Monday, February 25, 2008

Aftermath

Give me a day or so for more coherent Oscar wrap thoughts. For now you can relive the experience through last night's live blogging. I'll be back tonight... and on Wednesday morning, there's a 2008 actor & actress focused preview you won't want to miss.

Part 1 E! Arrivals. La Pfeiffer and I hit the red carpet (we have very different tastes in Oscar fashions. Was that the most boring parade of gowns, ever? I think so)
Part 2 More Arrivals and 1st Third of Show
Part 3 -I run out of steam channeling all my energies into the good fight against default biopic wins --I'm bested again but I'll be back to fight again next year. One day I shall triumph.

Prediction wise I scored 100% in the top eight categories. But if you count everything... like animated shorts and all, I scored 17 of 24 ...which is fairly typical for me. But prediction stats. Blah... who cares. How do you feel? Will history look kindly on this year's Oscar decisions?

86 comments:

J.D. said...

If it doesn't, I'll be pissed.

This might actually be my favorite year. Period. Just SO much to love. Nothing to hate either, and that astonishes me!

MARKETA!!!!

Peter said...

Here's a fun fact: for the third year in a row, the Best Picture winner's only acting nomination was for Supporting Actor, but in each year, another actor from the Best Picture was nominated for Best Actor for a different film:

2007: No Country / Tommy Lee Jones / Javier Bardem
2006: Departed / Leonardo DiCaprio / Mark Wahlberg
2005: Crash / Terence Howard / Matt Dillon

Strange, eh?

Anonymous said...

wow peter that is a really really really strange statistic

Anonymous said...

I really have no major complaints for this year's show. The winners are really, really good.

But the part where Brolin and McAvoy present Adapted Screenplay? Tacky. Why didn't they present Original Screenplay instead?

Marc H said...

Ya, this is definitely one of the better years. They did it right with Swinton and Cotillard was very deserving. No body-of-work Oscars... not even for Kevin O'Connell, not even for Roger Deakins. There was major thing that upset me, and then two minor ones, though:

1) Elizabeth > Atonement in Costume. Although I understand that Elizabeth's were more intricate and elaborate, Atonement's green dress is iconic and over the years, we'll still remember that dress.

Minor #1) The Bourne Ultimatum > Transformers in Sound Editing. Seriously, they didn't even throw Transformers a bone?

Minor #3) The Golden Compass > Transformers in Visual Effects. UGH.

adam k. said...

Well I guess I am officially eating it about Cotillard. I started realizing after my constant tirades about how Christie was winning for sure, that I was probably wrong. When you get reviews like "greatest performance of another performer ever put on film" and industry types like Clooney and Day-Lewis are talking you up on the record, your chances are strong, BFCA/GG/SAG be damned.

But YAY for Swinton. And YAY for me saying she'd win it even before the BAFTAs. Remember when you, Nat, said she was too cool for school and would obviously lose to Dee? Remember?? I do.

It's hard to be too sad about Christie when your other 3 gold medals winners all won, along with pretty great screenplay/director/picture wins. If ALL your favorites had won, the universe might have torn asunder, and we can't have that.

YAY for Tilda Swinton. I love her so much.

And double YAY for Once. I think their win was the best moment of the night.

RC said...

very nice with the 17 and all top 8. I only had 6 of the top 8 (missed with Christie & with a hope that PT Anderson would get the adapted win).

Overall did 13 out of 24.

I thought it was a great telecast...I posted my knee jerk thoughts on my own blog, but generally i thought it was an excellent award show with some good moments, and generally acceptable winners.

Steven said...

I predicted 17 out of 24 and 8 out of 8 in the main categories as well! :)

Wein, that is exactly the word I used: tacky.

~Steven

Anonymous said...

I'm just glad it is over, this is my last year oscarwatching (in terms of predicting etc.) it is quite boring.

As for the show itself, uh Jon Stewart was great it wasn't as much of a snoozefest as it usually is, but those songs put me to sleep fast.

-Zee

adam k. said...

OK, so when did the Once eligibility scandal officially die?

So glad it did, though.

Sam Brooks said...

I predicted 13 out of 21. I'm positive I would have had at least 16 had I not been so stubborn about Away From Her. Regardless, I think this is one of the better ones in recent years. No egregious wins in sight, Cody's stinging bile aside.

But I really liked this year.

Anonymous said...

I loved how international it was. Did anyone count that stat, not just actors but all categories? Take out the Coens and the Bourne guys and was anyone else American?

Anonymous said...

The ceremony was boring and very mecanic, not very emothional... But for me, all the big 8 winners are very deserving, at least for me, especially Marion Cotillard (She deserves the Oscar. I'm glad of her) and Tilda Swinton (My first was Cate Blanchett but Tilda was in second place-The best thing, with Wilkinson, of a good but a little bit overracted "Michael Clayton"-)

Lucas Dantas said...

