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The Spring Equinox is coming nigh. Who were the original April Fools? What is Midsummer? What is the significance of May Day? We get into all that, but some mayn't like the answers. Such as why Easter/Ishtar moves around every year. (its April 8 in 2012).

Hint: it has nothing to do with the Resurrection, not that of Yeshua/Jesus anyway...

2011 Academy Awards Wrap Up

83rd Academy Awards for 2011

by Kevin J. Walker,

Film Critic for The Word NetPaper

Chris Rock when he was hosting once said “no Straight man watches the Academy Awards.” Excuse you! Plenty of we real men wouldn’t miss the annual show, its like our cinema Superbowl.

The 83rd Academy Award presentation Sunday night on ABC didn’t break any ground, offered few surprises, and had a bunch of movies that even diehard film fans hadn’t seen.

Although the Best Picture category was doubled in size to ten entries a couple of years ago, lots of people hadn't seen more than a handful of the nominated films.

"True Grit", “Toy Story 3” and "Inception" had respectable box office, but they were the exceptions. A fave choice for the critical class (not myself among them) was "Social Network" about the origins of Facebook. This was more of the Kramer vs. Kramer, modern topicality business that the Academy wisely ignored.

(People of the future won't believe that we actually made Best Picture of that divorce and abandonment story for the simple fact that lots of people were going through their own such situations at the time. Topicality isn’t everything. “Casablanca” isn’t topical, but it holds up well).

WHO SAW THESE MOVIES?

“Inception” being on the top list was good, especially for a film with art-house qualities that was also popular with the people, with its action within a dream within a dream concept.

But there were films such as "Black Swan", “Winter's Bone” , “The Fighter”, “127 Hours" and "The Kids Are All Right" to round out the listing of Best Picture that few saw. Some were in small venues, and some are still making their way around. Its not unusual to see films nominated that never played in your town, are yet making their way to you, or are already out on DVD.

The awards are showing more adult fare, even as the categories were increased to ten, to allow more marketable movies. Still, did they expect there to be lots of box office for a movie about a nutty ballerina; and a lesbian couple trying to have a child?

“Brokeback Mountain” was supposedly voted down against “Crash” because Hollywood feared the backlash of a moviegoing public who didn’t want a story about cowboy sodomites put in their faces as Best Picture.

The night was devoid of suspense or controversy, unless you want to count Leo’s release of the F-word during her acceptance speech. The network censors at ABC pushed the button on her, but lip readers could see what she said easily.

The Academy Awards broadcast experimented with their formula, turning over the duties to two young hip hosts who were also actors instead of seasoned comedians. Bet they won’t do that again.

Sometimes they need to leave well enough alone. They tinkered with the host concept, for the main part. Instead of using a veteran comedian with some decades behind them and able to think quick on their feet during a live broadcast, they tried to go for a younger demographic. Thusly did they employ Anne Hathaway and James Franco.

Franco, nominated for best actor in 127 hours" as a hiker who had to cut his own arm off to save his life and get back to civilization -- looked like a deer in the headlights to the degree that some viewers thought he was on something, while Hathaway was overly effervescent for some tastes.

Some movies were shut out that were expecting better treatment. Chief amongst these was the “True Grit” remake, up for Best Picture, Supporting Actress, and Actor, and some technical ones such as Editing among its 10 nominations. The makers of “True Grit” went hone empty-handed, no speeches for them.

Some wags suggested the voters were mad at Jeff Bridges because of “Tron 2,” and decided to take it out on him. This was much as the argument against Eddie Murphy’s his Best Supporting Actor nomination for James Thunder Early in “Dreamgirls” was doomed because of criticism for his buffoonish anti-black woman film “Norbit” of the same year, where he donned seventy pounds of latex, ala the Klumps. And “Big Mammas.”

‘KEVIE AWARDS’ FOR OVERLOOKED MOVIES?

There will be more on overlooked films when I write about the Kevie Awards. They are for worthy but overlooked movies such as the ensemble cast of “For Coloured Girls”, Robin Hood”, “RED”, “Takers”)” and even Denzel Washington’s runaway train thriller “Unstoppable,” even though it was up for a Sound award.

“Waiting for Superman” is a Kevie Awards lister of overlooked films because it wasn’t even nominated for the Best Documentary category. Politics perhaps, because of its anti-public school stance, as the makers followed some families as a lottery would determine their educational fate.

This was from the same team mind you that brought us Al Gore’s flawed opus on Global Warming “An Inconvenient Truth,”. That piece of Globaloney seems so quaint now, with the revelations of faked and suppressed data. And cities buried under winter snow.

RED CARPET REPORT: SWAGGER, AND SWAG

Gwenneth Paltrow was up for a sorta Academy award for her Best Original nominated song “”Coming Home” from “Country Strong”. She plays a CW singer on a comeback tour. Outside in the pre-Oscar arrivals and interviews, the quite good singer from “Duets” about touring karaoke singers was asked by Robin Roberts who would be the number one person she’d like to sing with?

