Academy Awards Week: Best Adapted Screenplay

Welcome to Academy Award week!  I will be taking an in depth look at some of the categories that make the Academy Awards tick.  The first category is Best Adapted Screenplay. The Adapted Screenplay prize is one of the most coveted awards of the night.  This award honors films who have adapted source material from books, plays, television shows, short plays, and even other films. If an original film has a sequel good enough to make it in the screenplay category (I do not think it has ever happened) they would have to be nominated in the Best Adapted Screenplay category because the film would be based on the first film.

Throughout the years this award has become incredibly competitive as more and more films seem to be based on other material.  While the quality in the Best Original Screenplay category seems to peak and valley every year, the Adapted Screenplay category has seemed to stay strong picking screenplays with strong writing, which are based on some solid material.  The interesting thing about this year has been that it feels as though Hollywood did a much better job with the original work than it did with adapting screenplays.  While the five nominees as pretty strong this year, picking five original screenplays seems to have been a tough task.

Past winners in this category have been It Happened One Night (1934), Gone With the Wind (1939), Casablanca (1942), To Kill a Mockingbird  (1962), The Godfather (1972), and The Silence of Lambs (1991).  Although 5 out of the 6 of these films are Best Picture winners only about 35 films out of the 83 years went on to win Best Picture.  The Adapted Screenplay trophy tends to go to well written films like Sideways (2004), which the Academy like but to enough to win the Best Picture category.  Many times the the screenplay awards become a consolation prize, and I think history will repeat itself again this year, ironically with another Alexander Payne film.

The nominees for this years Best Adapted Screenplay category are:

The Descendants-Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash
Hugo-John Logan
The Ides of March-George Clooney, Grant Heslov, and Beau Willimon
Moneyball-Aaron Sorkin and Steven Zaillian, Stan Chervin
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy-Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan

This past weekend The Descendants gained a lot of ground in this category winning both the Scripter and the WGA for Best Adapted Screenplay.  Winning the Scripter does not always mean you will win Oscar, mainly because its decided by USC, but winning at the Writer's Guild and Scripter is a pretty good sign.  The Descendants is nominated for 5 Oscars, and while Clooney was a favorite to win Best Actor in the beginning it looks like Jean Dujardin will be swept up in The Artist sweep.  This Best Adapted Screenplay will be a consolation prize for this film.

What about the other nominees?  Moneyball would be my personal pick, it's one of the sharpest screenplays this year.  Moneyball is also written by two of the best screenwriters today, which makes sense.  If a film is going to spoil it's going to be this one.  Tinker Tailor is an impressive screenplay because it has taken an incredibly long book that was made into mini-series at one point and makes one great film.  Ides has a decent screenplay, but it has no shot.  I am not a huge fan of Hugo's screenplay, in fact I think it is one of the weaker elements of this film.  Hugo's wins will come in some of the technical categories.

Will Win: The Descendants
Should Win: Moneyball

The 84th Annual Academy Award Nominations: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly, Surprising, and Seeing into the Future

Today at 8:30 am EST/5:30 PST the Academy Award nominations were announced by Academy Award nominee from last year Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone) Tom Sherak the President of the Academy of Motion Picture Art and Sciences (AMPAS) or the Academy.

The Good

The Tree of Life and 3 nominations-Whether you love it, hate it, or well no matter what you feel, this film deserves respect.  While I myself stated it was a bit self indulgent for about 10 minutes, the film is still amazing.  Tree was largely ignored by many of the guilds, and the globes.  The only group who actually included it were the critics, way to go!  This was the best thing I saw this morning.

Hugo leading the nominations with 11-There is a lot of support for this film and it scored one more nomination than The Artist.  While I respect The Artist, I do not love it, it reminds me of The King's Speech last year (but better).  Scorsese took things in a different direction, and I am proud of his success.

Rooney Mara, Melissa McCarthy, Gary Oldman-These three names may not have been expected, sure they had some love from the Globes and SAG, but they were not locks.  Oldman did not have much of anything.  I have to say I love Mara's performance.  McCarthy is breath of fresh air, even with her leg up in the air.  These two woman could not be more different, and their performances are on completely different spectrum, but I am happy for them both.  Oldman stole Fassbender's spot, which is sad, but he is great in Tinker Tailor.

