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Friday, January 4, 2019
AWARDS SEASON 2019: The 91st Annual Academy Awards
The Case For Spike Lee As Best Director
Spike Lee.
Drew Gurian
by
Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
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Friday,
January 4,
2019
Okay, yes -- the Oscar nominations for the 2018 film year have not yet
been announced. When January 22 arrives however, expect Spike Lee's name
to be read out in the Best Director category (and the adapted screenplay group)
of Academy Award nominees.
Last summer the Cannes Film Festival Grand Prix-winning
"BlacKkKlansman",
Mr. Lee's latest film, received high critical acclaim and praise from audiences
around the globe, and in some quarters (including this writer) there is a real
likelihood Mr. Lee will be in the Academy's winners' circle on February 24.
If so, Mr. Lee would be the only Black director to have won the coveted Best
Director Oscar in The Academy's ninety-one years of Oscars. Most recently
both Steve McQueen ("12
Years A Slave") and Barry Jenkins ("Moonlight") have been nominated
for the same prize but lost out. During the same time four of the last
five Best Director Oscar winners have come from Mexico (Guillermo Del Toro,
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu twice, Alfonso Cuaron.)
The sentiment is there in numerous quarters (and likely among some Academy
members) for Mr. Lee as a director who enjoys almost 35 years of directing
feature length films and documentaries, beginning with "She's Gotta Have It"
(now a new generation edition series on Netflix.) The Brooklynite's resume
is illustrious and diverse.
"Do The Right Thing", "Jungle Fever", "Malcolm
X", "Clockers", "Crooklyn", "Girl 6", "Get On The Bus", "4 Little Girls", "He
Got Game", "Summer Of Sam", "25th Hour", "Inside Man", "Passing Strange", "Da
Sweet Blood Of Jesus", "Oldboy" and "Chi-Raq" are just a few of the director's
varied and eclectic titles, some of which film fans may not be aware of.
The Academy overlooked Mr. Lee on directing efforts for "Do The Right Thing" and
"Malcolm X", both of which otherwise received two Oscar nominations.
Mr. Lee was awarded an honorary Oscar in 2015 by the Academy, to add to the
Student Academy Award he received in 1983 for his short film "Joe's Bed-Stuy
Barbershop: We Cut Heads".
Whatever the cinematic past has brought Mr. Lee, he will surely be looking
squarely at Mr. Cuaron ("Roma") as his most difficult Best Director competition
on Oscar night. What perhaps gives Mr. Lee a leg up is not only the
excellence of "BlacKkKlansman", well-directed in its own right, but also the
breadth of his body of work over four different decades. Also helping Mr.
Lee is Mr. Cuaron's previous win for Best Director ("Gravity")
in 2014. This win however, preceded Mr. Cuaron's fellow countryman
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's consecutive-year wins for
"Birdman" (in
2015) and "The Revenant" (2016), thereby not necessarily ruling out Mr. Cuaron
winning Best Director again.
Still, the challenge for Mr. Cuaron is for his universally acclaimed "Roma" not
to get in its own way at the Oscars. Along with a certain Best Director
nomination "Roma" is also likely to be nominated for Best Cinematography (by Mr.
Cuaron himself), Best Foreign Language Film and Best Picture. Should Mr.
Cuaron win the cinematography Oscar (which he is expected to) he may not
necessarily win Best Director. More likely is "Roma" also winning Best
Foreign Language Film.
If you taught a Martian about America and its history "BlacKkKlansman" would be
the lesson. Directing is about vision, and Mr. Lee's film has a clear and
jagged roadmap of articulation: hate, lies, truth, facts and history combine as
an instructive narrative tutorial.
"BlacKkKlansman" would tell any Martian that America and the entire planet has
been in dire straits with racial hatred from Year Dot. The film's title
illustrates the messy, violent, melting cauldron of race, systemic racism and
identity that has disrupted and tortured the United States. The film's
story underlines the "truth is stranger than fiction" axiom.
"BlacKkKlansman" reads as a stark, penetrating book about America, an underbelly
of the American Dream that when amplified by Mr. Lee for two hours and fourteen
minutes is an American Nightmare -- the same one Malcolm X warned of and is
reprised in the opening credits of Mr. Lee's "Malcolm X".
