comment #1

raygo says ...

Don't forget that Brokeback Mountain won in 2005, and lost the Oscar to Crash. I can see The Artist losing to The Descendants. The Hurt Locker analogy is appropriate, as it was as wildly over rated as The Artist.

comment #2

BoulderKid says ...

I still haven't seen The Artist, I may today, but I need to get on it nonetheless. But, I've come to learn that if you're going to look at the Oscars as a way of rewarding the very best film year in and year out, you're going to be very disappointed 4 out of 5 times. In reality the only true justification for their existence is so, ten or twenty years down the road someone can cruise a listing of the nominees and winners and find some good films from the past to add to watch on netflix.

comment #3

JR says ...

Oh shut the fuck up already about this, old man.

comment #4

AnnaZed says ...

Jeff is called curmudgeonly, maybe with a pinch of humor; this news (which I've been bracing myself for) makes me go full harridan. I hate DuJardin and Bejo's broad mugging in this movie, I hate everybody's broad mugging in this movie including the dog's. I am growing tired of being polite and damning this movie with faint praise; I'm just going to go ahead and damn it. I really hate it, a third viewing (just checking my own pulse for any random residual philistinism that might have rubbed off on me during my Southern childhood) confirmed this opinion. I feel like there is almost a bubble (or bauble) of something like political correctness surrounding this movie; like if you express that you were not amused or engaged by it you are marking yourself as a rube. Death to that idea.

comment #5

Markj74 says ...

What do you expect from an organisation that gives its prize to Kramer vs Kramer over Apocalypse Now? The Oscars have always been ridiculous. Once in a blue moon they get it right but 9/10 they give the prize to shit.

comment #6

Sasha Stone says ...

Kramer vs. Kramer over Apocalypse Now. That's a big ugly pill to swallow.

comment #7

zumpano says ...

I wonder how many South Carolinan Gingrich voters have seen or will see "The Artist".

The disparity between the "elites" and the "American people" widens.

comment #8

Cadavra says ...

There's a second upside. This may make it a little easier for directors to make a movie in B&W, instead of that ghastly desaturated color they fall back on now.

comment #9

LicentiousMaximus says ...

I agree w/ Sasha Stone that if they give another award to a foreign production, the industry might as well get used to seeing dipping box office in the future. Then they'll arrest a bunch of everyday Joes, including some teenagers, and prosecute them for uploading/ downloading Bucky Larson and tell themselves that it's illegal downloading that's the problem. The movie industry is going to make all the same mistakes the record industry did it seems.

comment #10

Cerulean says ...

You are the first person I thought of Jeff when I saw the news today. I thought this news and Newt winning South Carolina might just be too much for you buddy. Glad you are hanging in there and not throwing yourself off a balcony or anything!

comment #11

troothy says ...

"The Artist's latest triumph, having last night won the Producers' Guild Daryl F. Zanuck award from the Producer's Guild, totally cinches the Best Picture Oscar....and now it's really a done deal."
Jeffrey Wells on January 22, 2012

"It's over...Little Miss Sunshine is going to win the Best Picture Oscar. The SAG Awards made this quite clear -- done deal, finito, no further discussion."
Jeffrey Wells on January 28, 2007

comment #12

Sasha Stone says ...

Funny, Troothy. :-)

comment #13

goodvibe61 says ...

It's PROBABLY over. Stranger things have happened for sure. But most likely The Artist is going to win for a couple reasons:

1. It's the movie with the surface trappings (silent, B&W) and emotional beats that make it seem more "important" than it really is.

2. No other film is significant enough to launch any compelling counter attack. You can't create a race without another film compelling enough to have a race in the first place. Yes, there are other really good films, but nothing so magnificent to set up a battle this time around.

Descendants is not powerful enough to do it. Moneyball is better I believe, but it's a little too esoteric in its setting to get the universal love. Hugo perhaps more than any other movie has the potential to do it, but its shortcomings (It's not engaging enough for the long beginning stretch) are just too much to make it happen.

It's kind of a drag, but sometimes it goes this way.

comment #14

Lord Garth says ...

War Horse is better than The Artist. Just sayin'.

comment #15

austin111 says ...

The Artist is a crowd pleaser. That's what it has going for it. It's also a little bit of a novelty and DuJardin is fresh enough to win people over, but it's largely insubstantial in the same way certain cocktails are. It drags in parts and is only totally pleasing at the end, which helps it a lot. I can say that I liked it but I doubt I'll think much about it beyond that. It's just not that interesting actually. I totally understand Wells problems with it. To be honest I'm a little disappointed.

comment #16

BoulderKid says ...

I have to think that "The Descendants" would be more of a serious challenger if the ending had a stronger sense of emotional catharsis. It climaxes in the hospital room with the entire family and then goes on for a few minutes, and just sort of ends midstream. I'm not saying its bad but when you compare it to other dramatic Oscar winners like "Ordinary People" and "Kramer v. Kramer", the final frames are some of the most wrenching parts of their respective films. The stuck with you. The elevator door closing on Streep is haunting, and I'm sure voters had it burned in their mind when they made their decisions. I don't think Clooney and the kids chilling on the couch works in quite the same way.

comment #17

MechanicalShark says ...

I saw The Artist FINALLY last night, as I have the misfortune to live in Washington state, and not New York or L.A. It's silly and cute, yes, but it's top-shelf filmmaking, and I'd argue it's not lightweight at all. It's about male hubris, using the silent to talkie transition as a framework to build this story around. Dujardin's character fucks himself over almost entirely through his own choices. This isn't some Astaire/Rogers nonsense with wonderful dancing and music but a dull, snooze-worthy plot. This is about how guys, and ARTISTS in particular, tend to run themselves into the ground with their own ego and pride; it's also about how their bull-headed machismo refuses to allow a woman to help them. It's not my absolute favorite of the year, but it's at least preferable to The Descendants. Hugo would also be a terrific winner in my book.
This is not to say I don't respect your opinion, Wells. You demand GRAVITAS of the Oscars, and feel frustrated when they don't deliver. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.

comment #18

Albert Starling says ...

I don't know whether THE ARTIST will win or not - although I suspect it will lose on the night to THE DESCENDANTS (or even maybe HUGO) - but the one thing no one seems to be talking about is how unusual it is that a black and white silent French film seems poised to win. That is unusual, right?

comment #19

Sasha Stone says ...

Albert, of course they're talking about that. Without the silent black and white part no one would be talking about The Artist at all. That's their "Oscar story."

comment #20

JD says ...

The Artist is tonally lightweight, but actually quite complex. It's about how technology and the hunger for newness makes even the most talented people obsolete in their prime. People and traditions are discarded simply because something new comes along. These fears are particularly relevant to critics and people in the film industry, so it's understandable that it would resonate so strongly with those groups. The idea that it's frivolous entertainment simply because it's about characters who make frivolous entertainment is idiotic.