Crazytown

THE NARRATIVE WE TELL ABOUT MOONLIGHT AND THE OSCARS IS IMPORTANT

In an unfortunate turn of events on Sunday evening, one group of filmmakers found themselves to be the victims of the worst kind of live award show snafu - a winner announcement mishap. And when I say victims, I am not referring to the cast and crew of La La Land.
By Annissa Omran (Writer/College Student)

It's reasonable to assume that most of those who make up the loyal Crazytown readership watched the 89th Academy Awards this past Sunday. According to The Hollywood Reporter, 32.9 million viewers tuned in to the big event. Those of us who watched to the very end, throwing caution to the wind and blatantly ignoring the fact that we'd end up getting a shockingly short amount of sleep, lived through the historic moment that will forever overshadow Bonnie and Clyde as the most iconic pairing of Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. 

La La Land was announced as the winner of the prestigious Best Picture category. But this was not the case. It was in fact Moonlight, the little engine that spectacularly could, chugging on up from low budget obscurity and the unlikely setting of urban Miami.

A lot of people focused on how courageous it was of the La La Land crew to graciously turn over their awards after the mistake was announced. Many spent time discussing how it must have felt for them to taste success and then have it taken from them in a flash.

I, however, don't see it that way.

Of course that must have been uncomfortable for them. It was a very awkward and disappointing moment that nobody would ever want to experience. However, this is a group of people who worked on a film with FOURTEEN Oscar noms. They had a 30 million dollar budget. 

Moonlight had eight nominations and a budget of 5 million dollars. That is 1/6 the budget of La La Land, the supposed loser in this situation.

But that's not even really my point I want to make. The point I want to make is that a film about the coming of age of a homosexual black boy in a low income neighborhood in Miami rightfully beat out a medium budget, splashy Hollywood film about two White People trying to Make it in the Biz^TM. And yet all we are talking about is faux pas. The blunder. The mix up. 

Moonlight deserved its shining moment of individual glory. Instead it was relegated to being lumped with another film in the headline of a next-day news story. How many years have minorities had to wait for a triumph like this - and they don't even get a full, comfortable speech. 

I personally was so disappointed by the announcement of La La Land as Best Picture that I turned off the tv and left the room. If it hadn't been for the fact that I happened to then walk into another room where the Oscars were still playing, I might have missed that fateful moment where the mood shifted and ecstatic faces turned to a sea of confusion.

I was happy, but I was saddened.

So, if I can offer up any advice at all - perhaps in your next water cooler discussion, when someone brings up "that thing that happened at the Oscars," make and effort to bring up the content of the actual winning film. Many people haven't seen Moonlight to begin with. And many people, like me, tuned out the minute Best Picture was announced, whether it be out of disgust, disinterest, or just the fact that they had an early meeting the next morning. So we don't really know how many people actually saw the rightful winners take the stage and say their piece.

Let's take back their moment for them. 

(source)

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Happy Tuesday, Everyone

ANNISSA OMRAN is currently a college student and eternally a writer. An old movie aficionado, her interests include show tunes, singing loudly, and singing show tunes loudly. She also provides a (dramatic) running commentary on the life of a young writer.
EMAIL HER |  FACEBOOK | TWITTER | OTHER POSTS BY THIS AUTHOR

OSCAR MUSINGS

By Annissa Omran (Writer/College Student)

In the fall of 2015, a friend of mine got an internship to work on a local film that was being produced on a relatively low budget. They needed people to work on securing locations, and to this end they secured a small, grimy office in Midtown, Miami. On the first day of pre-production, I drove my friend to the office. It had a very mom-drops-kid-off-at-the-first-day-of-school kind of vibe to it.

As I drove away, I wondered to myself what would become of this tiny film project nobody had ever heard of.

Over the course of the next few months, my friend regaled us with stories from the location office and later - on a rare occasion - stories from set. The locations coordinator seemed moody and the production was fraught with everything from hung-over PAs to angry homeowners hell-bent on derailing filming.

When the time came for the wrap party, my friend invited me as her plus-one. I went, feeling as though I had been a part of the film due to all the hours spent listening to stories and occasionally acting as intern chauffeur. The party was held at Miami's historic Vagabond Hotel. The crew in attendance was small but full of cheer and they crowded the small space between the bar and the pool. The bartenders were friendly and the drinks were free and it seemed as though everyone around us was letting out a collective sigh of relief after a long haul.

