Smash and The Geminis: two critics weigh in

A couple of smart guys are all over two things I'd been thinking about lately but am too busy/lazy to get to myself. So follow these links to enlightenment:

The Globe and Mail's John Doyle is bang on as usual with this take on recent changes over at the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television. Specifically: efforts to rescue The Gemini Awards from ridicule and oblivion. 

Doyle and yours truly were invited to a couple of meetings over the past few months with Helga Stephenson, the Interum Chief Executive Officer of the Academy. Have to say I was impressed with the way the former TIFF boss seemed bent on making the Gemini Awards less of a laughing stock. A huge step forward is news that the number of categories has already been reduced from eleventy million-billion to 92 in time for the 27th Annual Gemini Awards. Don't stop there, cut another 20-40 categories if you want these awards to ever mean something to viewers, I say. Also addressed is the apples-and-oranges thing where international co-pros like The Tudors or The Borgias are competing with domestic efforts such as Republic of Doyle or Arctic Air for Best Canadian Drama prize.

Here I'm of two minds and probably well in the minority. This is a grey area, for where does Flashpoint, in its CBS heyday, fit in? Or The Firm, shot in Mississauga but headlined by Americans and sold throughout the Sony universe as a co-pro with NBC? While they employ more Canadians, don't these shows also have an unfair budget advantage? I feel the best in Canada should stand with shows we're involved in that are shot on foreign soil. All big budget TV seems to be heading in that direction, and breaking the stuff shot here into a cozy All Canuck category risks a "we're not good enough to take on the world" taint. 

But I see the other side too, so good on the Academy for trying this out. Let's see how it plays.

I also really like Doyle's suggestion to merge the Canadian TV and film awards into one big open-bar banquet. I'll drink to that.

Smash's two Marilyns: Some like it not so hot

Another model might be the 2012 Independent Spirit Awards, hosted by Canadian-born Seth Rogen last week. Check out Rogen's shtick on YouTube. Held in a tent, low key and irreverent, it looked like a fun time, which is well within the Gemini reach.

The other guy to read is Entertainment Weekly's Ken Tucker, who expresses here exactly what I've been thinking about Smash. I tried to watch Monday's episode, and as I sat there stumped at how a Jonas brother wandered onto this thing ("Bieber wanted too much money, but research says this guy was just as big in 2009"), I found myself asking what the hell went wrong so fast with this series as I drifted away from the soapy storyline. This was the pilot everybody loved last May and June. 

Smash is like that playoff team that gets a bye into the next round, sits too long and then by the time it gets there has nothing in the tank. The energy and style that wowed in the preview seems to have escaped, leaving just cornball plotting and really obvious and seen-it-before characters. In three weeks, ratings tumbled south of 750,000 viewers on CTV, where this series got the full Super Bowl push. Another weekly plunge and hello, CTV Two. 

Even if Smash can return to form, some TCA critics were already voicing doubts in January about a Broadway-based drama doing breakthrough numbers in Middle America. Bill Carter at the New York Times kept asking, "Have you seen ratings for The Tony Awards lately?"

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Oscar post mortem: paging Jimmy Kimmel

Now that another four hours of my life has been taken from me, it's time to ask: why doesn't ABC lobby to have Jimmy Kimmel host the Academy Awards? The late night talk show host is far funnier on his post-Oscar showcase than whoever hosts the main event these last few years as he proved again last night. Kimmel and his staff put a lot of effort into these insanely elaborate videos that are star-packed. Last night's blockbuster "Movie: The Movie" world premiere trailer parody (above) had more big names taking part in skits than you saw on the Oscar red carpet.
Kimmel is supposed to reveal how that sketch was assembled on tonight's Jimmy Kimmel Live (12:05 a.m., ABC/CHCH). His theatre is located right across the street from what Oscar host Billy Crystal called the Chapter 11 theatre on Hollywood Boulevard, so maybe he grabs talent straight out of their limos for these elaborate taped bits.
An even funnier film bit he delivered last night was his pitches to Oprah Winfrey, especially Oprah's Fight Book Club. Check it out here.
As for Crystal, he delivered a safe, straight ahead Oscar hosting job Sunday night. Too safe and too straight ahead, I thought. And what's with award show hosts ditching or delivering just one or two monologue jokes these days? With all the writers in Hollywood, that's all you can come up with? All Crystal had to do was just read all the jokes posted instantly on Twitter. (I was most proud of this one: "I wonder if Scorsese's tux is Hugo Boss").
Instead, we get Crystal doing Sammy Davis Jr. in the back of the Midnight in Paris car. Oy vey.

