I just got my ballot in the mail today and a few thoughts occur:
1. Unless I get some screener DVDs a huge number of these categories are going to be skipped entirely. I won’t vote for one nominee over another just because I’ve only seen one of them. That seems unfair. I know the studios have been cutting way back on screeners for various reasons, including piracy and cost. These are fair concerns so let me make a suggestion. Since these are SAG Awards how about SAG and the producers work together to set up a website where all the nominated performances can be seen on-line, gratis, provided SAG members log in using their member ID and online password?
Yeah, I know it’s not the same as seeing it on the big screen, but neither is watching a DVD that keeps flashing “screener copy, not for sale” on the bottom while Daniel Day-Lewis is killing someone for lying to him.
It would no doubt be some effort and cost to set up and maintain, but it would certainly get the nominees seen by more eligible voters than any free theatre screenings in New York and LA and it would reduce piracy to zero. Am I missing something? Other than my screeners?
2. Weirdest Nominee Title Ever: “Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire.” This makes Tyler Perry putting his name at the front of all his movie titles seem relatively restrained. Also, I haven’t seen this movie, but given the subject matter and a cast that includes Mariah Carey, Mo’Nique and Sherri Shepherd I think it’s gonna take a free screener and some drugs to get me to do so.
3. I love that the SAG Awards aren’t just about popcorn movies but I have to admit that even a snob like me has not heard of, let alone seen a few of these. I’m not judging. I’m just saying that I went and saw that movie about Julie Christie with Alzheimers last year and even I didn’t know there was a Jeff Bridges movie called “Crazy Heart.” And I love Jeff Bridges! Send me a screener and there’s a definite chance I’ll vote for this!
4. There needs to be a category for Best Voice Performance in an Animated Feature. The cast of “Up” deserves their shot.
5. The glaring omissions: “The Invention of Lying” was a beautiful piece of movie-making all around. ”Big Bang Theory” and “Better Off Ted” make me believe sitcoms can still be clever and funny. So why the hell am I not seeing them and their actors among the nominees? (And Larry David and Charlie Sheen among them? Did Roman Polanski not do anything last year?)
6. And how does an actress on a “Law and Order” spin-off get nominated over January Jones or Elisabeth Moss on “Mad Men?” Do they give points for rising incrementally above the material?
7. ”True Blood?” Nominated in the same category as “Mad Men?” Maybe if SAG does a Best of All Time category they can run “Astro Boy” against “The Sorrow and the Pity.”
It’s almost enough to make you think show biz ain’t fair…
