Truth twenty-four times a second: 2007 Academy Awards

I'm not sure what the situation is most years, but this year there is precious little suspense for most of the major awards. Helen Mirren won literally every film critics society award for Best Actress, as did Forrest Whitaker for Best Actor, almost (they both won tonight). According to the Hollywood Stock Exchange, Martin Scorcese was a lock for Director going in and going out, as was Jennifer Hudson for Supporting Actress (she won). Alan Arkin for Supporting Actor was a darkhorse winner, though this is the "Jack Palance" category. Apparently, Norbit may have actually killed Eddie Murphy's chances, as many critics guessed. Best film was predicted to be a two-horse race between The Departed and Little Miss Sunshine, with Departed, the favorite, winning.

Overall, I'm a bit disappointed in the best picture nominees. I liked both of the favorites, but neither struck me as best film of the year. I can only hope that Children of Men, Last King of Scotland, The Prestige, or maybe The Queen are better (sure Babel and United 93 may be better as well, but both have been described as being so godawfully depressing that I can't say that I'm in a rush to see either).

Further thoughts: African Americans have previously won 2 Supporting Actress awards (Hattie McDaniel in 1939 for Gone with the Wind, and Whoopi Goldberg in 1990 for Ghost), one for Best Actress (Halle Berry in 2001 for Monster's Ball), four for Supporting Actor (Louis Gossett, Jr. for Officer and a Gentleman in 1982, Denzel Washington for Glory in 1989, Cuba Gooding Jr. for Jerry Maguire in 1996, Morgan Freeman for Million Dollar baby in 2004), and three for Best Actor before tonight (Sidney Poitier for Lilies of the Field in 1963, Denzel for Training Day in 2001, and Jamie Foxx for Ray in 2004). Tonight's two awards add to that total by 20%, and make the third time in six years that Black actors and actresses received multiple awards in a given year, but the first time it happened when the host wasn't black (Whoopi for 2001, Chris Rock for 2004).

Overall, the quality of films this year was good, but concentrated amongst Foreign films and to a lesser extent independent films. This is something of a pattern. Of the IMDB top 100 rated films, 18 have been made since 2000. Three are Lord of The Rings, 5 are foreign (City of God, which was simply amazing, highest among them, and the only non-LotR film since 2000 in the top 20). That leaves ten from America in the past 7 years: Memento (deserves it), Eternal Sunshine (?!?!?), The Pianist (haven't seen it, but seems legit), Requiem for a dream (good, but should be lower), Hotel Rwanda (haven't seen it, seems right), Sin City (?!?), The Departed (good, but should be lower), Million Dollar Baby (haven't seen it), Batman Begins (?!?!?!), and Kill Bill 1 (?!?). Brokeback Mountain should have made that list, but overall, I can't say it reflects all that well on the Hollywood system, nor to a lesser extent on IMDB (Eternal Sunshine as #39, Sin City as the 68th best movie ever, and Batman Begins at #90. Seriously, WTF?). Given the budgets out there, I'd expect more from the studios. I'll note that there is a systematic bias at play: IMDB penalizes the overall ratings of movies with less than 25,000 votes, so independent films don't rank as highly as they would otherwise. Little Miss Sunshine loses 100 spots under this system from #110 to #202, for instance. Still the pattern seems to be cyclical, as the Top 20 heavily favors the 1950's (Seven Samurai, Rear Window, Twelve Angry men), the 1970's (Godfathers 1 and 2, Cucckoo's Nest, Star Wars), and 90's (Shawshank, Schindler, Pulp fiction, Usual Suspects, Goodfellas). Hopefully, around 2010, Hollywood will rebound, or maybe modern technology will finally make the studio system obsolete.