Every day, Opening Acts highlights the best pieces of writing on film, television, and literature published around the Internet. Please share if you like what you see.
For your reading enjoyment …
Oscar Films and the Prison of Historical Accuracy by Bilge Ebiri. Bilge Ebiri reports on the trouble with Oscars and Historical Accuracy.
You know it’s Oscar season when the historical-accuracy hit squads show up. Over the past several weeks, it seems that almost every major awards contender has had some kind of high-profile accusation flung at it over its misappropriation of the truth. It happens every year, of course (remember the late Christopher Hitchens laying into The King’s Speech back in 2011?), but this time, it’s reached comically epidemic levels — in part because so many of the Oscar contenders are either biopics or otherwise historical in nature.
The liberating vulgarity of Billy Wilder’s Some Like It Hot by Nathan Rabin. Nathan Rabin discusses the iconic Billy Wilder comedy, Some Like It Hot.
Before today, I would never have ranked Some Like It Hot among my favorite Billy Wilder movies. Heck, I’m not even sure I would have ranked it among my top 10 favorite Wilder movies. Part of this is attributable to my snobbish aversion to cross-dressing humor, which has to rank somewhere among puns, prop comedy, sound effects (sorry, Michael Winslow), and flatulence-based ribaldry in my personal hierarchy of humor, despite the rarified places Some Like It Hot and Tootsie (and Monty Python and Kids In The Hall, for that matter) hold in the comedy canon.
LBJ, MLK and “Selma”: Hollywood’s controversy and the search for historical truth by Andrew O’Hehir. Andrew O’Hehir discusses how Selma might’ve made LBJ out to be a villain, but it was vital to telling the story.
When dramatic works draw upon historical events, is their primary responsibility to tell a good story or to tell the truth? It’s an overly simplistic question, I guess: The only right answer is “both,” and that’s before we get to the fact that historical truth is never neutral, unambiguous or fixed in place. Any fictional interpretation of what happened in the past is just that – an interpretation, conditioned by ideology and perspective, and subject to debate.
Noted Gender Expert Russell Crowe Explains Why Actresses Over 40 Complain About Hollywood’s Obsession With Youth by Jason Bailey. Jason Bailey suggests Russell Crowe is completely full of shit.
There are already plenty of reasons to loathe Russell Crowe. He is, by most accounts, a bullyingboor; he hasn’t made a good movie in years(2007, by my clock); he’s one of those actors who insists on also playing rock star. Well, if all that weren’t enough, we can now add “sexist mansplainer” to Crowe’s CV, thanks to a face-palming interview in The Australian Woman’s Weekly, wherein he just wishes that all these lady actresses would learn to act their age.
‘Starred Up,’ ‘’71,’ and the Real Jack O’Connell by Sean Witzke. Sean Witzke suggests viewers view Jack O’Connell’s previous films before penning the actor solely on Unbroken.
Jack O’Connell had a banner year. He’s currently starring in Amy Pascal’s favorite movie, Unbroken, and his portrayal of Louis Zamperini has been talked up for a Best Actor Oscar nomination. But he also appeared in two of the leanest, meanest action films of 2014. Both are British, and neither is the kind of film they give out Academy Awards for. Though they probably should.
Concession Stand:
- The Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) have announced their nominations.
- Netflix Sets ‘Daredevil’ Premiere Date, Renews ‘Marco Polo’ for Season 2
- First Trailer For David Cross’ Directorial Debut ‘Hits’ With Michael Cera, Matt Walsh, and More
- Broadchurch series 2 secrecy felt like spy mission, says Arthur Darvill
- ‘Ant-Man’ Trailer: Paul Rudd Is Marvel’s Latest, Smallest Movie Superhero
