Hollywood preps for annual night of backslapping
Best Short Doc should go to ‘The Lady in Number Six,’ about the late Alice Herz-Sommer, 110-year-old Holocaust survivor and musician
NEW YORK — This weekend is a bigot’s dream – the world’s most prominent Jews and homosexuals will all be rounded up in the same building. They’ll be decked out to the nines and having “fun” at the 86th annual Academy Awards.
Frankly, I don’t expect too many members of the tribe to come away with golden statues. I think Spike Jonze (born Adam Spiegel) is a good bet for his screenplay of “Her.” Other than that… I’m not so sure. Jonah Hill deserves it for “Wolf of Wall Street,” but Jared Leto got sick AND wore a dress for “Dallas Buyers Club.”
It’s a dead heat between “Gravity” and “12 Years a Slave” to win Best Picture. While I think “Gravity” is a remarkable achievement (and more than just a thrill ride) it would be an absolute shonda if “Slave” didn’t win. It is both brilliant and important. Even if you didn’t see it, root for it. (And, come to think of it, one of its producers is Israeli mogul/spy Arnon Milchan. He isn’t likely to make a speech – that will go to Afro-Anglo director Steve McQueen and Handsome-American Brad Pitt – but he’d still be another potential Jewish winner.)
I’m also guessing that the Best Short Documentary prize will go to “The Lady in Number Six,” an inspiring story about Alice Herz-Sommer, a 110 year-old Holocaust survivor and musician. Even though I didn’t see any of the other films it is up against, I’m saying this should be the winner: Herz-Sommer just passed away a few days ago. I’m sure each nominated short documentary is terrific, but I think they need to back off and give this woman some room.
The other interesting category is Best Foreign Language film. Will the Palestinian movie “Omar” win? I doubt it. Put bluntly, it’s good, but not great. Italy’s “The Great Beauty,” Cambodia’s “The Missing Picture” and Belgium’s “Broken Circle Breakdown” are terrific – look to one of them to win.
We’ll be watching the broadcast this Sunday. It begins at 4 pm Los Angeles time and should last about fifteen hours. Or, at least it will feel that way.
In other news, this was a sad week in the world of entertainment. Harold Ramis passed away at the age of 69, leaving behind not just a sizable body of work, but representing a paradigm shift in comedy.
The Jewish-American writer, director and actor was one of the principle members of the Second City improvisational theater in Chicago and its off-shoot “SCTV.” “SCTV” is one of the key sources of modern comedy – a mix of the erudite absurdism found in Monty Python and the anti-establishment vibe from the early years of “Saturday Night Live.”
Ramis went on to direct legendary films like “Caddyshack,” “National Lampoon’s Vacation” and “Groundhog Day.” He co-wrote “Animal House,” “Meatballs,” “Stripes” and “Back to School” and, of course, co-wrote and co-starred in the legendary “Ghostbusters.”
In case you were wondering, “Ghostbusters” still holds up.
I was lucky enough to meet Harold Ramis once, and observe him on the set of his last feature film, the not-particularly-good “Year One.” In addition to making passing references to “Billy and Danny” (meaning Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd), I was taken by his way of occupying himself between camera setups. In the midst of the chaos of a film shoot, with teams of technicians buzzing all around him, Ramis did not disappear somewhere, he would sit calmly in his director’s chair and noodle on an acoustic guitar. During lunch he sat in the big tent with the crew, but alone, making handwritten notes. He was, you could tell, a mensch.
New from Hollywood
Son of God: A compressed version of the popular “Bible” mini-series mixed with new footage, “Son of God” is a straightforward, boring and cheap telling of the story of Jesus. Lifeless and dull, it ticks the boxes of the New Testament’s greatest hits (all the big lines are there!) and doesn’t pull its punches in making Caiaphas and the high priests of Jerusalem look like big fat jerks. Not just a bad movie, but bad for the Jews. Read more in depth here.
