E-Mail This Article to a Friend Behind the eight ball Peter Keough revisits his misguided Oscar picks, Shakespeare gets another contemporary update, and more

A critic behind the eight ball

With so many big-shot political pundits being embarrassed by their prognostications after the Iowa caucuses, my own poor performance predicting the Oscar nominations may have gone unnoticed. In case you missed it, out of 30 predictions (five nominees each in the categories of Best Picture, Director, Actor and Actress, and Supporting Actor and Actress), I got 13 wrong (12 if you cut me a break and give me Keisha Castle-Hughes, whom I picked for Supporting but who was nominated for Best Actress). Somewhat better than flipping a coin. Much worse than the years I relied on my Magic Eight Ball (I must replace the fluid — in the past I’ve never gotten more than six wrong).

What happened? My reasons seem sound — in fact, if we replace the wrong choices with the right ones, those reasons still make perfect sense. But I wasn’t seeing the whole picture. I overlooked or underestimated certain factors, possibly because they were so obvious — or insidious. Here are four:

1) The Miramax Factor. Not overlooked, just misread. The big Miramax movie was supposed to be Cold Mountain. That’s what Miramax wanted us to believe. So while we’re all bracing ourselves for a Cold Mountain PR assault, what do Harvey and company slip in unnoticed? Fernando Meirelles as Best Director for Cidade de Deus/City of God! Sure, I bet lots of people are clapping themselves on the back because they saw that one coming.

2) The Cynicism Factor. The lowest common denominator isn’t always the safest bet. Sometimes the films you like actually get nominated. Two from my 10 Best list, Lost in Translation and Master and Commander, were nominated and I failed to predict them. Shouldn’t that count for something?

3) The CGI factor. The Academy has always been a sucker for big spectacles, period epics, anything with literary or artistic credentials. In the old days, filmmakers did it with human beings. Now it’s being done almost entirely with computers and post-production, so we have such glossy feats as The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Seabiscuit, and Master and Commander (which I liked and didn’t predict; see above). The astounding thing for me is that none of these films has a single acting nomination. (Certainly Master and Commander deserved one for Russell Crowe, and I did predict that Chris Cooper would get a Best Supporting nod for Seabiscuit.) Three out of five. I don’t think this has ever happened before. Which brings me to . . .

4) The Ham Factor. I see restlessness among the actors of the Academy reflected here. As you may know, each branch of the Academy nominates its own category (actors vote for Best Actor, directors vote for Best Director, etc.), and all vote for the Best Picture nominations. (I’m not sure how the Documentary and Foreign Language categories are determined; I think it involves a Magic Eight Ball. But I digress.) The actors make up about 30 percent of the Academy’s 5600 or so members, the largest chunk but not the majority. And the majority seems to be favoring for Best Picture films in which the actors are secondary to special effects, cinematography, set design, and so on.

So what are the actors to do? Choose performances that are as flashy, noisy, and obnoxious as the special effects! How else account for the nominations for Ben Kingsley’s excessive performance in House of Sand and Fog and Charlize Theron’s trick-or-treating in Monster (those two I did pick) and Djimon Hounsou in In America (he plays the same character as in Amistad except as an artist in Manhattan) and Naomi Watts and Benicio Del Toro in 21 Grams?

I think, though, that the biggest factor behind my failure is historical inevitability. Whatever rationalizations or theories one develops, the Academy and Hollywood will come up with pleasant surprises and numbing disappointments to render them all meaningless. So maybe I should turn my Magic Eight Ball to politics. I saw Kerry winning in Iowa a mile away.

— Peter Keough

Summer Shakespeare

Taking the Bard into the yard seems, in February, a thing devoutly to be wished but hardly just around the corner. Undaunted, artistic director Diego Arciniegas has announced the 2004 Shakespearean summer fare for the Publick Theatre. The outdoor venue on Soldiers Field Road and the banks of the Charles will open its 34th season July 8 with The Merchant of Venice, a hot potato some directors fear to touch in this day of political correctness. Arciniegas, who will direct the production, embraces the complex if touchy politics of Shakespeare’s treatment of much-maligned Jewish moneylender Shylock and his fanatical courtroom demand for a pound of flesh. "I chose Merchant," he says, "because if you place Shylock in his original context, a frightening number of contemporary parallels emerge. Since the middle of the last century, The Merchant of Venice has been interpreted as depicting the plight of the Jew in Christian society. Shylock has replaced Antonio as the eponymous central figure. Closer scrutiny reveals equally disturbing tensions between Christians and Muslims, man and woman, father and child, rich and poor, hetero- and homosexual. Merchant intertwines these conflicts against the backdrop of a multicultural civic society reliant upon international trade for survival. Were it not for a lack of dependence upon fossil fuels, it might as well be urban America today."

Steven Barkhimer, who will play Shylock in Merchant, sticks around to direct the summer’s second production, the rarely produced Troilus and Cressida. Equally political, that tragedy recasts Romeo and Juliet in the shadow of the Trojan War and some deep cynicism. "It’s R&J gone global," says Barkhimer. So there’ll be plenty of politically toothsome entertainment for Democratic conventioneers come summer. If summer ever comes.

