Ok, so this week was finally a week in which nothing happened worth talking about, and the most eventful thing was that I spent wayyy too many hours working on my paper for integrated practice (thank God, I finally finished a draft a few hours ago), so I thought I would do a running commentary of the Oscars as I watch them, as I (unexplainably) watch them every year.
First thought--Oh my God, the stage is set up like American Idol. It's infiltrated everything. Plus Hugh Jackman is singing. Please tell me there aren't three judges, one grouchy, one gangster, and one drunk/high.
I'm pretty sure I'd rather see Hugh Jackman as Van Helsing/Wolverine.
Is that Anne Hathaway's real voice?
What is with the weird techno routine?
Please, Hugh, stop singing. Really. Just do a good action scene.
Tilda Swinton is one odd bird. Also, how did she win for Michael Clayton? That was the weirdest/dumbest/most boring movie ever. Or at least in the past few years. At least Anjelica Huston hasn't aged in years and is a very good actress. And I'm glad Whoopi is back, and referencing Sister Act. Holy crap, Goldie Hawn needs a larger dress.
Penelope=Best Supporting Actress. Darn it, I wanted Viola Davis to get it. Plus I think Penelope may pass out or have a collapsed lung.
Tina Fey + Steve Martin= two of the funniest people ever. Except when Steve Martin is trying to imitate Peter Sellers. HAHA jab at Scientology. Take that, scifi weirdos.
Best Original Screenplay= Dustin Lance Black (Milk). This kid was like, 26 when he wrote this. He looks about 15. And he's crying. *Awkward* Also, this is not a place for political speeches.
Best Adapted Screenplay=Simon Beaufoy for Slumdog Millionare. Hurray, I loved this movie so much.
Jennifer Aniston + Jack Black seems like an odd pairing.
Movie yearbook? Is that their hip new concept to get more people to watch the Oscars? That music is certainly annoying.
Best Animated film=WALL-E. Hooray. It would have been a shame if it hadn't won, really.
Best Animated short film=La Maison en Petits Cubes. This looks weird. Where do you even see these?
This set change, for production design, is quite interesting. I quite like it.
Best art direction=The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I think this is deserving, the art direction was really well done in this; it had a very distinctive look.
Best Costume design (my favorite award): The Duchess. Yay!!! I was so afraid it was giong to be Milk, since it's so political. But the Duchess's costumes were amazing.
Best makeup: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. This was deserving, but why were there only 3 nominees for this?
Also, I can see how they're trying to shorten things--each presenter is presenting 3 or 4 awards. Interesting. I wonder if people got ticked off since less people got asked to present. They do seem to have more montages, so maybe that's where they're making it up.
Romance movie montage: Finally, recognizing check flicks. It's about time they talked about more than serious movies.
Ok, I'm glad other people think Joaquin Phoenix is being ridiculous. Ben Stiller's imitation is wayyy too apt. Haha, Hasidic meth lab.
Best Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire. Hooray again! This movie deserves every award it gets.
Ahh what is with the really brief presentations and then breaking to commercial?
And why did the comedy montage include a whole bunch of serious clips?
Best Live action short film: Toyland (Germany). Again, how do you get to see these? Also, 14 years for 12 minutes???
Oh no, more singing. I get they're trying to honor musicals. But this is a seriously confusing montage. Hugh Jackman is not equal to Gene Kelly. Sorry, Hugh. At least Beyoncé is an actual performer. And Zac Efron. Mostly. Hmm, created by Baz Luhrmann. I should have suspected.
Best Supporting Actor: Once again presented by 5 past winners. What happen to the winner the year before doing it? Where's Javier Bardem?? Also, is it just me, or does Philip Seymour Hoffman get nominated in something every year?
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger. It would have been a serious tragedy if he hadn't won, and I'm pretty sure if anybody else did, they would feel eternally guilty. Everybody in the audience is crying or on the verge of it. Which of course has set me off. I'm amazed that none of his family started crying.
Best Documentary: Man On Wire. Never heard of it. How do you see THESE? What is up with all these movies winning things that the world at large has never seen? And why is one of the winners doing magic tricks on stage??
Best Documentary Short Subject: Smile Pinki. This looks to be about a girl getting cleft palate surgery in India, but I can't be sure.
Outstanding visual effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I get that this was tricky, to have so many Brad Pitts, but I think Dark Knight deserved it--you never questioned all the crazy high tech stuff that happened in there.
Outstanding sound editing: The Dark Knight. I kind of think WALL-E deserved this, since most of the movie was sound effects.
Best Sound Mixing: Slumdog Millionaire. I don't really get what this means, so I don't really have a comment on it.
Best Film Editing: Slumdog Millionaire, again. I think this is deserved; they incorporated so many different scenes, between Jamal's childhood in the slums, his job as a "chai boy", and while he was on Who Wants to be a Millionaire. And it was all very seamless.
Jerry Lewis gets an award: Again, thank goodness we're finally honoring comedy.
Best Original Score: Slumdog Millionaire. Again, I'm glad; I loved this soundtrack almost as much as the movie, especially "Latika's song" and the song at the end, "Jai Ho", where all the main characters did a Bollywood dance.
Best Original Song: My 2nd favorite category, because they perform them all. I didn't know John Legend sang the WALL-E song! John Legend, get out of "Jai Ho" and stick to your own song. Ok, John Legend DIDN'T sing the WALL-E song, it was Peter Gabriel, but he refused to come for some reason. Winner: Slumdog Millionaire, "Jai Ho". As I said, I really liked this song, although I would have liked WALL-E to win just for a change. This is 5 in a row for Slumdog.
Best Foreign Film: Departures (Japan), about an unemployed classical musician who gets a job in a mortuary. Ok.... I liked the director's speech, though: "I'm very very happy". Well, i'm glad.
In Memoriam: Great choice of song to have Queen Latifah sing (finally..i haven't liked the montage songs so far).
Best Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire. Well, I didn't see that coming. Not. At least he actually jumped up and down, since I'm pretty sure everybody wants to.
Ahhhh there are so many commercials. It has now been 3 hours. End already. At least I know how long my laptop battery can last.
Best Actress: Whoa, Sophia Loren looks rough. Can we say, Botox and implants?
Winner: Kate Winslet. I was really hoping it would be Anne Hathaway, but I like Kate Winslet too, even though I haven't seen (and really don't want to see) the Reader.
Best Actor: Adrian Brody, WHAT is wrong with your hair??
winner: Sean Penn, Milk. I think expected that, really. He called the Academy "commie, homo loving sons of guns". You said it first, Sean, you said it first.
Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire. Yay!! This movie totally deserved it. A happy ending wins an Oscar at last.
A few closing remarks: I can't say Hugh Jackman "hosted". We saw him all of 3 times. Thankfully. I have to say I much prefer Ellen.
The new way they're doing actor and actress nominations (having past winners each present one nominee) is interesting. I'm not sure I like it.
Why the heck is this still so long??
And....
Weeks till Spring Break:2
On that note, good night.
No comments:
Post a Comment