A Separation and Margin Call in the screenplay categories- The screenwriters know good work, and I glad they picked these films.  This year has not had the strongest screenplays.  The funny thing is that this year's original screenplays were much stronger than the adapted screenplays.

The Bad

No Dragon Score-The exclusion of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo from Best Picture and Director does not bother me.  While the film is solid I would not place it as of the 10 best films of the year.  The film had a lot of strong technical aspects like the cinematography and editing (which it was nominated for), but the score was ignored?  Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross provided one of the best scores of the year, and took home the trophy last year for The Social Network.  How did this fail?

No Swinton, or Fassbender-Swinton is amazing in We Need to Talk About Kevin, and her in over Close is something I would challenge.  While I have not seen Close's performance she looks wooden and unemotional.  Fassbender had four amazing roles this year, but his best work was in Shame.  These are two performances the Academy will be kicking themselves for not nominating in the future.

The Ugly

War Horse and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close-Proof that the new Academy Awards system is a joke!  Before I say anything I have to say I have to say these are the only two Best Picture winners I have not seen.  A friend of mine has seen both and told me War Horse is not bad, it is just one of the best films of the year, and Loud is just not good and overwrought.  I do not want to see Loud at all, I think the film looks manipulative. I am choosing the word manipulative because the film appears to try and control your emotional experience more than in any other film.   I will see these films at some point, and prove myself right.

Drive gets one nomination-Is this a joke?  The Academy has pulled some dumb things, but only giving Drive one nomination in Best Sound Editing, and even snubbing Albert Brooks for Max Von Sydow is a huge mistake.

Take Shelter gets nothing! This film was flawless and has my pick for Best Actor and Supporting Actress this year.  Michael Shannon should have received a nomination, and Jessica Chatain should have been nominated for this film instead.

The Surprising


The Help gets only 4 nominations-  I expected The Help to have 8 nominations.  The nominations I expected but it did not receive were in screenplay, song, editing, and costume design.  The Help has three acting nominations, and a nomination for Best Picture.  This proves that support of this film is waning.   The Help is tied with The Descendants, Midnight in Paris.

Damien Bichir and Max Von Sydow-Even though Bichir had a SAG nomination for Best Actor, I figured that was a fluke.  I am excited to see the film, it looked wonderful.  Von Sydow is a veteran and well respected but received no pre-cursor nominations, I was shocked to see his nomination.

Looking ahead with the nominations announced, and bypassing my own bias, what happens next?  Who wins, will there be any surprises?

Hugo and The Artist appear to have the most support.  If Martin Scorsese wins the DGA, then Hugo will be a real threat.  Hugo has the most nominations this year with 11, and statistically speaking the film with the most nominations wins Best Picture.  For example The King's Speech had the most last year, but this is not always the case.  Many films have won without this statistic like A Beautiful Mind, The Departed and even Slumdog Millionaire (in recent years).  The Artist has ten nominations, and with such strong support for two films there will bound to be smaller win totals for the actual Best Picture winner.  Right now the The Artist is out front.

In the acting categories I think Best Actor is between Clooney Dujardin and Brad Pitt is a spoiler.  The Screen Actor's Guild will clear up this race.  The unknown Bachir and Dujardin may cancel each other out.  It seems as though each of them has a decent base of support but neither of them will take down the Clooney.

I have been predicting Viola Davis to win Best Actress at the Screen Actor's Guild Awards.  The Help received the most nominations, and has a great deal of support.  Many people thought it would be a threat in the Best Picture race.  Today's nominations prove that to not be true.  Where does this leave Viola Davis.  I am putting Davis out ahead slightly; she is in a Best Picture nominee, but look for Streep to provide a lot of challenge.

Today's Best Picture nominations prove that this system is out of touch, and two weak nominees weigh down the fact that great things did happen.  I am not thrilled with this year's nominees, but here's to hoping the Academy picks wisely.

