Gary Dretzka
Noah Forrest
Leonard Klady
David Poland
Douglas Pratt
Ray Pride

16 Weeks To Go
Slippin’ And Slidin’

It is, for almost everyone I speak to, one of the oddest award seasons ever.  It’s November 15th.  A year ago, Dreamgirls launched and the season started flopping around.  This year, we are still waiting on Sweeney Todd and Charlie Wilson’s War but, really, nothing has cemented a slot as a nominee, much less gained a foothold as the “frontrunner.”

After Toronto, Atonement and Into The Wild were pretty much anointed… but they haven’t gotten to the next plateau yet.  No Country For Old Men is the movie of the moment… but some people really hate the ending.  Love/Hate relationships with There Will Be Blood are bouncing off screening room walls all over town.  The press is obsessed with Juno, but there is no real sense of how the Academy will see it, other than constant specious comparisons to Little Miss Sunshine.  (The comparisons are not reasonable.  That was a film with three prior Oscar nominees and a hot star in Steve Carell, all of whom gave a point of entry to Academy members.  Juno has no prior nominees and the senior players are the great Alison Janney and Spider-Man’s boss.  This doesn’t mean it can’t be nominated, but if it is, it will be for its merit and not because it fits in the presumed  LMS slot.)

Michael Clayton got kicked in the teeth by box office boo birds early, but is chugging along to $40 million-plus domestic.  Hairspray continues to be poo-pooed, but the only other movie that can compare at the box office is American Gangster. 

The Kite Runner doesn’t have a single name that anyone in the Academy (or SAG) knows… but it does have Oprah.  The Diving Bell & The Butterfly is a artful masterpiece, but it still hasn’t been seen enough by Academy members to judge its potential. 

Phillip Seymour Hoffman has three nomination-friendly performances.  So how do people choose?  And how do those choices change the complexion of the films the performances are in?  Is it the Lumet, which opens with Buck Naked Phil?  Or do you prefer Academic Phil, forced to endure a dying father and a lost sister on top of his own issues in The Savages.  Or do you miss the character-actor Phil, who puts on funny hair and glasses to upstage Tom Hanks?

It’s also an unusual year because so many of these films are so good.  Everyone has personal favorites and films they just don’t like, but if you run down the list of the dozen or so films still in play, it seems like you are going to find almost everyone giving a “thumbs up” (quarter to Roger) to at least two-thirds of the titles.  That is remarkable, really.

I also think The WGA Strike has more than a little to do with the slippery nature of the track this season.  The is a combination of ennui and denial and restlessness and apathy out there.  It doesn’t feel like the week before Thanksgiving out here.  They are building Santa’s House at the Grove and holiday ads are beginning to show up and lights are turning up in municipal bushes, but it was 87 degrees and sweaty in L.A. yesterday and when Starbucks’ red design for the holidays hits your eye, it reminds you of the strike t-shirts and not gingerbread lattes. 

How silly is it to be talking about award season right now?  But on the other hand, how completely appropriate is it to be celebrating the best work of the year from writers and directors and actors and craftspeople, thrilled to remember why we all were drawn to this insanity in the first place?

The Blu-Ray of Ratatouille has been spinning in my PS3 for a week now, a happy and constant companion.  But how I look forward to watching No Country For Old Men a half dozen times… and Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead… and The Savages… and Juno… and Michael Clayton… and the first hour of There Will Be Blood… and Into The Wild… and Lars & The Real Girl… and many others.  It is a rich and beautiful season and we have a crop of movies that we really can watch over and over and over again. 

And congratulations to the industry, by the way, for coming up with the new DVD packaging, which is not only eco-friendly, but will allow us all to file an entire season of awards DVDs in a 13 inch by 4 inch wide box instead of filling my mantle like a ton of plastic bricks.  (Picturehouse has come up with another great form of delivery – though not as eco-friendly – which is a DVD book with a sleeve for each of its films with some art from each.  Welcome to my DVD player, Ms. Piaf.)

It’s kind of crazy to have so bright a moment… such a positive look at the future of film… so many new filmmakers in the game this year… and yet, not only the WGA out on strike, but the real threat of SAG following next summer.

There is plenty of room to spread the blame for greed around.  But there is only one form of greed that makes me truly happy… the greed for more quality filmmaking… in every genre, high and low, from Emile Hirsch spreading love like pollen to Johnny Depp and Alan Rickman in a romantic duet that seeks a violent end to Will Smith saving what’s left of the world to documentaries of passion and skill.  I want it all.

And what seems slippery today will become solid ground tomorrow, as movies live forever in a real way more than ever before in history.  And for that I am thankful indeed.

The Charts

November 8, 2007
November 1, 2007
October 25, 2007
October 18, 2007
The Post-Toronto Chart - September 21, 2007
The Pre-Toronto Chart - September 6, 2007
The First Chart - June 21, 2007

- Email David Poland