Also clear is that Mr. Lee directs some fine performances out of his cast, more
great performances than in any other film in 2018. Ashlie Atkinson, Alec
Baldwin, Harry Belafonte, Robert John Burke, Adam Driver, Ryan Eggold, Topher
Grace, Laura Harrier, Paul Walter Hauser, Corey Hawkins, Jesper Paakonen and
John David Washington. The powerful film is entertaining and humorous as
it is harrowing and urgent.
Never has Mr. Lee engineered such a tightly-coiled and cohesive film, and from
start to finish. The best film of 2018, "BlacKkKlansman" is a slow-burning
fuse of percolations, phrases, slogans and language that has been part and
parcel of the 242-year existence of the United States of America. The film
is riveting discourse and with Mr. Belafonte on hand takes on extra
significance. Where Mr. Lee ends the film informs the very first frame,
that of Scarlet O'Hara traipsing through the detritus of bodies during the
Battle Of Atlanta.
In essence the Battle Of Atlanta is still the Battle Of America, especially with
the present White House occupant wanting to take America back to the 1950s and
further back than that. Mr. Lee's message in "BlacKkKlansman" is very
clear, and he uses teachers both reliable and unreliable in their veracity to
deliver his message. Through his direction and themes he forces viewers to
think about what they hear and the language delivered to convey what exactly
America represents through people claiming to love the country.
John David Washington and Laura Harrier in Spike Lee's "BlacKkKlansman".
Focus Features
Mr. Lee's utilization of cinematic culture and image power galvanizes
"BlacKkKlansman" and it is that directing choice that keeps the film vivid and
eyecatching all the way through. He shows that the very same cinematic
vehicles hailed as "masterpieces" by some white male film critics are
facilitators of recruitment of the KKK, furthering the engines of death for so
many Black people in the U.S.
The Academy itself has had its own racial turmoil over its 91 year-history with
its appalling paucity of Black winners. Only one Black person (Halle
Berry) has won Best Actress. No Black woman has ever been nominated for
Best Director. Julie Dash ("Daughters Of The Dust"), Euzhan Palcy ("Sugar
Cane Alley"), Ava DuVernay ("Middle
Of Nowhere",
"Selma") and Dee Rees ("Mudbound")
arguably should all have won directing Oscars, let alone been nominated.
The Academy, itself slowly becoming a more inclusive body (of well over 6,000
members) may feel that these wrongs (in the Best Director category at least)
need to be put right now -- or at least herald the beginning of a much-needed
corrective -- by awarding Mr. Lee Best Director for "BlacKkKlansman". Such
an honor would be a milestone, and as the first to be won by a Black person it
would go to a director who has influenced generations of Black filmmakers and
filmmakers the world over. Two of Mr. Lee's biggest supporters would be
fellow directors Francis Ford Coppola and Mr. Lee's close friend Martin
Scorsese, whom the director has known for many years.
Honoring Mr. Lee in these divided times we live in for "BlacKkKlansman" (which
by the way, has a decent chance at Best Picture) would be The Academy's way of
sending a broader message to the current White House as well as the country.
The only films directed by Black directors to win Best Picture have been "12
Years A Slave" and "Moonlight".
Looking at the other likely Best Director nominees aside from Mr. Lee and Mr.
Cuaron -- Bradley Cooper ("A Star Is Born"), well-liked by the Academy, will
have further chances to win in this category in the future. His likely
nomination for Best Actor for the same film may work against him. Yorgos
Lanthimos ("The Favourite") may not be The Academy's taste, and the scabrous and
satirical take on Queen Anne seems counter to what they have historically
honored for the most part.
Ryan Coogler ("Black
Panther"), Barry Jenkins ("If Beale Street Could Talk") and Adam
McKay ("Vice") will have other opportunities in the Best Director category.
Four of these last five discussed filmmakers are relatively new directors except
Mr. McKay. Potentially Debra Granik ("Leave No Trace") and Marielle Heller
("Can You Ever Forgive Me?") may make the final five -- and like their
aforementioned male counterparts if they do they will face tough fellow
contenders.
Of all the directors mentioned as Oscar contenders this year Mr. Lee is the most
senior, and the sentiment is with him among some to receive the Directing Oscar
if not more. Mr. Lee has spoken unreservedly about the current occupant at
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for a number of years, particularly at Cannes last year
during a press conference for his film. Mr. Lee has become one of the
greatest American storytellers on film, and when The Academy says yes to Mr. Lee
on February 22 they will be welcoming an iconic, signature filmmaker into their
winner's circle.
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