Fixes and Fine Films

By Scott Smith in Arts & Entertainment on Jan 11, 2006 7:28PM

If you ever doubted how seriously everyone out in L.A. takes the Oscars, look no further than the Oscarbeat blog.

Oscarbeat (part of the L.A. Times excellent Oscar website, The Envelope) discusses a “Top 15 Ways To Fix The Oscars” list posted on Maureen Ryan’s The Watcher blog at the Chicago Tribune (synergy is sooo hot). Though clearly a tongue-in-cheek look at how to tweak a broadcast that most Americans have to be told to care about, Oscarbeat offers a point-by-point response to the list. Or wait…maybe Oscarbeat is joking too? God, it’s so hard to convey tone. Stupid Internet.

Speaking of Oscars, we told you Monday about the mini-controversy brewing over Crash, a likely Best Picture nominee. Tonight at U of C’s Biological Learning Services Center (924 E. 57th), there’ll be a free screening of Crash followed by a discussion led by local filmmaker Yvonne Welbon. Welbon is the director of Sisters In Cinema, a documentary that traces the careers of African-American women filmmakers. The screening starts at 7 p.m.

Also at U of C, the kids at Doc Films have begun another semester presenting challenging and entertaining films you’re not likely to find anywhere else. For example, tonight’s tomorrow's films are the fluffy 50s rom-com The Affairs of Dobie Gillis (choreographed by Bob Fosse!) and Shaolin Temple, a Shaw Brothers production with more fighting techniques than a Jerry Springer green room. Dobie starts at 7 p.m. with Shaolin at 9 p.m. Tickets are $4 for each film.

Incidentally, finding out what films Doc is presenting this semester is a little more difficult now because they’re only posting their schedule in PDF format. PDF? Seriously? C’mon guys! You’re college students! You’re supposed to be ahead of the curve here. Your old site was fantastic because you could search by topic or day. We know it seems nitpicky to criticize a volunteer organization that provides such a valuable service to Chicago’s film community but c'mon. The Chicago Reader should not be your model for online publishing.