Oscar observations

Well, Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite won best Oscar pick last night and should I be surprised? Maybe, since many bets, including mine, were on Sam Mendes’s 1917 taking top award. This, after the film – which hardly anyone has seen (with 18 weeks since release its box office is $35 million domestically and ranks 14 compared to Bad Boys for Life at No. 2 and $165 mil. after just four weeks.) But there’s no question it was the critics’ darling. And the Academy so bestowed the award making history as the first foreign language (“International” as the name was changed this year) movie to take the top prize. My viewing of the film left me flat – very flat; seldom have I been so in variance with much critical opinion. And I think the Academy, after years of criticism for its picks being “so white” and not diverse enough, was trying to make up for it. No doubt it was time for an international film breakthrough but, uh, Parasite? (I guess they had no other choice.) Now, let’s see if regular people will go to watch this convoluted comedy-drama……Meanwhile, a brilliant actor can often be the flip side of a bizarre personality, as many of us have long suspected of Joaquin Phoenix. Phoenix won best actor for his portrayal of the Joker (Todd Phillips). Remember Phoenix’s strange interview, among others, with David Letterman when there was lots of embarrassing dead air and he talked about his career diverging into “hip hop?” This time he warped on about sentient animals: “We feel entitled to artificially inseminate a cow, and when she gives birth, we steal her baby, even though her cries of anguish are unmistakable. Then we take her milk intended for her calf and we put it in our coffee and our cereal." Remember that, breakfast lovers everywhere!.....Renée Zellweger (above) gave the best acceptance speech, winning best actress for her performance in Judy (Rupert Goold). Poised, thoughtful, articulate, she not only gave heartfelt praise to a slew of production people but went out of her way to give a nod to ordinary Americans - not something Hollywood types tend to do – praising the military and first responders……Other than Parasite winning best picture, I agreed with pretty much all of the other awards and some were pretty predictable, like Laura Dern as best supporting actress in Noah Baumbach’s Marriage Story, James Mangold’s Ford v Ferrari for best film editing, Jay Roach’s Bombshell for best makeup and hairstyling, 1917 for best visual effects, and Parasite for, well  best international feature…..If there was a Marxist-Leninist award it definitely should have gone to Julia Reichart, director of the winning documentary American Factory. Dredging up the hoary old communist slogan, Julia exclaimed: “Workers of the world, unite!” which is straight out of The Communist Manifesto! ….As for red carpet pre-show, lovers of fashion were probably vastly disappointed. Instead of watching the stars (okay, female stars) walk in in their glamorous gowns we got interview after interview with many (male) directors and the occasional spilt screen image of a fashionista.