White Chicks?

I watched the Academy Awards show on TV on Sunday. I loved the actresses in their gowns. Eye candy. The Naughty Vicar was demanding to be heard. I loved Chris Rock, especially that skit where he interviewed people (I recognized some so I assume some of them were actors) about their favourite movies and got answers like Chronicles of Riddick and White Chicks. Hilarious. Hollywood likes to think of itself as a community of independent artists instead of a commercial community because it give awards to high class commercial movies instead of low class commercial movies.


The Academy Awards have a life of their own. Hollywood gets together, in spite of all the competition, to promote the American commercial film industry in a lavish show of clothes, cleverness and pampered flesh. The Oscars aren’t for the films that displayed the greatest skill and effort by an artist, or even for the industry’s own favourite films. They are for the films that promote the industry’s collective self-esteem.
On the other hand, some good films – according to my tastes and standards – get nominated and I am still interested in Million Dollar Baby, Hotel Rwanda, Finding Neverland, and a few others, even if I have to wait another few months and see them on digital cable.
I read some newspaper stories to find out what was nominated and to see what the critics were saying and guessing. I realized that I had only see one movie nominated in any category. I wondered if the commentators had seen all the pictures and if they remembered them all well enough to have opinions, or if they were just sounding off to fill space. People seem to think they can comment on the chances of films without any understanding of the process and without having seen the films. On the other hand, maybe seeing the movies doesn’t help. The Oscars, like the stock market, are driven by hidden forces.
I’m don’t think that movies can be compared to one another and evaluated objectively within many of the Oscar categories anyway. Some categories involve relatively neutral tasks, but a lot of it comes down to taste and personal judgment. I liked Randy’s blog post – he had the integrity to say that he was listing his own favourites.

One thought on “White Chicks?”

  1. I too liked the Chris Rock segment in the Magic Johnson theater. I just and went looked at it again. The only person I recognize is Albert Brooks, who is the only white guy. I thought the joke was two fold, most people are not seeing the nominees and black people are really not seeing them.
    I have not seen any of them but I will eventually see Finding Neverland because of Johnny Depp, and I may see Sideways because of Paul Giamatti. I won’t see Million Dollar Bay, that would be too sad, I just couldn’t stand it, and that is the same reason that I won’t see Mystic River. I am not very interested in those type of dramas. I wouldn’t buy any of them and that’s pretty much how I see movies. I would rather buy the Chronicles of Riddick.
    I did like Chronicles of Riddick. It’s fun…we watched it on movie night and everyone had a good time. It’s much more watchable than Million Dollar Bay for me, and more rewatchable. Someday, if I get more time, I’ll see Riddick again. I would recommend Pitch Black, it’s a nice sf action film. Quick paced and some good jolts. I don’t get scared at movies, monsters don’t scare me, home invastion scares me. I can get startled and don’t mind that. I am more scared of walking into a dark place and having robbers pump me.
    I enjoyed Chris Rock hosting the show. When it was announced he was to host the show, there were articles about his language and the Academy trying the spice up the show, after it was over there were articles about his not swearing and being really sarcastic…somedays I feel just like punching these writers. I recently thought that a good super power would be being able to hit someone in such a way that they shit their pants…that strikes me as being funny.
    If you haven’t see Chris’s HBO specials I would recommend them…Bring the Pain and Bigger & Blacker are the best. The latest one – Never Scared was ok but not up to the lever of Bigger & Blacker.
    I have been watching the new DVD of SCTV. This is the third set from the first season on NBC but I can’t remember what season it was in the long running series, 4th maybe. Sure make me laugh.
    Garth

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *