I think I like movies too much to be worried about which ones win Oscars. Let me say, however, that Reno: 911 is pretty damn funny.
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Oscars Thread
25 Feb 2007 11:24 pm
Comments (23)
Was there any doubt Al Gore would win? I mean, these were the same people who gave Michael Moore an Oscar a few years ago. I'm sure the "Jesus Camp" kiddies gave him a run for his money, but Al came out on top. Too bad the planet will only be around another 30 years for him to enjoy his success.
It would have been funny if Davis Guggenheim had announced he was entering the presidential race when he got his Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth.
"I think I like movies too much to be worried about which ones win Oscars."
The Oscars are a fucking abomination. The Cannes awards are a good example of what film awards should be. Alternately, the Indie Film Awards are kinda fun, though essentially just the Oscars for people with slightly better taste.
And I'll take Sarah Silverman over Ellen Degeneres or Billy Cristal any day of the week. (What's up with your boy Spackerman hating on the Sarah Silverman TV show? I thought he had taste.)
Spackerman is right: outside of Mr. Show, Sarah Silverman is genuinely unfunny.
"Sarah Silverman is genuinely unfunny."
I didn't say anything about her being funny or not. Her TV show just happens to be brilliant.
All the lowbrows want their comedy to have jokes.
Hmmm, just saw Reno 911 and I didn't think it was that funny. Yes, there were some funny parts, but overall it wasn't any funnier than their average show. The actors not on the regular show were terrible. The audience didn't laugh that much either (saw it in Georgetown).
All the lowbrows want their comedy to have jokes.
And that's a lowbrow predilection?
It sounds to me like wanting meals to have food.
As I'm typing this, the whole complaint sounds like a set-up from a Peter De Vries novel. In fact, I can remember the book. It was an early one. The narrator's name was "Chick Swallow". (ODL!) Swallow and a high school chum wrote a comic play without jokes. My favorite non-joke came when The Inspector (the play was a murder mystery) shook his balking fountain pen and a dalmatian (the dog breed) trotted on stage.
KD Lang couldn't have won because Love for Sale wasn't an original song.
"The Inspector (the play was a murder mystery) shook his balking fountain pen and a dalmatian (the dog breed) trotted on stage."
Now that's comedy!
DeVries is actually a pretty good example of a genius comedy writer whose writing isn't all that funny.
Or, at the Spirit Awards, Silverman told a joke about Anne Frank getting raped that wasn't all that funny, but it was genius comedy all the same.
I can't decide whether Petey and JD disagree or not.
Would it satisfy all parties if we acknowledged that Sarah Silverman is the reigning queen of unfunny comedy?
The only way I'll see the Reno 911 movie is if Terry the roller-skating homosexual is in it.
He is. But the movie kinda sucked, because they unfortunately thought they needed to have a plot instead of just a bunch of funny skits.
Heck, I can't even tell if Petey and Spackerman disagree. All Spack said was that Silverman isn't funny, he didn't make any other value judgments.
I loved the first season of Reno 911, then thought it went downhill. It seemed to be much drier at first. Now it's turning into a standard look-how-weird-we-all-are sit-com. Not sure about the film.
All the lowbrows want their comedy to have jokes.
___
And that's a lowbrow predilection?
It sounds to me like wanting meals to have food.
___
Would it satisfy all parties if we acknowledged that Sarah Silverman is the reigning queen of unfunny comedy?
You guys are really mixing up your concepts here, which is an understandable thing in the literalistic, essentially humorless time we're in (or coming out of, I hope) - the era of the 'dramedy'. There is no such thing as 'unfunny comedy'. Of course comedy doesn't have to have 'jokes' or laughs, but if it's truly unfunny, it's not comedy (except possibly in the ancient greek sense I guess). I love Lenny Bruce, and he often wasn't being funny at all when he sat around reading his court transcripts in concert (sometimes he was hilarious doing that, though). There is a 'South Park' pall hanging over comedy - Matt and Trey, hilarious though some of their stuff is, always eventually reveal how earnest (unfunny) they really are, by confusing nihilism - taking nothing seriously - with irreverence. Irreverence and anarchy go together ('anarchy' means 'without a king'), but they both aren't, by definition, nihilistic. 'Anarchy' has come to mean 'chaos', but that sense of the word is an obvious value judgment we inherited from the British Empire. It actually means 'nothing sacred'. It doesn't mean 'nothing means anything, so let's just chicken out in the end'.
