The Nominees AREN'T.....

This morning The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominees for the 77th Oscars on February 27. After a quick glance at the nominees, I was disappointed that the two movies which generated the most notoriety, Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" and Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ" were left off the list.

This pretty much means I won't be watching the Oscars again this year. There are people who do, and claim that it's as much a TV "event" as the Super Bowl is. I disagree, in that unless you've seen the movies that are nominated, you can't have an emotional stake in the outcome. By contrast, even if you haven't followed the Philadelphia Eagles or the New England Patriots since training camp, at least the competition of that one game unfolds right before your eyes.

For the record, the only Oscar-nominated film I saw in the past year was "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", which I enjoyed greatly, but only rated a nomination for Best Original Screenplay. I seem to have a different idea of what constitutes a good movie than the Academy does. I like movies that are honest, well-made, clever, and can draw a crowd. However, pretty much anything I enjoy is shunted from consideration because it's "genre" (give or take a Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or a Lord of the Rings) or because it's funny. Maybe Woody Allen cursed movie comedies in general by beating out "Star Wars" (a movie which redefined the industry) for best picture with "Annie Hall" in 1978.

So why was I so big on "Fahrenheit" and "The Passion"? The culture wars, or course! Moore beat out Spider-Man for a People's Choice award: I wanna see how he'd do up against Jesus! Don't get me wrong, I like Mike, I have him as a link, but F9/11 is not his best film: it's a scattershot name-calling rant without the tight central focus of a "Bowling for Columbine" or "Roger & Me", but the man has unfinished business from the "Shame on you" speech! As for "The Passion", it's pretty much a slow, creepy fetishization of biblical violence, but I wanna see Mel Gibson's wacky retrograde Catholicism laid out in his acceptance speech for all to marvel!

Of course, the part that would have generated a record TV audience for the Academy would be the reaction of of Anti-War Activists/Christian Fundamentalists when "their" movie wins/loses! "Conspiracy!" "Politically motivated!" "Recount!" Wait....how would this differ from who usually wins at the Oscars?