Talk About a Sore Loser

Long ago I decided to not care all that much about subjective awards that are given out in my world. Such awards exist, both professionally and in other areas, in my world, and while I'd be happy to take one home and stick it on my mantle (if I had a mantle), I don't get upset if someone else wins. The nature of the beast with such things is that there is no "right" answer and there are no real winners and losers, only favorites and things you don't like.

So I'm a little surprised that someone who writes for a living gets so worked up about that kind of stuff. The writer in question is Annie Proulx, whose short story was the basis for the film Brokeback Mountain. Proulx attended the Academy Awards with the rest of the Brokeback gang and, naturally, was surprised when it didn't win best picture. In fact, she seems rather pissed about it, rechristening the best-picture winner Crash as "Trash"* in a post-Oscar piece for UK's The Guardian. First, she notes the presence of anti-gay activists outside the theater and implies that they are in some way indicative of the Oscar voters on the inside. Second, she chastises Los Angelinos for being "out of touch . . . with the shifting larger culture and the yeasty ferment that is America these days," before making staggeringly un-hip statements about the best-song winner "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp."** Finally, she ridicules Crash again for being "a safe pick of 'controversial film' for the heffalumps."

Look, she's got every right to feel pissed because her film got passed over (although flipping through the IMDB entry for Brokeback it doesn't appear she had anything to do with the actual film). And she's got every right to say the Academy got it wrong with Crash (I certainly would agree), but the way she goes about it makes her seem like a spoiled brat whose tee-ball team lost the big game. Grow up and get over it.

*From my own perspective, I was a bit surprised by the Crash victory. I'd only seen one other best picture nominee at the time (Munich), but felt Crash was a distant second on my ballot. It's an overhyped mishmash of Short Cuts and Do the Right Thing, IMHO (the 1996 Cronenberg flick of the same name is much more interesting, if also a lot creepier). In fact, I liked The Constant Gardener, which I finally saw last weekend, much better than either Crash or Munich, so what do I know?

** Again, I've not seen Hustle & Flow, but from what I've read the pimp song is the only one of the three nominees that actually played a role in the film from which it came. Sounds like it won by default. Like rap or hate it, it's about time the Academy recognized it's existence, don't you think?