I haven't seen a whole Sarah Silverman Program, so I can't really comment. It doesn't particularly appeal to me, but it might be good for all I know. But....comedy's ailin'. Even very broad farce without any hint of an actual farceur present isn't comedy - it's tragedy. It might make you laugh, but I wouldn't call it 'comedy'. Writing about George Bush can be comedy (almost effortlessly); Bush being himself isn't, really. I only qualify that at all because Bush is kind of tapping into the same vein as some dramedic entertainment 'product' does: always keep 'em guessing; always do what is least expected; a shitty idea is better than no idea; etc. But it's not, essentially, the art of comedy - it's the art of the con.
I was pleased that God won Best Supporting Actress. It's about time somebody gave Him credit for making the other nominees lose!
If hillbilly Bill ("Squeal like a pig" from DELIVERANCE) McKinney were on Sarah Silverman's show- I might give it a looksee. But, otherwise- she's just another dull clit neurotic.
De Vries was making (extraordinarily gentle) fun of how precious the two characters were. It's possible, and probably inevitable, that young people get a little "too too" in their art. Comedies without jokes. Rarefied, 8th derivative irony and sarcasm. Poses within poses within poses within poses. Etc. Since it's a human tendency, it'll have to do, but wanting jokes with your comedy is hardly a low brow desire. A little respite from grim life.
"The only way I'll see the Reno 911 movie is if Terry the roller-skating homosexual is in it."
He was in it, but only marginally funny. I agree with the comment that the show's humor lends itself much better to short, funny skits rather than an extended plotline. The movie contained very few truly funny bits.
I like Paul Rudd's character in the movie and I loved his bit on the TV show as a kid's show host/recovering addict. I loved the part when he went out to the house to watch them retrieve the cat from the roof. While I'm certainly not for animal abuse, I practically shit myself when Junior accidentally dropped the cat into the fan of the central air conditioner. Sorry for the spoiler for those who may not have seen it. Hilarious.
The best thing about AA79 was Alan Arkin; his comments really cut through the greasy sheen of Hollywood's loathsome self-congratulation orgy: "On the Oscar® red carpet, when asked how Breslin is responding to the attention as a Oscar® nominee (nominated for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role), Arkin said, "I hope she loses frankly. No, I'm serious. I am not joking."
Arkin added, "I hope she loses. What, next year she is going to get the Nobel Prize, it's enough. She has had enough attention. I love her and I love her family; and I feel enough is enough. She is a kid; she needs to have a childhood....I hope she loses." "[Abcess Hollywood]
He also had plenty to say on how oscar "competition" is utter bullshit, and how all good art is in sum toto, good. But I couldn't find the quote so my retarded summation will have to suffice.
What could give such a withered old man such mental clarity and courage of conviction? Arkin, 72, credited his burgeoning heroin addiction for his new no-nonsense take on life.
would it have killed Al Gore to smile just once?
Petey sez: The Oscars are a fucking abomination.
Now you often claim you are a lefty, one especially in synch with populism. I recall your admiration for the culture-leveling aspects of the Chavez regime, though you did temper it a bit by saying that you would not go so far as to advocate that people with eyeglasses be sent to work in the fields.
How can I reconcile this traditional "effete intellectual snob"-like statement with that?
1 billion viewers worldwide.
Well, maybe you use "fucking abomination" in a positive sense? :-) Hollywood, Bollywood, all the other wood's, they take the pulse better than any politician; they might fail sometimes at reading it correctly, but they got their fingers on the wrist, so way over the heads of a bunch of artistes on an Meditterenean beach. A Palme d'Or is worth butkis outside "old Europe."
Sincerely,
a fan of IFC who would never be so crass as to brag about that fact.
Comments closed March 12, 2007.
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Heads in the Sand
If it was obligatory to give best song to a lesbian type this year I would have preferred it go to KD Lang's performance of "Love for Sale" in the Black Dahlia (crappy movie it was).
Posted by Linus | February 25, 2007 11:35 PM