Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Harmonia (A) on February 24, 2009 at 07:31:06

In Reply to: RE: The Academy seldom rewards with Best Actor a one-time posted by tinear on February 23, 2009 at 14:58:07

The Oscars don't really mean that much in the greater scheme of things. They're industry awards, and a commercial segment of the industry to boot.

AMPAS is more about film business than film art. The best picture of the year???? Usually not. Sometimes good movies win, sometimes not. The one thing you need to determine the "best" of any given year - time - you don't have with annual awards. So I don't get too invested in the Oscars except for fun and handicapping.

As it happens, this year I thought Penn gave his best film performance ever, a very fine one by anyone's standards. As I said, I'm not especially a Penn fan, but I found his Harvey Milk totally believable, subtle, 3 dimensional and convincing. I'm able to ignore an actor's personal baggage if they don't bring it along, which in this case, Penn didn't. Mickey R had a great, iconic role,and if he sticks around, he'll eventually get his statue. In the meantime, he got plenty of other awards this season.

That's just the way the Oscars work and I refuse to get very excited about it