Movie Monday: The Good, the Bad, and the Irrelevant...

Another day, another awards show.

Yes, it is that time of year. I wasn't kidding the other day when I wrote, in this space, that the awards season is upon us. In the past week or so, we've seen the People's Choice Awards, awards from the Broadcast Critics Association or whatever they call themselves and, last night, the Golden Globes.

I think I'm already awards-show'ed out.

Well, not really. I sat all the way through the People's Choice broadcast, for reasons that I can't quite articulate. I think I probably just wanted to see if the show was as bad as it has been in the past. Yeah, kinda, was the answer to that. I think it's nice that there's a set of awards that is theoretically voted by "the people". I don't know the actual mechanism for the voting for those, though, so I can't vouch for how fair it is or isn't. By that I mean that I don't know if people can vote more than once, or how the nominees are determined, among other things. Whatever the situation surrounding that, they really don't put on a very exciting show.

As far as the Broadcast Critics and Golden Globes awards shows, I didn't see all of either broadcast. I didn't even know that the Broadcast Critics were having a show, or were giving awards, until I happened on the show while I was looking for something to watch the night it was on. And, while I knew the Golden Globes were on, I was doing other things and only saw the last hour and a half or so of the broadcast.

So, yeah. Not completely over the awards shows yet, but it could happen soon.

What I am over is the whole red carpet/infomercial for designers that goes on ahead of so many awards shows. I don't usually watch those (well, except for the Academy Awards, but only because it is tradition), but the headlines on the morning after the Golden Globes caught my eye as I was looking through the news sites this morning. I fail to see why it is so important to comment on how people attending these things are dressed.

Once in awhile, someone will wear something so completely stupid or silly or outrageous that comment is appropriate. Bjork's swan dress. That ridiculously low-cut green dress that Jennifer Lopez wore to one of the awards ceremonies one year (and that Matt Lauer recreated at the next Today Show's Halloween costume extravaganza...and didn't one of the creators of "South Park" also show up on a red carpet with that dress or something like it as well?). And that see-through thing that Barbra Streisand wore to the Academy Awards one year when she won. I can understand comment on those sorts of outfits.

But there has grown up this cottage industry of critiquing the way the stars dress, and of feeling free to make fun of anyone who does not meet the critics' particular taste in formal dress. But it doesn't stop there. There are often also snide remarks if someone does not wear a dress or suit from a sufficiently trendy designer, as if not spending enough money - or, more likely, these days, not borrowing garb from the "right" designer and not borrowing jewels worth enough for the commentators.

Yes, I know. We live in a capatilistic society, and some folks have the idea that if you aren't selling something, and aren't exhibiting a sufficient amount of conspicuous consumption, then you aren't being patriotic enough because you aren't trying to persuade people to spend money on things they don't need.

Personally? I think the whole "fashion" aspect of these awards shows is, well, boring. I'm much more interested in the work that is being recognized by the awards. What people wear to the ceremonies is irrelevant, as far as I'm concerned.

I'm sure the people who get turned on by this stuff think my opinion is irrelevant. I suppose that makes us even.

The Big Four awards ceremonies are yet to come, and I'm looking forward to those. For movies, that would be the Academy Awards, coming up next month. Those are going to be interesting, if for no other reason than to see how the Best Director statue gets awarded, considering that Ben Affleck, who was not even nominated for the Academy Award for his direction of "Argo" has already won both the Broadcast Critics award and the Golden Globe award for his efforts.

The other three of the big four, The Grammys, for music; the Tonys, for theater; and the Emmys, for television, are also still to come. And I'll probably be right there to watch them, too. But not the red carpets, which have, in any case, only in the past what, decade or decade and a half, started to be broadcast as more than a five or ten-minute introduction to the awards shows themselves.

Me? I blame it all on cable TV.