B - The Michigan Daily - Welz., 4c. - Thursday, February 15, 1996
Offbeat fihms take lead in race for Oscars
Los Angeles Times
First there were three. Now there are
two. Will one of them still be around on
March 25?
When the pre-Oscar handicapping
got into gear earlier this year, a trio of
unlikely films emerged as long-shot
candidates forbestpicture nominations.
Two of them, "The Postman (I1
Postino)" and "Babe," mocked the odds
and won the academy's favor, while
"Leaving Las Vegas" was less success-
ful. Why did it fail while the others suc-
ceeded, and what does the overallsuccess
ofall three (16 nominations all told) mean
about the Oscars and the film community
they nominally represent?
The last question is easier to answer,
because it becomes more apparent year
after year that academy voters are not
any more pleased with the bread-and-
butter products of the industry than
most critics. Yes, traditional middle-
of-the-road epics like "Braveheart" and
"Apollo 13" still get all the nomina-
tions they can handle, but once they're
gone, most of the votes go to the kinds
of offbeat pictures that studios either
refuse to finance or don't consider the
core of their mandate.
The result is a situation in which
companies like Miramax (11 nomina-
tions for five films) and Gramercy (six
nominations for two films) do better
than 20th Century Fox and TriStar, nei-
ther of whom managed any nomina-
tions at all. In effect, Oscar voters are
going for the films the studios no longer
know how to make, which explains the
big fuss over the Australian-made
"Shine" at the recent Sundance Film
Festival.
Given that trend, why did some films
benefit while others did not? No single
answer covers them all, but each film's
path shows the varying factors that can
influence the nomination output.
The success of "The Postman" (five
nominations, including four ofthe most
prestigious in picture, director, actor
and screenplay) is the latest tribute to
the marketing savvy and determination
of Harvey and Bob Weinstein and their
Miramax crew.
This is not to take anything away
from the pleasures of that film or the
remarkable performance by its star,
Massimo Troisi. But it's safe to say
that: A) No one seeing that film early in
its run would have predicted as much as
a single Oscar nomination; and B) No
one but Miramax could have engineered
such a feat.
But when Harvey Weinstein falls in
love with a film, all bets are off. It's not
merely that he spends money and en-
ergy on publicity and promotion, he
spends out of all proportion to reality or
even a likely payoff, as those who re-
member his championing of the
underwhelming "Hear My Song" can
attest.
With "I1 Postino," he was backing a
strong candidate, and his insistent bar-
rage did a pair of critical things: It put a
spotlight on the film, reminding people
that they'd liked it, and, perhaps even
more important, turning the picture into
an event. It made voters feel that rather
than throwing away their vote on a
whim they might be part of a historic
groundswell that could make a differ-
ence.
A similar sort of empowerment, but
one that happened without the benefit
of a massive publicity campaign, is the
story behind "Babe." One of the least
ballyhooed of studio releases, "Babe"
was a film whose fans, at least initially,
formed a kind of silent majority, as
convinced of their own partisanship as
of the fact that not enough people could
care enough to make a best picture
nomination happen.
Ratherthan publicity, it wasthe spot-
light ofawards that probably convinced
"Babe" partisans to go for it. The film
began appearing on 10-best lists, it won
best picture from the prestigious Na-
tional Society of Film Critics, it even
pleased the notoriously fussy (yes, I'm
kidding) voters who hand out Golden
Globes. Over the last few weeks, you
could sense "Babe" partisans around
town realizing they hada chance, which
encouraged them to act.
So what about "Leaving Las Vegas"?
It had its share of publicity and more
than its share of critical awards. And it
did manage nominations for actor, ac-
tress, directing and screenplay. What
happened to best picture?
The answer demonstrates that as
much as academy membership has
changed, evidenced by opening the
Oscars to smaller films like "Postman"
and "Babe," some things remain the
same. Its age bias still skewers toward
the high end of the scale, and reports
from the film's academy screenings
indicated that the key older segment of
the audience simply found "Las Vegas"
too downbeat to support across the
board.
Two categories that have caused con-
troversy in past years, the nominations
handed in by the foreign film and docu-
mentary committees, stirred up less of a
fuss this year, but there were still things
to take note of.
Although "Crumb" made many 10-
best lists in 1995, the documentary com-
mittee got ahead of the curve by rejecting
it a year ago when it was officially eli-
gible. This year, the committee raised a
few more eyebrows by passing over"The
Celluloid Closet," an excellent and
thoughtful study of the ways Hollywood
has dealt with homosexuality. Most of its
choices were, as usual, safe and tradi-
tional, with the possible exception of
"Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern," a
double winner at Sundance.
