The Critics Chat About the Oscars

Thanks to Anne Thompson for tipping us off to this Charlie Rose discussion. At first I found I was rather enthralled by A.O. Scott and Annette Insdorf. But then Dana Steven of Slate and Stephanie Zacharek join the chat and oy, my lands. By the end I felt like I was going to suffocate if I had to listen to it anymore – mostly because I so disagreed with their opinions on everything. But it was really Stevens and Zacharek going after Tom Ford and A Single Man that finally drove me over the edge.

However, one thing I want to note about it is that Annette Insdorf knows her Oscar stuff. She is one of the few critics or film scholars I’ve ever heard speak who actually knows what’s going on in the race, knows how the Oscars work — listening to her is so refreshing. Usually one wants to just chop off their head when critics start to talk Oscars – it’s like hiring ballet dancers to talk about football.

I could listen to Insdorf all day. When she noted that Christopher Plummer had been snubbed for The Insider I swooned. She could start and run the best Oscars blog on the nets. The notorious vid after the cut.   But I think she has much better things to do with her time.