The 2011 Oscar Yearbook – Tremors, Quakes and Aftershocks

We’ve yet to crown our Homecoming Queen and King yet, but this is how many of us will remember the Oscar year that was.

Eddie Murphy and Brett Ratner

The first news of the Oscar year is usually who is going to host. After the disastrous combination of Anne Hathaway (who was pretty good, actually) and James Franco (whoa, dude, is that a camera?) no one knew exactly where the Academy would circle and land with host. I had predicted Ben Stiller, one of the stars of Brett Ratner’s Tower Heist. Turns out I was close. They went with Eddie Murphy instead. Murphy’s history with the Academy was a contentious one. He had used his time on stage to complain about the Wall of White the Academy has been throwing up for its many decades. When it came time for Murphy to win for Dreamgirls, Alan Arkin won instead. Jennifer Hudson won for Dreamgirls instead. Much was made of Murphy’s disgruntled exit (allegedly). Asking him to host was a way of making nice with Murphy. He would have been a great host, as he’s one of the funniest people — even still — in Hollywood. But then Ratner happened. Ratner said in an off-the-cuff manner that “rehearsing was for fags.” It isn’t like most of the numbed-out internet commenters don’t talk that way — trust me, they do. What Ratner meant to say was “rehearsing was for pussies” but he couldn’t quite figure out how to turn his bigoted hate into sexist hate and thus, a controversy was born. Had Ratner said ‘pussy’ Murphy would still be hosting. But Ratner’s dumbass remark led to his being forced to resign as producer, and Murphy followed, staying loyal to Ratner.

The choice of Ratner to begin with appeared to be the Academy’s way of trying to draw in those lucrative younger eyeballs — you know, those audience members who watch the VMAs, The Bachelor and American Idol? Yeah, them. I guess what they don’t seem to know about how they are perceived — audiences want them to remain classy (which doesn’t mean all “white” all of the time). They should continue to encourage producers who produce great movies. While it’s true that if they trash it up they might get the target demo to pull their hands out of the pants long enough to change the channel to ABC on Sunday night, they will lose their core audience doing so. That is not a wise decision.

The Ratner episode snapped them back like a rubber band to play it safer than they ever have before, eventually settling on their standby — their Crash Davis of Oscar hosting, Billy Crystal.

Sophie’s Choice

Brad Pitt and George Clooney both had movies that came out in the same year. Both were great movies, two of the best of the year. Both were about single dads. Neither had a romance during the film, although Clooney had one pretty hot kiss. One is about baseball, one is about land ownership, both are about present day, both are by American film directors about what is happening in America now. Both had vivid, memorable screenplays. Neither could pull ahead of the other because they kept canceling each other out. If there had been just one it might have been able to take on The Artist. But both made films that, with maybe one or two others, might actually have staying power beyond this year.

The critics

“You want me on that wall. You need me on that wall.”

This year, the critics split apart big-bang style after last year’s unification behind The Social Network, to which the industry said, “no thanks. We like our Oscars mediocre and conventional.” So this year, as predicted, the critics were mostly selected out of the Oscar race. Sure, New York went for The Artist and the Globes (they don’t count as critics), and the BFCA (they don’t count as critics either) also went for the Artist but many critics groups chose films like Tree of Life for their top prize. I think this year proves that the Oscar race is much better when the critics are involved in a major, not minor, way. I hope that next year they remember how important they are in setting the tone. It can’t be left up to the bloggers because the bloggers just try to predict what the Academy are going to do. The Academy takes its cue from the precursor awards because they are either too lazy or too busy to do the ground work. The early awards do the preliminary including and excluding of films and the Academy then chooses from the remaining selections. This year, that turned out to be a very bad thing. In trying to second guess what an “Oscar movie” should be, or can’t be, they become very limited in their choices by year’s end. Hopefully everyone next year will think more broadly. A good movie is a good movie is a good movie. It shouldn’t ever be in the race because it is merely an “Oscar movie.”

The animals

Someone thought it was a good idea to trot out Uggie the dog from The Artist and that poor War Horse out onto the campaign trail. Even Martin Scorsese got into the dog game with the doberman from Hugo. The Academy was all too comfortable with anthropomorphized animals while ignoring the best films about them — Buck and Project Nim, specifically. But even Rise of the Planet of the Apes which may be hokey on some level but gets the chimps right, gets intelligence right, within the realm of sci-fi.

The Harvey

Weinstein Co. wins the Best Picture game for the second year in a row by choosing an international production that was made for only around $15 million. Mostly unknown directors, universal story, multiple BAFTA, DGA, PGA-winning import. At a time when American films are struggling to produce movies that aren’t comic book fanboy fodder, family films or sequels, the industry is still saying — we like what they’re doing over there better. Weinstein is the one who knows a good thing when he sees it. What he produces isn’t nearly as good as what he finds. The difference between Weinstein and every other distributor is that Weinstein wants to win Oscars more. And he has a better handle on what people respond to — he always has, that’s why he’s known as Harvey Scissorhands – he used to help cut movies to make them more palatable to audiences. You have to applaud that kind of expertise.

