The year in film will soon be subject to Oscar’s parade of hype and glitz for the 77th time. The annual trip down the red carpet comes during a time of change in Hollywood.
While America’s love for simple and broad movies has never wavered, moviegoers and critics alike are finally recognizing the appeal and innovation that an independent film can bring. Although it took most of the ’90s for America to embrace independents instead of dismissing them, it is now clearly evident that the independent movie is a permanent staple in Hollywood. So, while it took the academy elite a decade or two of stubbornness to accept the independents, the real shame lies in its nearly 80-year tradition of ignoring comedy.
According to Oscar, the winning formula for achieving the Best Actor award is to be a badass murderer or lose an incredible amount of weight and overact in a tear-jerking drama. Russell Crowe, Denzel Washington, Adrien Brody and Sean Penn have all embraced this call for glory and fame as each of their respective performances was falsely dubbed that year’s best. The ability to sustain oneself in a character and make an audience laugh is the single hardest task an actor can take on. Comedic actors such as Jim Carrey, Bill Murray, Adam Sandler and Will Ferrell take on this challenge year after year and still are not recognized for their talents by the academy.
While the Golden Globes and its mysterious foreign press (which according to Robin Williams was previously thought just to be a wrestling move) slightly one-up the academy for recognizing comedy in separate categories, isolation is not the answer. I suppose segregation was better than slavery, but that doesn’t mean it was the right thing to do.
The amount of relevance an Oscar win would hold on comedy can also be called into question. Does comedy really need to be recognized by a bunch of politically controlled corporate fat cats, who are usually five to six years behind honoring brilliance anyway? Martin Scorsese’s “The Aviator” is a solid film but arguably not even in his personal top five as a director. However, Scorsese has been snubbed so many times that the academy will most likely award him the Best Picture anyway. This is a slap in the face to stellar and original pieces such as “Sideways” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” which, despite its brilliant Charlie Kaufman screenplay, probably won’t be nominated for Best Picture because it stars Jim Carrey.
With the exception of Johnny Depp, no other actor in the past 20 years has taken more chances than Jim Carrey. Carrey has proven himself a versatile performer capable of acting in dramatic roles such as “The Truman Show” and “The Majestic.” He impersonated an icon flawlessly while playing the role of Andy Kaufman in the biopic “Man on the Moon” and still manages to satisfy the audience that elevated him to stardom with the occasional Farrelly brother’s comedy.
In 2003, Carrey set a new standard for a male lead in a romantic comedy with the groundbreaking film “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.” Simply because Carrey began his career singing opera out of his ass, the academy continues to ignore his talents.
After many turns as the quick-witted normal guy, Bill Murray took a major career risk and decided to work with young and unproven directors such as Sophia Coppola and Wes Anderson. What resulted was an entirely new and fresh way of looking at comedy through a thoughtful and melodramatic approach. Not surprisingly, Murray lost last year and will probably not be nominated this year.
The same story can be told for Adam Sandler, whose fine performances in “Punch-Drunk Love” and “Spanglish” were overlooked, probably due to hilarious but perhaps immature turns in films like “Billy Madison.”
What Oscar and his committee of stubborn old men fail to realize is the connection between comedy and the newly embraced independent film. Independents are loved by corporate studios for their ability to reach the intellectual demographic and are an ideal opportunity for skilled actors to challenge themselves. They are scooped up by the Sunset Boulevard community and often present themselves as no-loss situations. Indies are usually quite cheap to make by movie standards, so the slightest bit of commercial success means a sizeable overall profit. They are also often marketed as glorified art projects and when they fail both critically and commercially, audiences and critics are accused of being closed-minded and too simple.
A single comedy film can touch people as young as five and as old as 97. The task of making a funny comedy is daunting and is often done quite poorly as proven in 2003 with the releases of “White Chicks” and “Without a Paddle.” This should only serve to motivate actors, directors and producers, as comedies are inexpensive to make and usually provide a stress-free environment.
It is time for the academy to end its nearly eight-decade run at ignoring comedy and honor these actors for their memorable performances. In 50 years, nobody will remember the performances of Leonardo DiCaprio and his 19 close-ups per minute or Denzel Washington passionately yelling and pointing at his co-star at or near the 90-minute mark of every movie. They will, however, remember how a group of underrated comedic actors continue to reinvent a genre of film through risk-taking and creativity.
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