Los Angeles Plays (With) Itself

Even after a decent night's sleep, there's still little more than stunned silence here at Filmbrain HQ over the Crash victory. In fact, more offensive than the best picture nod was the award for best original screenplay. When judged by any standards (even in a McKee-dominated world), Haggis' screenplay is a poorly written, insulting, pedantic exercise in one-dimensionality that incorporates dramatic tricks that might be considered acceptable coming from a twelve year-old. Are we truly meant to believe that the Academy members felt that dialog such as: "But if a white person sees two black men walking towards her and she turns and walks away, she's a racist, right? Well I got scared and I didn't do anything and ten seconds later I had a gun in my face. Now I am telling you, your amigo in there is going to sell our key to one of his homies and this time it would be really fucking great if you acted like you gave a shit! was actually better than Good Night, and Good Luck, Match Point, The Squid and The Whale or Syriana? Or were Crash's wins due to the votes it received from its cast of thousands (and their friends)? And even though Crash was critically at the bottom of the list (as per Metacritic), its best picture win shouldn't come as that much of a surprise -- of the five nominated films, it is (by far) the most Hollywood of the bunch, and is as smarmy and self-congratulatory as the Oscars itself. As a means of silent protest, may I recommend renting Charles (Killer of Sheep) Burnett's The Glass Shield -- a far better film about racism in Los Angeles. Unsurprisingly, Burnett's 1994 film didn't get any recognition at awards time. But then again, he was interested in actually confronting and taking a stand on issues, rather than just fueling liberal white guilt.

Comments

[Ed Bremson]

I suppose that Crash deserved the Oscar, but I also wonder if Hollywood was ready to give an Oscar to Brokeback Mountain. I doubt it.

[Ashley]

I never saw Crash and I really don't have much desire to, but I will say this: that song from the film that was nominated?  Sheer Hollywood-tacky-kitschy-tasteless-brilliance having it sung in front of a burning car with lower-class people moving around it in slow motion during the awards.  If you're going to be gauche, you may as well go all-out.

[Hotspur]

The sad thing about the Altman tribute wasn't so much the underwhelming montage but the fact that there was no-one in the audience (correct me if i'm wrong) who has been in an Altman film. Couldn't they have invited Elliott Gould or one of 300 other major actors he's worked with?

[C Morris]

This is mainly to address Hotspur's comment. I'm no expert on Altman's movies, and I didn't watch all the red-carpet coverage of last night's Oscars presentation, but for the record, the following Altman alumni definitely were present in the audience:

Jennifer Jason Leigh (Short Cuts / Kansas City)
Frances McDormand (Short Cuts)
Lily Tomlin (Short Cuts / Nashville)
Ryan Philippe (Gosford Park)
Lauren Bacall (Pret-A-Porter)
Lindsay Lohan (A Prairie Home Companion)
Meryl Streep (A Prairie Home Companion)

Maybe these aren't the cream of the Altman crop, but they were there. It was certainly nice to see the man recognized, though, no matter what the circumstances.

[Hotspur]

I stand (somewhat) corrected. I wasn't counting Lily Tomlin and Meryl Streep since they were presenting the award; I'd completely forgotten Ryan Philippe was in an Altman film and I should have remembered Frances McDormand and poor Lauren Bacall (humiliated by the teleprompter before that redundant Noir montage). I never saw her there, but I should have realized Jennifer Jason Leigh was there with her husband Noah Baumbach. And was Lindsay Lohan really at the Oscars? Did they cut to any of these people during his speech? I'd still rather have seen Elliott Gould, George Segal and Shelley Duval in the front row.

[Dr. No]

Do something about it:

Sign the Petition to Recall Crash's win!!!

http://www.petitiononline.com/crashout/petition.html

[harakiwi]

Oh well, Just par for the course. From the people who gave us the overrated Million Dollar Baby.
I guess Haggis should be given credit for rendering an accurate diagram of racist cliches. He seems comfortable playing this omniscient God educating us with his predigested view of what racism is. What has happened to ambiguity in film(CACHE anyone)? This film has more catharsis than 5 episodes of Oprah and Dr. Phil. (I prefer the epiphanies of The New World. Oh, sorry, not nominated.) Crash does nothing to change anyone's feelings about racism. Sarah Silverman said it best when she said this was a "comedy for racists."

