Quirkyalone at the Oscars

Share and Enjoy:
  • Facebook
  • TwitThis
  • Share:
4

Feb 20, 2009 - Written by Sasha Cagen  |  Filed under: Pop Culture

Who are you rooting for Sunday night at the Oscars? Do you see any quirkyalone heros or storylines in the mix? Happy-Go-Lucky is nominated for best screenplay; earlier, I called it the must-see quirkyalone movie of 2008. So I’m definitely rooting for Poppy and Happy-Go-Lucky in the writing category. Rachel Getting Married is pure art. It’s about marriage, but maybe it’s a quirkytogether marriage. It is a quirky wedding weekend, almost unbelievably multicultural, complete with such revealing moments, I felt like a fly on the wall as I watched. I rarely get that feeling from movies. They’re usually so formulaic and staged.

In other technology news, here’s a neat app that lets you follow everyone’s live tweets on the Oscars. Add your quirkyalone-Oscar observations below. Tweet! Tweet!

Related posts:

  1. The Self-Help Oscars

4 Responses to “Quirkyalone at the Oscars”

  1. chole

    Feb 20, 2009

    Does the Oscar deserve our respect and attention?

    These are the hard facts:

    http://www.film.com/features/story/dark-knight-snub-unforgivable-because/25665649

    http://www.marketwatch.com/video/asset/oscars-losing-their-appeal/A4F3382E-9528-40F9-81B3-8C0754623FA6

    Reply to this comment
  2. Onely

    Onely

    Feb 20, 2009

    Like chole, I have some issues with the Oscars. Although Happy Go Lucky sounds like it deserves some acclaim (I haven’t seen it), most of the Oscar winners seem to be huge-budget films. If you have a jillion dollars to put towards makeup, special effects, and a luxury trailer for your screenwriters, why is it so impressive if you turn out a good movie? The people who should be rewarded are the ones who turn out good movies on *low* budgets (ie. Blair Witch). They are not rewarded enough.

    But the final Oscar straw for me was Slum Dog Millionaire. When they adapted it from the book, they changed the main female character’s entire role in the story. In the book, she evolves from an abused girl into a tough lawyer who saves the hero at the end of the book. There’s not a SIGN of that in the movie. Instead, Latika is just a prop to move along the male-driven plot. I was disgusted and vented about it here: http://onely.org/2009/02/11/sexist-slumdog-millionaire/

    -Christina

    Reply to this comment
  3. Sasha Cagen

    admin

    Feb 21, 2009

    Hi Christina and Chole–

    I can’t say I am a huge fan of the Oscars, or that the movies nominated for best picture are my favorite, but this year more than others I’m happy to engage in a frivolous distraction.

    Re: Slumdog Millionaire. It’s amazing, because I got your comment on my iphone, Christina, 20 minutes before I stepped into a local theater to watch the movie. It was impossible to not let your observation on the differences between Book Latika and Movie Latika influence my experience of the movie. In general, I thought Slumdog Millionaire was an odd combination of art-school grit with Hollywood formula. The movie would have been much more satisfying if Latika’s character had been more developed. I’ll have to check out the book Q&A. IT *is* really distressing that even with a female co-director the female lead’s storyline got stripped away to “pretty girl.” Definitely shouldn’t win Best Picture–it’s just not fully realized!

    Go see Happy-go-lucky or Rachel Getting Married for counterpoints. Those are super realized, fully fleshed out female characters . . .

    Reply to this comment

  4. Rachel

    Feb 21, 2009

    For the life of me, I do NOT get the hype around Rachel Getting Married. For one thing, I was motion sick after about twenty minutes–my friend got so nauseous from the hand held that he had to walk out! By the end, I wished I had gone with him. Shooting techniques aside, I felt like I was trapped at a horrible wedding with an awful, obnoxious family that I had no sympathy or concern for. I felt like the multiculturalism was forced and at times almost offensive: “Lets all wear Saris!” Sure, it’s very beloved community–but still, not very realistic, for better or for worse. Anne Hathaway’s performance was fair, but I think to call her character fully fleshed out is a stretch. Personally, I felt like she was more of a caricature.

    Reply to this comment

Leave a Reply