My friend and I strayed from the pack to join two little boys - the only children present at the very adult celebration. I was told they were two of the child actors from the film. I forgot their names quickly, just as they forgot mine, but the four of us played tag around the shallow end of the pool. We had water fights with the colorful fountains that shot into the air. 

When the boy's parents decided it was finally past their bedtimes, my friend and I rejoined the party. It soon moved locations and en route to a downtown dive bar I was notified that we were going to celebrate the director's birthday.

In a dimly lit bar, surrounded by relative strangers but recognizable camaraderie, I raised a glass of beer along with the rest of the crew and toasted the director I had never met from a film I had not worked on. When I finally made my exit half an hour later (I had an exam the next morning) I went up to the bar and tapped the director on the shoulder and wished him one last "Happy Birthday." He turned back to me and flashed a big white smile along with a cheery "Thanks for celebrating with us!"

On the way home I wondered again what would become of this tiny film project nobody had ever heard of.

MOVIE MADNESS (PART I)

There's no such thing as too many movies.
By Annissa Omran (Writer/College Student)

In the past ten days I have seen a total of eight movies in theaters. I’ll let that settle for a moment. Eight movies. That’s something along the lines of SIXTEEN hours spent in a movie theater staring at a screen. And I enjoyed every single one of those hours.

Alright, that’s an exaggeration. Some of the movies were definitively better than others. But as any good film student knows, you have to go through some duds to get to the gold. And boy did the gold shine.

One of the films I watched was the 1997 satirical military sci-fi film Starship Troopers. Three of the films were Advanced Screenings. One of the films was a Korean romance. Two of the films were even nominees for Best Picture of this year’s Academy Awards.

Spoiler’s will be avoided to protect the innocent.

(The only Doctor Who quote that doesn't give away the fact that you're a nerd who quotes Doctor Who)

 

AND NOW FOR A PALATE CLEANSER

By Annissa Omran (Writer/College Student)

Hello, Crazytown universe! I’m back after a year and a half hiatus to shout some more personal trains of thought into the dark void that is the internet.

Time has made me wiser and a little bit harder, but I’ve still got that squishy interior that’s reminiscent of a not-yet-finished souffle. I’ve got some more cooking to do, and I’m planning on broadcasting the entire process all over Crazytown like an overplayed Food Network show.

And while we’re on the topic of food, I think it’s fair to say we could all use a little chicken soup for the battered soul this week. The harrowing truth of last Friday’s events, tempered as they were by the uplifting marches of this past weekend, have left even the most positive among us with a bad taste in our mouths.

So let us all cleanse our collective palates and agree to nosh on heavier material next week, when we’re ready to engage again with the harsh realities of this world.  

In the meantime, watch this video of a dog cooking. 

 

ANNISSA OMRAN is currently a college student and eternally a writer. An old movie aficionado, her interests include show tunes, singing loudly, and singing show tunes loudly. She also provides a (dramatic) running commentary on the life of a young writer.
EMAIL HER |  FACEBOOK | TWITTER | OTHER POSTS BY THIS AUTHOR

AMBER WAVES OF GRAIN - AND ALL THAT JAZZ (PART II)

13 states, 12 days, 4 family members, 1 car.
By Annissa Omran (Writer/College Student)

To pick up where I left off in my last post, my epic family road trip moved on from our first stop in New Orleans in a northward trajectory with one destination in mind - Steamboat Springs, Colorado. 

I had seen the Appalachian mountains many times in the past, so I'd thought I had a pretty good grasp of height and picturesque views.

Boy was I wrong.

The Rockies are all that and then some. I had thought I'd known what to expect.

I was wrong.

All of my expectations were blown out of the water.

AMBER WAVES OF GRAIN - AND ALL THAT JAZZ (PART I)

13 States, 12 days, 4 family members, 1 car.
By Annissa Omran (Writer/College Student)

Have you ever spent an entire night driving down a pitch black Colorado-Kansas highway? This girl has!

My family reached an interesting compromise when we couldn't decide on a location for our summer trip. I begged and pleaded for Louisiana because that's the setting for the novel I'm writing for my senior thesis this school year. My parents were dead set on Colorado. 

The verdict?

A massive road trip that stopped first in New Orleans for a couple days and then swooped up to Steamboat Springs.