OMG
i had sooooo much fun!!!

and tilda's win was a marvel fore me. i predicted ruby dee with the "old career factor" in her favor, so i was glad i was proved wrong.

as for marion, even if i chose and preferred christie i loved her victory. she and her meticulous performance were the glue from flawed "la vie en rose".

i didn't see the moment, but when i read that elizabeth's "wedding cakes with wigs" over cecilia's green dress i cursed a lot.

i loooooooooved marketa's speech, though it endorsed a lot of indie craps to be full with shit... nah, jokes, she was so beatiful and humble, i just wanted to hold her. and phew, finally a decent song wins an oscar! it's been a while uh? and did you notice that some of the latest victories are somewhat forgetable? when was the last GREAT song to win the oscar?

i loved jon stewart's joke about the kissing oscars; in fact i loved him as a whole, even if i saw him practically dubbed. he's a genius.

oh man, day-lewis' speech made me fall in love with him. MADLY!

John T said...

I think this is my favorite year in years, and I am going to be razzed today at work-I was the office Oscar guru, and I got like ten right.

ryansumera said...

first of all, i would like to thank tilda for winning that award. secondly, la blanchett is now officially streep jr. her non-win in both actress and supporting actress confirms this.

Anonymous said...

I got 14 out of 24 right - 6/8 in the top categories (in the top eight, missing Swinton for Dee and picking Diving Bell over No Country in adapted screenplay).

It was a classy Oscars. But the winners were the least to my taste for a long while - I only really agreed with six: Actor, Supporting Actress, Cinematography, Costume Design, Score and Song.

Too many mediocre (No Country, Bourne, Juno, Golden Compass) or downright poor (La vie en rose) films became Oscar-winners last night for my liking.

Sweeney Todd's Art Direction win was the closest we had to default, brainless voting from the Academy this year. Instead it would've been nice to have Atonement pick up another, or have There Will Be Blood join the triple attack ranks.

Best dressed for me: Renee Zellweger, Marion Cotillard (Jean-Paul Gaultier), Tilda Swinton (Lanvin), Cameron Diaz (Dior) and Cate Blanchett.

Jennifer Hudson and Helen Mirren bombed with their efforts. And I need to see Nicole Kidman's get-up properly before I'm decided on that.

NATHANIEL R said...

peter thanks that's a bizarre statistic

wein well at least the people presenting were from two different films --slightly negating the tackiness of presnting a category that you're in.

marc i actually prefer golden compass just like the academy... but. i am shocked. my preference is just based on storytelling and minor things --technicall transformers is such a marvel of f/x that you'd think they would have given it that.

adam the thing with not being sad because my other favorites win... i only care about the actresses. duh. so of course I'm upset. I didn't really prefer DDL or JAVIER by very much over their competitiors

Tilda and Julie on the other hand? WAY outdistancing their competition (with the exception of Laura Linney --there was a fleeting moment during her Oscar clip where I just fantasized about her winning for The Savages and it felt very good

ryansumera said...

linney.

i would rather see her win for something that's really worthy of her gifts and not just for some cute movie.

The Jaded Armchair Reviewer said...

All those American interviewers asking Daniel if his kiss with Clooney meant anything got irritating very fast. Stop siphoning attention!

Anonymous said...

Just saw red carpet photos on imdb and have to say Calista Flockhart's cool grecian goddess and Rosamund Pike's elegantly structured period piece would also make it onto my best dressed list - brave colours too, the both of them. Anyone know who they were wearing?

Like the length Julie Christie went for - so confident and blasé - but the actual outfit was all kinds of wrong. I hate that sherry colour, it's so cheap - like when Keira did it two years ago. And those gloves! Agh!

NATHANIEL R said...

ryan what, like a biopic? ;)

i'm nost sure what isn't worthy about what she does in The Savages --that performance is so sly, so full of off center funny and feeling ---many other actresses would have been inferior in the part, playing too much of one thing or approaching it in too straightforward a manner.

I guess i'm just bitter to realize that some truly great performances that DID win would never win in today's mimicry only climate.

DIANE KEATON in ANNIE HALL
that'd be considered lightweight even though it's one of the best performances ever

FRANCES MCDORMAND in FARGO

etcetera...

i'm not sure when the tide turned against fictional characters but by the end of the 90s that's all they cared about anymore... and still do.

it's a miracle that Swinton won. but good on her.

Jason Adams said...

For someone who proclaims to not give a damn about the Oscars, I did really well, I guess: I got 18 out of 24 right, and all top 8 correct. Course I didn't blog my list, so I have no way to prove this online, unless I scanned in the ballots we used at home... but still. I am awesome, and I hope y'all know that, is what I'm driving at here. ;-)

Seriously though, I scared everyone in the room I was watching the show with by literally shrieking when Tilda won.

par3182 said...

at least transformers isn't an academy award winning movie

jon stewart was brilliant - and bringing marketa back out to finish her speech was so freakin' classy

oh laura - i've got "big. red. pillow" stuck in a loop in my head

Anonymous said...