Academy Award Predictions

I know I have been posting a lot about award shows, but tis the season.  Once the Academy Awards have happened, things will slow down on the awards front, but here are my predictions.

Best Picture
The Artist
The Descendants
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo-x (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close)
The Help 
Hugo
Midnight in Paris 
Moneyball
The Tree of Life 
War Horse


7 out 9-But I only predicted 8


Best Actor
George Clooney-The Descendants
Jean Dujardin-The Artist 
Michael Fassbender-Shame x (Damien Bichir-A Better Life)
Gary Oldman-Tinker Tailor Solider Spy
Brad Pitt-Moneyball


4 out 5 


Best Actress
Viola Davis-The Help
Rooney Mara-The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep-The Iron Lady 
Tilda Swinton-We Need to Talk about Kevin x (Glen Close Albert Nobbs)
Michelle Williams-My Week with Marilyn


4 out 5


Best Supporting Actor
Kenneth Brannagh-My Week with Marilyn
Albert Brooks-Drive x (Max Von Sydow-Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close)
Jonah Hill-Moneyball
Nick Nolte-Warrior
Christopher Plummer-Beginners


4 out of 5


Best Supporting Actress
Berenice Bejo-The Artist
Jessice Chasstain-The Help 
Melissa McCarthy-Bridesmaids
Janet McTeer-Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer-The Help


5 for 5 


Best Director 
Woody Allen-Midnight in Paris
David Fincher-The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Terrence Malick-The Tree of Life)
Michel Hazanivicius -The Artist 
Alexander Payne-The Descendants
Martin Scorsese-Hugo 


4 out of 5 


Best Adapted Screenplay
The Descendants
The Help x - (Ides of March)
Hugo
Moneyball
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 


4 out 5 


Best Original Screenplay
The Artist
Beginners x (Margin Call) 
Bridesmaids
Midnight in Paris 
A Separation


4 out 5 


Best Art Direction
The Artist 
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 
Hugo
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy x (Midnight in Paris)
War Horse


4 out 5 


Cinematography
The Artist 
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo 
The Tree of Life 
War Horse


5 for 5!


Best Costume Design
The Artist
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 x (Anonymous)
The Help x (W.E.)
Hugo
Jane Eyre


3 out 5 


Editing 
The Artist 
The Help x (The Descendants) 
Hugo 
Moneyball 
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo


4 out 5 


Best Original Score
The Artist
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo x (The Adventures of Tin Tin)
Hugo
War Horse
W.E. x (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)


3 out 5 


Visual Effects
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Hugo
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol  x (Real Steel)
Rise of the Planet of the Apes 
Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon


4 out of 5 


Nomination Tally (Top Totals)
The Artist with 11 (Actual total is 10)
Hugo with 11 (Spot on!)
The Help with 8 (only 4 nominations -severely under performed)


60 Out of 74 (81 Percent)

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5? How Many Best Picture Nominees Will There Be?

The Academy Awards have had changed the number of nominees for their Best Picture Award throughout its history. 1927/28 had three nominees.  From 1929-1931 there were five nominees.  From 1932-1943 there were ten nominees.  The most consistent period of time was 1944-2008 where the Academy went back to five nominees.  2009 and 2010 both went back to the 10 nominees.  This year based on the the new rules listed below there is no set specific number of nominees.

New Rules for Best Picture nominees

1. A Reminder List of all eligible motion pictures shall be sent with a nominations ballot to all active and life members of the Academy who shall vote in the order of their preference for not more than five pictures.


2. The pictures receiving the highest number of votes shall become the nominations for final voting for the Best Picture award. There may not be more than ten nor fewer than five nominations; however, no picture shall be nominated that receives less than five percent of the total votes cast.

3. The individual(s) who shall be credited for Academy Award purposes must have screen credit of “producer” or “produced by.” Persons with screen credits of executive producer, co-producer, associate producer, line producer, produced in association with or any other credit shall not receive nominations or Academy statuettes. The nominees will be those three or fewer producers who have performed the major portion of the producing functions. The Producers Branch Executive Committee will designate the qualifying producer nominees for each of the nominated pictures. The committee has the right, in what it determines to be a rare and extraordinary circumstance, to name any additional qualified producer as a nominee.