When Jim Rash from Community (an Oscar winner for co-writting The Descendants) goofed on Angelina Jolie's leggy stance, that was the kind of quick reaction shtick you used to get from the host.
Few others stepped up to fill the comedy void. Chris Rock snuck in one or two good lines. Robert Downey Jr.'s  shtick with Gwyneth Paltrow got old fast. Ben Stiller did his best straight man bit next to Emma Stone (channeling James Franco as Nikke Finke quipped in her bitchy Oscar review over at Deadline).
I did laugh at Will Ferrell and Zack Galifianakas and their stoopid cymbalism bit, but that had a lot to do with the white suites, always comedy gold. The ladies from Bridesmaids did work in that Scorsese drinking game gag.
Did anyone else miss Robin Williams? I know he's an old dude now too but seeing Crystal work this gig without at least a brief blast of Williams seemed like watching Bud Abbott labor on without Lou Costello.

Christopher Plummer's classy, funny, precise acceptance speech was proof you can be 82 and still hit a home run in this room. (And to think they once called him "Liquid" Plummer. Quite the late career turn-a-round.)
Anyway, next year, two words: Jimmy Kimmel. Go for it, ABC.

TONIGHT: Cheer on The Artist at the Oscars, but head later to Cinefest for true silent gems

Is The Artist a shoo-in to win Best Picture at tonight's 84th Annual Academy Awards? The ceremonies begin live tonight at 8:30 p.m. on ABC and CTV.
There's a lot of buzz that the black and white French feature may become the first silent film since the inaugural winner, Wings, to capture the Best Picture prize. I've seen The Artist, and it is a fun time at the movies.
As someone who collects 16mm film and has a basement full of silent and sound gems from the 1920's, '30s and '40s, I applaud anything that draws people into a theatre at today's prices to watch a movie in the old, squarer ratio. The Artist lovingly captures many of the conventions of early cinema and the two leads, Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo (both nominated tonight, although Bejo in the supporting category) evoke the spirit of the late '20s in their playful pantomime. The sweet shot of Bejo with her arm in Dujardin's jacket embracing herself by the coat rack is pure Harold Lloyd.
As much as I admired the film, in my opinion, there are 100 films made between 1920 and 1929 that are more Oscar-worthy. Early film pioneers made great art using primitive cameras and lighting, many hand cranking cameras. Buster Keaton all by himself was the equivalent of a one man digital effects system.
My window on a lot of early film comes once a year at Cinefest, the 16mm and 35mm film festival held annually in Syracuse, N.Y. Cinefest 32 runs from Mar. 15-18 this year. Special screenings include the East Coast premiere of the restored Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. film Mr. Fix-It (1918), Mamba (1930) starring Jean Hersholt and Eleanor Boardman (in colour and not seen in the U.S. in 81 years) and Matchmaking Mamma, a 1928 Carole Lombard feature.

Gary Cooper: they had faces (and cigarettes) then

The silent films are enhanced with live musical accompaniment from pianists Philip C. Carli, Andrew Simpson and Jeff Rapsis, who all work wonders in the dark. Saturday morning`s schedule all takes place at a suburban movie house, The Palace, and those are the 35mm offerings. Tickets to the five hour Saturday movie marathon are $25 each. More information is available at syracusecinefest.com.
I've lost count of the discoveries I`ve made at Cinefest over the years. To see Gary Cooper in his silent glory is  to understand why he just said "yup" so often later. The guy had so much presence he probably resented talking. I never understood the popularity of Will Rogers until seeing early silent and sound films by this great American humourist. The man had a natural warmth and such relaxed, candid charm. Early films by Gloria Swanson put her mannered, eccentric performance in Sunset Boulevard in focus. That film almost does her a disservice.
Seeing the very early work of Spencer Tracy, Conrad Veidt or Maurice Chevalier is also a revelation. These guys could always act.
That's why I'd probably pick Hugo over The Artist as this year's Best Picture. It snuck up on me as a homage to film pioneer Georges Melies. The last third of Hugo is like going to Cinefest--just pure early cinema, lovingly restored and presented in its original glory. Well worth sitting though the so-so 3D kids movie at the start.
I sometimes wish Cinefest would screen some more obvious choices--give me just one Laurel & Hardy short, or, dare I say it? Some Stooges--but this is a film festival where lost films are re-discovered whether they should have stayed lost or not. Sometimes there is even more fun in discovering they made bad films back then, too.
Still, many films are offered over the four days and you will see some gems. Some early silent and sound films are remarkable for their power as well as their sophisticated clarity. Performances can be remarkably nuanced and subtle.
The Artist has its moments, but rooting for it tonight is a bit like paying tribute to the guy who did a nice job forging the Mona Lisa. After Oscar, if you want to see some work by some true artists, head to Syracuse and check out a few of the originals.
TWITTER ALERT: I'll be live tweeting tonight's Oscar telecast, so feel free to follow along @BillBriouxTV or click on the straight-to-the-snark button below.