Ugh. I did terrible with only nine correct guesses, but I am sure by the time this year's Actress Psychic Contest starts I'll be irrationally convinced of my exceptional predicting talents again. :D

My feeling towards this year's winners are ambiguous. The Bourne Ultimatum was my favourite film of the year of 2007 (so far at least; I am always so behind the times), with No Country for Old Men not far behind, so I am glad they dominated the ceremony. Other than that (though admittedly, that's a big "that", seeing as they grabbed seven awards in total), I am rather disappointed: only a throwaway win for Atonement, nothing for Diving Bell, Cody and Cotillard triumphing.

I also don't get the visual effects nod for Golden Compass. The daemons were kinda cute, but they didn't blend in too well, and I can't think of anything else award-worthy in the film. Perhaps a better winner than soulless Transformers, but doesn't compare to Pirates, methinks.

ryansumera said...

linney.

i liked "the savages" and in no way did i think that her performance wasn't oscar-winner worthy. but i hope that she gets that elusive "role-of-a-lifetime-bow-before-my-greatness" part since almost all the great ones have theirs already biopic and non-biopic-wise. (cate-elizabeth, meryl-sophie's choice, frances-fargo, joan-the contender. and for fun, cher-moonstruck)

Ramification said...

I am a big fan of Cotillard's performance so I am happy for her, even though I think she won over Christie because she surprised people by being such a young beauty and it was 'de-glam' type of performance. If the Golden Globes were properly held this year I think she would have been more of front-runner in the predictions.

I didn't like Swinton's performance mainly because it was an under-written role, I never really understood her motivations but I do love the actress and at least its not Blanchett winning again... so I won't complain too much, she deserves an Oscar!

Anonymous said...

The overuse of the word "mimicry" on this blog makes me want to take a lot of pills. Seriously, chill on the Marion Cotillard thing. It is annoying.

NATHANIEL R said...

anon --what word would you like to propose I use instead ;)

now taking suggestions for how to describe Oscar's endless fixation beyond the dread "M" word.

Glenn Dunks said...

I didn't pretty average. Something like 12 or something. I haven't tallied. I didn't get any of the Bourne ones though (roscoecashjr, are the Bourn technicians American or British? I think some are the latter, considering the movie is British itself).

So happy for Tilda.

Best dressed were the random trio of Saiorse Ronan (beautiful Irish patriotism), Nicole Kidman (that necklace!) and Kelly Preston (great unused colour in a sea of black and navy)

NATHANIEL R said...

oh and also... not once in this entirely live-blogging article did I use the word (although i did in the comments, tis true) so... peace

gabrieloak said...

I won my Oscar pool this year as I did last year. But I was thrown a lot of curveballs this year. I didn't pick Golden Compass or Elizabeth for costumes. I expected Transformers to win something. I went with Cate and Julie. But I did well some of the other obscure categories.

I liked the show this year and I thought Stewart did well.

But the only real high point for me was the win for Once.

Everything else was kind of a letdown. The show lacked a certain glamour and some of the presenters seemed to lack the extra something.

I'm sad, too, to think this was the probably the last time we'll see Christie. I wish she had presented an award, at least, particularly since everyone seemed to know that Cotillard was unstoppable.

NATHANIEL R said...

well we all know how much campaigning does for people and Cotillard worked her ass off for the win.

Christie probably should have been more forceful about her "this is my last movie" threat. I mean she's hinted at it but if we're talking 'campaigns' she probably needed to actually go there.

sad but true part of Oscar season

Anonymous said...

Hey Nathaniel,

First, I'd like to say that I've been reading your blog daily for more than three years and this is the first time i post a comment!

But this morning when I woke up, unable to think about anything else than, "Marion Cotillard actually won an Oscar", I said to myself, two options : therapy, or sharing my feelings here.

I have to point out that I'm french, I've lived in Paris for the entirety of my 25 years, and I have great admiration for Edith Piaf. And because I certainly know more about Marion Cotillard (and Piaf) than all of you do, her win really bewilders me. It’s not just that I absolutely despise the film, which is a perfect example of everything that’s wrong with classicism (biopic clichés, obvious and idiotic casting like Depardieu…) and with modernity (hey, let’s jumble our sequences randomly, that’ll make it a work of ART honey). It’s not just that I find the performance horribly mannered and self conscious.
It’s just that I find all that talk of « she transformed herself » incredibly annoying. She transformed, surely, but into what ? Certainly not into Edith Piaf, who was a wreck, for sure at the end of her life, but nothing like the creature we see on screen (go watch interviews of her on youtube if you doubt). That creature, if you ask me, has nothing to do with a human being. It’s just someone trying so hard to impersonate someone else that in the end, she’s not Piaf, not even Cotillard, she’s just an empty, mechanical doll in clown make up, abolutely void of genuine emotion.
Anyway, the thing I wanted to say is this : that biopic thing sure is infuriating. The age and prettiness dicrimination even more so. But what strikes me here, is that, in fact, Oscar voters don’t really like great actresses. What they really, really like is actresses they didn’t know could act (this really applies to women, oddly). Let me explain.

