Typical glitz turns sour in ‘ugliest Oscar season ever’
The red carpet has been rolled out, the frocks are being flown in from Paris Fashion Week, but with the Oscars set for Monday, Hollywood seems oddly morose. In the mansions of Beverly Hills and the bars of Sunset Boulevard, the talk is of scandal, smears and boxoffice bombs.
Almost all involved with the Academy Awards – from A-list stars to lowly showbiz journalists – agree that fatigue has overtaken the film industry on the eve of its glitziest fiesta. The awards season has been unusually long this year, after the Oscars were pushed back to avoid clashing with the Winter Olympics in Sochi.
By now, an endless procession of champagne receptions have lost their fizz. And the bitterest pill for Tinseltown’s egotists? Last weekend, more people went to see a film about Lego than went to see all the Oscar nominees for Best Picture combined. In fact, 66 per cent of Americans have not seen a single one of the 11 top Oscarnominated films.
Captain Phillips – the historical accuracy of which is the source of much controversy – was the mostwatched, and it has been seen by just 15 per cent of the United States public.
Depressing themes may have depressed box-office takings. Dallas Buyers Club, which is about a dying man’s battle to gain access to life-prolonging drugs, has grossed just US$25 million (NZ$30m). Her, about a man who falls in love with his mobile phone, then is dumped by it, has taken a mere US$24m so far and is on course to lose money.
Another factor that seems to have switched off ordinary Americans is that a stiff competition between a closely matched field of films has spawned an exhausting stream of concocted media mini-scandals.
While The Wolf of Wall Street was attacked for celebrating the sociopathic hedonism it was supposed to indict, American Hustle, a crime caper set in the 1970s, was criticised for making light of the true events on which it is based (the person Jennifer Lawrence plays for comic relief committed suicide).
Gravity was condemned for misrepresenting the orbit of the International Space Station, and Dallas Buyers Club was derided by gay-rights advocates for telling the story of the 1980s fight against Aids through the lens of a heterosexual, played by Matthew McConaughey. For the first time, an Oscar nominee – the song Alone Yet Not Alone – was disqualified for unethical campaigning.
Then there were allegations of sexual abuse made against Woody Allen by his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow, which the filmmaker has vigorously denied.
‘‘More than in any recent year, a kind of sourness has settled over the Academy Awards,’’ said Mark Harris, a veteran film journalist. Goldderby.com, an awards website, wondered: ‘‘Is this the ugliest Oscar season ever?’’
The one film that has prospered thanks to the Oscars spotlight is 12 Years a Slave, which has earned US$100m, having cost an estimated US$20m to make.
Its commercial success means that Britain – which supplied its director, Steve McQueen, and much of its cast and crew – will have something to celebrate on Monday, no matter who wins.
As will those obliged to follow every twist and turn of the Oscars race. ‘‘Please understand, I love my job,’’ said Scott Feingold, who covers the awards for The Hollywood Reporter. ‘‘But I’m looking forward to never discussing these films again.’’