“Jay-Zee” piped Paltrow, one of the whitest girls on the planet.

“I’m his number one fan!”

“Iron Man 2’s” Pepper Potts is played by Paltrow, but she of the five-inch high heels wasn’t nominated for that, and the film was only up for technical awards. But you better believe here will still be an “Iron Man 3,” and Four and Five…

“Has Nikki Minaj arrived yet?” asked a straight man one of our group at the Oscar Night viewing party. We had a projectorized 8-foot diagonal thing going on, the better to see the thick Trinidadian rap singer/style and trend setters. But no joy for we menfolk during the broadcasts from what I saw, and I was looking!

The women wore calf-length gowns that were evocative of Grecian influence, with one shoulder a favored style for many. The hair was swept up in buns on quite a few of the A-listers, much as Katherine Heigl does with hers. This draws attention to a graceful neck and shoulders, as well as the expensive jewelry that is leant out for the occasion.

Necklaces, earrings and brooches can be seen by a worldwide audience of about one billion people. And that’s not even counting all the people from India who watched last year when “Slumdog Millionaire” took Best Picture.

Designers along with manufacturers of smart phones and what have you readily donate for the swag bags for the attendees. This year they were said to cost about $92,000 if bought. The IRS is making them declare the gifts now.

SOME OSCAR CAPSULES

Natalie Portman won Best Actress for “Black Swan.” The already thin Portman lost 20 pounds to become the spiraling downward ballerina who is pushing herself a bit too hard.

Portman was but a child when she first came to notice. This was before Queen Amidala in the first three “Star Wars” epics when she was befriended by Jean Reno’s top assassin in NYC after her family was wiped out by Gary Oldman’s crooked officer in “The Professional.”

Now she’s playing romantic and comic roles in such as “No Strings Attached” with Ashton Kutcher; and earlier in the Wal-Mart based “Where the Heart is.”

There were the expected technical awards for big budget action films such as “Inception,” as expected. Visual, Sound efx awards are handed out as consolation prizes when movies are up against a juggernaut film, so they break them off a li’l taste with smaller awards.

THE FIGHTER – Amy Adams, Mark Wahlberg, Melissa Leo, Christian Bale

Nominations: Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Supporting Actress X2; Supporting Actor, Film Editing

Melissa Leo won best supporting for “The Fighter,” and she joined Christian Bale as he took the male Best Supporting actor for his role as the trainer.

Leo as the tough family patriarch was up against co-star Amy Adams in “The Fighter” about blue collar boxers and a struggling family which also stars Mark Wahlberg.

Bale the “Dark Knight” actor was John Connor in the most excellent “Terminator 4: Salvation,” and was the villain in “Shaft 2000.” Bale beat out Jeremy Renner for his portrayal of an inveterate career criminal in “The Town.”

“THE TOWN” – Jeremy Renner, Ben Affleck

Nominated: Best Supporting Actor

A heist flick combined with a story of conflicted love was written acted and directed by real Bostonian Ben Affleck.

Renner’s the childhood pal of team leader Affleck, but Renner’s short temper trigger makes for a complicated life. Even more so when he takes a hostage that Affleck falls for when he has to get close to her to find out what the Feds know of his krewe and their upcoming jobs, while Renner ominously thinks she’s a potential problem that needs to be “taken care of.”

Renner won Best Actor last year for his gung-ho bomb expert in “The Hurt Locker.” He plays Hawkeye in the upcoming Marvel spectacular “The Avengers.”

Affleck wrote the movie his brother starred in “Gone Baby Gone,” also about the blue collar underbelly of the Boston area. Renner starred in the ABC short series cop drama “The Unusuals” with Harvey Keitel, and whenever he’s in a movie that’s usually a good sign. Doubt me? My evidence: “Pulp Fiction”; “U-571”; “Point of No Return,” as well as a Spike Lee Joint or two.

“The Town” was an excellent film, and well made. But the best heist film this year wasn’t even nominated. That would be “Takers,” an ensemble film about a team that takes down high value targets, not just bags of loot from armoured cars as in “The Town.”

INCEPTION – Leonardo DiCaprio, Marie Cotillard, Michael Caine

Nominated: Best Picture, Original Screenplay, Original Score, Art Direction, Visual Effects, Sound editing, Sound Mixing, Cinematography

“Inception” hits you between the eyes just like when you saw “The Matrix” for the first time. You ask yourself “Did I just see that?… What’s going on?”

In the film DiCaprio leads a team of techie operatives who go into people’s dreams and extract information for high priced clients of multinationals; sorta industrial espionage meets “DreamScape.”

This new client has a different mission for them should they decide to accept it: he wants a particular nagging notion put into the head of a global competitor.

