Tag: Doubt

Hey Oscar? You Have Some Explaining to Do!

Images-4SWhen I was a kid on Oscar night, my parents made me go to bed way before the show was over, but my dad always kept a winners list for me on a shirt cardboard so I wouldn't miss anything.  It seemed so important then.  Without the entertainment shows like ET and Access Hollywood, the unedited Oscar acceptance speeches were one of the few times we got to see celebrities revealed.  It was thrilling.

Of course, the mystique – and the Oscar TV audiences — have eroded since then.  It will be interesting to see if tonights "new" Oscars  – which do look better and at least are doing things with a little more wit and humor – make a difference.  I'm watching as I write this – amazed that Jessica Biel, the wayward daughter from the sentimental but sweet Seventh Heaven, got to present alone  – even if it was the tech awards.  Who would have predicted that?

I think I'm out of touch, or I've gotten crotchety in my old age.  Why?  First of all, though I'm a real, loyal Woody Allen fan, I did NOT like Vicky Christina Barcelona. . Penelope Cruz was fine, but not the best.  It's so sad when two nominees (like those in Doubt) are set against one another and split the vote.  I'm assuming that's how Cruz won.  The two women from Doubt - – Amy Adams and and Viola Davis -  especially Davis,  were just astonishing.  Their bad luck to be opposite one another in the same category.

Meanwhile, I'm struggling to figure out how to talk about the presenters in the "best supporting"category.  Goldie Hawn, whom I've always loved, just made me sad.  We're nearly the same age, and she certainly looks better than I do.  BUT tonight she looked so over surgeried, overstuffed into her dress, over everything.  It was like she had been blown up with a bicycle pump – all swollen.  BUT tonight she looked so over surgeried, overstuffed into her dress, over everything.  It was like she had been blown up with a bicycle pump – all swollen.  The toughest thing of all, though, is how many of this year's most honored movies were movies I really didn't like. 

I've written before about Slumdog.  I probably should have known I wouldn't love it; I wanted to see it too much.  It's sweet and explores the poverty and misery in India, but it just didn't do it for me.  Too neat, too pat, And, to me, terribly manipulative.  As I said, Vicky Christina Barcelona was disappointing too, shallow and silly.  I'm also ornery about the show itself.  I actually loved the musical numbers- long or not, even though everybody on Twitter was complaining about them.  Probably showing my age.  
Anyway, the show was way too long but I'm not sure what I would have cut.  I loved the five veterans honoring the nominees too.  Beyond that I'm not sure.  What I am sure of is that at least now I don't have to wait until I wake up in the morning and get the Oscar results from a shirt cardboard on the kitchen table.




Doubt – More than a Movie — Also a Time Capsule


This film, Doubt, is exceptional. Smart, funny, moving, intricate and remarkably well-acted, it is, without exception, a remarkable accomplishment. I grew up in Pittsburgh and nuns like Meryl Streep’s Sister Aloysius Beauvier were a staple in my life, not in Catholic school, but every weekend, at speech tournaments at Greensburg Catholic or Central Catholic or other parochial schools that so often hosted the competitions. 

God help you if one of your judges was one of these sisters.  They were the toughest and the scariest.  Even in the cafeteria between Round 2 and Round 3, they wandered with the same “eyes in the backs of their heads” that Sister Aloysius demonstrates to her young protege.  The teams they coached were the amazing.  Practiced, smart, disciplined and resourceful, they did the sisters proud. 

As I watched Meryl Streep as the principal of a Catholic elementary school where accusation and suspicion take over, all the memories of those scary Saturday mornings at the front of a classroom, giving speeches on labor unions or disarmament or the dangers of the Soviet Union came tumbling back. The nerves were unavoidable; when the sisters were among your judges, you had to be prepared, organized, well-spoken and committed.  Or else.

Probably the familiarity of those nuns (weird for a nice Jewish girl to have access to, I suppose) and the memory of all the Sundays I went to Mass with friends after a sleep-over added to the film’s impact.  I know I had a very personal reaction.  But whether you grew up in Idaho, Arizona or the Bronx, the film is irresistible and won’t leave you alone just because it’s not on the screen any longer.  I’m not going to talk about the plot because that will diminish the pleasure of watching it unfold, but if you respect great writing, great acting and excellence in film-making, you don’t want to miss this one.