It seems that is recent year, there has been a noticeable lack of passion when it comes down to movies and the awards race. Sure there are a few performances that get people excited here and there, but on the whole, with Best Picture, it is all very blah.
Sure there have been the films in recent years that have captured the imagination, and expanded the limited range that the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences considers to be Best Picture material, but those are very limited.
Sure there have been those films that make us jump up for joy, that make it to the Oscar beauty pagent.
2000 saw
Ang Lee’s martial arts epic “
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” break the foreign film and martial arts barrier in a very big way. And of course from 2001 to 2003 we not only had Peter Jackson’s brilliant fantasy trilogy “The Lord of the Rings”, but we also saw the hyper active musical love story “Moulin Rouge!” and again Ang Lee came to the rescue to bring us the heart breaking gay love story of “Brokeback Mountain”.
This is all wonderful but that is only six films out of thirty five. Something is up with the movie world.
Sure we can blame conservative Oscar voters, and smaller films getting crap distribution, but is that really all there is to it?
Is convention celebrated so freely, or is it just forced upon us?
Well there is a president in the white house who can barely work a speak-n-spell, and leans more to the K.K.K. side of thinking than is comfortable, and this may explain why films that make us question power (governmental, religious, racial, media even sexual) are few and far between in the main stream.
Then again in the 1970’s Nixon and Ford were both conservative republican presidents, and the Vietnam war was happening, and the movies being celebrated were worth getting sticky white love juice in your pants for. We had “M*A*S*H”, “A Clockwork Orange”, “Deliverance”, “Sounder”, “The Exorcist”, “American Graffiti”, “The Conversation”, “Jaws”, “Network”, “Taxi Driver”, “All the Presidents Men”, “Star Wars”, “The Deer Hunter”, “Apocalypse Now” and many others.
What a great list of movies, from a great decade. They posed questions, excited the imagination and some even acted as a form of protest to the way things were. What has happened? Where is the edge today? Where are all the passionate film makers?
Are people so afraid of practicing freedom of speech these days that they silence themselves?
Sure, we all know that freedom of speech is just a term people like to throw about. When you use it against the conservative masses you get booed, censored, become a public pariah and if you are a singer, you can get your
CD’s steam rolled over. Some freedom.
We are living in scary times, and cinema/TV is our only escape from it.
Yet that is controlled by the
MPAA, a group of conservative puppets who are watch dogs fighting sex (gay and straight) and nudity in case they corrupt Americas children. Ha!! I doubt the HUGE gun control problem has much to do with Heath Ledger giving Jake Gyllenhaal the ole spit and stick.
How sad is it that conservative politics/greed/and corruption have such a far reach that it has ensnared art in its grasp. If we cannot express ourselves through the arts anymore then we are nothing more than the plot outline in 2002’s “
Equilibrium”.
”In a futuristic world, a strict regime has eliminated war by suppressing emotions: books, art and music are strictly forbidden and feeling is a crime punishable by death.”A bit extreme, but you get the picture. I know I may seem a tad too preachy, touching on a lot of major social problems to explain why the silly Oscar race has seemed so boring as of late, but there is a truth to it all.
So far, all we have in mainstream media is
Michael Moore flying the flag for freedom of speech.
We need more of him.
We need more filmmakers out there to get a dialogue going on the social, political and economic injustices in the world, and not just with documentaries.
Make things interesting, challenge yourselves and the world will be a better place. Make me passionate about the movies and not just the performances.
Ok, I own all six seasons of “Sex and the City” and have probably watched then from beginning to end about four times, I loved this show so much. I can see how some people felt it was unrealistic, but it was a TV show, and it was supposed to be a fantasy. How people did not get that is beyond me.
Now I am sure when I get around to seeing the movie, I will be impressed. Mimicry is an impressive art form for me, hence why I loved "Little Voice" (watch that clip!!), but I in particular need more. 
”Tabu's Ashima, though, is the film's most extraordinary performance and one of the great acting jobs of the year so far. With incredible subtlety, Tabu ages her character from period to period, carving character without dialogue, playing the scenes as much between the lines as through them.” - Chicago Tribune
”So well does Penn capture the callowness of youth that I felt annoyed at the character as I watched him. It's a terrific performance.”- Chicago Tribune
Kate Nash has been called a Lily Allen rehash, but I like her so much better. Where Lily sounded dull and boring, like a drunk singing high pitched in church, Kate has some verve behind her voice. Able to sell a song with humor and zest, and the song writing is much stronger. Singing is about telling a story, so vocal performance is important to me regardless of the quality of the voice. Here is "Foundations". ”You'll go along with it then drop it and humiliate me in front of our friends. Then I'll use that voice that you find annoyin' and say something like "yeah, intelligent input, darlin', why don't you just have another beer then?"”
From her fourth studio album ”Big”, Macy Gray returns to form. Gone are the sleek studio productions, and back to a more bluesy, soul juke joint feel. And Macy's signature voice is still there and still as intoxicating as always. This is the lead off single featuring Nathalie Cole called Finally Made Me Happy. ”Walking through my door bringing jewelry and stacks. You tell me you'll give it all to me if I take you back.
Amy Winehouse – In My Bed This is a track taken from her first album ”Frank”. Now that she has become HUGE, I wanted to take a look back at what she was doing before we all started chanting “No, No, No” like we were hip. This is like Jill Scott meets Portishead, proving that Amy is suited to all ranges of music. Very trip hop, and very very sexy. ”oh, its you again listen this isnt a reunion, so sorry if i turn my head. Yours is a familliar face, but that dont make your place safe in my bed my bed my bed”
…But I kill you dead for not giving me my Oscar!
So, I have totally been getting abuse from this scary woman called Hannah Greene about a certain blog post I did about Angelina Jolie (well more about the casting process in Hollywood), which you can read here.
The reason I picked Rosario Dawson is because her heritage is of Puerto Rican, Cuban, African American, Irish and Native American descent and not one ethnicity. Guess Ms. Greene totally missed that point. (I picked Joy Bryant because she has talent and I want her to get a juicy role). Fun thing is, Hanna Greene knows nothing of my ethnic back ground, or where I was bought up, so I told her so that should could have an understanding of where I was coming from.....fell on deaf ears.
WHOA!!! Easy girl!!! So anywhoo, I replied, even linking to the post where I commentated on Halle, but nothing got through. It was like trying to have a discussion with a child who was in the middle of a violent hissy fit. The mind was made up, and no amount of proof was going to get though. 
Oh dear. Hanna Greene is very upset with me. She is now abusing me in odd and incoherent ways.
