If you need a chuckle, stop by and read my piece for Polite Company Magazine, "Deleted Scenes from the State of the Union." I'm particularly proud of the birthers joke.
I'm still buried under the madness of the semester's start. Ay yi yi -- why re-entry has been so difficult, I don't know, but it has. I have to find some way to get minions. It's the only answer. But of course, the main event: my column for this week incorporates (obliquely) my review of Made in Dagenham, grumbles about the inflated praise for The King's Speech and the Oscars' preference for women who are mad, drunk or dying. Bleh:
Made (Over) in Dagenham
We don’t really need to see the true grit of history, do we?The road to Oscar success for women can be easily codified, as Film Site does for us:
"Biographies of remarkable, real-life individuals (showbiz figures and entertainers) and portrayals of the mentally ill are heavily represented among Oscar winners (and nominees), particularly in the acting awards. It helps an actress's chances of winning (or being nominated for) an Oscar if the character dies during the movie, or is alcoholic (or drug-addicted), or is a murderess."
It seems that Natalie Portman will most likely prove the winner this year, despite the incredible performance turned in by Jennifer Lawrence in the finest film of the year, Winter's Bone, for her turn as a prima ballerina falling apart, given that True Grit's Hailee Steinfeld received a nomination as a supporting actress, despite being the star of the film.
It's ironic that a saccharine "biography of a remarkable, real-life" man, The King's Speech, has scooped so many nominations when somewhat less saccharine "biography of a remarkable, real-life" woman, Made in Dagenham, was overlooked completely (right down to the Billy Bragg-penned theme song sung by real former Dagenham worker, Sandie Shaw)...
Read the rest at BBHQ: http://culture.bitchbuzz.com/made-over-in-dagenham.html#ixzz1CG9jcRzS
4 comments:
When will our adoration of British royalty cease?
I don't get it. It seems antithetical to everything "American" but perhaps that's the point?
What do you mean "we," Kemosabe? The kind of shallow people who watch TODAY might be swept up, but they also actually read supermarket tabloids.
Meanwhile, THE KING'S SPEECH is the kind of facile Brit problem movie that will get nominated for (and usually not win) big American awards (since those awards are for things that make lots of money for US interests, or stroke those folks in a particular way, like CRASH or THE HURT LOCKER). Shall have to zip over and look at the DAGENHAM column, since the weather has kept me offline for a Whole Day.5...the horror. If it played the Ritz in Philly or the Phoenixville theater, I missed it.
Yeah, I have callously referred to TKS as a glossy movie-of-the-week. It is. Then again, I refer to CRASH as the after-school special.
But as to Patti's question, why the appeal? Prestige, I guess, without the cost of actually having a monarchy -- and some lingering chip-on-the-shoulder fear about measuring up to an illustrious forebear.
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