Oscar Misses the Boat

Once again this morning the Hollywood elite were waiting breathlessly for the Academy Award nominations. As the nods were read it became more and more clear the disconnect between the movie people and rest of America is only growing. It amazes me the that in a year where we've heard nothing but whining about box office totals falling away into the abyss, that this is the collection of movies they come up with for their biggest award show. It seems we haven't hurt their wallets enough when they are so willing honor a set of esoteric films that most of us have never seen or heard of. Brokeback Mountain leads with 8 nods. Most of us have heard of that but only because of the subject matter. Then there's Capote, Good Night and Good Luck, Crash and who could forget Memoirs of the Geisha.

Hey let them honor whatever movies they want. I just don't want to hear them complain that people aren't going to see the films they are holding up to us as the best of the year.

On another note Best Foreign Language picture is a lock for Paradise Now. Remember you hear it here first. This is a film about two suicide bombers preparing to leave their friends and family. The basic message is "Its tough to be a terrorist". Don't believe me?  Here's the synopsis right off Oscar.com:

"Over the course of twenty-seven hours, two young Palestinian men prepare themselves for a suicide bombing mission. For Said and Khaled, everyday life comes to an abrupt end when they are contacted by the guerrilla group to which they both belong and begin the process of taking their leave of family and friends. "

Paradise Now will win as message to us all.

In his book Skywalking, George Lucas says that he once called the Academy Awards "a farce for selling movies".   I used to think he was right. Given what they would be trying to sell I'm not sure the show even aspires to the level of farce anymore. For some it may be down right offensive.