Podcast: BlacKkKlansman plus (sigh) a New Oscar Category
Friday, August 17, 2018 at 2:00PM This week Nathaniel R, Murtada Elfadl, and Chris Feil talk Oscar changes and Spike Lee's new joint.
Index (1 Hour and 2 minutes)
00:01 Spike Lee's new joint BlacKkKlansman. He's still got it. Also we talk about how he uses Gone With the Wind, and Birth of a Nation.
15:30 Oscar's recent announcement about the "popular achievement category" and all the problems we imagine it will cause. We are not pleased but we do offer our own fixes to issues of audience's being more into the Oscars.
40:00 Film Festival excitement TIFF and NYFF plus The Favourite, and Peterloo rumors.
47:00 We return to Spike Lee and list our three favorite scenes in BlacKkKlansman.
54:00 Fall film chatter: On the Basis of Sex, Mary Queen of Scots, and The Miseducation of Cameron Post versus Boy Erased
60:00 Goodbyes!
You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you?
Reader Comments (10)
The Oscars are insular and they want the public to care.
A handful of movies and performers are curated and trotted out by publicists to bloggers, critics, industry during film festival season right through to the ongoing awards convention and Oscar night. And as you say Nathaniel - the public has no chance to see them.
Heaven...I'm in heaven! Can't wait to listen.
Murtada is a great addition to the podcast!
Murtada, Cornelius Brothers and Sister Rose also had another big hit in 71--the frolicksome Treat Her Like a Lady, which hit No. 3 on the charts. The follow up Too Late reached No 2.
I also fear that Boy Erased will be another Freeheld and after reading the book I feel even moreso.
Adam - thank you I appreciate your comment>
brookesboy - I'll have to check that song! I've had too Late on almost constant replay since I saw the movie.
Murtada, love you on the podcast. So fun!
Thank you all for this podcast! Looking forward to seeing BlacKkKlansman.
Nathaniel, your comments on the popular film Oscar get more and more wise. I really hope the Academy takes note.
I am late to the game, but I have thoughts.
I think Oscar will still ignore hits in genres they don't generally vote for - e.g. Legally Blonde (2001), $96m - a fairly perfect movie; Logan (2017), $226m - pretty amazing re-imagining of a stale genre.
Let's keep in mind they already recognized such box office/critical crossovers in the top 20 like 'Get Out' (#15), 'Gravity' (#5), 'Hidden Figures (#14)', 'The Help' (#13) , 'True Grit' (#13), 'Avatar' (#1), 'The Blind Side' (#8), 'Slumdog Millionaire' (#16).
I really don't understand what people want as far as recognition of popular movies. Should Marvel movies win best picture every year?
I was a bit disappointed, though I think the film is full of interesting ideas (double-consciousness) and directorial flourishes. The Kwame Toure scene is great, but I think Lee undermines the Belafonte speech with the intercutting and shocked gasps. The scene between the particularly evil Klansman and his wife played as too ridiculous even for satire. I don't believe anyone talks that way. I also thought the nonstop use of racial slurs actually has a deadening effect, rather than jolting the system.
I thought John David Washington was really appealing but made performative choices that didn't really add to characterization. I unreservedly loved Adam Driver though, who (in the best way possible) felt like he walked off a Michael Mann movie into this one. It felt like he took the dialogue about professionalism and de-escalation and decided that every detail of his performance, including his sort of bemused detachment, was going to convince the audience that he'd been doing undercover work for a decade.