The REAL Super Sunday

This will be my last movie blog until Indiana Jones comes out. I swear.

But after absolutely loving my Oscar Party and COMPLETELY enjoying what has become in recent years my favorite night of the year, I have to write one last movie related post because movies make me so happy.

In case you missed last night's show, let me recap... It was awesome.

Many people don't like award shows. They think they are long, self serving, and for the most part, completely annoying. Part of why people find them annoying is that they think that the Academy Awards reward a bunch of movies that "nobody knows."

This is both true and untrue. There Will Be Blood, Atonement, No Country For Old Men, and Michael Clayton did not make much money at the box office. But many great movies don't do well at the box office (we'll get to that later). Juno has been doing well. Every year, there is usually one or two nominees that make money and then a bunch of movies that no one sees. And that is unfortunate.

Now, I know that not long ago I posted about NOT teasing another person's interests and I still stand by that. So when a person tells me that they saw Jumper or that I Am Legend is the best movie, I try not to lose my mind. I have no problem with people watching any of these movies (heck, I just watched the Elisha Cuthbert stinkbomb Captivity) because I support watching ALL movies. And that's my point. Watch ALL movies because there are great movies out there. There are great performers, great writers, great musicians, and great directors out there. And I just want you to see them. All.

I've said before that I get very upset when people lament the "old" days of anything. People will often do this with film and obviously I get that because there are lots of amazing classic films. But film right now is amazing. Yes, there are loud, long, over CGI'ed summer blockbusters that make you long for the days of mechanical sharks and model X-Wing Fighters. But there are also great films and last night, they were on display.

Every year, I have my binkies (last year it was United 93, this year it was Michael Clayton which stars some salt and pepper haired guy I like) and every year, I have my despicables (Juno and Daniel Day Lewis. Last negative in this post by the way). But watching the show last night really restored my faith in film and it even restored my faith a wee bit in people (I'll lose that gained faith in Novemeber when Obama loses. Now THAT'S the last negative! I swear!).

Listen, no one loves the Oscars as much as me. I love the whole industry and I understand why people don't like watching. It's long and there are two many montages. But there are two criticisma I hate: That the whole night is self serving and they honor only "art house" movies that no one likes.

Let me handle the former criticism. The night is not self serving. It's amazing. And great people won last night.

As is always the case is in fields where people make a lot of money (athletes, musicians), the general public tends to automatically hate these people. We also tend to automatically hate really "celebrities" who we see making an ass out of themselves on a nightly basis (Linsey Lohan, Paris Hilton, any reality TV star).

But guess what? None of these "celebrities" are at the Oscars because they are A) Not celebrities and B) Not talented.

Last night, mega talents George Clooney (I think I've heard of him), Helen Mirren, Cate Blanchett, Tom Hanks, Joel and Ethan Coen, Daniel Day Lewis (hurts admitting that), Javier Bardem, Hilary Swank, Diane Lane, Harrison Ford, Jason Bateman, Steve Carrell, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Forrest Whitaker and Paul Haggis were present. And why were they here? Because this isn't the People's Choice Awards, The MTV Awards, or even The Grammys. It's the Oscars. That have REAL stars and REAL talents. And that's what makes the show so amazing.

Marion Cottiard, Tilda Swinton, and The Bourne Identity all had huge upset wins last night. I didn't see La Vie En Rose, but I love that the Academy went with Marion as their Best Actress. It would have been easy to pick Julie Christie or Ellen Page, but they didn't. They went with a dark horse and her acceptance speech was heartfelt. Tilda Swinton could have easily lost. Amy Ryan, Cate Blanchett, and Ruby Dee were all deserving (another reason the show was awesome), but it went to Swinton, who was so awesome in Michael Clayton (who was the star of that?). And then there is The Bourne Ultimatum. Here is a movie that everyone loves and guess what? It won three Oscars!!! So please don't say that movies nobody has heard of win Academy Awards because they do.

