The Oscars are tonight. Lost in Translation, Return of the King, Mystic River, Master and Commander, and Seabiscuit are up for Best Picture. I've seen them all, and here's my take.
Aside from bearing a title more fitting for a gay S&M flick, Master and Commander just wasn't an Oscar-quality movie. It's entertaining, but the least worthy nominee of the five. I snuck beers into the movie, which made it more enjoyable. Seabiscuit won more praise from moviegoers than critics, so it won't win. It's definitely worth seeing nonetheless. Unlike most trilogies, the inverse order of The Lord of the Rings' films reveals the series' rankings in terms of quality. The Return of the King is about a half-hour too long, but the purists would certainly be complaining if it didn't stay true to every detail of the book. After watching about eleven hours of essentially one long movie, doesn't the audience deserve an award too?
Lost in Translation is a cool little movie. The film is rumored to be semi-autobiographical, with director Sofia Coppola's marriage break-up with Spike Jonze the backdrop. Supposedly, the superficial husband/photographer is modeled on Jonze, with the beautiful blonde actress he seems to be interested in based on Cameron Diaz. Bill Murray deserves the best actor nod. The soundtrack is really cool, particularly the use of The Jesus and Mary Chain's Just Like Honey at the film's close.
Mystic River is the best of the bunch, and not just because the real Mystic river flowed at the end of the street where I grew up. Everyone is talking about Sean Penn, but for me Tim Robbins' understated performance stole the show. Robbins' two friends leave him high and dry early in life, and then re-enact their performance in adulthood. On one level, Mystic River is a garden variety thriller. On another level, it is a film about the true meaning of manhood, the legal authorities turning a blind eye toward the priesthood's molestation scandal, and the debts owed to children from those responsible for them. Because I'm too much of a rube to figure all this out on my own, my wife had to point out many of the movie's subtleties. From the discomforting scene laced with sexual undertones between Sean Penn and his daughter to the abduction of the adolescent Robbins by a priest and a man flashing a phony badge (juxtaposed with Penn's cross tattoo and Bacon's law enforcement role later in life), there's a lot to talk about by the time the credits roll.
I spoke to a mostly conservative crowd of about 70 today at Gettysburg College. This lecture marks the first time that I tested out new material for the speech that will support my new book due to hit stores in September.
My speech fell between talks by two figures on the right that I greatly admire: Professor Paul Gottfried of Elizabethtown College and Texas Congressman Ron Paul. Other lectures at the Gettysburg Conservative Conference put on by the school's College Republicans focused on the Second Amendment and judicial tyranny. Despite redistricting placing him in the least Republican district of all incumbant Texas Republican House members, Congressman Paul reported that he has no opponent this Fall. This is good news to authentic conservatives and bad news to phonies and liberals.
My upcoming travels to college campuses include lectures at Gettysburg College (PA) on February 28, Canisius College (NY) on March 29, Wesley College (DE) on March 31, and SUNY-Cortland (NY) on April 3. The events include a post-lecture book-signing, and are usually free and open to the public. Campus lectures are usually exciting, but I can't guarantee that book-burners or administrators looking to ban me will show up to every event.
The Hollywood blacklist returns. The New York Times reported on Thursday that the heads of several major studios would avoid working with Mel Gibson in the future because of his controversial movie, The Passion of the Christ. The piece reported that Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen of Dreamworks, neither of whom has seen the film, are angry about it nonetheless. "I won't hire him," the chairman of a major studio anonynously told the Times. "I won't support anything he's part of."
Hollywood can tolerate Victor Salva, a convicted child molestor, Roman Polanski, the predatory paramour of a (barely) teenage girl, and Woody Allen, who dates a woman who for all purposes viewed the talented actor/director/writer as her father. What many in Hollywood can't seem to tolerate is an outspoken Christian, even one who has won Academy Awards and has been among Tinseltown's biggest box-office draws for more than two decades. "Open-minded" Hollywood has to draw the line somewhere, I suppose.
Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ has been out for more than twenty-four hours, and amazingly, no pograms have taken place yet as a result of the movie.
