Hammond: Can GOP Help One Oscar Hopeful?

Can Presidential politics actually boost the profile of an under-the-radar Oscar hopeful? That could be a scenario the multitudes of awards consultants working on Summit’s summer indie, A Better Life, might consider as they try to draw voters’ attention to this well-reviewed June release. The film deals with the hot button issue of illegal immigration. But at itsheart this is really a touching father-son story about an undocumented Los Angeles laborertrying to forge a better life for his kid while keeping him away from gangs. At what was billed as a DVD release party this week,but whichreally served as an awards season campaign kickoff, I noticed several Academy members in attendance. The packed event at Culina in Beverly Hills had lots of political talk, much of itabout the GOP presidential debates where candidates are engaged intough ‘kick em out of the country’ rhetoricon the subject ofillegal immigrants in America. Tuesday night, Texas Governor Rick Perry wagged his finger and accused Mitt Romney of hiring illegal gardeners at his home several years ago.Perry was striking back after his conservative challengers and other right-wing GOP groups ganged up on him at a previous debate for signing a bill allowing children of illegal immigrants to have their tuition paid in the Texas educational system. Thehard right politico of a border statehad explained he thought it was the proper thing to do. The film which was released commericallyon DVD Tuesday, and a few weeks earlier was also the first serious Oscar contender to send out screeners to the Academy and other voting groups, grossed less than $2 million in its domestic release but stillhashigh Oscarhopes, particularlyto gain recognition for its star Demian Bichir in an uphill campaign against much higher profile Best Actor contenders like George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Gary Oldman, Ryan Gosling and others. “What can we doto helpthis film?” one frustrated consultant asked me while noting the competition out there. Other than parties, Q&Ascreenings and getting its lesser knownstar (in the U.S. at least)out there on the awards “circuit” in the same way Marion Cotillard did in her successful Best Actress campaign for La Vie En Rose , strategists just might want to look no further than the Hollywood-bashingGOP forsome ironic help.Along withthe state of Arizona (with its anti-immigration law)they are giving thisexplosive topic lots of recognition almost weekly during their contentious debates. Just tune in. Summit COOErik Feig (who is readying the November 18th release of Breaking Dawn Part One which hecalls the most emotionalTwilight movie yet and praises director Bill Condon) says he is very proud ofA Better Life andtold me he hopes people will continue to discover it. Clearly thoughSummit is not going to spend the kind of dollars that bigger movies have in their Oscar campaign war chests in order to chase after votes so it is going to take a grass roots-type effortto keep it alive. Year end recognition from critics groups could really help this one and it now stands at 86% positive on Rotten Tomatoes. Summit’s 2009 Best Picture winner, The Hurt Locker also was a low grosser and a June releasebut saw its Oscar stock soar when it started winning those critics awards. A Better Life director Chris Weitz who had previously earned pointswith Summit by directingthe second Twilight film, New Moon took note of the Republican debates andtold me he’s outraged by the way politicians are using the plight of undocumented workers to score political points with the rabid right wing of the GOP. He says the whole experience of making the film has really “politicized” him in a way he hadn’t imagined before tackling theproject which has been in development in one form or another for 25 years, originally starting with producer Paul Junger Witt and picking up other producers along the long route to the screen including actress Jami Gertz (with partner Stacy Lubliner) and Christian McLaughlin who were all at the DVD launch telling tales of the journey andhoping itis able to gain traction thisawards season. Tagging on to the raging debate led by Republicansmight be one way to do that andkeep the film relevant , even in the shadow of the all the big contenders to come in the last two months of the year. Summit smartlyemployed that strategy with Hurt Locker when it hit the Oscar trail byemphazing its importance and credibilityafter initially marketing it as a suspenseful war movie. The film’s star, Bichir who is a major name in Mexico and also a co-star of Showtime’s Weeds (that series’ star Mary Louise Parker flew out to host the party in honor of the film Wednesday night), said he and Weitz had just come back from the Morelia Film Festival in Mexico where the movie made its Mexican debut to an audience that included a good number ofpeople suffering from the same plight as Bichir’s character does in the movie. He says it was interesting to see their reaction, a verygood one, since this is a rare “Hollywood” attempt to put a human face on what undocumented workers are now going through. The film , which uses both Spanish and English languages, is scheduled to open soon in Mexico. Bichir is also planning to return to thetheatre in Mexico soon as star of aSpanish stage version of the film aboutHollywood, Swimming With Sharks in which he gets to play Kevin Spacey’s role, a lethal vindictive producer who berates his assistant. Even with that gig he will be on the circuit as much as he can in the nextfew monthstrying to bring attention to this little-film-that-could that puts a very human face on a very hot-button political issue.