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THE 75TH
ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDS NOMINATIONS. A COMMENTARY BY ALEX GRANT
Entirely predictable
and dismayingly dull, with the exception of well-deserved nominations
for Diane Lane [ UNFAITHFUL ] and for Sir Michael Caine [THE QUIET AMERICAN
] the one saving grace of the Oscar nominees roll-call for 2002 is the
prominence given to women actors.
At a time when the pro-Christian / anti-female thrust of George W. Bushs
sinister Republican administration is worldwide - denying women
all access to long endorsed methods of contraception and abortion, and
rescinding a womans right to control her own body. Only a madman
would force a victim of rape to bear the resultant child, surely to God
? Rent a DVD Dubya and see Hollywood celebrate the strong, self-defined
woman, huh?
For the most part the movies nominated for the bulk of the Academy Awards
are dull and uninspired GANGS OF NEW YORK a juvenile indulgence
in incessant brutality from Scorsese; CHICAGO a very insecure ( when not
insipid ) gloss on the cynical sharp-witted Broadway success; THE TWO
TOWERS a prolonged gruelling tribute to rather cheesy SPFX and a far less
accomplished epic than the ebullient first part; not a good year for "major
motion pictures". Even Todd Haynes FAR FROM HEAVEN was merely
a finicky, obsessive-compulsive, and honestly anguished copy of a Fifties
template for the weepie melodrama, Douglas Sirks ALL
THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS, with the addition of some excruciatingly stilted homilies
about racism and homophobia.
© Alex Grant 2003
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