, it's a casting problem. Filmmakers have to take the lead and consider diversity when casting. Studio executives are not going to do it for them. There is no good reason why Lupita N'Yongo is not considered for the same roles as Margot Robbie. Or why Michael B. Jordan is not an A-list movie star.
Look at the IMDB cast listing for one of my most anticpated movies of 2016 - Denis Villenueve's Story of Your Life. Amy Adams plays the lead role as a linguistic expert who is supposed to figure out if visiting aliens are friend or foe. Nothing against Amy Adams, but couldn't this ethically-ambiguous role have gone to Lupita, or any of the other amazing actresses of color working in movies today? Just one example of many.
The Academy is a reflection of the work being offered in film today. Sure, there could have been some room for films like Tangerine, or Dope, or others. But until Chiwetel Ojiefor is playing astronaut Mark Watney instead of the supporting role, we will continue to have this problem year in and year out.
Of course I meant ethnically-ambiguous
Amanda -- i didn't say you disrespected maids but i guess it's easy to make that jump because i have such a hair trigger on that particular topic. (i readily admit) that season of THE HELP was so painful for me because even on well meaning progressive shows they kept belittling the service industries without even realizing that that's what they were doing.
i apologize for letting my emotions rile me up too quickly.
Exactly, Sawyer. That's what I was trying to say. Furiosa for exemple didnt have to be white. Actually, for all the "feminist" accolades Mad Max Fury Road got, the lead is still a white stunningly beautiful woman, and the wives/breeders all look like glamourous supermodels who looked like they were taken straight from a Vogue shoot. Feminist if you look like Rosie Huntington-whitely or Zoe Kravitz.
And yes, people of color do not play CEOs. They dont play doctors, professors, scientists, lawyers, translators, embassors, writers, etc. They just dont. They must -almost always- play niche. Its an acting guetto.
@Adam Keller and Nat - but did the voters watch Creed? I have a feeling that, due to what many have said about academy members not even watching that many movies, that many voters didn't watch Creed because they assumed it wouldn't be a contender. Then, when Stallone got good reviews and his whole comeback narrative was forming, I wonder how many people put his name on their list, especially older, male members who have an emotionally invested nostalgia for that character.
There really wasn't too much in the way of oscar-nominatable African American performances this year
Jason Mitchell should have swept the season. He's not nominated for an NAACP Image Award. When your own community is incapable of recognizing your worth forgot about the white folks who simply dismissed you altogether.
Yes let's not talk about this issue at all bc Black people were nominated and won in 2001-2013. Let's just ignore this how many Whites have won and have been nominated in comparison to Asians,Blacks and Latinos in the History of the Oscars? So let's not talk about it at all this isn't an issue. For those who are saying it's an industry issues AMPA members are in the industry. That's a lazy and lame excuse.
Let's celebrate some of the lazy nominated performances, Bryan Cranston and Eddie Redmayne. Really!!
Carol didn't end in tragedy so that should answer that question. Black people only win if they are slaves, criminals or singers. Like Really. So no let's not go there.
At least other sites are talking about the situation and not just let's sweep this under the rug because my favorite White Actress is nominated.
I agree with the casting thoughts and don't have much to add except that perhaps those are the people that Spike Lee & Jada should be talking to/shaming?
Oh boy, I really shouldn't be wading into this, but oh well. I think the other part of this that is a letdown is the pure campaigning for awards. I don't know who let Michael B. Jordan down, but they surely did. He is very well thought of among everyone I know, he's on the cusp, in a popular hit, etc. His people and the studio should have been working the "new Rocky" angle hard.
Phew, so I see it as a lack of imagination all around. It's only about 60% the roles, and the other 40% is luck, timing, the competition, and buzz.
PS critics could help by spreading the wealth around a little bit too.
As I noted in a comment on another piece, the Critics Choice nominations are so-white in the equivalent categories to Oscar. I would expect critics to have time to watch many movies all year and be younger but still they have 11 Best Picture nominees and none is Straight Out Of Compton. So the problem is more than just Oscar voters demographics and fixing it will need to look wider.
I hope this issue is a wake-up and every movie currently being cast looks at each character and asks "why is this one a white male?". Screenwriters should ask themselves the same questions.
Nikki --claiming that we are just sweeping it under the rug and unwilling to talk about it is a lie. Plain and simple. Look and scroll around and listen to the podcast. There's been plenty of discussion. It's a good thing to talk about. The only thing we keep cautioning is that there is more to the story than the faces of 20 actors from 2014 and 2015.
(I personally don't think that should be a controversial opinion when discussing an industry of thousands and thousands of people and hundreds and hundreds of films per calendar year)
The Smiths are pissed off because the Academy did not fall for the "Concussion" Oscar bait.