A Critic Looks at the Oscars

The Artist - A silent salute to the best picture of 2012?

As you are reading this post, the 2012 Oscar race has become old news. The winners will have been announced, the speeches will have been delivered, and the red carpet will have rolled up for yet another year.

But for many people, the real fun of the Academy Awards comes before the ceremony when film fans and critics, like the gamblers in the new HBO show Luck, try to demonstrate their movie prowess and pick the winners who will walk away with the trophies. In fact, the Oscars now rank 3rd in office pools behind NCAA basketball tourney March Madness and the NFL's Super Bowl.

Today, Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday appeared at the Newseum to discuss the year's Oscar races and maybe give some last minute tips to those who had yet to complete their pool selections. The discussion proved so popular that, in a rare move for the Newseum, a second session was added.

So, with the Oscar ceremony a little more than 24 hours away, what film did Hornaday believe would take top honors? Her choice - The Artist. "Yes it will win and yes it should win," she told the capacity crowd in the Inside Media studio. She said the silent film would win despite criticism from some quarters that "it is derivative, it's a pastiche, it's not universally loved."

Hornaday said a shared theme of this year's 9 best picture choices appeared to be a sense of nostalgia. "It's uncanny. With the exclusion of Moneyball, from a zeitgeist point of view, these films seem to be grappling with memory and a look to the past," Hornaday said. "But even that (Moneyball) is a call for something more traditional. And then you've got Billy Crystal (returning as host)."

Hornaday also revealed her own personal choices in several categories. She said she would like to see Moneyball star Brad Pitt win the best actor Oscar. "It's so easy to dismiss him as just a pretty face and a movie star," she said. "But he has taken on some really challenging roles."

Hornaday said she expected one of the closest races to be in the best actress category between Viola Davis for her role in The Help and Meryl Streep, the star of The Iron Lady. Hornaday said both were deserving. "You have these weak movies anchored by these 2 tremendous performances," she observed.

Like all passionate movie goers, Hornaday said that this year's awards also represented some snubs in who was left out of the voting. "(Directors) David Fincher and Christopher Nolan seem to be shut out of academy love," she said.

Responding to a question from the audience about how she finds time to see all the films that she needs to see to review, Hornaday humorously called her work ethic "pathetic."

"It helps to go to film festivals where you can see a lot of films," she said. "But this year, I didn't make it to all the shorts. You're always going to miss a few."

Asked about a change in this year's rules which disallows the inclusion of any song that only plays in a movie's credits from being nominated for best song, Hornaday said she understands the reasoning behind the move. "I think the academy wants the song to be an integral part of the narrative. They're trying to get at the song as an aesthetic element," she said.

Hornaday agreed with an audience member that the Oscars show does not provide as much actual entertainment value as other awards shows like the Grammies. She said the Oscars might benefit from following the lead of the British best picture show, which is edited before it is aired. "It's funnier and much more fun to watch. It's not a long, self-indulgent slog," she noted.

One audience member wanted to know where Hornaday planned to watch the Oscars. "Usually, I just stay home with my popcorn," she said. "But this year, the Post has asked me to blog about the event. So I'll be on my couch with my PJ's and popcorn, but I'll have a laptop, too."

Tales, Tidbits, and Tips
Host John Maynard opened today's discussion with references to an article that Hornaday had written earlier this year entitled "Dear Movie Goers - Get a Grip." In that piece, Hornaday commented on movie viewers in a Connecticut art house film theater walking out on Terrance Malik's challenging best-picture-nominated film Tree of Life, which she admitted is "a very obtuse movie." She also detailed the story of an Austin woman who is suing the makers of the movie Drive because there really wasn't much driving in it and another who expressed anger that The Artist was a silent movie.
"We have Angry Birds, we have angry voters, and now we have angry movie goers," she said, noting that she plans to use that article as a springboard to a series of informal articles about the viewing experience and what should be realistic and acceptable.