It’s hard not to be jaded and cynical as another awards season sprouts out of the fertile ground from last year’s crop – those dead and dying films turning out great soil for new growth. It’s hard to remain hopeful, as readers often are, at the prospects for this coming year. Once you do it for a while, though, you see the wheels in motion, you see the strings. You know there is a formula for the soil that makes the seedlings grow. You know that voters like a certain kind of plant over another. Moreover, publicists will often grab someone, point them in the direction of their film, in hopes of getting some early traction. Usually, the film has to be seen by a lot of people before it can really be considered a film with so-called “Oscar potential.” That’s why one person in one screening isn’t often the best way to drive buzz.
Then again, if the film has the goods to begin with, an early screening, some well placed words, can get your film in front of audiences at least. Dave Karger talks up A Better Life, writing that Summit plans to roll it out the same way they did The Hurt Locker. But you can’t really compare it, or any film, to the Hurt Locker. For one thing, that was Bigelow’s masterpiece and it was about the Iraq war. For another thing it was the best reviewed film of the year. But mostly, coming into the race as the underdog with a female director, it had the chance to make history. I don’t see how this movie, in any way, shape or form, can be compared to it, nor do I see that magic banging the gong twice.
On the other hand, keep an open mind, right? The other film that keeps being brought up is Win Win, Tom McCarthy’s film. Coincidentally, McCarthy’s The Visitor is the one Karger compared A Better Life to. In the end, The Visitor got a nod for Richard Jenkins, a veteran actor who was probably long overdue for recognition. One thing going for A Better Life? Guilty liberal Oscar voters who might want to inject A) some cultural diversity into the race, and B) rid themselves of the guilt we gringos feel for the whole illegal immigration debate, which is fiercely fought here on a daily basis. I just thought of a third: Republicans are going to hate this movie. And anything they hate is something Oscar voters are going to love.
Finally, it looks like a true tearjerker. And as these things go, if it makes you cry you don’t ask why.