The Hot Button
The Hot Button
THB #25: Gray Is The Loneliest Color
0:00
-7:38

THB #25: Gray Is The Loneliest Color

Award season all too often depresses me.

Not because the movies are bad… though some are. But because so many of the movies are good. Or elements of the movies are great, but the movie, as a whole, doesn’t quite work. Or the movie is really good but it’s just not an “awards” movie.

I have been wrong a few times. More than a few times. I have long said that I always have one movie in every season since the expansion to more than 5 nominees that I just don’t get. Those movies have often been nominated and not won.

Just last night, a friend was pushing me on what I “know” and what I don’t, so I looked it up. In the last 20 years, I have been wrong on Oscar night, on BP, 3 times. All 3 were movies that were underdogs that I thought would be beat by a more traditional choice. They were Parasite, Moonlight, and The Hurt Locker. Ironically, I had been touting Hurt Locker, almost on my own, for 8 months from the time of its showing at TIFF (where it got only one sale offer) through its weak release at the box office. Favorite film of that year. I couldn’t have been happier to be wrong.

I saw what Moonlight was doing to audiences from the very first screening at Telluride and, like others, saw that it was a serious player from then on. (I will always remember people screaming after Mahershala Ali in Mountain Village… an instant rock star whose name they couldn’t pronounce.) I just thought La La Land - a massive commercial success and a favorite of critics until it got slammed relentlessly as somehow “old racist Academy” - would prevail.

And I love Director Bong and Parasite. I just didn’t believe it would win… which is a lesson I should have learned from when Kathryn Bigelow’s sure win as Director ended up powering the Hurt Locker win.

Anyway…

We are now in a time when gray is not a respected color. Black. Or White. Pick. And the entertainment media, for the most part, has chosen to be positive rather than negative… about everything.

I don’t think friends really believe me when I express how depressing it is when I see a highly anticipated film and know it isn’t going anywhere… no matter what the buzz is or has been.

These days, that bar for discomfort is in a crazy place, because of all the happy talk, where if a movie is quite good and maybe even commercial, but it clearly is likely to get a Best Picture nomination with no chance of winning… well, fuck me.

There are some sane publicists, executives, and consultants left in the world. And when they are down off their “I’d really like the new car that bonus will buy” highs, they know full well what is working and what is not. But in the heat of the battle, few of them allow themselves the indulgence of admitting as much. Not in November and December.

The other small death for me - which I understand becomes more personal for those involved with decision-making - is when the marketing (release or awards) is going sideways, and I can see it coming. The worst version of this is when I think the film can actually win something or everything and the marketing is in the way. (There was a case of this last season, but I won’t mention it by name, lest I rip the wound open again. Frustratingly, the campaign moved where I thought it should move, but it was way too late to have the impact it might have had. Argh.)

A friend recently said to me in a conversation that everyone wants to have their ideas confirmed, whether they work or not. What they don’t want is some smart ass to explain how they screwed it up, privately or publicly. (Guilty.)

There are layers to all of it. There is the personal taste hat. There is the film critic hat. There is the industry analyst hat. And there is the hard truth teller hat.

I know that these different perspectives differ in the detail work. And so do some of the people overseeing the films… but more so when the movie clearly works in some way, rather than when it is going to sink to the bottom in a hurry.

For instance, I liked The Revenant. I liked DiCaprio. I liked Tom Hardy. I love Iñárritu. Chivo is undeniable. (Personal taste hat. Critics hat.) I did not think it would work for The Academy membership. (Industry analyst hat. Hard Truth Teller hat.) I was wrong… except that it didn’t win Best Picture.

I liked Spotlight a lot. (Personal taste hat.) But I also knew that it was a not an explosive movie experience. (Critics hat.) I knew that there was a good chunk of The Academy that would feel good about voting for the film (Industry analyst hat.) But I also was sure, from early on, that one of the other films could wrestle the Best Picture Oscar away if it could stick the landing. (Hard Truth Teller hat.)

Bridge of Spies was clearly not good enough, though everyone respects Spielberg. Room was strong, but the focus was on Brie Larson and when the Lenny Abrahamson nomination for director landed, it was a happy shock. Mad Max: Fury Road was just too mad to win, though George Miller is beloved in many camps. Brooklyn was lovely, but not enough… remarkable work getting it where it got. The Big Short landed late, had a hard time getting traction, then surged to nominations, but it was a reach as a winner by February. And The Martian, which was the traditional winner in this group with all the winning pieces, went Comedy at The Globes, emasculating it as a winning contender… never recovered. (And the aforementioned The Revenant.)

Anyway… the point of all this… I adore and respect so many of the players involved with that season and every seasons. I love so much of the work. But after the time of festival launches, the tone grinds into “Do you think we are winning Best Picture or are you going to fuck off?”

There are a couple of movies that I have seen and seen Q&Aed recently that I think are quite good (critic hat), the work within I admire (personal taste hat), that I think will be nominated (industry analyst hat), but I just don’t think are serious threats to win Best Picture. I find myself avoiding repeating that last hard truth. Because I like the work and the people and the movies.

But at those Q&As… “the movie is brilliant… why are you so brilliant… is it hard being so brilliant?” Doesn’t seem to matter if it’s journalists or actors or whomever asking the questions. This is the tone that is desired. That is the tone that dominates. And the well media-trained talent sings their song, never having to do much more than act out their parts.

What I love about film is the gray.

I love filmmakers. I love actors. I love working through the subtext. I love chewing on how things really are processed… most of all with the artists who did the same to get the work done.

This is not what “people” want. They want the HFPA back because they know how to work the HFPA already. They want the same old questions and the same easy answers repeated a million times on social media. They want it all to be McDonald’s because no one really cares that it’s crap or too fatty or too salty because billions have been served and that seems the clearest way to win the day. Take big chances and lose and your reputation is damaged. Take no chances and lose and it’s just another award season.

And when you get those same people outside of the bubble, they want the same things I want. These are smart people. They know good from bad (personal taste may vary). But when they are working, it is just something in their way, keeping them from the safely plowed roads.

So, to all the people whose work I may be insulting this season… yet another season… I’m sorry you feel insulted. Yes, I am not always right. But I am much more often right than wrong. (Insert 17-year-old Phantom of the Opera joke here.)

But I love all of this. I love your work and your clients work. I soak up the passion and admire it so. I don’t love great work in a somewhat broken movie any less than I love great work in the great movie.

A great movie is a magic trick. Very, very few directors hit .500, much less .750 or better. It is, to be sure, harder than hitting a curve ball… or becoming a celebrity… or getting a star on the Walk of Fame.

Respect that. I do. Deeply. Every single time.

Until tomorrow…

0 Comments
The Hot Button
The Hot Button
An inside perspective on the Film/TV/Streaming Industry from a 30-year veteran seeker of truth.