4. Final voting for the Best Picture award shall be restricted to active and life Academy members.

The key piece of information listed above is in section 2 which states that a Best Picture nominee must have five percent of the total votes cast.  This means that when Academy Award members are voting a film with a significant number of number one votes will get a Best Picture nomination.  Sounds overly complicated!  You are probably asking why not set a specific number?  I like the variable, but I think this just creates inconsistency.

So how many nominees will their be, and what will they be?  Two films are a lock, The Artist and The Descendants, which each won Best Film at The Golden Globes.  Hugo, The Help, and Midnight in Paris are also locks, they have a lot of support from the Globes, and the guild awards.  This makes five.  The next question is will their be more?  Dave Karger from Entertainment Weekly has stated he thinks there will be only five.  While I appreciate his rationale, I think he is incorrect about the number.  The number five is out!

What other films have a shot at the Best Picture nomination? Bridesmaids, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,The Ides of March, Moneyball, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and War Horse.  Let's start with ten nominees and work back to the five to figure out the most likely scenario.  With Eleven options, and potentially The Tree of Life as as twelfth, what would the ten nominees be?  This is the simplest scenario to predict.

10 nominees
The Artist
Bridesmaids
The Descendants
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Help
Hugo
The Ides of March
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
War Horse

Predicting the the tenth nominee is the toughest thing to do.  I would say the weakest films are Bridesmaids, The Ides of March, and War Horse.  Bridesmaids has a lot of guild support, and War Horse has the second most.  I would say the tenth nominee is between Ides and Tinker.  Ides is more traditional fair while Tinke did impressively at BAFTA.

9 nominees


The Artist
Bridesmaids
The Descendants
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Help 
Hugo
Midnight in Paris 
Moneyball
War Horse



8 nominees

The Artist
The Descendants
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Help 
Hugo
Midnight in Paris 
Moneyball
War Horse


7 nominees

The Artist
The Descendants
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Help 
Hugo
Midnight in Paris 
Moneyball


Picking 10 is going to be tough, but when you get down to 6 nominees it's even harder.  What gets eliminated from the 7 is it Moneyball or The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo?  I am going to take cop out answer and state that there will be no less than seven nominees (if I had to pick I would get rid of Dragon Tattoo.)  My prediction is 8 nominees, and it will be the eight I picked.  I would love to see War Horse get booted off the list, but I do think it will end up as a Best Picture nominee.

Award Shows: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

At the moment we are the middle of the busiest season for award shows.  This week the nominations for three major film awards are announced: the Broadcast Film Critics, Screen Actor's Guild (SAG), and the Golden Globes.  Starting January 15th the Globes will kick this off.  Mixed in the month of January and the winter months is the People's Choice Awards, and the Grammy Awards.  Most of the time people who do not follow award shows ask the question, "How do they pick the nominees?"  Each Academy or group has their own process, and some award shows are better than others.

I have always been a competitive person, and I usually jockey for my favorite films, performers, TV shows to be nominated, or win.  I would prefer win, but I can't always get what I want.  Many critics and award show experts state within their respective area of experience that there are some years when these Academies or group get it right, and other when they get it wrong.  I think award shows are incredibly interesting for several reasons 1) they highlight some of the best work in music, film, television etc (most of the time) and I love the arts 2) competition is fun! In the end the reward for the people involved should be intrinsic, and when actors or musicians feels as though they do their best they are motivated to do more and continue their "best" work or advance themselves further.  The reality is that award shows exist and here is what some of them do well and not so well.

This past year at 2011 Emmy Awards I was both pleasantly surprised with the Emmy nominees and the winners.  The role of an award show should be too honor the best, not the shows with the highest ratings like NCIS, but quality programming.  There were a few people who should have made the cut, but overall this was a solid list.  The Emmy's have continued to uphold this strength within the last few years.  How do they do it? According to the Emmy website "The members are divided into peer groups, determined by specific areas of expertise within the industry. For example, performers are in one peer group, makeup artists and hair stylists are in another, and camera and videotape operators are in another."  Once these groups narrow down the nominees the people in the major categories submit tapes and people watch and vote for the winners.  Seems simple, people watch the material and vote on it, thus providing everyone insight into both television shows and performances.  Sounds simple, right?  Well sometimes thing do not work out that way.


