I’m assuming that there’s a market for another discussion of the Oscars, for people who weren’t posting in the play-by-play thread and don’t want to sift through 7 pages to see if there pearl of wisdom has already been stated.
If not…then hopefully this will die a painless and merciful death.
So I’ll start:
I thought Jon Stewart did just fine. He may’ve been too hip for the room, as they say, as the audience seemed to be a little bit behind. But I thought he scored some nice shots: “a pimp is like an agent, with a better hat” and, wrt to Clooney’s award: “that’s the kind of thing that could get a guy laid.” Comedy gold. The attack ads, and the gay cowboy montage were freakin’ hilarious.
What was wrong with Diana Ossana? She just won an Oscar and she’s acting like her dog just died.
Has there ever been a year where no single film won more than 3 Oscars?
The show was pretty dull…if the worst fashion faux pas was Charlize Thereon’s monster bow, that’s boring.
And I love film clip montages; they’re my favorite part of any year’s broadcast. But they may have done one too many this year: what’d we have…epics; social conscience movies; biographies; film noir…?
Oooh, this is the thread I was waiting for. I didn’t want to slog through the predictions just to talk about the actual show.
I think Jon Stewart started slow, until the audience got the hang of him. My roommate and I thought he was great start to finish, but I think it took the audience a little while to get used to him. Loved the attack ads (was that Stephen Colbert doing the voiceovers?), they were brilliantly done.
Gay cowboy montage–I laughed so hard I fell off the couch. Beautiful.
Anybody catch the guy who stepped on Sandra Bullock’s dress as he went to give his acceptance speech? Disaster averted, but I think she’s one of the few women in Hollywood who would have seen the comedy in suddenly being partially disrobed on live television.
Naomi Watts needed a dress that didn’t perfectly match her skin color. And wasn’t ugly. That might have out-uglied Charlize’s bow. And J-Lo needs to go easy on the bronzer. Her hair looked like it hurt.
Poor Keira Knightley–I wonder if Jack was pawing at her through the show. Who said “Let’s sit the hottest woman in the room right next to Nicholson”? She looked like she was enjoying herself, though. Is there a plaque on that chair with Jack’s name on it? I think he’s got that same seat every year.
Looked like Lauren Bacall barely made it through her intro, but she recouped and finished strongly. Of course, I missed most of the Noir Montage because I had to explain to a friend who the hell she was.
My favorite line of the night might have been “Just for those keeping score–Martin Scorsese, zero. 3 6 Mafia, one.” Cracked me right up.
I really liked Stewart. Then again, I always do. I thought his best lines were following the “social issues movies” montage (“And none of those issues were ever problems again.”) and the 3 6 Mafia performance (“I definitely think the best way to relate to this audience how hard it is for a pimp is through interpretive dance.”) [Or something like that. I paraphrased those obviously.]
Naomi Watts looked like she’d been ravaged by King Kong beforehand.
Jen Garner had a nice follow-up for her almost fall (“I do my own stunts.”).
The montages, IMO, made this year’s Academy Awards seem even more self-congratulatory than usual. Especially the social issues one. Which is probably why I found Stewart’s comment so hilarious. Also, what was with all the pressure to go see movies in the theater? Yeah, so I only go to about two movies in a theater each year. There’s a reason for that. Theaters are stinky, uncomfortable, cold, loud, and over-priced. At home, I can order in pizza, take a potty break when needed, and lounge in front of my 51" TV in my pajamas.
Were you at my house last night? Because that’s exactly what got said. Except there was also something about teenagers who don’t shut off their cell phones.
My favorite thing about the social issues montage… They showed two clips from “Day After Tomorrow”… WTF. Seriously… WTF. A film that makes Global Warming into an instant bogey man is not on par with Inherit the Wind or To Kill a Mockingbird.
Stewart started rough but I think that was designed to ease the audience in. Contrast that when Letterman wasted our time as host trying to turn it into his own show. (Wanna buy a monkey?" Who the fuck cares Dave. No one there cared about Cabin Boy)
I really enjoyed Lily Tomlins and Glen Closes Altman-esque introduction to Altman. I did like that they acknowledged the existence of Popeye in the montage for him. It’s my favorite Altman movie.
The political ads were hilarious. I loved that “Reese” was the most traditional sounding name from that group.
And one of them came right after a clip from “To Kill a Mockingbird,” or some other legitimate, quality social issue movie. (And one of the “Day After Tomorrow” clips included a shot of their obviously-Dick-Cheney character.)
They were. But I’m not sure when “Judi” got to be an outre name - is it just because it has an i at the end?
I like Stewart but what’s the betting that he joins the ranks of the one-off Oscar hosts, ala Letterman and Rock?. He was OK but I really don’t think he did well enough with the mainstream audience (always the bottom line at the Oscars) to become a regular.
As for the awards, none of the movie contenders struck me as outright-winner material, I really think it was a weak year for films. Hoffman was a deserving winner in the Best Actor category, as was Witherspoon for Best Actress.
Here’s a thought. Why don’t they scrap this sexist division between Actor/Actress and just give an Oscar for the Best Performance? They’re all actors, whatever their sex. Now that would be an award worth winning!
Well, there was really only one reason I watched it, but I enjoyed the whole thing. Even Ben Stiller (damn funny). I wasn’t nuts about Dolly Parton, nor any of the Best Songs.
As always, I was taken aback by the In Memorium. I’m always surprised by how many celebrity deaths I don’t hear about.
It was a pretty politicized show, but good. It feels good to be on the offensive for a change.
Perhaps it’s an acknowledgement that men and women don’t play the same kinds of roles, which is absolutely true. Comparing the individual actors and actresses is weird enough; eliminate the gender distinction and it gets even weirder. Plus there would be pressure to alternate between actors and actresses as the winners… in theory it might compromise the very little integrity the Oscars have.
I was maybe pulling for Jon a bit more than usual simply because it wasn’t quite “his crowd”. When he started in about how “people say Hollywood is a cesspool of sin and bad this and bad that… I really don’t have a joke here, I just wanted you to know people were saying that” I though I was going to pull some internal ligature.
I completely missed the name of that brunette actress in the eye-popping light sapphire-colored gown. Whoever she was, that dress gets my vote as the most spectacular one of the evening. Yes, it was tight, but she could carry it.
