The Will Smith - Chris Rock Affair

This was to be my post-mortem post on Sunday evening's Oscar Awards and telecast, but unfortunately (to state it mildly), what became the highlowlight of the show has so dominated the public conversation and social media, that it deserves a post all of its own.

I am referring, of course, to Will Smith's shocking assault and on and  the f-bomb cursing out of comedian Chris Rock live on national and international television.  As we all know by now, Rock made a joke of questionable taste involving Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith.  Smith, like  a chivalrous knight in shining armor, felt the need to defend his wife's honor, walked on stage, slapped Rock in the face, returned to his seat, and proceeded to to loudly curse out Rock, not once, but twice.

In a world where we have become pretty much immune to almost everything we see on television, this was a pretty shocking display of anger and violence that, had it happened in your neighborhood tavern, would have probably resulted in someone's arrest.  Said act was followed forty minutes later of Smith being awarded the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in "King Richard."  His rambling, tear-filled acceptance speech only added to the surrealness of the occasion.  It contained a half-assed apology to "the Academy" and no apology to Chris Rock.

Reactions have split pretty much into two camps:

• Good for Will Smith.  Someone insulted his wife, and he defended her.
• Brickbats to Will Smith for committing an act of violence that simply cannot be justified, regardless of how dubious his joke may her been.  (And since when has edgy and even insulting humor in Hollywood and among comedians become a shocking thing?)

I fall into the latter camp, and find it hard to believe that people are defending Smith's actions.

This was my comment on Facebook on Sunday evening: "On what should have been the biggest night of his career, Will Smith just might have flushed his career right down the toilet."

Washington DC film critic and podcaster Arch Campbell said "if you ask me, Will Smith undid a lifetime of good will in this one moment."

Then there is this:

"When Will Smith stormed onto the Oscar stage to strike Chris Rock for making a joke about his wife’s short hair, he did a lot more damage than just to Rock’s face. With a single petulant blow, he advocated violence, diminished women, insulted the entertainment industry, and perpetuated stereotypes about the Black community."

The author of that quote is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and it is the opening paragraph of this column from his Newsletter.  I strongly urge you to read it.  Abdul-Jabbar is a smart and insightful writer on a variety of topics, and this piece is no exception. (in fact, I just paid fifty bucks for an annual subscription to his newsletter, and I think that it will prove to be a real bargain over the course of the next twelve months.)

This was the closing of Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's general columnist Tony Norman's column yesterday:

"I hope Mr. Smith’s five minutes of awkward Oscars glory was worth becoming a human meme. He didn’t “protect” Jada Pinkett Smith’s “honor” — he threw away three decades of good will because he, a Black man of privilege and unimaginable wealth, believed he could assault another wealthy Black man and get away with it.

"Whether he apologizes to Chris Rock or not, his life as the ebony Tom Hanks is pretty much over."

For those Grandstander readers who don't know of him, Tony Norman is Black, and here is his column in its entirety.  Again, I urge you to read it.

For his part, Smith issued an apology to Chris Rock yesterday.  As celebrity apologies go, this one seemed more sincere and heartfelt than most.  To my knowledge, Rock has not issued any statement other than to say that he would not be filing charges against Smith with the LAPD.  I've always liked Will Smith, both as a performer and a person.  I'll leave it to Kareem to summarize:

"I don’t want to see him punished or ostracized because of this one, albeit a big one, mistake. I just want this to be a cautionary tale for others not to romanticize or glorify bad behavior. And I want Smith to be the man who really protects others—by admitting the harm he’s done to others."

"King Richard" and Oscar Predictions

I caught up with one more Best Picture nominee last night, King Richard starring Will Smith, and I will be brief about it.  It is the story of adolescent tennis phenoms Venus and Serena Williams (well before they became the best players in the world and winners of multiple majors), and the role that their father, Richard, played in their development.  It is a good movie, a good sports movie, and a movie well worth seeing, and it features an absolutely terrific performance by Will Smith as Richard Williams.  Smith is the odds on favorite to win the Best Actor Oscar tonight, and it will be a well deserved award, and it will also serve as a Career Achievement Oscar for Smith who has twice before been nominated for Best Actor in his career.

Three Stars from The Grandstander. 

After viewing King Richard, I have now seen seven of the ten Best Picture nominees.  I never did get the chance to see Don't Look Up prior to tonight's presentations, so that one will have to wait.

