Regarding Mo'Nique... What Nick Said

I am sad to report that my frequent partner in movie gabbing, Nick, has opted out of future Oscar podcasts this year. He's soured on the season already because he only likes two of the twentyish movies in play. I've had my own Way Off Consensus years and it's true that they ain't much fun. They're very nearly its opposite. If you're feeling underwhelmed by this year's prestige crop, I suggest you read his brutal but razor sharp takedown of nearly every Oscar contender.

I do want to quote this bit on Mo'Nique because it's exactly what I've been feeling but was unable to vocalize.

...Mo'Nique's refusal to play the campaigning game, at least not in a straightforward way, which if/when she wins for Precious has the potential to set an inspiring precedent for letting quality of work, rather than vehemence of desire and scale of self-advertising, determine the eventual Oscar winner. This would entail a huge victory for actors, who ought to be able to prioritize their creative work over their own grossly expensive and almost inevitably canned gabbing about it, and also a victory for us, since the ubiquitous obsessions with horse-racing and self-perpetuating publicity are threatening to overwhelm what almost anyone has to say about the actual movies. And yet people have been giving her shit about it for months! For God's sake, why?

Hear! Hear!

I wish the Oscar bloggers/journalists who are doing this (you know who you are) would cease and desist immediately. Think about what you're doing! It's not good for the cinema or even for the Oscars cred to demonize an actor for not caring about it in the way that we expect them to care about and beg for it. In the end it should be about the work or, rather, it should be as much about the work as it can be given everything else that goes on. I'm not hopelessly delusional.

I think it's worth noting that refusing to take the Oscars seriously should not and does not (historically speaking) automatically cost you the statue if its obvious to a huge swath of the population, Academy and otherwise, that you've given a performance for the ages. One that people will be talking about for years. Plenty of actors before Mo'Nique have resisted the game or not played entirely by its rules. You may have heard of some of their names: Katharine Hepburn, George C Scott, Marlon Brando, Dustin Hoffman... Oscar winners all. Kate actually won four.

a photo I snapped of Hepburn's Oscars. She never attended any of
the twelve ceremonies in which she was nominated.

Allow me to misquote another four time Oscar winner...

Deserve's got something to do with it.

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