Oscar Gridlock

Andy Hardy here reporting live from the corner of Sunset and Vine: I insanely ventured into the heart of Hollywood today, not to get a glimpse of early Oscar arrivals but just to load up on produce at the weekly Hollywood Farmers Market. I had to make about four detours because of the crazy Oscar security. If the Kennedy motorcade had half the security that I’m seeing today, we’d be living in a different world. I hate to say it, but you can feel the “buzz” in this town due to tonight’s impending rituals. Everyone is running around picking up last-minute items for their Oscar viewing parties, the yearly event at which normally mild-mannered people turn into Joan Rivers wannabes as they unleash an endless tirade about who's too fat, who's too thin, who looks like a heroin addict, who looks like their dress was designed by Charles Manson, who has had so much plastic surgery and botox she looks like Minnie Mouse, who is that 22-year-old with the breasts spilling out of her Vera Wang on the arm of that 74-year-old movie star with the bad rug, and who will be the first winner to forgot to mention his spouse in his acceptance speech (and have hell to pay to months to come)? We’ll be watching tonight with our friends Lisa and Tom, and I’m happy to brag that Tom has a featured part in potential Best Picture “Million Dollar Baby” as the sleazy lawyer for Hilary Swank’s family. In deference to our guests I will root for Swank (while secretly hoping for an Annette Bening victory).

Just wanted to quickly amend my Oscar predictions by saying that I saw “Hotel Rwanda” yesterday and was bowled over by Don Cheadle’s performance as Paul Rusesabagina, the Hutu manager of a luxury hotel in Kigali, who saved the lives of more than 1,200 people during the slaughter of nearly 800,000 Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994. I am flushed with shame that I was not that familiar with the details of this genocide at the time and I’m grateful that films like this send far-reaching messages about what can happen when our patriarchal systems are allowed to run amuck. The mass murders were sparked by inflammatory radio broadcasts that urged to Hutus to run out and kill ever Tutsi they could find, including children, and the total lack of help from the U.S. and other countries during this 100-day siege is utterly appalling. I know it’s easy to criticize films like this as not providing the full historical context, and it’s easy to claim that they are made to give us Westerners a tsk-tsk way to feel better about ourselves as we gnash our teeth in outrage from our safe movie theatre seats, but I am in favor of any method that puts these countries on the mass radar screen, even if it’s only in the context of a semi-fictionalized film. I still follow what’s going on in Myanmar/Burma after being introduced to the military dictatorship there and the amazing work of Aung San Suu Kyi in the 1995 John Boorman film “Beyond Rangoon.” And frankly, seeing these films does make we want to learn more. I’ve been reading about other potential human rights catastrophes on the Amnesty International site including the dangerous situations in Sudan, Congo, and Nepal, and about some of the other awareness campaigns this organization is involved with including the proliferation of child soldiers throughout the world. Other sites worthy of frequent visits include the International Rescue Committee, Human Rights Watch, and Doctors Without Borders.

But besides being such a noble education effort, Don Cheadle’s performance was superb on any level and I’d be thrilled if he went home with the prize (although I still think Jamie Foxx has a lock on the Oscar). Sophie Okonedo was great too as Rusesabagina’s Tutsi wife.

Now I must take Leah to an audition for “Gypsy” (what? you think it’s odd for 10-year-olds to perform in a play about strippers?) and then to the community service day at her school, followed by Oscarfest 2005. If I promise never to mention the damn Oscars again after tomorrow’s Oscar wrap-up, would you believe me?

Comments

[nappy40]

I was rooting for Don Cheadle. I honestly thought there would be an upset. I'm crushed.

[Ellen]

I just saw this in the theatre over the weekend, and I thought about this blog entry during the credits. I never know how to feel after a film like that, except ashamed.