February 26-March 3, 2004

slant

What About Bill?

Give the Oscar to the funny guy!

by Michael Pelusi

It just doesn’t matter.

That’s one of my earliest movie memories -- watching Meatballs on HBO with my parents and, for weeks afterward, repeating with glee Bill Murray’s call to arms to the summer camp misfits and losers.

As everyone knows, the Oscars don't matter either. They're Hollywood's shameless pat on its own back, a glammed-out popularity contest with little regard for real cinematic achievement. (They're also, of course, a great guilty pleasure.)

I know all the votes have probably been tabulated, and the envelopes embossed with the winners' names are probably locked away and heavily guarded. But let me make a last-minute plea: Bill Murray needs to win the Oscar for Best Actor, and not Sean Penn. For America's sake.

Sure, there's also Jude Law, Johnny Depp and Ben Kingsley, contenders all, technically. But most pundits agree that the odds are really on Murray (as faded movie star Bob Harris in Lost in Translation) or Penn (as reformed thug Jimmy in Mystic River).

You can find a lot of nice things to say about both performances. Personally, I'm drawn more to the subtle, tragicomic turn Murray gives than to Penn's anguished method acting. I'd even argue that certain of Murray's scenes in Lost -- perhaps his halting and heartbreaking karaoke rendition of Roxy Music's "More Than This" -- will go down as classics. And while many have found Lost in Translation overrated and its main characters pathetically self-absorbed, by the same token Mystic River is overwrought, and its self-importance ultimately drowns out the few moments of comic relief and quiet time.

One could draw parallels regarding the two actors, both notoriously press shy. Murray disarms with his wit. Former bad boy Penn scowls.

On Oscar night, it's gotta be Bill. Why? To paraphrase another Saturday Night Live vet, because he's Bill Murray and Sean Penn isn't.

A Murray win won't just be for Lost in Translation, but also Rushmore, the very underrated Quick Change, What About Bob? and Meatballs. It won't just be for Bob Harris, but also Dr. Peter Venkman, Phil Connors, Frank X. Cross and Carl Spackler. Why would this be a good thing? Not only because Murray's been known to do sharp, stellar work in even the seemingly dumbest of comedies, but also because his career is the ultimate testament to a Work in Progress. When virtually every other SNL alumnus peaked before the age of 30, Murray kept at it, tinkering with his craft, finding new approaches, taking on challenges.

That's a good role model for our country, I say. Not only for the work ethic (you could say the same about Penn) but also to show that even a famous comedian can rework himself -- and without succumbing to the sap that's claimed the likes of Robin Williams and Jim Carrey.

And besides that, a Murray win will just feel good. And right now, America needs to feel good. Economic uncertainty and unemployment rule the day. The situation in Iraq doesn't look any closer to ending. And we are about to enter a presidential race that promises to be very tight and very ugly. OK, Bill Murray winning the Oscar won't make these things go away, I suppose. But, for a little while, we can smile -- Lost in Translation has its downbeat moments, yes, but next to Mystic River it truly is the feel-good hit of 2003.

In the film, as you probably know by now, Murray's Bob Harris is an action star on the wane in Japan to film a whiskey commercial. He meets Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), a disaffected newlywed, and the two strike a brief but deep friendship. The true strength of Murray's performance lies in how he sketches Harris as a man who uses his rapier wit to (barely) hide his sadness. And then, at the movie's conclusion, he shows a glimmer of hope for Harris, a sense that he is arising out of his despair.

As Murray says in Meatballs, "Even if we play so far above our heads that our noses bleed for a week to 10 days; even if God in Heaven above points his hand at our side of the field; even if every man, woman and child joined hands together and prayed for us to win, it just wouldn't matter because all the really good-looking girls would still go out with the guys from Mohawk because they've got all the money! It just doesn't matter if we win or if we lose."

OK, it really doesn't have anything to do with the Oscars. Comparing summer camp to movie awards doesn't quite work.

"It just doesn't matter!"

Michael Pelusi is a regular City Paper contributor. If you would like to respond to this Slant or have one of your own (800 words), contact Howard Altman, City Paper editor in chief, 123 Chestnut St., third floor, Phila. PA 19106 or e-mail altman@citypaper.net.