Once again, in its nominations for the best films of 2008, Academy voters show they they don't get the joke. At Oscar time, comedies such as Julie & Julia, 500 Days of Summer and The Hangover are inevitably passed over because at Hollywood's annual throwdown serious movies get taken more seriously.
And not only in the best picture and screenplay categories: In the acting categories you'd have to go back to 1977 when Richard Dreyfuss won for The Goodbye Girl and Diane Keaton for Annie Hall and 1987 when Cher won for Moonstruck and 1997 when Helen Hunt and Jack Nicholson won statuettes for As Good as It Gets to see lead actors awarded for a movie comedy.
Nancy Meyers, who writes movie comedies such as Something's Gotta Give and It's Complicated observed the unfairness of this bias a few years back when she told me that considering the degree of difficulty involved, the bias against comedy is a raw deal: "In drama, you have a big target. In comedy, you have to hit the bullseye." To put it another way: Oscar rewards the tears of a clown, but not the clown himself: Robin Williams didn't win an Oscar till he wept in Good Will Hunting. Tom Hanks gives a once-in-a-lifetime performance in Big, but gets Oscars for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump.
Classicists tell us that the bias against comedy is ancient. Plato held a low opinion of the comic form. At their theater festivals, Athenians devoted three days to tragedy and only one to comedy.
Shakespeare was criticized for "mixing kings and clowns." But should the Academy likewise be critical? What Shakespeare knew that Academy voters seem not to is that while the king rules the people, the jester rules the king.
Which comedy films/screenplays/performances got overlooked this year? The most egregious omission for me is Stanley Tucci, brilliant in Julie & Julia and pretty dull as the serial killer in The Lovely Bones, a role that nabbed him a nomination. Your thoughts?
This was not a great year for comedy, though I might have nominated Sandler for his work in Funny People. This isn't quite like 40 Year Old Virgin getting shut out of the noms.— Adam B.- This is one of the many reasons that I've come to prefer the Golden Globes.— LizzieB
- Comedy is tricky because not everyone laughs at the same thing. I thought IN THE LOOP was one of the funniest films in recent memory, and while it got a token nomination in the adapted screenplay category, Peter Capaldi gave one of the best performances last year. Even Patricia Clarkson--hilarious in the mild WHATEVER WORKS--appeared to be shut out of the running before the horserace began.— garyk
- The Oscars show is a comedy like all awards shows...all about cleavage and publicity— retzlaff
- ok, so let me get this straight. they added 5 more best picture noms because of the "outrage" of the dark knight not getting a nom last year and then don't nominate the most entertaining film of last year (star trek)? i don't get it. and just curious as to what you think would have been nominated had it been just 5 this year. I'd say Hurt Locker, Serious Man and Up in the Air, An Education and Inglorious Basterds would have and people would have been whining about Precious and Avatar (not the same people though.) What do you think?— eaglesfillthesky
- I can't believe District 9 got nominated and Star Trek did not.— carrierickey
- The Oscars show is a comedy.perfect— lucy91162
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