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VIDEO: shooting on the set of the cop drama King

King returns for a second season Wednesday, Feb. 29 at 9 p.m. on Showcase. Amy Price-Francis returns as a ballsy police detective booted upstairs to head a Major Crimes division, where she butts heads--among other things--with Alan Van Sprang's moody cop character.
I was invited to the south Etobicoke set a few weeks ago, along with fellow critic Rob Salem, to fire some guns. Critics love taking aim at things and firing away with abandon so naturally we both jumped at the chance.
A makeshift firing range was set up in a loading dock. A couple of ammo experts, Charles Taylor, Russ Cook and Paul Wassill, schooled us on how to fire a gun properly.
These guys from Movie Armaments Group in Toronto are all ex-cops and know their way around a pistol. Taylor reminded us all about Jon-Eric Hexum, the young TV stud who tragically took his own life. Hexum was on the set of the CBS series Cover Up. Between takes, he held a gun which still contained one blank, up to his temple and pulling the trigger. Dumb move--the force of air from the gun alone can bore a hole right through you. Even if he had survived, his eardrums likely would have been blown out. Hexum was taken straight to a hospital but was declared brain dead and expired six days later.
That warning got everybody's attention on the set of King. Hexum's death literally changed how guns are handled on TV and movie sets. There are always experts around whenever firearms are used now.
The above video captures all of our safe little bangity-bang action. Cut from the tape were scenes of me flinching like a little girl as Price-Francis confidently blared away at her target.
Thirteen new episodes will air this winter and spring. The series has more of an ensemble feel in Season Two thanks to a couple of key casting additions, introduced on Wednesday's episode. Read more about it in this feature I filed this week for The Canadian Press.

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TONIGHT: Suzuki revisits Japan's Disaster Zone

Hard to believe it has been almost a year since the devastating tsunami overwhelmed the north shores of Japan. Dr. David Suzuki visited the region in December and his report back airs tonight on The Nature of Things' "Journey to the Disaster Zone: Japan 3/11" (CBC, 8 p.m.).
I screened an unmixed early cut of the special last week and, in a phone interview, told Suzuki how, despite the lack of narration and other elements, a great sense of shock and awe was still conveyed. In an age when Flipcams and iPhones can capture and transmit video in an instant, images of actual earthquakes and tsunami's are making people all around the world instant eye witnesses.
Suzuki says he was up early the morning of March 11, 2011, and happened to turn on CNN. "I couldn't believe it," he says. "Those images were pouring out live of the tsunami rolling over the land. Cars and trucks were being swept away, it was all happening at a rate of about a block a second."
An earthquake off the northern seaboard of Japan sent tsunami waves 20 meters high sweeping toward the nation. Townsfolk who had experienced 6-meter waves just one year earlier, felt secure in their homes, scrambling to upper floors. Many drowned when waved went crashing way over their roofs.
Teachers at one school, judging that nearby cliffs were too hard to navigate, led 70 children to a large bridge spanning a river in hopes of avoiding the flood. It wasn't high enough, and all those children and teachers perished.
There are other happier if harrowing tales of rescue and survival in tonight's hour. You could tell Suzuki was deeply moved by what had to have been a touching and personal experience.
While reports back at the time suggested Japan acted with great speed to repair roads and bridges, Suzuki says he still saw huge piles of debris in the cities he visited. "There was no building going on anywhere except temporary housing," he says, noting that half a million people needed housing after the disaster.
What Suzuki also didn't see or find evidence of in the wake of the tsunami was looting. "Contrast this with New Orleans after Katrina or even Vancouver after the Stanley Cup loss," says Suzuki, a B.C. resident.
For the Japanese, says Suzuki, it is "inconceivable to pick up a rock or break a window to get supplies--it's just not in their culture."
That stoicism and composure serves them well in a crisis but it can also be seen as weakness, he suggests. People should be "shouting and screaming what the heck is going on, you guys aren't telling us the truth about radiation from [damaged nuclear plants]."
Suzuki did come away with the hope that Japan, a rich, industrialized nation, may now look seriously at alternative sources of energy and back away from nuclear generators. He points out that hundreds of natural hot springs exist in the region--so why build nuclear generators which basically are used to boil water to create steam to drive turbines? The earth itself provides an alternative geo-thermal fuel answer, he suggests.