Managing Expectations

Both Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and War Horse had to be managed to avoid too much bad chatter online before they had a chance to open in theaters. It was thought that War Horse would be the juggernaut. A few major critics and bloggers gave it a pass; its undeniable emotional impact could not be ignore, even the wake of its ol’ fashioned sensibilities, glossed over depictions of one of the most brutal wars in which millions upon millions of horses died. The sincerity was true. But it went overboard, and thus, it ruined its chances to be the One True Film to win Best Picture. Even still, it’s a miracle it was nominated at all and it just goes to show you how popular and powerful Spielberg is. Likewise, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was panned by the critics but had enough emotional impact (and Stephen Daldry’s charm among industry voters) to get it enough number votes to be named one of the Best Pictures of 2011. Both films were expected to take the race early on. But at some point it becomes apparent that they were hitting way below heightened expectations.

Unfortunately, they took two slots two better movies might have taken. Harry Potter is the Warner Bros movie that should have been included instead.  And The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, with five Oscar nominations, should have also gotten in the major categories, but especially in score and in Picture. But you could tell by how it all went down that this time it was personal.  I maintain my wish that David Fincher never win an Oscar — after all, to win one is to lose what it is about him that makes him such a great director to begin with.  Everyone in Hollywood still needs the Oscars to a degree for power positioning.  But let’s not kid ourselves about what it’s really about.  The best directors this year did not have their films represented in the Best Picture race but oh that cronyism is alive and well, ain’t it?

Olivia Colman and Jeff Wells

Jeff Wells took it upon himself to raise money to screen Tyrannosaur here for journalists in order to help campaign for its actress, Olivia Colman. A metaphor for Christianity, Colman is brilliant in the role. It is a depiction of a person that cuts you straight through. But she was never a big enough star to be seriously considered. Tyrannosaur is a hard movie to watch. Once the guy kills the dog in the beginning, the movie has lost its audience, mostly. He will never be forgiven for it. Forgiveness versus vengeance is what is at stake here. But it is extremely uncomfortable to watch. Needless to say, Wells’ efforts came to naught, Oscar-wise, but he helped to bring awareness to a little known film and for that he ought to be commended; there are too many sheep and not enough willing to actually take steps to change things. Voting is done by consensus and making a whole bunch of people think the same thing about a movie or an actor is very near impossible.

The Kids Are All White

The LA Times gets the prize for the Best Oscar story of the year when they dug down into deep background to find out what the Academy will never release: their demographics. We’ve long since known the Oscars were decided mostly by old white guys but no one had ever actually proved it. It doesn’t mean a whole lot since the awards race is a giant behemoth where everyone tries to lean to what the Academy will ultimately choose. They are as “old and white” as the Academy, it would seem, since they pick the same predictable choices every year too. The Academy, in fact, has done a few remarkable things, like awarding Geoffrey Fletcher last year for screenwriting (the first black screenwriter to win in 83 years) where the industry went for Jason Reitman on down the line. The Academy is actually a smaller group than many of the guilds, in fact, and since they are the last word they can be reasoned with. You can’t fault them without faulting the awards race as a whole; the Academy responds to what’s put in front of them. Still, it’s nice to see it proved once and for all.

Votes by Number One

The Academy decided not to have a solid ten for Best Picture but would simply use the process to choose films that had a certain number of number one votes. While there always have to be some number one votes in the process of getting five or ten Best Picture nominees, this year they had a shorter cut-off. In so doing, they ended up nominated nine Best Pictures that only had five of their screenplays nominated, and only one with a leading actress nominee. Something went very wrong. Hopefully they will never go back to this method of voting again. Nominating ten worked best for those of us who write about the race and for the public, but the Academy members have been complaining that it’s “too hard.” They prefer five because they can barely watch five as it is in a given year. This method was too vulnerable to calling in favors and utilizing strategic voting.

Meryl v. Viola

The only really contentious race this year was between the overdue Streep and Viola Davis. Davis became the only actress to star in one of the nine Best Picture nominees and Streep was again the best thing in a not-so-great movie. The topic divided readers, stirring heated debate about what it means to win an Oscar. Topics ranged from racism (Davis will be only the second black actress to win a lead Oscar in 84 years), to whether it’s a lead or a supporting part (no one cared when Nicole Kidman won for same or smaller sized role), and those fans of Streep’s who would like to see her win another lead Oscar for such a brilliant career. Complicating matters was Harvey Weinstein pushing Streep, and Michelle Williams — who was placed in the background once it became between Davis and Streep. The outcome is still to be determined.

I just miss my friend

The passing of Inside Oscar author Damien Bona emptied out the season for me. No longer will he be around to analyze and write about the Oscar race in his witty, dry manner. We lost Bona but we gained a few great writers on the beat like Mark Harris — who knows enough about the Oscar race to dig deeply into it and has enough credibility to not feel embarrassment doing so. With Bona gone there are so many things no worth saying, not worth doing. But hopefully after Sunday it will feel different. After all, tomorrow is another day.