Monday, March 8, 2010

How did Jeremy Renner lose the best actor award?

As you know, last night was the female Super Bowl. The 82nd Oscar awards were held some 17 miles from my doorstep. I understand they call it the female Super Bowl because women compete on highest level for the world championship of professional fashion design. This morning, we hear nothing but fashion police busting women for looking matronly, not showing enough tatty, wearing an outdated print, or not doing her hair correctly.

You would think they would be more concerned about topic issues that matter, like the fact that Tim Tebow ran a 4.7 in the 40 but only got credit for a 4.72.

Just a brief complaint about last night's Oscars: How the fuck did Jeremy Renner lose the Best Actor award to Jeff Bridges? Let's face the facts folks: The Hurt Locker was the ripping victor this year, taking 6 awards. This movie is about 3 characters, and 3 characters only. The three actors you saw last night with their arms around each other's shoulders were those guys. Of the three, the character of Sgt. James was the absolute pivot point of the movie. It's all about Sgt. James. He is the adrenaline junkie who loves war and is board to a deathlike depression by conventional life. That is the entire point of this movie.

This makes Renner the quarterback on the field. He is the MVP. This is a Renner driven movie. If he doesn't get it done on the field, you have no movie here. If he doesn't make you believe there are such men as Sgt. James, this movie utterly fails. There would be no best director award and no best picture award. As it turned out, Renner turned in a hell of a performance. His QB efficiency rating would be around 141 in the NFL. There were no visible weaknesses in his game.

So how does Jeff Bridges win this award? Hollywood likes older actors better than younger. Hollywood loves stories about down-n-out characters. Hollywood loves stories about down-n-out artists even more. Jeff Bridges has many connections to the machinery. As we heard so often last night, he folks were in the machine before he and his siblings joined up. I think nepotism and biases got it for him.

I really hope Renner gets a couple of more big parts soon. I hope they are good enough to get him the award he missed last night. If I were him, I would be feeling mighty damn cheated right about now.