[Christian]

harakiwi: On Sarah Silverman calling it a "comedy for racists": Actually, I saw it (in Berlin, Germany) in a preview, sitting next to a beer-drinking skinhead who was pretty amused. Though not really a nazi skinhead, he sure knew how to cheer over racial stereotypes, and had a lot of fun.

(Thinking about it, the whole audience had a lot of fun. The majority, not having heard anything about the movie ever before, seemed to take it as a comedy, possibly in relating the portrayal of L.A. in "Crash" to the multi-ethnic experience here in Berlin.)

[Mikko]

I couldn't agree more about the offensiveness of best original screenplay going to Crash. I didn't hate the film, but I should have realized that it is exactly the kind of mediocrity the Academy falls for.

Oh and it also suited well with the ongoing trend for awarding African Americans. It's as if the Academy has finally found out there are 'those black people' in the industry and, hey, why not give them a quota... (never mind most/all? the people who received an oscar from crash were white)

[Sal C.]

The only good that came of this is if hundreds if not thousands of people around the world mistakenly rent Cronenberg's Crash at the video store and have the tops of their heads shorn off by its brilliance (or, at a minimum, they'll be supremely bummed out).

[harakiwi]

Crash seems like one of those jokes that starts out, "A black guy, a jewish guy, and a mexican are on a plane together that is about to crash..." Insert cliches here.

[Adam]

Wait a second, KILLER OF SHEEP is rentable???!!! My prayers have been answered???!!! Or is this only rentable at KIM'S video for you New Yorker folk? (OK, I'll calm down on the multiple punctuations.) I thought that masterpiece was still caught up in music copyright issues. It couldn't screen at the Charles Burnett retrospective at Berkeley's PFA for that very reason a year or so back.

[Adam]

Oh, OK, now that I've settles down, I see that KILLER OF SHEEP was inserted as a nickname-y, referential, parenthetical so that everyone knew exactly who you were talking about.

So let me add an addendum to my outburst - Does anyone know what the status is on the music copyright issues that hold back the way too delayed release of this film in theatres AND on DVD?

[Hotspur]

Milestone has the rights to the wonderful KILLER OF SHEEP. According to their website: "Milestone is presently clearing the music rights to release KILLER OF SHEEP on video. We are hoping to do so by Summer 2006. We appreciate your patience!" http://www.milestonefilms.com/movie.php/kilsheep/

[Allan]

My question: why is anyone surprised that a terrible film won an Oscar? Why does anyone care? Why does anyone watch the Oscars at all? It's a vast industry circle-jerk that only gives a nod to a real film or filmmaker every few years to retain some degree of credibility as an institution. You could probably watch two medium length Fassbinders (or a full Cassavetes and half a dozen Brakhages) in the time that you give up watching the Oscars... 's a waste of time.

A. (http://alienatedinvancouver.blogspot.com)

[Jimmy]

Here is a bit of speculation and hearsay on why Crash won. Of all the nominees for best picture, I only saw Good Night and Good Luck, so I can't opine much on this subject. But it never occurred to me that Crash was anything other than Hollywood garbage. Maybe because I'm such a Ballard fan, and I so enjoyed Cronenberg's Crash, this latest film never seemed worth my attention. By the way, isn't there some rule about titles that should have prevented them from using that name for this movie? Can I now just go out and write a screenplay about a hard-drive failure and make my own Crash?

[burritoboy]

Hotspur,

Milestone has been promising Killer of Sheep for a long, long time. I wouldn't hold my breath for this summer either.

Allan,

Well, if you put it like that, instead of the Oscars, you could watch all 28 Painleve shorts! (and have time for munchies in between) Or half of Satantango.

[harakiwi]

I'm never watching the Oscars ever again! I'm gouging my eyes out right now as we speak.

Speaking of KILLER OF SHEEP someone should make a list of most wanted unreleased DVDs. I have three off the top of my head:

1.The Conformist
2.The Other Side of the Wind
2.Anything from Alain Robbe-Grillet

any takers?

[la_depressionada]

les noches rouges.

[la_depressionada]

sorry, i'm studying spanish. noces.