“The world needs him to change his mind” says the Japanese industrialist of his rival. And he’s right. The worlds they make in their dreams are not bound by the laws of physics overmuch, which makes for some spectacular scenes, especially the many battles as the team is set upon by the subjects’ subconscious who know there’s been an intrusion.

But “Inception” is a movie that deals with weighty philosophical issues of selfhood, free will, and reality versus what we’d like things to be. I saw it a good four times before it left the theatres, which is how I watch current films, and you should, too. Which reminds me, I’m going to see “Unstoppable” a couple more times at the Budget before it leaves for DVD.

“Inception” was that uncommon art house film that broke into the mainstream because of its compelling storyline, acting, and action, so it had wide appeal. This is why American movies are sought after overseas, even in nations that condemn us out of one side of their mouths while they load the DVD player with Hollywood releases. This is also why so many titles have the word “American” -- its like a Good Housekeeping seal for the foreign buyer.

“Inception” was a cerebral film with an ensemble cast of marketable internationals that includes Ellen Page, and found a ready audience under the direction of Christopher Nolan, he of the new Batman movies. How far we have come since some complained that “Mission Impossible” was confusing because IMF super agent Ethan Hunt used too many disguises.

ALICE IN WONDERLAND – Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway

Nominations: Art Direction, Visual EFX, Costume Design

“Alice in Wonderland” drew first blood on the broadcast portion of the show for Best Set Design. This was a Tim Burton film, and he’s known for that, after “Pee Wee Herman’s Big Adventure” and “Beetlejuice.”

The delightful film with lots of grrrl power has the now teenaged Alice, one of the original Sheroes, as a shape/size shifting lost girl who returns to become the champion warrior of Underland (its real name – Alice was a youngster when she first went down the hatch) as she takes up arms against Helena Bonham Carter’s tyrannical Red Queen and her Jabberwocky. Jabberwocky?

Yes, the movie freely brings in elements of Lewis Carroll’s other works – “Jabberwocky” is a Nonsense Poem that also yielded a spin-off in the movie “The Last Mimsy” from its lines, and a terrifying short science fiction story. “Alice” even throws in a li’l Hip Hop dancing. You’ll just have to see it. If you need an excuse when you order it just say “its for the children.”

HEREAFTER – Matt Damon

Nominated: Best Visual Effects

The tech awards are where you’ll find your “Harry Potter”, “Tron: Legacy”; “How to Train Your Dragon,” and so forth. “Hereafter” was in this category as well. This was a hard film to categorize. Its basic story is about a former seer who gave it all up for a normal life.

Matt Damon of the upcoming “Adjustment Bureau” is the lead who had books, TV appearances, and lots of money from desperate people who would pay him to get in contact with their dear departed. His story also involves his chance at life satisfaction and true love, with someone who understands him.

There is a poignant part of “Hereafter” where Damon is courting a woman from his cooking class. She is sweet and appealing onscreen, and they are in the buildup phase; you know, being all super nice and trying to put on their best face for the other. Of course in time that will change, but in the beginning its all so exhilarating.

“Hereafter” is put together in a sorta Convergent plot style, where there are seemingly unconnected elements that we know have some thread that will become clear, like “Crash.”

The award “Hereafter” was up for involves the spectacular sequence of the tsunami in the south Pacific a few years ago. The daytime destruction of the resort area; people being tossed around, light poles snapping, cars being pushed backwards; the wires whipsawing through the screaming people; victims trapped under debris, and looking helplessly up through the blue water at the sun as people and parts of buildings tumble about.

It is a gripping sequence that shows up a small glimpse of what they went through. SPFX-- special effects nominees have come a long way since the Genesis terraforming sequence won for “Star Trek 2: Wrath of Khan.”

Damon’s search for love against the odds are a similar part of the new thriller “Adjustment Bureau” with Emily Blunt from “Gulliver’s Travels.

THE KING’S SPEECH – Helena Bonham Carter, Guy Pearce, Geoffrey Roush, Colin Firth

Nominations: Best Picture, Cinematography, Costume Design, Sound Mixing, Art Direction, Film Editing; Actor, Supporting Actress, Director

“The King’s Speech” has gained audiences because of the talk, which is remarkable and surprising to its makers for a $15 million film with no car chases or explosions.

It’s a historical drama set in the days leading up to W.W.II when a stuttering princeling is safe in obscurity and content to do princely things like ride horses and pick out whatever castle to move into for the season, is thrust into the glare of publicity when his brother abruptly abdicates the throne. They made a couple of movies about that too, since he did it for love.

Now the former Price Albert played by Colin Firth has to make radio speeches to inspire a nation to prepare to fight against an increasingly belligerent Adolph Hitler. The king’s speech therapist, played by Geoffrey Roush (“Shine” winner) has to prepare him to deliver a nationally broadcast speech, a terrifying prospect to the stuttering new King Albert of the British Crown. --kjw, netitor of the NetPaper