Billy Crystal to host Oscars

Cafe Society
21

Wait, let me apologize for that. I’m sick and in a lousy mood. I did specify though. I was talking about the general public, and casual filmgoers. Maybe even a bit more. I’ll use myself as an example. I see a lot of movies, but I didn’t always. There were several years where I saw less than 20, and for most of my life I lived in a town where there weren’t any art house theaters that played indie and foreign films. Then when I did move to a city where there were a couple of such theaters I rarely went. Yet, I’ve always been an Oscar buff, since I was a little kid. I clearly remember the reasons for the 2 times I’ve missed the Oscars since I became aware of my surroundings.

Prior to 2001, which is when I really, seriously started following awards season thanks to Fellowship of the Ring, I had not heard of a lot of those people prior to their Oscar nominations. I had not heard of Ian McKellen, or Benicio Del Toro, but because of the nominations I saw Gods and Monsters and Traffic (and most of those other films, though I had seen Sling Blade, Fargo and Secrets and Lies before the nominations). For the past several years I’ve seen most if not all the films nominated prior to the nominations, but having spent years on the other side too, I know how it is, and I’m speaking from experience.

Obviously Ian McKellen has been around for freaking ever and has been in a lot of stuff, but for me, though I’d seen many of the films he was in, I didn’t make note of who he was. Looking at his IMDB page I see that I saw

The Promise
Corvette Summer
Last Action Hero
The Ballad of Little Jo and
Six Degrees of Separation

and he was in them, but it wasn’t until Gods and Monsters that Ian McKellen became IAN McKELLEN to me. So that when he was cast as Gandalf in LOTR I did know who he was.

Kinda the same way with Benicio Del Toro. He was in some high-profile works, but not ones that the average moviegoer would have seen. I did see them, but didn’t connect Benicio Del Toro with BENICIO DEL TORO until his Oscar nom. Then I saw Traffic and thought, “oh yeah yeah! That’s the same guy from The Usual Suspects and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas!” Sometimes, oftentimes, it takes something extremely high-profile to connect a performance with a name. It used to be for me, and still is sometimes. I’m sure it still is for a lot of people.

I could go through every actor’s name and give my personal experience but I won’t (whew!), it’s just that just because YOU knew an actor’s name and prior work doesn’t mean that everyone has.

Sure, but “well-reviewed” does not equal “everyone’s seen them so they know exactly who such and such is upon nomination.” Lots of Oscar-nominated films are well-reviewed but few people saw them in the theaters. The worldwide gross of Gods and Monsters was $6,451,628 and its widest release was 149 theaters, and it’s at 96% at Rotten Tomatoes. If you’ll notice I didn’t include people like Gloria Stuart and Kate Winslet, even though they were “unknown” (by the general public) prior to Titanic. They became known via the movie’s success, not through the Oscar nominations.

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You’re using the same argument I was using to prove you were off your rocker. The Usual Suspects was a big movie. It didn’t gross big, but it was one of those movies that people went on and on about how you had to see it. In 1995, I was a dumbass 14 year old who had no reason to watch the Oscars because they passed over Twister (though apparently it got a Visual Effects nom). But I still heard about The Usual Suspects because it was a big deal.

A few years later I managed to rent it and I was fucking blown away. I also was shocked that it starred Juan Primo from The Fan.

You’re so hung up on the theater experience that you forget most people watch their movies at home. And it’s at home that even the shittiest movie can find an audience and make an actor more well known. This is doubly true for critically acclaimed movies that don’t watched much in theaters.

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MY ANECDOTE IS MORE VALID THAN YOURS! Damn it.

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Corvette Summer?

25

I first saw Del Toro in “Swimming with Sharks.” What do I win?

26

I’ve already given this same basic rant, but I’ll repeat myself.

Billy Crystal will be fine, I’m sure, just as Eddie Murphy would have been fine. But the Oscar host is almost irrelevant. A good one won’t draw viewers and a bad one won’t repel them. That’s because people, as a whole, DON’T tune in to watch an entertaining variety show. They tune in hoping to see movies they liked win big awards.

I could have hosted the year “LOTR: Return of the King” was up for Best Picture, or the year “Titanic” was up for Best Picture, and the ratings would have been great. On the other hand, in years where all the movies up for Best Picture are indie art-house flicks that nobody saw but the critics (and lately, that’s been the trend), even a genuinely talented emcee won’t be able to attract viewers.

Jon Stewart got pathetic ratings as Oscar host, and since I loathe the guy, I’d like to blame him. But it WASN’T his fault, any more than it was James Franco’s fault that nobody watched last year. The basic problem is, the Oscars are now indistinguishable from the Spirit awards. “The Hurt Locker” MAY have been a great movie, but hardly anybody saw it, which means hardly anybody was interested in watching Hollywood shower awards on Kathryn Bigelow. “Slumdog Millionaire” MAY have been a great movie, but most people never saw it and weren’t interested in watching Hollywood honor it. Now, if “The Dark Knight” had been up for Best Picture (never mind, for a moment, whether it DESERVED to be), ratings would have been excellent with ANY host.

The Academy sees the problem, too. THAT’S why they expanded the number of Best Picture nominees from 5 to 10. They were hoping that maybe, just maybe, if they allowed for more nominees, a blockbuster might have a chance at winning Best Picture.

But in reality, everybody knows that blockbusters AREN’T going to win any awards outside the technical categories.

Good host, bad host, it doesn’t matter. If the Best Picture nominees don’t reflect mainstream moviegoers’ tastes, nobody’s going to watch.

If you regard the OScars primarily as a serious reward for artistry, that’s not a problem. You say, “Honor the movies you think are best, and who cares if Middle America watches?” But if you regard the Oscars as a TV variety show that needs ratings, that’s a HUGE problem.

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I first saw him as a Bond villain, back in the '80s!

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I don’t think the academy got it wrong with “Slumdog”. and the Batman movie was over-rated - I think the Ledger win was the only major win it deserved.

Back to host question - Crystal will do fine. Astorian has a good analysis (tho we differ on Jon Stewart). but I still would have preferred NPH or various others I’ve mentioned elsewhere.

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NPH would have been great, and I hope he does it in the future. And I have can count funny Billy Crystal movies on two fingers (City Slickers and When Harry Met Sally) but he brings the right tone and energy to Oscar night. That “who are you people?” was a joke, and a funny one. Not implying that they didn’t belong, but implying that they were unexpected and making fun the inside-ishness of Hollywood. If anyone should have been offended it would have been the industry types who got bested by these indie outsiders.

But I’m also one who watches for the films, not for the show itself; and I liked Stewart’s gig, so what do I know? (But really, Franco was objectively bad. Very stiff and uncomfortable.)

30

You totally missed my point. I’m saying you give way too much credit to the Oscars when it’s often rarely the first time the public gets a good look at a particular actor.

Just look at Jennifer Lawrence, the most recent name on your list. Before appearing in Winter’s Bone, she filmed a decent-sized role (I think, I’ve never seen it) in The Beaver. And before Winter’s Bone was even in theaters, she started shooting X-Men: First Class. All of this happened before her Oscar nom.

Might it help people remember her name? Sure. But it didn’t have anything to do with a string of high-profile films that people will remember. I doubt the Oscars had much to do with her appearance in the upcoming Hunger Games trilogy either.

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I was happy to hear the news. Billy Crystal is wonderful! He’s a lot of fun, and we can see he’s having fun, too! The only thing I can think might be a problem is his age… maybe?