The Oscar races are on, and they are vicious.
There’s already a big kerfuffle over director Brady Corbet using AI for some of “The Brutalist.” This kind of reveal usually comes from the same source every Oscar season. It’s hard to say how this was generated. The AI debate is going to rage now because if that kind of software use is not specified up front, all bets are off. This would change filmmaking considerably.
PS One might ask, if Corbet did use AI, couldn”t he have programmed it to make the movieshorter, and maybe a little unpleasant?
Meantime, on Sunday the New York Times Styles section ran a profile of Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis. Rebecca Garelick authored the piece, an appreciation of Curtis’s fine work in “The Last Showgirl.”
Only one problem: the piece made it seem like Curtis had never won an Oscar. In fact, she picked up Best Supporting Actress two years ago for playing the cranky tax auditor in “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” How was this omission possible?
Garelick’s article was certainly timed to the Oscar race for “The Last Showgirl.” Some publicist had placed it in the Times. But leaving out the fact that Curtis had just won an Oscar seemed almost intentional. Maybe if Academy voters saw the article the way it was worded, they wouldn’t think, ‘She just won!”
Very tricky stuff. Curtis is great in “The Last Showgirl” as a broken down former performer who’s seen it all. Curtis’s makeup alone should get awards. I said so when I reviewed the film from the Toronto Film Festival. But either Garelick was clueless, or a Times editor thought the original Oscar win wasn’t worth mentioning. Was there no space in the paper? There was plenty online.
Nominations will be disclosed on Thursday. Then things will get interesting.