SUMMER SOUNDTRACK

Bringing you tunes to carry you through the humid evenings to come.
By Annissa Omran (Writer/College Student)

Now seeing that I am about two weeks late to the party, it's quite possible a lot of you have seen my current favorite music video -

While it is a bit hard jam out to a song about summer with the fall semester of my senior year of college just looming a week and a half away, I can't help but love this. 

Demi Lovato's music has run the gamut from bubbly teen rock to growing-pains-ridden dark pop to rejuvenated retrospectives.

Always a fan of real-life stories of struggles and personal triumphs, Demi Lovato has been the Disney factory product that I love the most. Not only can the girl SANG, but her love-thyself attitude ever since the beginning of her road to recovery is one actually worthy of the creepy idol worship that little girls have going on in this day and age. 

This video, however? Demi's done a lot of growing up. And I LOVE IT.

UNSOLICITED THOUGHTS FROM THEATER PATRONS

A true life story of a true life experience.
By Annissa Omran (Writer/College Student)

The setting - the end of a Friday night performance of Love Letters with a stellar cast. All is quiet in the packed house while the actors, Love Story's Ryan O'Neal and Ali MacGraw, deliver the last few harrowing pages of dialogue. The climactic realization is delivered and O'Neal brings it on home with Andy Ladd's final letter, this time to Melissa's mother.

The last syllable is uttered and the crowd jumps to its feet. The tipsy women in the second row, the ones who'd spent all of the pre-show seating time gushing about how sexy Ryan O'Neal was in the 70s while sloshing their chardonnay all over the aisle, scream their approval for their aged heart throb. 

(They were totally cute, even if they did make me cry.)

Annissa, seasoned usher and overall-emotional-theater-lover, gets up from the employee seating in the back of upper orchestra left and follows the rest of her team down to the doors to prepare for exit. The house lights are still down as the actors take their bows and yet, naturally, some impatient individuals make their way out to beat the post-show parking garage circus.

In the bustling darkness, Annissa takes a moment to wipe a stray tear - left over from the emotion of the last scene - from her eye. 

Just then a female patron walks up.

She looks Annissa dead in the eye.

She places a hand on Annissa's shoulder.

"Don't be such a pussy," she whispers.

And then she walks off into the night.

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Happy Thursday, Crazytown!

ANNISSA OMRAN is currently a college student and eternally a writer. An old movie aficionado, her interests include show tunes, singing loudly, and singing show tunes loudly. She also provides a (dramatic) running commentary on the life of a young writer.
EMAIL HER |  FACEBOOK | TWITTER | OTHER POSTS BY THIS AUTHOR

SUMMER SOUNDTRACK: VIRAL VIDEO OF THE WEEK

Bringing you tunes to carry you through the humid evenings to come.
By Annissa Omran (Writer/College Student)

It is my job, as this summer's Crazytown DJ if you will, to bring you the music that everyone is [or soon will be] listening to. 

It's possible that you've already come across this little gem on Facebook or Tumblr or via your best friend's obnoxious blast emails. But just in case you haven't, allow me to share the magic.

Do you like Disney Villains?

Do you like Game of Thrones?

If you're a living, breathing human and not an alien and/or robot, you should have answered yes to one if not both of those questions. 

(For any of you who used to watch CHUCK, that's Yvonne Strahovski playing Daenerys!)

So sit back, relax, and enjoy [bonus points to anyone who learns the whole rap, because that's definitely next on my summer to-do list].

 

~

Happy Thursday, everyone!

ANNISSA OMRAN is currently a college student and eternally a writer. An old movie aficionado, her interests include show tunes, singing loudly, and singing show tunes loudly. She also provides a (dramatic) running commentary on the life of a young writer.
EMAIL HER |  FACEBOOK | TWITTER | OTHER POSTS BY THIS AUTHOR

SUMMER SOUNDTRACK: COOL CHICKS

Bringing you tunes to carry you through the humid evenings to come.
By Annissa Omran (Writer/College Student)

I'm starting us off this week with a singer whose weirdness I absolutely love.

MELANIE MARTINEZ was on Adam Levine's team on The Voice a few years back, but that's not where I know her from. I found this oddball during a late night of YouTube surfing when I should have been working on an essay. Her song "Dollhouse" is one of my favorite creepy gems.

 

The haunting mixture of infantilized aesthetics and warped imagery makes the video captivating, while the song is both catchy and clever.