The Oscar

Saw The Oscar (thanks, Lea!) I loved to hate it. It's about an arrogant, self-absorbed man who becomes an actor and is nominated for the Oscar award ("but does he win?" the film endlessly teases us.) I think he's supposed to be fascinatingly flawed, a brutal but honest man whose brutality helps in his rise to fame. Sort of like Plainview in There Will Be Blood. Unfortunately it comes out more like The Room. Nobody behaves in a way that I recognize as human behavior. The central character is clearly some advanced form of sociopath (which, ok, is intentional) but everything he does rings alarm bells all over the place. I can't believe that anyone could stand his presence for more than an hour and yet he's given a lick-spittle sidekick and women lining up around the block to love and defend him and this is even before he hits Hollywood!

In humble beginnings, he has a clearly abusive relationship with this stripper. She throws him out after he rages at the audacity of her asking him to get a job. He then meets up with a fashion designer who is inexplicably charmed by his relentless, lowbrow "can we just fuck already" conversation. She unwisely takes him to a play rehearsal where he first exhibits his star quality by threatening an actor with a knife and then publicly breaking up with his fashion-designer girlfriend. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how Hollywood stars are born, I guess. (Later on in the film, after money has happened, he shows up at the fashion designer's doorstep to win her back. He asks her to visit him on his boat for old times' sake. She does.)

There's also some deeply uncomfortable suggestions that this central jerk is actually a genuine Real Man, like he's some kind of beautiful beast. Most of these assertions come from him, so they may be intentionally worrying, but there's a scene where a panel of agents declare him to be a real man no less than five times, one after the other. Also, in a semi-showdown with the fashion designer, he suggests she likes it when he's mean to her. This makes her contort her face and hiss "Shut up! Shut up!" Ugh. Just walk away, honey.

Even when the his defeat comes, it's less triumphant and terrible and more just plain hysterical. Fortunately the film also has a hefty dose of weird old 50s-isms ("You got a glass head, I can see right through it! It's how I know you're stupid!) which provide much grist for bewildered repetition to your equally drunk friends. This would make a great party movie. The central character is abhorrent, the acting and shooting is either bewildering or pedestrian, and the script is full of delightful little zen koans. A wonderfully horrible film! Go see it!