Limited release

I always get excited for the Oscars. It’s one of those events that seems to happily sneak up. And putting together a friendly pool with your bet for winners is as much a part of the tradition as March Madness.

Last year, when I missed the two most competitive movies because they were released only weeks before the awards ceremony, all of us in the pool did less than stellar. Taking that into account, some friends and I decided to watch all of the movies in the main categories – Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay – and whichever ones we could for the lesser categories.

There’s only one problem: Very few of them are making it out of “selected theaters.” And those that do have only recently been released here in one of Bloomington’s theaters, so there’s a good chance that even with excessive cramming, us die-hards won’t catch all of them before Feb. 22.

Kerasotes has only just released most of the Oscar nominees to either of its Bloomington theaters, probably only because the films were nominated for an Oscar. And yet some of them have been out for months. It’s very disheartening to see that good, artistic movies are being squeezed out.

An experience of a few movie-goers this past weekend framed a microcosm better than any movie could.

Upon hearing that the late release “Revolutionary Road” was going to be playing at Kerasotes East, we caught one of the first showings. We were surprised immediately upon entering the theater; there were more than a dozen people there!
It definitely wasn’t like when we saw “Gran Torino” – which actually wasn’t nominated but was a potential – “Slumdog,” “Milk” or “Frost/Nixon.”

Sam Mendes’ movie wasn’t mind-blowing, but it certainly wasn’t bad. However, as soon as the lights came on, the first comment we heard was, “Oh my gawd, that was terrible! It wasn’t romantic at all.”

It was partly the point of the movie not to be romantic, so why is it terrible? Well, the lights illuminated this girl and her friends. And it looked like they might have been in high school.

In fact, most people there seemed like they were under the impression that this film, reuniting Leo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, was “Titanic 2.”

They left saying they wished they’d have gone and seen “Underworld: Rise of the Lycans.”
I don’t mean to judge. They can see whatever they want, and in fact I’m more upset that they were probably duped into believing this movie wasn’t something it wasn’t: a romance.

It reminds me of last year’s Best Picture winner, “No Country For Old Men,” where the post-award trailer advertised it like an action movie. In that regard, it’s a “terrible” action movie.

But that experience has made it more clear now why artsy-fartsy films are being released later and later in the year. Sadly, there’s no audience for them, so they’re relying on the Oscars to provide venues and hopefully commercial success if they can advertise it as “entertaining.”