Oscar Mild - A Quick Fisk Of TNR's Oscar Blog

*Updates (2/28) * "The movie magic is gone," says LA Times;  McCain announces on Letterman (confirms my digs at Gore (below))

Today at AmThink Cinnamon Stillwell has an article up lamenting the ho-hum partisanship of this past Sunday's Oscar ceremonies. She calls them "an orgy of liberal self-congratulation" for having extolled and propagated their versions of diversity and environmentalism.

While not breaking ranks with Oscar's cultural commissars, the The New Republic manages to acknowledge, inadvertently at times, some of the ceremonies' glaring flaws and peculiarities. Here are a few fisked posts from its blog series Oscar Wild!:
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David Thomson states the obvious in the inappropriately named "Patriotic Gore":

The Academy made it very clear last night that they want Al Gore to run.... If you were crazy (and I think we have to admit that a lot of us are), you were even prepared for Gore to announce that he was running last night, there and then, on the spur of the moment. But Al rides without spurs.

And truth to tell, he looks more and more as if his personal campaign to save us from hot gases is to inhale as many of them as possible. [emphasis added] Last night he seemed to be wearing a tuxedo that used to be reserved for Orson Welles. So he joshed us about running and looks completely out of shape. I take that as the surest sign that he is not competing.... But being edgy and rivalrous was never quite his thing. And he plainly reckons that to declare your candidacy at the Academy Awards is simply too vulgar for words. He's that out of touch--he doesn't see that our fear of vulgarity is melting quicker than the ice floes.

In fact, had Gore announced then and there it woudn't have been vulgar -- it would have been savvy and historical. It also would have been a massive, indirect fundraising pitch. Remember when Schwarzenegger announced his campaign for California governor on The Tonight Show? The future Governator sure overcame any so-called "fear of vulgarity" on that sound stage. Fortunately, Arnold knows some things about acting and producing, and crowd-pleasing and competing, which the former Vice President does not.

Henry Riggs plays the race card (nationality card?) with "The Year of the Mexican": I wouldn't vote for an anti-immigration candidate, and I wouldn't shake hands with Tom Tancredo. But those people are out there, and they aren't doing too badly for themselves these days. Hollywood knows this, and I think that Hollywood, for once, is right.... What nationality is more lefty chic right now than Mexicans? If Oscar voters want to scratch that political protest itch, some or all of these Mexican nominees may benefit.

That's "anti-illegal immigration" to you, buddy.... If Hollywood is right this time, then please say in what areas you think it's wrong.... Lastly, name names: Will you state for the record what other nationalities are "lefty chic" right now? Thank you, btw, for admitting that awards are handed out as expressions of political or multicultural sentiment, as opposed to artistic merit.

David Thomson calls The Lives of Others -- a drama about East Germany's massive and repressive police-state apparatus (and the winner for Best Foreign Film) -- "The Real Best Film of '06" because it's an American film in anticipation. He pegs it as a parable for what the United States is allegedly turning into. Ja wohl!

Isaac Chotiner bemoans the utter lack of good, middlebrow films by asking "Where Have All The Good Movies Gone?" Yet he refuses to provide the obvious answer: that diversity of professed political opinions -- or better yet, the absence of professed political opinions -- would force filmmakers to focus exclusively ... (Think, think!) ... on filmmaking.

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As Sam Goldwyn used to say, "If you want to send a message, call Western Union." We need Sam now more than ever.