One problem is that many of these hot  springs are considered sacred. Even in the U.S., he imagines, people would flip out of folks started "buggering around" with Old Faithful. Still, Suzuki hopes compromises are made and a selective approach could see some hot spring spring into alternative energy sources. 

He points out that only four of the 56 nuclear plants in Japan have re-opened since the disaster. When he traveled to Tokyo, he expected to find the city half in darkness, but there was very little evidence that the plants were still shut down. Tokyo has managed to reduce energy consumption 25 percent. "All this bullshit about we need to build more and more plants for more and more energy," Suzuki says. Doesn't the Japanese experience suggest we can live without many of these nuclear facilities?

I mentioned to Suzuki how it sometimes unnerves me that the Brice Nuclear generating station is just 40 minutes down the shore from what I've always called cottage country. Thar sucker has been shut down a few times without an earthquake. I always find it a bit ironic that I drive past 150-odd windmills just north of Shelburne, Ont., on the way to the cottage and find it so puzzling why these turbines, powered by wind, are so often under attack.

Suzuki says some people are just afraid of anything new. He acknowledges they kill birds and bats. "We have to be careful where we build them," he says. "If you really care about birds, we ought to knock down every high rise building, eliminate all cars and every cat. Cats, buildings and cars kill 90 percent of the birds and bats."

Suzuki says he's looking forward to the new, electric Leaf, a hybrid vehicle that will sell for around $44,000. Toyota lent him one recently and he gives it a thumbs up for performance, noting it has a 150k range before recharging. If the Leafs ever make the playoffs, they could sell a few Leafs in Ontario, I suggest. "The price of gas should be enough incentive," says Suzuki. I hear that.

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This week's podcast: Oscar buzz builds

Okay, for those of you who check in every day, sorry for the lack of posts. A deluge of print deadlines as well as fumes from a freshly painted kitchen have set me back farther than a Toronto Maple Leafs playoff ticket printer.

Oscar host Billy Crystal, before and after the hair plugs

I did speak with CHML's Scott Thompson Wednesday and a lot of the discussion, as you might expect, was about Sunday's 84th Annual Academy Awards (beginning at 7/8c on ABC/CTV). Scott asked for some ideas on how  to speed the damn thing up and I stole some ideas from an article I read in The Daily Beast that a friend sent me. That author basically suggested moving the show to Saturday, getting folks as liquored up as they get at the Golden Globes and cutting all clips save the In Memoriam segment, which, hey, I'll drink to that.
The Beast also advocated for Neil Patrick Harris to host but I'll take Crystal for now. He's Mister Showbiz, rises to these occasions and you know he will do some sort of silent movie montage a la The Artist. Look also for some joke about The Descendants related to testicles.
This is Crystal's ninth turn hosting the Oscars, second only to Bob Hope who put on the tux 19 times. Eddy Murphy was supposed to do it before everyone realized what an insane idea that was.
Scott lets me yammer on about other stuff. You can listen in here.

VIDEO: Mr. D's Gerry Dee on how not to teach

More video with Gerry Dee, the star and creator of the CBC Monday night comedy Mr. D. The De La Salle grad was a teacher for 10 years before turning to comedy full time and discusses here how some of his teaching methods might not have been fully endorsed by the faculty of teaching. His health classes, apparently, were especially traumatizing.
The seventh episode of Mr. D, "Job Opportunity," airs tonight at 8 p.m. on CBC.

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