The Emmy Awards have continued to peak in terms of honoring quality material.  Television actors and shows are honored at both the SAG Awards and Golden Globes, but the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (ATAS) has never relied on these nominations to determine who should become a nominee.  People like Margo Martindale from Justified and Archie Panjabi from The Good Wife never received  SAG or Globe nominations but went on to win their respective category for quality work.  The Emmy Awards are also held in September while SAG and the Globes are now both typically in January.


The Academy Awards have a similar process to the Emmy awards to determine their nominees.  According to the Academy website In late December ballots and copies of the Reminder List of Eligible Releases are mailed to around 6000 active members. For most categories, members from each of the branches vote to determine the nominees only in their respective categories (i.e. only directors vote for directors, writers for writers, actors for actors, etc.); there are some exceptions though in the case of certain categories, like Foreign Film, Documentary and Animated Feature Film in which movies are selected by special screening committees made up of members from all branches. In the special case of Best Picture, all voting members are eligible to select the nominees for that category. Foreign films must include English subtitles, and each country can only submit one film per year." The Academy Awards have done a good job honoring the "best" films" and "best" work for a film, but unlike the Emmy's that have improved  throughout the last couple of years the Academy Awards have had good and bad cycles.


One thing I have notices that hangs in the balance every year within the film industry is that each precursor tends to have an effect on the Academy Awards.  Adam Waldowski at goldderby.com stated " The only film to win Best Picture at the Oscars without at least contending for Best Ensemble at SAG was "Braveheart" in 1995 (the first year for this guild award). Of the 16 SAG champs, eight went on to win the Oscar, including "The King's Speech" last year. Among this year's leading contenders, "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close," "Hugo" and "War Horse" were shut out by SAG.  This statistic may mean the Best Picture winner is almost predetermined now.   Adam stated "SAG also does a good job predicting acting nominees as well.  Last year 17 out of 20 SAG contenders lined up with the Oscars -- only Robert Duvall ("Get Low"),Hilary Swank ("Conviction") and Mila Kunis ("Black Swan") missed out on Oscar bids -- while in 2009 all of the SAG nominees but Diana Kruger ("Inglorious Basterds") vied for Oscars."  The critics award set the stage for some films to gain traction, while the Globes, and the guild awards seem to help guide and rubber stamp some nominees.  


The problematic part of this is that it appears as though voters are less likely to determine their own nominees, and they will likely vote with a trend.  I see this happening with Jessica Chatain.  Chastain is great in all of her films, but I think she is going to be nominated for her weakest performance in The Help.  I think she deserves a nomination for Take Shelter.  This process of so many awards before the actual Oscars appears to have made voters lazy.   This has also made them more rebellious, and not in a good way.


An example of being more rebellious was last year's Best Picture winner The King's Speech.  While Speech is not a bad film, it was not the best film of 2010.  The Social Network was honored by many critics groups, some guilds, and the Globes as the best film of the year.  The older voting Academy members seemed tired of rubber stamping the critics winner and played it safe last year.  2010 was also the year of Inception, The Black Swan, and many other daring films that made a statement.  The King's Speech's win seemed to say we have the power to honor what we want (this is both a good and a bad thing).  I respect the Academy to a point because they have gone against the grain in good ways, like within the writing, acting, and technical categories.  I also think honoring films like No Country for Old Men shows progression.  I think this year will an interesting year which will define this award show for a few years to come.  At least the Oscars are not hitting bottom like the Grammy Awards.


The Grammy Awards feel lost.  This year's Album of Year nominations help to prove there is something missing. The nominees are Adele for "21",much deserved, and the rest are Rihanna's "Loud," Bruno Mars' "Doo Woops and Hooligans," Lady Gaga's "Born this Way" and The Foo Fighter "Wasting Light."  This category is supposed to represent the Best Albums not the biggest album sales.  Adele, Rihanna, Bruno Mars, and Lady Gaga albums were among the top ten highest grossing albums.  This could be a coincidence, it could be the recording Academy trying to stay with the times and compete with the Video Music Awards, or even catering to mainly younger viewers. 