— Carolyn Clay

R-Bar’s 20th-anniversary schedule

The Regattabar in the Charles Hotel has announced its annual four-month winter-spring festival; this one will celebrate the beginning of the 20th year of jazz at the club, which opened on January 29, 1985. The line-up includes Irma Thomas on Valentine’s Day weekend, February 13 through 15; the Robin Kenyatta Quartet on February 17; the Dave Douglas New Quintet with Chris Potter, Uri Caine, James Genus, and Clarence Penn on February 18 and 19; the José de Santos/Val Ramos/José Ramos Flamenco Trio on February 20; Los Hombres Calientes on February 21 and 22; the fine local sextet Dead Cat Bounce on February 24; the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra on February 25; vocalist Dominique Eade with saxophonist Bill Pierce, guitarist Mike Goodrick, and bassist John Lockwood on February 26; and the phenomenal Charles Mingus Big Band with the essential Frank Lacy, young brainiac saxophonist Seamus Blake, and many more on February 27 and 28.

March brings former Boston-Russian transplant Igor Butman on the 2nd; he’s followed by bluesman Guy Davis on March 3; the great Dave Holland Quintet March 4 through 7; the fine pianist Fred Hersch on March 9; drummer Yoron Israel with his band Organic, including Bill Pierce, vibist Jay Hoggard, guitarist Ed Cherry, and organist Kyle Koehler on March 10; former Joshua Redman sideman Aaron Goldberg and his trio on March 11; the Ron Carter trio with pianist Mulgrew Miller and guitarist Russell Malone March 12 through 14; the main man of Boston Brazilian and Argentine bass playing, Fernando Huergo, with his quintet Jazz Argentine, including saxophonist Chris Cheek on April 16; the McCoy Tyner Trio with special guest Michael Brecker March 18 through 21; hot young local flamenco guitarist Juanito Pascual with his quartet on March 24; Hector Cuevas and the Boston Latin Band on March 25; young Boston blueswoman-on-the-rise Nicole Nelson on March 26; and bad-boy piano trio the Bad Plus on March 30.

The Elvin Jones Jazz Machine with trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis, saxophonist Robert Shin, pianist Anthony Wonsey, and bassist Gerard Cannon comes in March 31 through April 4; that’s followed by the Cercie Miller Quartet with Tiger Okoshi on April 6; guitarist Richie Hart’s trio on April 7; the Pierre Hurel Trio on April 8; former local vocalist Chiara Civello returning from New York to celebrate her Verve Records debut on April 9; the exciting locally based Colombian singer/songwriter Marta Gómez on April 10; the brainy young "pianoless" quartet Guaranteed Swahili on April 13; the 11-piece band La Timba Loca on April 15; Boston-based Brazilian composer/guitarist Sergio Brandão and his octet Manga Rosa with his brother, the terrific flutist Fernando Brandão, saxophonist Felipe Salles, flutist Hiro Honshuku, pianist Doug Johnson, bassist Fernando Huergo, drummer Steve Langone, percussionist Pedro Ito, and vocalist Alida Rohr on April 16; saxophonist Paul Im and his octet Remember Rockefeller on April 20; Boston Indo-jazz band Natraj on April 21; cool local hard-bop outfit the Rusty Scott Quintet on April 22; pianist Donal Fox mixing Bach and Monk with bassist John Patitucci and Al Foster on April 23 and 24; and the great pianist Chucho Valdés and the seminal Afro-Cuban band Irakere April 28 through May 1.

May continues with young vibes sensation Stefon Harris and his band Blackout on the 4th and 5th; they’re followed by R&B legend Ruth Brown May 6 through 8; the superb Boston-based Israeli guitarist Issi Rozen with his quintet on May 12; New England favorites Roomful of Blues on May 14; the pioneering fusion band Tiger’s Baku, with trumpeter Tiger Okoshi on May 15; Either/Orchestra pianist Greg Burk with a quartet including saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi on May 19; Buenos Aires native Katie Viqueira playing tango jazz with a group including pianist Nando Michelin on May 20; guitarist Duke Robillard on May 21; chanteuse Annie Royer on May 22; Venezuelan guitarist Aquiles Baez on May 26; the always-must-see Charlie Kohlhase Quintet on May 27; and sex kitten superstar Jane Monheit on May 28 and 29.

In June, the R-Bar brings in São Paulo saxophonist Felipe Salles on the 2nd; then violinist Regina Carter and her quintet on June 4 and 5; the Either/Orchestra on June 9; vocalist Patrice Williamson and her group on June 10; guitarist Ronnie Earl and the Broadcasters on June 11; local jazz-vocal queen Rebecca Parris on June 12; and guitarist John Scofield with bass legend Steve Swallow and drummer Bill Stewart on June 14 and 15.

BCMA update

The Boston Creative Music Alliance has added a sixth show to its spring season since we announced the schedule in last week’s "Arts News": the William Parker Quartet featuring Sabir Mateen, Kidd Jordan, and Alvin Fielder on April 16 at 8 p.m. Like all BCMA concerts, this one takes place at the ICA, 955 Boylston Street in Boston. Tickets are $10; call (617) 354-6898.