Doubts about Oscar madness

Well it sure has been a while, folks! Much has happened in the world since I last blogged, and almost none of it has anything to do with me. Today, though, I want to talk about the Oscars!

Though I did not watch or even realize they were going on (this weekend was dedicated to watching season one of Dexter in one go, and crawling into fetal position for hours as a result), I just saw on rogerebert.com that Slumdog Millionaire "swept" and took the prize for Best Picture. I saw this movie, and was a little surprised it won in such a way as it has crazy non-Oscar content such as languages other than English, lead characters and situations in a completely different country, and no big sweeping deep meaning for America like Forrest Gump or something.

I checked the list of nominees and am now less surprised as the other nominees don't look amazing--David Fincher winning Best Picture, yeah right. But upon reflection, what Slumdog Millionaire had that was essential was exactly what bothered me when I saw it--a big, happy Hollywood(or in this case Bollywood) ending.

The whole movie is a series of unfortunate events in the life of an Indian kid that probably understates by a good margin the reality of living in a poor country. But overall it feels real and pretty uncompromising about living in the streets--the kid's brother gradually becomes a gangster out of desperation in an entirely believable way. Then all of a sudden, somebody decided it would be cool to win an Oscar, so true love emerges out of nowhere and everyone starts dancing at the end. And yes I realize the terrible song-and-dance number at the end is an homage to Bollywood and the choice of ending is part of that, but the rest of the movie is nothing like that whatsoever and it's very jarring. I walked out feeling nothing where an hour earlier I was feeling involved and stimulated.

A week ago I saw a film entirely on the opposite end of the spectrum, with an ending that adds a huge layer to the entire movie without taking anything away. Plus, it makes complete sense. Maybe the Academy voters had trouble with a sugar-free ending that provokes thought because Doubt was not even nominated for Best Picture. I suppose people will always choose sweetness over tragedy or even mild ambivalence and ambiguity.

I had to push my friend to see Doubt over some silly French romantic comedy--yes, I was with a girl. I know it's better to choose light fare for a casual outing, but I simply don't see the point of denting my tiny student budget for two hours that tell me nothing about life or anything and probably won't even make me laugh. Seems pointless, when there are so many amazing movies I've never seen that I can just download for free.

No, this Meryl Streep flick was not light fare to say the least, but we were never bored and even though the ending closes the story we still talked about it for half an hour afterwards. For me, if a movie gets you to have a real discussion that isn't small talk then it has succeeded.


The point is that movies that win Oscars are like McDonald's. They're the easy way out, or the choice when you have no other choice like on the highway with no other food in sight, but you feel slightly disappointed afterwards. Movies like Slumdog may make you 'feel good' while watching them, but I felt much more content when I got home after Doubt.