Of the the seven films that I have seen, I would be happy if any pf the following three wins the Best Picture Oscar:  Belfast, CODA, and West Side Story.  I have maintained all along that West Side Story has been my favorite movie that I have seen, but CODA is one that I could also see myself voting for if I had the privilege.    Three others, King Richard, Licorice Pizza, and Nightmare Alley were all good, and maybe even very good, movies, but none of them, in my opinion, are the Best Picture of the year.

That leaves Power of the Dog.   This is the most nominated film and for the longest time is was considered a shoe in for Best Picture.  I got through 45 minutes of it and gave up.  Here's a story that sums up this movie.  A guy whose opinion I  respect, recently told me that he watched this and couldn't "get it", couldn't figure out "what was going on", but after he watched it, he went to Google to read about it and figure out what the movie was trying to say, and then he "got it."  When intelligent people have to go to the Google Machine to figure out what a movie was about, sorry, but that is not a movie that should be the Best Picture of any year.

Okay, got that off my chest, so now for my predictions.  These are based upon what I have read, what I have been hearing on various movie podcasts, and, oh yeah, what I have actually seen with my own two eyes.

• BEST PICTURE:   CODA *
• BEST ACTOR: Will Smith, King Richard *
• BEST ACTRESS:   Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye
• BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Troy Kotsur, CODA *
• BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Ariana DuBose, West Side Story*
• BEST DIRECTOR: Jane Campion, Power of the Dog
• ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: CODA*
• ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:  Belfast*

* Movies and performances that I have actually seen.  Didn't give an asterisk to Power of the Dog since I only saw about one-third of the movie.

Of the twenty nominated acting performances, I actually only saw seven of them (again, not including three nominated performances from Power of the Dog).

The only Best Actress performance that I saw was Nicole Kidman's portrayal of Lucille Ball in Being the Ricardos.  I liked her and liked the movie, so if she ends up winning, I won't be unhappy.

If Ariana DuBose wins for Best Supporting Actress for portraying Anita in West Side Story, she will be the second actress to win the same award for playing the same character.  Rita Moreno won the same award for the same role back in 1961.  Has anything like that ever happened before?

Not a prediction, but I will be rooting hard for Summer of Soul (...Or, When The Revolution Could Not be Televised) to win for Best Documentary Feature.  That was a terrific movie.

Enjoy the show everyone, and I will own up to my predictions after the telecast.

Movie Review - "Concussion"

Marilyn and I continued our New Year's Eve tradition that we have held, with few exceptions, since 1990 (when we went to see "Home Alone"), by taking in an early movie yesterday afternoon.

The movie this year was the much anticipated movie, "Concussion" starring Will Smith as Dr. Bennet Omalu, the Nigerian born pathologist who, while working in the Allegheny County Coroner's office and performing the autopsy on former Pittsburgh Steeler Mike Webster, began his research that led to the discovery of the condition Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE).

If you are a football fan, you are well aware of the Pandora's Box that this discovery opened in the world of the NFL in particular and football in general, so I won't go into all of that here.  What I will comment upon is the absolutely terrific performance of Will Smith in the role. He should receive a nomination for a Best Actor Academy Award.

Another noteworthy performance in this movie comes from Alec Baldwin as Dr. Julian Bailes.  He could be worthy of a Supporting Actor nomination here. 

If you are from the Pittsburgh area, you will get a kick out of the portrayal of Dr. Cyril Wecht by Albert Brooks.  The movie does take some dramatic liberties by tying Wecht's legal difficulties to Omalu's research, but as someone once said about another film, "it's a movie, not a documentary".  And speaking of Pittsburgh, the movie offers some fabulous views and scenes of the Pittsburgh - Heinz Field, Mt. Washington, the Hill District, the Coroner's Office on Ross Street,  even a scene on Wexford Run road, not very far from my own home!

One thing for sure, the NFL does not come out looking good in this movie.  I doubt very much that Roger Goodell or Dan and Art Rooney have paid to see this one.  Also, one very prominent Pittsburgh area neurosurgeon, who still stands on the Steelers sideline during games, I believe, also comes off looking, well, shall we say, not so good.  I won't put his name here, but if you are from Pittsburgh, you will recognize it.

Very good movie, and a tour de force for Will Smith.  Worth seeing just for his performance alone.

Oh, and speaking of that New Year's Eve tradition of ours, we did indeed stop at the drive-through for a bucket of Kentucky fried Chicken after the movie.