Karina on SpoutBlog

Kevin B. Lee, who wrote for us about the best music videos of 2008 and whose video essays I’ve linked to of several times in the past, just informed me that his YouTube account has been “permanently disabled.” Kevin’s video essays, all of which wed critical commentary or conversation to clips from copyright films in a “teaching” context, and most of which were created as part of his project to “view every film on the list of 1000 greatest films of all time, as compiled by They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They?,” received a copyright warning earlier today in regards to his video essay on …And God Created Woman. It was the first time YouTube had ever slapped his wrist over one of the video essays, although they had contacted him about two unaltered clips in the past, one from The Sorrow and Pity and one from Dames. Three strikes, and Kevin’s out — YouTube has removed all 70 of his videos, including 40 original video essays. If you’ve embedded one of these in your own blog, that embed will now be unplayable.

Kevin has his own personal archive and can potentially re-upload the clips; he says he’ll investigate other online video sharing options. But YouTube is still the biggest game in town, and Kevin says he’ll miss it. “I’ll miss not only the unparalleled audience reach, but the cool stats that YouTube had to offer (like learning that viewers would rewind repeatedly to watch Bardot’s bare ass in my video essay for …And God Created Woman),” he noted in an email. “But that’s nothing compared to having the right to share my work in the first place.”

Kevin is one of a number of people producing film criticism via online video who have had trouble with YouTube of late. These video represent the first real advance in film criticism as an art form in, at least, decades; other video sharing platforms may remain more friendly to copyright borrowers for awhile, but ultimately this practice may have to either move underground or disappear.

Under discussion:

Slumdog Millionaire  (2008)

We’ve never been big fans of Slumdog Millionaire here at the SpoutBlog. Kevin Buist was first underwhelmed with Danny Boyle’s hyperactive Mumbai game show movie at Telluride, where he called it “hectic and sloppy, especially considering the rigid and somewhat boring structure upon which the film is built,” and noting that the love story in particular was “sorely lacking.”

When we re-posted this review around the time of the film’s general release, commenters started attacking Kevin right away. “i think you have no knowledge of being a movie reviewer,” ‘prady‘ wrote. “Just watch the movie and its great.You might have some problem,contact your doctor soon.” And ‘clearly’ had a number of questions: “um, Kevin, really? Why are you qualified to write reviews.. perhaps another line of work for ya? Rigid and boring structure? are you blind, ignorant or just stupid?” The onslaught became so much that Kevin responded and defended his position on an episode of FilmCouch.

But after the film’s Golden Globes sweep (see the full list of its wins at the newly re-designed indieWIRE) last night, that review began to attract some very different comments.

“I agree with every word you wrote!” commented ‘andrea rouda.’ “This ” movie” is clearly an attempt by the director to capture that audience demographic that movies are losing to video games. You’re really right about one thing: it’s a mess. And very violent, brutal and depressing as well!” Later, Subramanian chimed in: “Finally, someone with sense. I can’t believe the movie is even being considered for an oscar. It was an utterly non-sensical movie with no sense of realism whatsoever…It is just a movie made by a Westerner for Westerners to feel good about themselves that they have captured the true spirit of India. My foot!” (That’s a brief excerpt from a rather lengthy comment, and there are more of them — check out the entire thread for the full context.)

Has the tide turned? Was last night Slumdog’s only chance to shine before an internet-wide backlash sweeps it under the rug? Um, no, probably not. It’s always been convenient to talk about Slumdog in the same breath as Fox Searchlight’s 2008 “surprise” awards contender, Juno. The Juno backlash began much earlier last year, and that didn’t hurt it much –– the film still won the only Oscar it probably ever really had a chance at winning, and Ellen Page had the honor of being imitated by Tina Fey to boot. The Slumdog backlash, though more necessary, hasn’t had nearly as much time to gather steam. The haters, though becoming more vocal, are still dwarfed by the Slumdog faithful, and as noted at Awards Daily, the film has gained so much traction that it seems likely any naysaying will fall on deaf ears.

Still, it can’t hurt to file one last plea. If we’re grading films on their actual quality, the success of Slumdog is way more offensive than the success of Juno, which was rankled primarily because the film was so seriously out of its league, a servicable teen sex comedy sneakily sold as an art film. Slumdog’s underdog backstory is legitimate –– this really was a film that came very close to falling through the gap left by the vanishing indie arms, and if not for Fox Searchlight, might never have seen US distribution –– but when judged by the merits of what’s on screen, its awards season dominance is still undeserved. And Salman Rushdie agrees!

We all like to make fun of the Golden Globes, even when the telecast *doesn’t* involve the bequeathing of an unusual amount of power for Billy Bush. So prepare to have your mind blown: there were eight moments on tonight’s telecast that actually trancended my knee-jerk cynicism over awards in general, and the Hollywood Foreign Press Awards specifically. Some were funny, some were borderline surreal, and all struck me as — gasp! — genuinely unscripted. Join me in counting the moments down to the best — and, in all probability, booziest! If you’re on the West Coast and the show’s going on and you want to avoid spoilers … well, then I don’t know what you’re reading a movie blog, but don’t click through the jump.