Non-Stop: Legendary Jewish-American action producer Joel Silver has teamed up with Spanish director Jaume Collet-Serra and Irish actor Liam Neeson for another of Neeson’s meaty bruiser roles. This time he’s an air marshal battling his personal demons and a demented hijacker who is somewhere on a trans-Atlantic flight. The movie is dumb as toast, but undeniably fun, especially once Neeson stops texting and starts using his fists. Seat belts required.
Stalingrad: The largest, bloodiest battle in human history now gets the IMAX 3D treatment. A 1993 film told the story from a German point of view, but this one is all about the bravery of the Russian army. It’s completely over-the-top, with blunt war movie cliches at every turn, but the images are striking. Slow-motion shots of Red Army warriors undeterred by rivers of flaming oil certainly resonate. Thomas Kretschmann plays the conflicted Nazi commander (there’s almost a prerequisite for this sort of character nowadays) and there’s only one quick mention of Jews (a woman and child are “accused” of being Jewish and shoved in a van which is set on fire). “Stalingrad” is Russia’s highest grossing domestic film ever made.
Currently in theaters
Pompeii: Hot lava and hot men. Jon Snow from “Game of Thrones” gets his first starring role with this one. (Kit Harrington is the guy’s real name, but that sounds just as fake as Jon Snow.) Well, to be fair, computer generated mayhem is the star, not any actor, and while a forced romance wants to turn this into “Titanic in an Old Town,” it’s just too loud and dopey-looking for that. Director Paul W.S. Anderson relies more on special effects than the sleek action set-pieces found in his “Resident Evil” franchise which, shocking though it may seem, are far superior by comparison. I can discover no Jewish connection in its cast and crew, so nobody can blame us for this one.
The LEGO Movie: Wait, so they’re expecting us to pay to watch a giant toy commercial? Well, a little, yes, but you’ve got to trust me when I say that this is one of the funniest and most clever kids’ films – strike that, film of ANY stripe – to come out of Hollywood for quite some time. It isn’t just loaded with zings, but the design work, which blends state of the art computer generated images with handcrafted stop motion, is absolutely top notch. Jewish actors like Elizabeth Banks, Alison Brie and Jonah Hill provide voice-over work alongside Will Ferrell, Morgan Freeman and Will Arnett.
The Monuments Men: George Clooney honors the men who risked their lives to protect the noble works of Man against Nazi theft and destruction in this mild, slightly-good film. It’s a little desultory and one can’t help but wonder if all this action to save paintings is kinda besides the point as the extermination camps are still operating, but the characters, like the film itself, feel called to a higher purpose. Hey, any excuse to see Bill Murray, Bob Balaban and John Goodman in Army uniforms isn’t that bad.
Dead Ringers: Canadian-Jewish film director David Cronenberg delivers one of the creepiest movies ever made – a psychosexual drama that is part love story, part descent-into-madness and part treatise on identity. That the story of twin, unscrupulous gynecologists who disintegrate into violence and addiction is somewhat based on a true story just makes it worse. Come see Jeremy Irons and Jeremy Irons in this truly demented classic from 1988 at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque on Friday, February 28 at 7:30 pm.
Paradise: Love: One of the most disturbing movies of the last ten years is playing in Israel this week. Ulrich Seidl’s “Paradise” trilogy opens with this tale of Austrian sex tourism in Kenya. Older women with body types that do not conform to conventional standards of beauty sun themselves at a resort by day and engage in a cycle of exploitation at night. It’s fascinating to watch, but also incredibly depressing. Legendary Jewish-American cinematographer Ed Lachman frames the disheartening scenario like a brochure. You can catch this film – if you dare – at the Jerusalem Cinematheque on Friday February 28 at 2 pm, then at the Rosh Pina Cinematheque on the 28 at 10 pm, on Saturday March 1 at 7 pm, Tuesday March 4 at 9:30 or Wednesday March 5 at 9:30.
