Comedy Is Hard, Winning an Oscar Harder
LOS ANGELES – Good comedies are among the hardest films to make. So why does comedy usually strike out at the Academy Awards? The road-trip romp “Sideways” is a rare comic tale that earned a best-picture slot and four other nominations for the Feb. 27 Oscars.
While “Sideways” won the ensemble prize at the Screen Actors Guild Awards and the Golden Globe for musical or comedy, it’s considered a just-happy-to-be-in-the-same-room-with-the-big-boys Oscar contender.
As usual, sober dramas are favored for best picture, either “Million Dollar Baby” or “The Aviator.” “Sideways” filmmaker Alexander Payne is a best-director long shot against Clint Eastwood of “Million Dollar Baby” and Martin Scorsese of “The Aviator.”
Heavyweight performances are expected to take the supporting-acting categories, possibly Cate Blanchett for “The Aviator” and Morgan Freeman for “Million Dollar Baby” rather than Virginia Madsen and Thomas Haden Church of “Sideways.”
Despite giving one of last year’s most acclaimed performances, “Sideways” star Paul Giamatti was snubbed for an Oscar nomination.
Payne and Jim Taylor’s screenplay for “Sideways” is the film’s best shot to actually win one of those little gold statues.
Other comedies such as “Working Girl,” “Babe” and “Four Weddings and a Funeral” occasionally sneak into the best-picture mix, but they hardly ever win key Oscars. Kevin Kline’s supporting-actor prize for 1988’s “A Fish Called Wanda” is one of the few Oscar triumphs for a flat-out comic role.
Church figures part of the Oscar appeal for “Sideways” is that it’s comedy mixed with real-life drama as the misadventures of two buddies spin out of control.
“We don’t really characterize `Sideways’ as a comedy at all,” Church said. “I think it’s a life movie. It’s a movie about everything that can happen to you in one week given the circumstances where these two guys are out to have a good time, and one guy’s definition of a good time has nothing to do with the other guy’s.”
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