Monday, March 06, 2006
Oscars: The Epitomy of Middlebrow
If you don't know what middlebrow means, watch the Oscars.
The humor, first of all, is middlebrow. Jon Stewart shied away from jokes of himself starring in "Half-Baked" (lowbrow humor) and introduced middlebrow campaign ads for the actors and actresses.
Remember all those "Brokeback Mountain" jokes? They were very lowbrow. So when the Academy considered it, they could not ignore their lexical knowledge of billions upon billions of lowbrow gay cowboy jokes.
"Crash?" A middlebrow movie that no hacks made fun of. A movie that is not so highbrow that it leaves the moral questions open for the viewer to answer ("A History of Violence"). A movie that does not make the nation talk about sexual taboos ("Brokeback Mountain"). A movie that does not wade waist-deep in the morass of political corruption, even if it happened fifty years ago ("Good Night and Good Luck").
No, AMPAS prefers a movie that has a message ("racism is bad"). A movie that doesn't point any fingers (unless you think calling out racist cops is as close to revolutionary agit-prop cinema as you can get).
The Oscars will never honor formalist innovation, moral ambiguity, surreal comedy, or
true controversy.
Worse for me, I can't make jokes about "Crash" at tonight's open mike, which is why I'm not going. There's nothing funny about "Crash."
The humor, first of all, is middlebrow. Jon Stewart shied away from jokes of himself starring in "Half-Baked" (lowbrow humor) and introduced middlebrow campaign ads for the actors and actresses.
Remember all those "Brokeback Mountain" jokes? They were very lowbrow. So when the Academy considered it, they could not ignore their lexical knowledge of billions upon billions of lowbrow gay cowboy jokes.
"Crash?" A middlebrow movie that no hacks made fun of. A movie that is not so highbrow that it leaves the moral questions open for the viewer to answer ("A History of Violence"). A movie that does not make the nation talk about sexual taboos ("Brokeback Mountain"). A movie that does not wade waist-deep in the morass of political corruption, even if it happened fifty years ago ("Good Night and Good Luck").
No, AMPAS prefers a movie that has a message ("racism is bad"). A movie that doesn't point any fingers (unless you think calling out racist cops is as close to revolutionary agit-prop cinema as you can get).
The Oscars will never honor formalist innovation, moral ambiguity, surreal comedy, or
true controversy.
Worse for me, I can't make jokes about "Crash" at tonight's open mike, which is why I'm not going. There's nothing funny about "Crash."
# posted by Mo Diggs : 1:33 PM