According to the Grammy website nominations are determined through through this process: "record companies and individuals may submit recordings to be nominated. Nominations are made online and a physical copy of the work is sent to the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Once a work is entered, reviewing sessions are held, by more than 150 experts from the recording industry, to determine whether the work is eligible and entered in the correct category for official nomination.The resulting list is circulated to all NARAS members, each of whom may vote to nominate in the general field (Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist) and in no more than nine out of 30 other fields on their ballots. The five recordings that earn the most votes in each category become the nominees. There may be more than five nominees if there is a tie in the nomination process.Whereas members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences are generally invited to screenings or are sent DVDs of movies nominated for Oscars, NARAS members do not receive nominated recordings."


Since people are not sent recordings it seems as though this system is the most flawed, and makes sense that most of the highest selling albums are nominated instead of lesser known artists or albums.  My main problem with this year's nominees is that not only are they not the five best albums, but they only reflect two genres of music rock and pop (and maybe some dance).  The Grammy's usually do a job of honoring the best of different genres, but this throughout the 2000s this award show has become a glorified concert with awards tacked on.  Of the major three major award shows this one is in the worst condition, and needs more than just quick fixes, like combining the male and female vocal categories in each genre.


Nothing can be perfect, there are flaws in every system.  Some worse than others.  Look at the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and their nominating The Tourist for three awards, that's bad!  The problem is award shows become political either people win for wrong reasons, or they spend large amounts of money to achieve that win (that's another subject all on it's own).  As the beginning of the award season begins all I can hope for is some fun and excitement.

"Rehearsing is for Fags"...The World According Apologies

In a recent Q&A for the film Tower Heist, director Brett Ratner (Rush Hour, X-Men: The Last Stand) was asked about his process, and if he had people rehearse; he stated "rehearsing is for fags."  Soon after this news story broke to the mainstream media Ratner issued an apology that went like this "“I apologize for any offense my remarks caused. [Not that they’re by definition offensive, just that somebody MIGHT have been offended.] It was a dumb and outdated way of expressing myself. [Not prejudiced, just “dumb.” Not homophobic, just “outdated.”] Everyone who knows me knows that I don’t have a prejudiced bone in my body. [Some of my best friends are fa—uh, homos, uh, sexuals.] But as a storyteller I should have been much more thoughtful about the power of language and my choice of words. [I’m a storyteller!]"


So why the major coverage? One of the reasons this is getting major press is because Ratner is slated to produce the Academy Awards this year, and people are calling for his resignation.  I have to say I agree with blogger Mark Harris, I am tired of this slow learning curve actors have had within recent years that you saying "Well I'm a comedian" or "I'm a storyteller."  I have to ask the question what was the purpose of the use of this word?  Why did Mr. Ratner use this specific term?  I myself have used the word here. Why shouldn't someone disagree with me for using the word here?


Ratner using the word is pointed and there was no reason for it to be used in the place of stupid or is for idiots.  What Brett Ratner meant was rehearsing is for, insert an analogous negative comparison.  I am tired of people claiming they are not prejudicial.  Using this word in this context is not as much about prejudice as it is about this "storytellers" lack of a strong vocabulary.  This storyteller who ruined the X-Men franchise (I am still furious about that).  People can chose the words they use, and if they chose wrongly or misspeak they can be penalized for the poor word choice.  I think this is a case where Ratner shot his mouth off and let his true lack of intelligence show.  When people use those words they do it out  of a lack of clarity.  I am sure Ratner is not a bad man, nor prejudice, but his concept of language is ill used.  


In the closing words of his apology where he searches for the words to describe the LGBT  population, he tries a mix of humor and discomfort.  In my mind the apology lacks sincerity, and this "master storyteller" can stick to crappy Jackie Chan films; he should not be allowed to continue on to represent the Academy Awards.