We’ve never been big fans of Slumdog Millionaire here at the SpoutBlog. Kevin Buist was first underwhelmed with Danny Boyle’s hyperactive Mumbai game show movie at Telluride, where he called it “hectic and sloppy, especially considering the rigid and somewhat boring structure upon which the film is built,” and noting that the love story in particular was “sorely lacking.”

When we re-posted this review around the time of the film’s general release, commenters started attacking Kevin right away. “i think you have no knowledge of being a movie reviewer,” ‘prady‘ wrote. “Just watch the movie and its great.You might have some problem,contact your doctor soon.” And ‘clearly’ had a number of questions: “um, Kevin, really? Why are you qualified to write reviews.. perhaps another line of work for ya? Rigid and boring structure? are you blind, ignorant or just stupid?” The onslaught became so much that Kevin responded and defended his position on an episode of FilmCouch.

But after the film’s Golden Globes sweep (see the full list of its wins at the newly re-designed indieWIRE) last night, that review began to attract some very different comments.

…Read more

A few episodes ago, we talked about Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire. We had a few bones to pick with hyper-paced indie romance, some of which caused us to question the value of Boyle’s cannon. As we should have expected, a few listeners were not happy with us dogging the feel-good, rags-to-riches, out-of-left-field Oscar contender of the year.

Meanwhile, Karina has written a less than favorable review of the forthcoming David Fincher film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Again, a wave of backlash has ensued.

Are we simply spiteful film snobs who love ripping on movies while they ride a wave of buzz into awards season? No. We love movies. But sometimes that love must be tough. On this week’s show we clarify a few positions, navigate the tricky waters of blogosphere backlash, and search for what Werner Herzog calls “adequate images.”

(Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store or to our RSS feed and an episode will download each Friday)

0:00 - Intro, the ideal Thanksgiving

7:56 - Slumdog backlash, It’s a Wonderful Life, Casablanca

24:41 - Karina on Benjamin Button

filmcouch-98

If you’ve been on the Internet at all this past week, you’ve probably heard that Heath Ledger could receive a posthumous Oscar nomination for his performance in The Dark Knight. That’s with emphasis on could, because, after all, anyone could be nominated. Uwe Boll could be nominated for Best Director. He won’t be, but he could be.

And apparently Ledger probably won’t be nominated either. A Reuters article has collected quotes (not new) from the realists commenting on Ledger’s actual Oscar chances, which Los Angeles Times‘ Tom O’Neil says is a “long shot.” He also provided the following expert comment: “That’s how reluctant Oscar voters are to hug the dead. These awards are all about hugs and there’s something creepy about embracing the dead.” Meanwhile Leonard Maltin says the excitement is a “phenomenon of the Internet age” and is merely a “wish-fulfillment rumor.”

Does this mean the Internerds are over-hyping Ledger’s performance and in doing so are maybe actually ruining Ledger’s chance for that posthumous Oscar?

Certainly Terry Gilliam (who thinks the buzz originates from Warner Bros.) would again be grateful to the legions of movie geeks on the web, but is it only the bloggers and the even less respected geeks who are doing the worst damage?

Now that the real promotional appearances and actual reviews are out, it seems that bigger buzz is coming from people who typically receive more respect than those of us who are mere blog writers:

• TDK costars Michael Caine, who has championed for a nomination on such venues as The Tonight Show and The View, and Gary Oldman, who mentioned Oscar in an AP article.
• Filmmaker Kevin Smith, also quoted in the AP article.
• Richard Roeper and Michael Phillips, who called Ledger’s performance “Academy Award caliber” on At the Movies with Ebert and Roeper.
• Roger Ebert himself
• Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers
• Toronto Star critic Peter Howell, who also wants Oscar noms for Best Picture and Best Director and who acknowledges the death=Oscar junk by writing, “Ledger, whose incandescent performance would have attracted serious Oscar talk even without the actor’s untimely passing.”
• Non-”top critic” — but still non-blog critic — Gina Carbone of Seacoast Newspapers, who apologetically yet non-apologetically writes, “I’m tired of the early Oscar talk too, but when you’re talking the best performance in years, if not decades, it’s worth talking about.” She also wants an additional Oscar nom, for Best Makeup.
• Newswires like Reuters and AP
• And even O’Neil, who has at least carried the Oscar buzz into his own writings

For awhile there, I thought so much Oscar buzz would disappointingly influence a nomination for the wrong reasons. Now I think so much Oscar buzz could disappointingly influence a snub for the wrong reasons.

What do you think? Is Ledger’s performance really worthy of an Oscar? Or is it being overhyped? And either way, is it unrealistic or unhelpful (especially when considering the others deserving of posthumous Oscars) to continue championing him so far in advance?

• Everybody’s mad about those Foreign Language Oscar nominations, right? Not Nick Dawson. At the FILMMAKER blog, he notes that nominated films that would have otherwise been deemed too small for US distribution “magically” land deals once it becomes possible to “put the words ‘Oscar’ and ‘Nominated’ in big letters on the poster…As a result, this year Oscar has all but guaranteed us the new films from Nikita Mikhalkov, Andrzej Wajda and Sergei Bodrov – three undeniably great directors — in addition to films like Persepolis, Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days and The Orphanage.” Much more at the link.
• At Big Media Vandalism, Odienator gives us a homework assignment: “Rent MGM’s That’s Entertainment III to hear Lena Horne tell you how badly she was treated by MGM. She’ll also show you the aforementioned cut pieces of her Cabin in the Sky performance. It’s worth it. She’s singing a song in a bubble bath.”
• “Technological innovation, in my opinion, not only created the movies, but insured that the art form would remain an important part of American culture over more than a century.” So says Scott Kirsner, by way of introducing a post counting out Five Oscar Wins That Shaped The Movies.
• At The Huffington Post, Jack Donaldson explains why he has yet to join the backlash against much-reviled Oscar winners such as American Beauty, Forrest Gump and Crash: “They are the Billy Joel’s of movies, and I’m a big Billy Joel fan.” I applaud the closet-exit on that score, but it’s a bit troubling that Donaldson really doesn’t seem to realise that the Juno backlash is totally in progress.