Sunday, February 22, 2009

Oscars (More)

Will Smith passing out more awards
Best Editing
Chris Dickens Slumdog Millionaire
Best Sound Mixing Slumdog Millionaire
Best Documentary Man on Wire

and the first awards to spoil my 100% prediction record tonight
Best Documentary Short Smile Pinki
Best Sound Editing The Dark Knight

Jean Hersholt to Jerry Lewis

52 comments:

Anonymous said...

Year by year it astounds me that being able to pronounce the name of all nominees doesn't seem to be a required qualification for presenting an Oscar.

Anonymous said...

Oh, you know Glenn is loving this Bollywood type musical performance.

Colin Low said...

How funny is it that they made the song montage end with a "Down to Earth" vs "Jai Ho" showdown?

Anonymous said...

So does this mean that AR Rahman is having the best week ever? Sorry, I couldn't help it.

Anonymous said...

The musical director for this Oscars did an AWFUL job.

I think his music going in and out of promos is bad and gimmicky, especially the whole "mix-big-band-with-movie-scores" gimmick.

The medley for song was bad and awkward. Also, that musical number from earlier for the "resurgence of musicals"... with Mamma Mia? Gross.

Anonymous said...

My goodness, Freida Pinto is lovely.

Anonymous said...

departures? that was weird

Colin Low said...

Did anyone see the Departures win coming? I thought everyone was buzzing over Waltz with Bashir and then The Class and then Revanche. Huh.

Anonymous said...

East Asian presenters rock this year.

Anonymous said...

Commercials have dominated the ceremony!!

Anonymous said...

I hope you do a post-oscar podcast

Anonymous said...

@MrWhiplash
It shocks me that the red-carpet-people don't learn how to pronounce the names of nominees, ahem, MR. SEACREST. BTW did you really congratulate the Slumdog actress for having "good English"?

Ali Arikan said...

I am liveblogging it if anyone's interested. Clickity click.

RahulB said...

If Mamma Mia is the rebirth of the musical...I hope it dies soon...in a fire.

The best song medley was really shitty, but woot for Rahman!

Back to the Asian Film Awards.

Anonymous said...

Don't knock the Seacrest, Christine. He's kind of growing on me. Can't explain why.

Anonymous said...

Oh, Paul. You will be missed.

Karen said...

Will Smith was a fun presenter.

Anonymous said...

God, I can't stand Jimmy Kimmel.

Carl Joseph Papa said...

rahman butchered his songs

Anonymous said...

"I'm just a girl from a trailer park who had a dream"

Anonymous said...

So many amazing women on actresses--it's like an actressexual's wet dream!

Anonymous said...

er . . . I meant to say, "so many amazing women on stage"

Carl Joseph Papa said...

winslet it is

Anonymous said...

she should've mentioned Ricky Gervais! Seriously, when is something like that gonna happen again?

RahulB said...

Fuck man. I wanted Mickey Rourke so badly. :'(

Anonymous said...

Wow. Brody's tribute for Jenkins and Hopkins' for Pitt were terrible. And did Douglas reallly said all other versions of Nixon slipping away when there was one of them standing next to him?

I was rooting for Rourke, but Penn turned out pleasantly funny and humble. I didn't thought he had it in him.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Notluke about the Sean Penn part.

And dont you see some similarities between Sean Penn's last win and this one? 2 horse race, oponent wins BAFTA, he wins SAG, ultimately he wins Oscar... am I reading too much into it?

RahulB said...

Johnny Depp won the SAG the last time there was a Sean Penn horserace.

And each time I didn't want him to win. Every time I root against Sean Penn (even though I love him) he wins.

Anonymous said...

Yay! Sean Penn wins and with that, I win breakfast from my boyfriend!

Anonymous said...

Very happy for Kate. She did great. Can Meryl Streep please win next year? So sorry for Mikey Rourke. I was rooting for him.
I liked this ceremony very much, Hugh Jackman was great.

Anonymous said...

who won best actor last year??? why was he not there who ever he was???

