Movie magic

Last night I went to the Corcoran for a lecture on the Oscars. It was really great. Richard Brown covered the Best Picture nominees, showing us a special reel with clips and behind-the-scenes footage. Yes, the Awards are a popularity contest, Academy members vote for their friends, and the list of excellent people and movies that were never nominated grows longer every year. Once you recognize and accept that, the whole thing seems superfluous, but in essence the Oscar, with all its prestige, is one form of validation for what amounts to an unpredictable career: show business. Critical accolades are few and far between, fleeting but significant.

He also talked a bit about film history and the technical aspects of filmmaking, which I’m starting to learn more about. Directors’ audio commentaries on DVDs vary widely, but I like the ones that get into the nuts and bolts of how shots are composed and so forth. When they’re good, it’s like getting a whole class in film studies. (For example, listen to Sam Mendes’ commentary for American Beauty.) They train your eye to watch for certain techniques and appreciate the whole enterprise more fully, and next time at the movie theater, you think things like, “Ah yes, interesting establishing shot” or “I wonder if they looped the sound in this scene.” I’m well on my way to full-fledged film snobbery. Heh.

By the way, Anthony Tommasini covers music in “The Great Film Score: Catch It If You Can.” I’m not as hard as he is on Philip Glass’ music for The Hours, but I admit that a more conventional score might have been appropriate and evocative.

I’m still formulating my little pick-the-winners contest. Hopefully I’ll have time and energy to set it up this weekend.

Trailerspotting. I’ve come to think of movie trailers as a creative genre unto itself, more closely related to things like music video and commercial advertising. Their forte is in the work of a good editor, and so they’re not necessarily indicative as a whole of the movie it attempts to preview. A while back I posted a link to an interesting Times article on the making of trailers, and here it is again, in case you missed it: “The 150-Second Sell, Take 34.”

Bringing Down the House, with Steve Martin and Queen Latifah, is most likely dreck, but the trailer, with perennially dorky character actor Eugene Levy tossing hip-hop props to Queen, is hilarious: “I’d like to dip you in cheese and spread you over a cracker.” She smiles, “Boy, you are some kind of freaky.” Without missing a beat, he comes back, “You got me straight trippin’, Boo.” Ha.

And due in theaters 21 March, Boat Trip, where Cuba Gooding, Jr. and Horatio Sanz play a couple of straight guys who inadvertently find themselves on a gay cruise… yikes. Cuba, you’re an Academy Award winner. Get a new agent. Still, have we all seen the trailer? He makes a damn good-looking drag queen.

How do you solve a problem like Saddam? (Everyone sing along… ) On the way to the Corcoran last night I walked through Lafayette Park and past the White House, where I saw the media camped out for the President’s news conference. I watched it on tape when I got back home.

Mr. Bush says he doesn’t want to go to war, and fine, I believe that. Saddam Hussein is a threat, and I believe that too. But I take issue with the “war or nothing” portrayal of the issue, advanced not only by the President, but popular media as well:

I meant what I said, this is the last phase of diplomacy. A little bit more time? Saddam Hussein has had 12 years to disarm… The risk of doing nothing, the risk of hoping that Saddam Hussein changes his mind and becomes a gentle soul, the risk that somehow — that inaction will make the world safer, is a risk I’m not willing to take for the American people.

Isn’t that disingenuous? As if anything short of militarily enforced disarmament is “nothing.” I highly doubt the war-opposers advocate sitting and waiting and hoping. Hardly. (Jonathan Larson wrote, “The opposite of war isn’t peace. It’s creation.”)

We always knew forcible disarmament and regime change were theoretical possibilities, but to hear the President outline them as clear objectives was chilling.

State of the arts. The Kennedy Center just announced its 2003-04 season. I’m most excited about the Tennessee Williams festival. I’ve read a few of his plays, but have never seen them performed (the movie version of Streetcar notwithstanding). Also as usual, the upcoming season boasts a lot of great ballet.

Currently, the annual AmericArtes festival is underway, celebrating the arts of Latin America. Lots of cool events.

Justin time. All snarking aside, it’s like I turn away for one second, and Justin Timberlake suddenly gets all hot and manly. Am I right? Note the 23 January 2003 cover of Rolling Stone, photo by Herb Ritts. Ah, our boy’s all grown up. (Rolling Stone cover archive here.)

Okay, I have a few days worth of Queer As Folk episodes on DVD to watch. Have a great weekend, kids.