8. Don Cheadle’s passive-aggressive plea to be hired by the Coen Brothers

Introducing a clip from Best Comedy or Musical nominee Burn After Reading, Don Cheadle noted, apparently off script, that Joel and Ethan Coen have never hired him. “I would have crushed Fargo,” Cheadle said, with a straight face. “Macy was fine, but I would have crushed it.” This seems to have flown over the heads of most Golden Globes live blogs/Twitters I’ve come across, but I thought there was a subtle brilliance to this quip. The act’s combination of ambition and misplaced hostility seems like a perfect mirror to the film Cheadle introduced.

7.  Colin Farrell’s self-deprecating meta jokes

“I’ve had a cold. It’s not the other thing, that it used to be.” First, when presenting the award for Best Foreign Film, the recently rehabbed made the first of on-stage cocaine joke of the night (Seth Rogen was responsible for the second). Then the actor unexpectedly won the award for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical for his work in the near-forgotten Sundance 2008 opening night film In Bruges, and Farrell seemed as surprised as anyone. “They must have done the counting in Florida.” Farrell may have been off the E! radar for awhile, but for those of us whose 2008s were made by the new DVD of The New World, it felt good to watch him pull off some of the best lines of the night.

6. Kate Winslet forgets Angelina Jolie, declares love for Leo.

“I have a habit of not winning things,” Kate Winslet said while accepting her trophy for Best Supporting Actress for The Reader, and proceeded to nervously tug up the front of her dress while making thank yous. A couple of hours later, when she won the Best Actress award for Revolutionary Road, her self-deprecation was proven false. We’re sure the experience was discombobulating, and that’s surely why it made Winslet momentarily forget the name of the most famous woman in the world while thanking her fellow nominees. “I’m so sorry, Anne, Meryl, Kristen …. who’s the other one? [pause, someone on stage seems to whiper something] Angelina!” Um, Team Aniston? Does that still exist? And that wasn’t it –– Winslet went on to thank co-star Leonardo DiCaprio with the effusive declaration, “I’m so happy how much I can stand up here and tell you how much I love you, and have loved you for 13 years.” An audible, uncomfortable “ummm…?” rose up from the crowd. Team Mendes, represent.

5. Ari Folman’s implicit political commentary

Towards the end of his acceptance speech for the Best Foreign Film prize for Waltz with Bashir, Ari Folman noted that 8 babies were born to various crew members in the 4 years it took to make film, and said he hopes that when those babies grow up and watch it his animated document of his time in the Israeli military, “it will look like an ancient videogame that has nothing to do with their lives whatsoever.” In light of recent current events, I can’t imagine an awards show winner making a political comment with more class.

4. Tina Fey calls out her internet haters

After winning her award for Best Actress in a TV comedy, Tina Fey offered some advie to her fellow celebrities. “If you ever start to feel too good about yourself, they have this thing called the Internet!” she said. “You can find a lot of people there who don’t like you!” The 30 Rock creator/star went on to namecheck some commenters by handle (”DianeFan, you can suck it. Cougar Letter, you can really suck it ’cause you’ve been after me all year”) — all of them, as it turns out, real commenters from LA Times’ awards blog The Envelope.

3. Mickey Rourke thanks his dogs

There’s been a fair amount of debate as to what extent the humilty Rourke has dished out on his latest trip on the comeback train has been calculated, either by him or his handlers, to ensure a smoother road to Oscar glory. You could argue that much of his Best Actor acceptance speech fell into the file of run-of-the-mill “I’m back!” drivel — until Rourke’s speech provoked director Darren Aronofsky to toss off an (apparently good-humored) middle finger at the camera. And then, Rourke took it to the next level: he thanked his dogs. “Sometimes, when a man’s alone, all you got is your dogs, and they mean the world to me.” No publicist in the world would script that.

2. Sally Hawkins’ big moment

When Sally Hawkins made it on stage to accept for Best Actress award, she put her trophy on the ground, promising to pick it up when she was finished with her thank yous. “I’ll try to get through as much as my voice, and nerves, and knees will let me,” she said, then continued to stammer through her debilitating nerves for several minutes. I’ve seen a lot of stuff on the web tonight making fun of everything from her (obviously not contrived) verbal inelegance to her waifish frame (ditto). The general attitude seems to be, “We don’t know who this broad even is, so why is she taking up so much screen time?” But just the simple fact that, in this media climate, a Mike Leigh movie can get this kind of exposure, that its star can win an award and thus be shoved in the face of unwitting US TV viewers, and then end up at the end of the night offhandedly mentioning her Silver Bear to a blonde bimbo E! reporter who almost definitely doesn’t know what a Silver Bear is — this is the only reason why awards shows should exist.

1. “Deal with it, Cate Blanchett!”

“Tina Fey and I made a deal. If Barack Obama won, I would speak for the show from now on. I’m the face of post-racial America! Deal with it, Cate Blanchett! We’d like to thank the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, because a black man can’t get no love at the Emmys. We love you Europe!” I don’t think Tracy Morgan’s acceptance speech on behalf on the 30 Rock cast for Best Television Comedy really requires comment, but if you feel differently do chime in in the comments.