If Hollywood were high school, Joel and Ethan Coen would be the class clowns. (Pictured are the Oscar-winning sibs, best director, best picture and adapted screenplay winners for No Country for Old Men). One of the more amusing aspects of the Academy Awards ceremony was watching the Minneapolis-born, anti-Hollywood New Yorkers reluctantly accept their prom-king status. Unlike James Cameron, they don't want to be kings of the world, only of their corner of the sandbox, as Joel said in his acceptance speech.
At the 80th annual Academy Awards -- the lowest-rated broadcast in Academy history -- the twin themes were No Country for Old Men and No Oscars for American Actors. When Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood) and Marion Cotillard (La Vie en Rose) took the lead actor prizes, and Javier Bardem (No Country) and Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton) the supporting, I wondered why, even when casting American roles, filmmakers are shopping abroad. Better training? Cheaper salary expectations?
Another thing that struck me is that apart from Ratatouille (which took the best-animation prize) and Juno (best original screenplay), precious few of the American movies enjoyed Oscar prestige and mass appeal. Your theories? Favorite Oscar moments? Your verdict on Jon Stewart as host? I thought he owned the room like no host since Johnny Carson.
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Class Clowns, Reluctant Prom Kings
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The Author
Carrie Rickey has been The Philadelphia Inquirer’s film critic for 21 years. She has reviewed films as diverse as “Water” and “The Waterboy,” profiled celebrities from Lillian Gish to Will Smith, and reported on technological beakthroughs from the video revolution to the rise of movies on demand. Her reviews are syndicated nationwide and she is a regular contributor to Entertainment Weekly, MSNBC and NPR. Rickey’s essays appear in numerous anthologies, including “The Rolling Stone History of Rock & Roll,” “The American Century,” and the Library of America’s “American Movie Critics.”
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This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on February 25, 2008 1:57 PM.
The previous post in this blog was Where the Boys Are.
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Comments (6)
If Stewart can't be persuaded to stay on, I see this as a huge opportunity for George W. Bush in retirement. I believe he's said that he wants to earn money after his stint at the Nation's Helm and AMPTP already has a really able guy in charge in their shop. Whatta ya think?
Posted by JDM | February 25, 2008 3:06 PM
Posted on February 25, 2008 15:06
Stewart showed improvement, but he's still too smug for my tastes. The "Once" song performance and speeches were the highlights. Why was Brad Renfro left out of the dead actor/talent reel?
Next year, let's bring out more movie icons (Jodie Foster, Morgan Freeman) and less box office kings (The Rock).
Posted by Christian Toto | February 26, 2008 1:27 PM
Posted on February 26, 2008 13:27
Lois Nettleton was also omitted from the "In Memorium" reel.
The odd thing is that she, Renfro, Ledger and Pleshette all died within a two-week period.
Odder yet, none of them died in 2007, the year being honored, but in 2008.
Posted by Joe | February 26, 2008 4:20 PM
Posted on February 26, 2008 16:20
A lot of provocative insights, but just to comment on the casting of "foreign nationals" in so many American productions. A lot of it has to do with the fact that there remains what seems to be remnants of a "film industry" in many countries, so that (just as an example) a James McAvoy will be in several films in England in the same year, but a comparable young American actor may not be in any films. There are a lot of very talented actors and actresses working, not on Broadway (which is also having the same problems) but off-Broadway and off-off-Broadway, but it's rare for casting people to seek out these performers now. This has been true now for almost 20 years. But it is curious that it has become so pronounced that this was the first year since 1964 (during another period of Hollywood's internationalization) when no Americans won an acting award.
Posted by Daryl Chin | February 28, 2008 9:28 AM
Posted on February 28, 2008 09:28
I don't remember when the deadline was, but if Ledger was included, so should have Renfro...I also thought it would have been nice to include a nod to ABC critic Joel Siegel, who died in June
as for the foreign actors, I think we need to get over it...the category is Best Actor(tress) in a Leading(Supporting) Role - there is no nationality requirement...if they happen to be foreign actors, so be it...and I don't think anyone looking to cast the likes of Daniel Day-Lewis is doing so for budgetary reasons
JDM - Bite your tongue!
Posted by phillygirl64 | March 3, 2008 3:20 PM
Posted on March 3, 2008 15:20
On a practical level, irrespective of the relative merits of one actor in a roll over another, foreign actors are often cast because their presence generates financing from the international territories. As for the Coen brothers, does Ms. Rickey remember my admittedly hyperbolic claim, from 1984, that BLOOD SIMPLE was the best directing debut since CITIZEN KANE? I haven't seen it in many years. Does it hold up? How far off was I?
Posted by Abramorama | March 3, 2008 5:54 PM
Posted on March 3, 2008 17:54