Another Oscars ceremony has come and gone, leaving ugly dresses and mild controversy in its wake. While the sometimes over-extended telecast has often been compared to a marathon, during our discussion of the events we found some other sports-related metaphors.
Best Director: While Tom Hooper was technically the front-runner for the award, many were still hoping that David Fincher would pull off the victory, which would have been both a deserved win and a consolation prize of sorts for not winning Best Picture.
The argument has been that The King’s Speech is a fairly easy movie to direct. Its plot is a straight-forward one, not unlike The Karate Kid. A person has a problem, and a lovable mentor helps them overcome said problem. Sure, one uses crane kicks while the other uses profanity, but in the end they are both about mentor/mentee relationships that progress to actual friendships.
It also stars two incredibly talented actors who have been great in many films. Meanwhile, The Social Network features a cast of relative newbies, all of whom give incredible performances. Years from now we might learn that all of the actors in The Social Network are just as fantastic no matter whom is directing them, but for now at least, this seems to be the more impressive feat.
But perhaps Tom Hooper can best be compared to Phil Jackson, who is often criticized by saying that it is easy to win when you have the best player in basketball. However, many coaches have not won with the best player, so it’s not as simple as that. Likewise, many directors have made terrible films full of great actors.
Phil Jackson could never successfully coach the Oklahoma City Thunder, and Tom Hooper could never direct The Social Network. But this does not mean they are not talented. They know what they are good at and stay in that arena.
And yes, like you, I now want to see Kobe and Colin Firth play a pick-up game.
Hugh Jackman: Certainly it’s not just us that thought Mr. Jackman was getting much more attention than necessary? We have nothing against him, and in fact quite enjoy him, but he was being featured as the “front row” guy, being pushed on us in the same way professional wrestling spotlights a guy it wants the crowd to like.
He was essentially taking over the Jack Nicholson role, but he is no Jack Nicholson. Jack has apparently decided he has better things to do than attend the Oscars. (And considering that he is Jack Nicholson, he most likely does have better things to do. Things that you can not even imagine.) They need someone else to bounce jokes off of, and for some reason, they’ve settled on Jackman, at least for this year.
Our only theory is that, as a former host, he was given such a prominent seat in case he needed to be tagged in to replace Franco or Hathaway. Having him on hand, along with Billy Crystal, would allow the producers to call in emergency reserves.
Frankly, it would have been awesome if Jackman had attacked Franco with a chair and taken over his spot. I’m not sure James would have even noticed.
Apparently Phil couldn’t coach the Lakers to another championship… Man that was brutal!