The greatest part of the night though happened with Best Original Song. Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova won for their amazing song "Falling Slowly." Glen's speech was so impassioned and inspiring and it gave hope to any wanna be filmmaker/writer/musician who has ever recited their Oscar Speech, alone in front of a mirror (mine thanks Matt and Ben for inspiring me to write). Unfortunately, the music began and we never got to hearf from Marketa. The group of us that watched the show together was genuinely disappointed to not hear her speak. My sister was still reeling when the show returned from break. Then, something wonderful happened.

Jon Stewart, in a clearly unscripted moment, brought Marketa back out to give her speech. Three of us in the roomo cried, not so much because of Marketa's words, but because the big time production and its host realized that these two truly real individuals deserved their time amongst the stars. And they got it.

And it's small moments like that that make the Academy Awards still the only legitimate, meaningful awards show.

Yes, the Academy has had it's problems- awarding best picture to Titanic, giving Marty his Oscar for one of his more mediocre films- but for the most part, they get it right. There is no Herbie Hancock winning Album of the Yaer (I tried to come up with an Oscar equivalent of that and couldn't- maybe a great director from the 80s like Robert Altman remaking a bunch of classic films into a series of shorts and peppering those said shorts with big name stars?), no narcissistic rockers dominating the presentations (although Julia Roberts "I love my life" comment the night Denzel won put her in the category of "The Worst People Ever"), no banal and safe wins like the Emmys always have.

Now, on to the argument that no "good" movies get nominated.

The movies that should be there, are there. As with any year, there are going to be snubs. Having only five nominees for each category creates that problem. But really, go year to year, and pretty much every nominee deserves to be there. Can we ALL make an individual case for our own personal binkies? Of course. But even as much as I disliked Juno and Daniel Day Lewis, not even my irrational sense said they should ABSOLUTELY not be there.

The other problem is that the Academy tends to award movies that are not part of the mainstream. However, if they did that, we'd have the People's Choice Awards. And if that were the case, Harry Potter, Pirates of The Caribbean, Transformers, Shrek The Third, and Spider Man 3 would have been the best picture nominees. And even the biggest fanboy couldn't say these were the years best pics, should they?

The lack of commercial success does hurt the Academy Awards and it's telecast. But along with Juno, other best pic noms have made a ton of money. Over the years, box office hits like The Sixth Sense, Raiders of The Lost Ark, E.T., and Star Wars have all been nominated for Best Picture. All of this leads me to my next point.

For whatever reason (The stupidity of people? Poor Marketing? Too realistic? Too downbeat? Too... Intelligent?), many people have missed great movies when they run in the theaters. LA Confidential made five million it's opening weekend. Fargo made twenty four million total. And I'm sure you know a movie called The Shawshank Redemption. It made less than ten million dollars at the box office. In total.

Listen, I get that people like to be entertained. I love Pirates of The Caribbean and the Harry Potter movies. So see whatever you want. I certainly do. But try to see EVERYTHING. Or at the very least, take a flier on something because you might be really impressed. Don't avoid it because it's "dark" because your dark is my real. A lot of you don't want to get a sitter and then pay forty bucks for night out, only to leave the film ready to kill yourself (stay away from 4 Months 3 Weeks and 2 Days if you're not that into that "kill yourself" feeling) and I completely get that. But maybe if you have a free Sunday afternoon and Arizona Cardinals and Detroit Lions just isn't doing it for you, you should take a trip over to the cinema to check out one of these movies that everyone is talking about. Just go in knowing that you are not going to see Johnny Depp do his Keith Richards and that you might (MIGHT!) just actually have to think when you leave the theater.

My point is, we tend to miss great movies, for whatever reason. We will see them when they come out on DVD, but what if we still don't see them? There is so much great film out there and so many people are missing these great films and I just do not understand why anyone would want to miss these films. I guess it's the same thing as people missing great new bands, new books, new television shows, or new anything. But why stick to saying that The Godfather is the best film ever or that "they just don't make movies like they used to," when in fact, they do? Only they make them better.

Now that's it with the film thing. You get a movie rant rest, at least until Harrison rolls into theaters in May.

For now, just go rent Michael Clayton and thank me later. Do it. Now.

Does it look like I'm negotiating this?