In foreign films, the committee ne-
glected the widely admired "The White
Balloon" from Iran, the Cannes hit "Un-
derground" from Yugoslavia, Spain's
"The Flower of My Secret" (Pedro
Almodovar's return to form) and "El
Callejon de los Milagros," the most
successful Mexican film in years.
But the advance word is good on
several ofthe nominees, even those like
Sweden's "All Things Fair," directed
by veteran Bo Widerberg, and Brazil's
"O Quatrilho," that do not yet have
distributors. Maybe this category will
manage a happy ending after all.
The Weekly World News is so entertaining, it's almost unbelievable.
Weekly World News.
Jounalsms best bargai
"Babe" is a movie starring a pig. How could it not win an Oscar?
HBO chronicles late-night talk show ratings
war in made-for-TV movie 'The Late Shift'
The Hartford Courant
It has been nearly five years since
Johnny Carson told America he was
palling it quits.
An eternity in TV.f
And in that time, so much has been
written about the late-night TV talk-
show wars - about David Letterman
and Jay Leno-that the following
question must be asked about "The
Late Shift," HBO's made-for-TV
movie based on New York Times TV
reporter Bill Carter's best-selling
book.
Does anybody still care?
HBO, which probably has the clos-
est thing to a tailor-made audience for
this project, sees "The Late Shift" as
a kind of Hollywood "Barbarians at
the Gate," a board room drama filled
with Machiavellian intrigue and huge
egos.
Letterman, before the film was even
made, called it "the single-largest
waste of film since my wedding pho-
tos."
I wouldn't go that far. (Although,
some have. More about that later.)
I see it more as the ultimate inside
story- a made-to-order, before-and-
after gossip fest for industry wags
who want to see themselves in the
corners of the film or watch well-
deserving big shots get theirs in a
very public forum.
For people "on the outside," the
main attraction will undoubtedly be
watching John Michael Higgins
(who recently starred in "The Ri-
vals" at Hartford Stage) do
Letterman, Daniel Roebuck ("The
Fugitive") do Leno, and Kathy Bates
("Misery") chew the scenery and
run amok as Leno's longtime man-
ager Helen Kushnick.
And, from where I sat - both at
home and on the job - Higgins does
the greatest bit of acting here, offer-
ing a real characterization in a movie
filled with caricatures.
Roebuck's Leno, on the other hand,
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prosthetic jaw and all, is wimpy at
best, a disservice to a man who is
obviously far more complicated than
Roebuck's sniveling portrayal would
suggest.
Bates, the headliner, is completely
over the top as Kushnick, who guided
Leno to the top only to self-destruct.
Unfortunately, she sometimes over-
powers the film.
As for the rest of the cast and the
rest of the story ...
Treat Williams ("Things To Do
in Denver When You're Dead")
steals a bunch of scenes as super
agent Michael Ovitz (now presi-
dent of Walt Disney Co.), the man
who got Letterman $14 million a
year after he lost "The Tonight
Show" to Leno.
Bob Balaban, cast as NBC Enter-
tainment President Warren
Littlefield, plays essentially the
same TV exec he has portrayed in
episodes of"Seinfeld," which is not
Littlefield so much as a cardboard
cutout.
Steven Gilborn is dead-on as Pe-
ter Lassally, executive producer of
Carson's and now Letterman's
show.
But Rich Little, ironically, is to-
tally miscast as Carson, precisely be-
cause he does Carson so well as an
impression - which underscores the
film's greatest weakness. Even with
the directorial cheek of Betty Tho-
mas, "The Late Shift" is step-by-step
mimicry.
Furthermore, the punch-line to
"The Late Shift" keeps changing.
When Carter's book was first pub-
lished in 1994, NBC looked like the
big loser. As an epilogue at the end
of the film explains, Letterman was
No. 1 in late night for 90 weeks
straight.
Until, that is, Hugh Grant appeared
on "The Tonight Show" to talk about
his arrest for soliciting sex. Since then
Leno has been No. 1.
The story, no doubt, will change
again. What you should know, though,
is that some reviews you'll be reading
will be tainted by jealousy.
Carter, who wrote the screenplay,
has been widely criticized by many
of his longtime colleagues for what
they consider a conflict of interest
- i.e. doing business with a com-
pany he covers. (Carter has not cov-
ered HBO since it bid for the rights
on the book. That work has been re-
assigned temporarily to other Times
staffers.)
The truth is that at least some of his
critics have scripts of their own at
home, gathering dust. Or wish they
had at least that.
Now that's show biz.
y
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