Worlds collide

Today is a big day for both my major passions - the State of the Union address is tonight and this morning the Academy Awards nominations were announced. Plus the Scooter Libby trial is getting started. And World Economic Forum (annual globalization conference) starts this weekend in Davos, Switzerland (it's 30th anniversary, the world leaders and representatives from major corporations who attend comprise 1/4 of the world's GDP, Topic #1 - global warming!) And the Sundance Film Festival is running all week. I don't know which channel to watch (CNN or the E network!) So much important news in the areas that interest me most!

Academy Awards

There's some very good news - Ryan Gosling got an actor slot for a completely unseen performance in Half Nelson (a movie I've been hearing about for many months), which will deservedly raise the profile of both him and the film. A few other offbeat performances were also recognized, such as Abigail Breslin in Little Miss Sunshine and Jackie Earl Haley in Little Children, which is always good. (People are fussing about Jack Nicholson being "overlooked" but please, the guy is so high profile, he hardly needs the publicity! He's a great actor, but it's time to give some other performers the recognition.) Three of the five Best Actress slots went to women over 50 - yahoo! Five of the 20 performance slots went to African Americans - yahoo again. But I'm very upset about Dreamgirls - the film got the most total noms, with 8, but was not honored for Best Picture or Best Director. I can think of no plausible explanation other than racism - the Academy loves big musicals - it fell all over itself for Chicago in 2002. I really feel that this is a sign that things haven't changed as much as I thought or even hoped.

The Gruesome Factor

This may be Scorsese's year, and he's so overdue, but I skipped The Departed myself, because my personal gruesome quotient was met (exceeded really) by the many, many other films this year featuring mass graves, torture, machetes, the death of parents, the deaths of children, ball peen hammers, straight razors, the on- and off-screen severing of limbs . . . need I go on? And these are all featured in the prestige films that are currently nominated for Oscars - awards for movies nobody sees (as I've heard them described). I can't recall a year when so many "serious" films were so filled with such murder and mayhem (Children of Men, Pan's Labryinth, Last King of Scotland, Blood Diamond, The Good Shepherd; I haven't seen The Departed or Letter from Iwo Jima or Apocalypto). I'm not sure what to think of this development. Does this have something to do with other film trends, like the prevelance of gory teen fare like Saw and Hostel? Or does this reflect the current state of the world, such as the war in Iraq?