Thursday, February 23, 2012

The Descendants

When this blog debuted in December of 2004, the first entry I posted was a tribute to film director Alexander Payne, an Omaha native who makes nuanced, well-observed, and humanist films, enlivened by wit and vulgarity. His movies have always felt personal to me. The first three, "Citizen Ruth," "Election," and "About Schmidt," took place just across the state line here in Iowa, and where about people and places I knew. Then the Oscar-winning "Sideways," the film whose prospects I was boosting online back in '04, moved in setting to California's Santa Barbara County, where my dad's brother and his family coincidentally live.

Seven long years later, Payne's follow-up to "Sideways," "The Descendants," is up for Best Picture, and thought by many to be the money favorite. This one felt personal too as it has to do with a man (George Clooney) having to decide the future of a plot of land that's been in his family for generations, a decision not unlike one the Moeller cousins will have to make some day.

I'm pulling for some big "Descendants" victories on Sunday night, for best picture, actor, screenplay, director, whatever else it's up for. You've probably heard a vile rumbling that the picture panders to Academy voters. There's a tearjerker of a scene involving Clooney near the end that's been accused of Oscar-stroking. If you've seen the film, however, you have to admit this is hooey. The movies that pander are uplifting, inspirational-- like that crap "Million Dollar Baby." They play like an epic. The characters are more endearing, less boring, more superhuman than human. If a viewer was caught up in the emotion of "The Descendants," it's because it was written and performed as small, specific, and real.

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The Oscars telecast will suck this year, Billy Crystal or not. I have nothing against Crystal (except for his love for the Yankees). I loved the guy as a teenager, but now have little interest in his stage and screen work even from that time period. The show will suck, as it almost always does, because the audience in the Kodak Theater sucks. For a comedian at this point, playing this house of stiffs has to be considered on par with playing the White House Correspondents Dinner. Over two decades, the two best broadcasts were the ones hosted by David Letterman (in '95) and Chris Rock (in '05) because those two entertainers made the most direct attempts at puncturing the pomposity and self-congratulation of the setting. Want a good show? Bring back one of these two, or give us Ricky Gervais or Sacha Baron Cohen. Or Louis C.K. Or Larry David. Or Donald Glover.

posted by CM @ 7:27 PM

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