John T said...

Best Moments:

-Hugh's opening number (especially with Anne)

-The four acting winners (seriously, when was the last time such deserving recipients took it)

-And, especially, that uber-classy presentation of the acting trophies. What a fine way to "welcome them to the club."

Anonymous said...

....so, was jerry lewis making funny faces on purpose? or does he have something wrong with him. heart him - that award was well deserved. however - was this for his movie ccarrer or for all the great things he does for mda???

You-G said...

Best moment was definitely Tina Fey and Steve Martin presenting the Screenplay awards.

Jorge Rodrigues said...

Well, no surprises at all (the nomination of Departures was the surprise, not the win... If Departures was nominated while Gomorrah was not it was because it had quality)... Entre Les Murs and Waltz With Bashir were very divisive (the first one was a very light attempt, the second one was animated and in documentary form) and between Departures, Revanche and Baader Meinhof the logical choice was Departures. So be it.

Slumdog lost 1 Oscar! That's something. To The Dark Knight. Which should have taken Frost/Nixon's place in the BP lineup. That crap Frost/Nixon who ended the night 0-5... Oh I'm so sorry... or not! Ha!

Sorry for Milk though... Only two wins (but the expected ones). I said that if Penelope won early on the other three would win. And they did. Kate is deserved because she longed for it. Anne will have another opportunity for sure.

Good ceremony but the person responsible for the music numbers was drunk for sure. «Down to Earth» sung with mistakes, that original song mixing was weird, renaissance of musicals unnecessary, that Queen Latifah moment also unnecessary, the scores' presentation was not good... Well...

Zac Effron as a presenter? Really? And Freida? Who in their right mind considers them ACTORS?

John T said...

Yeah, I would have cut the whole Zac Efron/Vanessa Hudgens thing (one of the many reasons I don't watch the red carpet is things like Robin Roberts saying that she hopes they (and Miley Cyrus) will be back as nominees someday).

That said, this was a very classy ceremony, and it looked quite beautiful. Even though I thought Sean was better, there was a part of me that wanted Mickey Rourke to win, as I don't think he'll have another (whereas I think Sean may end up picking up a third Oscar now, ala Jack, though let's not forget that de Niro, his hero, quickly turned his career to stone after he picked up his second Oscar).

And Academy-Award winner Kate Winslet-come on, who doesn't smile at that?!? :)

Anonymous said...

@ john t

Robin Roberts is compassionate. Something you're incapable of

Anonymous said...

Ehh, Kate Winslet's victory will be like Al Pacino's in a few years time.

Pablete said...

1954 = 2008?
"On the Waterfront" (8) = "Slumdog Millionaire" (8)?
Mickey Rourke = Judy Garland?
Sean Penn = Grace Kelly?
Marlon Brando = Kate Winslet (4th lead nomination is the charm)?

Anonymous said...

You think so Arkaan? Then who will be the Denzel equivalent?

adam k. said...

Sean Penn just kept me from losing my oscar pool. Yay! I ended up tying with someone who predicted Mickey Rourke. I'm glad Sean won. Mickey actually won a lot of major awards this year already (Globe, BAFTA, Spirit), so I think he got his due. I personally loved Sean Penn's perf more.

I'm also glad Kate won, and her speech was cute. While this was certainly not her best performance, it was good enough, and that's all you can really hope for with major stars with long careers that go unrewarded too long. And if it was her or Streep this year, I'm glad it was her, as I don't think Streep's perf was oscar-worthy. I want her 3rd win to be truly deserved.

Anonymous said...

SEAN PENN SEAN PENN SEAN PENN!!!

Rich Aunt Pennybags said...

You think so Arkaan? Then who will be the Denzel equivalent?

The only one I can think of is Meryl Streep. She's a previous winner like Washington, albeit she's won twice before, and it seems every Oscar season the people complaining about Streep only having won two Oscars, only one of them leading, gets louder every year. I think she wins Best Actress next time she's nominated even if she doesn't deserve it, because she's finally around the time to honor her again just like when Jack was honored his third time for As Good As It Gets which he did not deserve, but it was considered his time again.

adam k. said...

