Monday, February 28, 2005

Quick question.

I'm not sure that I fully understand why it is that every goddam time Martin Scorsese makes a movie, there's an initial period of reserved praise and then an extreme, undeserved backlash. Yes, I think we can all agree that The Aviator isn't Taxi Driver or Raging Bull. It's still a fine, solid piece of filmmaking from a master craftsman (which, I regret to say, Million Dollar Baby is not). It just amazes me that these latter-day Marty movies get so unfairly slammed. The point of this post is: what is up with this Cate Blanchett hatred? She's one of--if not the--greatest actress working today, has never won an Oscar and is fantastic in The Aviator. Yet, I've now seen three or four blogs (I'm too lazy to backtrack and link to all of them, but here's one) proclaim Cate unworthy of her Oscar because her performance was (in the words of Emanuel Levy) "more mimicry than acting."
To which I say:
1) Yes and the problem is...?
2) Wait, you're going to call Cate out on that shit and not Jamie Foxx?

Seriously people, explain this to me. Why they all gotta hate on Marty via Cate? (Or vice versa.) And if we really want to get it movin' movin', chew on this additional bit of nonsense from aforemention Levy colum:

"Despite lengthy careers, most American directors do not make masterpieces, which is a topic for a serious examination. It may be a reflection of the conditions under which they work and the economic-industrial marketplace."
Eye roll.

3 Comments:

At 11:33 PM, Blogger Joshua said...

I think it is totally fair to accuse an actor of merely "mimicking" their way into an Academy Award. People often confuse impersonations with acting. Still, Cate Blanchett is obviously an actress, and she should be given an Oscar just for inserting a tampon.

As for Jamie Foxx, at least Cate mimicked her way to the Oscar by playing Hepburn, who was amazing and brilliant, not Ray Charles who is about as interesting as concrete. I don't see any need to make any movies about shitty, boring, bad-voiced blind people. The most interesting thing I can think of about Ray Charles is Hepatitis B and C. And I just made that up.

 
At 3:52 AM, Blogger Joshua said...

Oh, and I totally agree re: Scorcese. Of course, I think The Age of Innocence and Kundun are both far better than GoodFellas, so what do I know?

 
At 2:30 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

why does the idea of watching Cate Blanchett insert a tampon really turn me on....

 

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