' ' Cinema Romantico: One Man's Quest To Get Kelly Macdonald An Oscar Nomination

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

One Man's Quest To Get Kelly Macdonald An Oscar Nomination

I'm pulling the plug on the campaign. Sorry to say it, folks, and sorry to end this endeavor so early in the process but it's the choice I've made. Let Meryl Streep have at her 128th nomination for being Julia Child, if that's "what the people want". I'm content.

Oh, it's not like I didn't spread the word. I recently sent out a third wave of letters to Tom Hanks and Annette Bening.

The message has been plastered far and wide across the world wide interweb, from Digg to Zimbio, from IMDB to Showhype. (I'd like to thank my friend & fellow movie fan Brad for becoming my, shall we say, co-conspirator in this most pressing of matters.)

I sent requests to NPR's All Things Considered as well to the Jonathan Ross Show at the BBC to give a short review of the film on their respective programs and maybe, you know, say something along the lines of, "Hey, that Kelly Macdonald should be considered for an Oscar nomination, don't you think?"

I emailed the esteemed Roger Ebert and Besty Sharkey at the Los Angeles Times, both of whom gave the movie very good reviews, appealing for their help in this matter.

I made pleas to Andrew O'Hehir at Salon.com and with Anne Thompson of Thompson On Hollywood and with the blog Hollywood Elsewhere and the LA Times' Awards Insider to give her just the briefest of plugs.

Why I even tried to enlist the assistance of the renowned Dave Barry at the Miami Herald thinking that no one would be up for a wacky blogging misadventure more than Mr. Barry.

No aid has been forthcoming (perhaps they feel my quest has threatened their own favorite performances).

Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood advised me to "send it along." Send what along, you ask? Apparently the official studio Oscar promotion, is what. Uh...I'm just an idiot with a blog.

Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere responded to my request by asking "What's your affiliation with her?" Again with the affiliation! Why do you have to be affiliated?! Why can't an innocent midwesterner just really like a performance and try to get it some pub since no one else seems to be doing anything about it?! Is that wrong?! Is that a crime?!

..........

Okay, I'm better now.

Rewatching the movie last week after purchasing it on DVD I was not simply struck for the third time by its brilliance and patience (I love the people who criticize the movie for being too slow. If this movie is too slow than let's just make it official - the Human Attention Span is dead. Gone. Kaput. Finito. Let's just make all our movies as long as a tweet and be done with it.) but also by the fact it does not matter whether or not Kelly Macdonald lands an Oscar nomination.

The 16th President once said: "Don't worry when you are not recognized, but strive to be worthy of recognition." Kelly Macdonald is worthy of recognition. A gigantic boatload of it. But she's simply not going to get it. The casual movie fans glancing at "The Merry Gentleman" on Netflix probably think it's based on the Christmas carol. ("Wait, where's the scene where the shepherds leave their flocks feeding in the tempest? I'm confused.") Not all performances and movies are meant to be lavished with gold, frankincense and myrrh. Some performances are meant to keep quiet and remain incognito and do not deserve to be sullied in the corrupt hustle and bustle of Oscar season with its cutthroat Variety ads and covert email operations.

But these performances, performances like Edie Falco in "Sunshine State" or Charles Dutton in "Cookie's Fortune", will forever be out there, laying low in all their glory, patiently waiting for people every now and then to discover them and watch them and then turn off the DVD player in wonder and awe.

Kelly Macdonald as Kate Frazier isn't going anywhere. Don't rush if you don't want to. You'll get there sooner or later and I promise it will welcome you with open arms.

2 comments:

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