Also cool that both Kate and Sean gave shout-outs to Meryl and Mickey respectively. Classy. And they're smart to do all they can to avoid the backlash (it's coming).

adam k. said...

Rich Aunt:

That's exactly what people thought would happen this year (that Meryl would win by default even if she didn't deserve it). She didn't deserve it. And she didn't win.

At this point, I'll believe it when I see it. There'll ALWAYS be someone else up for it who's never won at all. Tough to play the "overdue" card when you've won two. Who knows how long it'll be...

Rich Aunt Pennybags said...

Rich Aunt:

That's exactly what people thought would happen this year (that Meryl would win by default even if she didn't deserve it). She didn't deserve it. And she didn't win.

At this point, I'll believe it when I see it. There'll ALWAYS be someone else up for it who's never won at all. Tough to play the "overdue" card when you've won two. Who knows how long it'll be...


I know, but every year it seems support as to why she doesn't have two leading Oscars seems to get more vocal at least to me. I didn't think she would win this year once Winslet was nominated for leading for The Reader, but I don't think they can really keep ignoring her when she's on her 16th or higher nomination. Look at Nicholson winning for As Good As It Gets. He was okay in it, certainly not Oscar worthy and certainly not better than the people he was up against, but it was finally his time to win again. If Streep can be nominated for a movie that's also up for Best Picture, I'm thinking she'll win her third just like Jack did.

O. Andrew D said...

Thanks Nat
I won my pool, but i did switch from the class to Departures!

Glenn said...

Great ceremony. Loved the look of it. Not so gharish and open. The colours were better and not as confusing to look at with giant statues and revolving doors and candy stripes everywhere like in the past. Even the seating arrangements were pleasing to the eye. It made the Slumdog wins at least momentarily palatable.

Where was Jack Nicholson? Did he die on the way to the ceremony and not tell anyone?

During the supporting presentations I wasn't quite sure if I liked it, but come the leads time I found it quite moving. Although I too noticed the bizarre moment where Michael Douglas said Frank Langella's Nixon is better than any before... whilst standing right next to Anthony Hopkins.

So happy for the acting winners. Kate was lovely, Sean was great, Penelope was beautiful and the Ledger moment was special.

The original song medley was dreadful. Even worse at the end when John Legend and Rahman battled it out. Terrible. The musical numbers by Jackman though were great.

John T said...

I agree Rich Aunt-I think Meryl needs a Best Picture, and then she's back (she hasn't actually been nominated for a Best PIcture since Out of Africa, though she was of course in, but not nominated for, The Hours). Nicholson fended off competition that would have made most people fold that year-Peter Fonda's comeback, Robert Duvall's finest perf since the early 1980's, Matt Damon's star-is-born moment, and Dustin Hoffman...well, Hoffman, while good, wasn't much competition that year. Yet Nicholson still managed to win.

@Alex-compassionate would be saying that she enjoyed their movie. Not giving all of us nightmares.

adam k. said...

I suppose a best picture would probably do it. But who knows how long THAT will be, either? ; )

It actually would've been nice if she'd been nominated and won for The Hours. It seemed like that kind of role (and film).

But I'll lay down some money right now that says she's nominated and loses again next year for Julie and Julia (maybe to Michelle Pfeiffer?).

Mark my words.

Anonymous said...

"Talks are said to be underway for a film version [of August: Osage County] with producer Jean Doumanian and The Weinstein Company." (Wikipedia)

Meryl + Pulitzer Prize winner + Harvey = Best Picture/Best Actress nominations

NATHANIEL R said...

i love Meryl DEARLY but I don't want her to have the August Osage County role. She gets *all* the best parts and I'd love to see one of the other greats be able to tear into that part.

i think david poland suggested Jane Fonda? somebody did? somebody like that with a meaty role again. oh, that'd be heaven.