The actresses who, everyone agrees on, are the best of today (Winslet, Moore, Bening…) as we all painfully know, don’t seem to be able to win, even with multiple nominations. Even Blanchett, who everyone worships blindlessly even when she’s really bad (Golden Age), didn’t even manage to win a best Actress Oscar.
On the other hand, actresses who were always blah, and then suddenly good, win on their first try : Berry, Theron, Weisz. Or actresses who come out of nowhere can win effortlessly (Swank, Hudson, Cotillard), with no one asking themselves if they were any good before that role and all that make up came their way. Or, even better : actresses who were good only once, then turned ou to be consistently bad, then managed to be good once more, can win a second one. (Swank Again !) Yeah! Why not give her three of four more while we’re at it! We can always give one to Annette Bening when she’s 85. But Swank, let’s give it to her now, because there’s no way she’ll ever be good again !

So actresses, if you want an Oscar, please don’t be too good too often. Booooring. All we want is to be able to say « Did you ever believe she could act? Amazing ! I’ll sure for her ! »

Abbie said...

I've never been quite so bored during the Oscars. I really wish all award speeches were like Tilda Swinton's. I can't believe that Jon Stewart still manages to disappoint me as a host, even after being disappointed the last time he hosted. Other disappointments: this was the most masturbatory awards ceremony I think I've ever seen. I wanted to curl up and die every time they started another montage. Memo to Hollywood: just say no!
I only missed Costumes and Documentary this year, so I'm pretty pleased with myself, statistics wise.

gabrieloak said...

Well, now that Cotillard has gotten her Oscar and new career opportunities, hopefullly it will work well for her. Isabelle Adjani was never able to cross over into American films--anyone remember Diabolique?

Pushing yourself as the next big huge star always has its price. I just finished reading the book The Star Machine and being a big star isn't what's it cracked up to be.

Which is why I've admired Christie for so long. She done a lot of fine movies and I guess if Away from Her is her last big film, at least goes out in style.

Though if I were a filmmaker like Scorsese, the Coen Brothers, Ang Lee, or even Clint Eastwood, I'd try to figure out a way to seduce Christie into my next film.

adam k. said...

Except Christie didn't care about winning, so why would she bother.

gabrieloak said...

jullenk,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts about Cotillard from a French perspective. I thought everyone in Europe loved her performance.

What you say about great actresses not being able to win the Oscar--there's a lot of truth in that. Why hasn't Linney or Winslet won, when Swank has won two? In Hollywood you're often take for granted if you're good, especially if you're a woman. So Christie being great in Away from Her didn't impress anyone enough because well, she's usually fine in everything she does.
I wish, now, the Golden Globes had happened so we could have seen more of Christie winning something.

Ramification said...

I think the montage thing was mainly because they had little time to prepare a proper ceremony with the looming strike!

adam k. said...

My last comment was re: Nathaniel's bit about how Christie needed to campaign more and say how this was her last film. I mean, she may well have done that if I'd given a rat's ass whether she won. But I think she's too good for blatant vote-courting tactics like that, and she didn't really give a **** anyway. She looked very happy for Marion, who clearly wanted it more.

gabrieloak said...

Adam K--Off topic: I wanted to send you an e-mail about your tribute to Eric Bana but for some reason my new Mac wouldn't allow me to send a message via my regular e-mail.
Anyway, I share your admiration of Bana in various guises.

Anonymous said...

Well everyone in Paris is celebrating I can tell you that. I'm feeling quite isolated!
(Watching the Oscars with the french commentators talking ONLY about Cotillard was a really painful experience, enough to make you hate her)
The funny thing is, I actually liked Cotillard before that film.

That clip of Christie in Away From Her they showed just before Marion won just broke my heart.
And the Cotillard win makes me question their ability to judge. Did they really give it to Tilda because they actually realized how amazing she was in that film, or because they just wanted to throw a bone at Michael Clatyon?
Depressing.

NATHANIEL R said...

julienK

thanks for reading so faithfully and for sharing your thoughts. that's what all this internet craziness is for.

it's nice to hear a different perspective as well... as for the pro-Marion perspective I'm really eager to see what Nick saw in her work (he still hasn't posted his best actress writeups) because he usually has such good taste and he was ga-ga for her performance.

i don't get it either but at least she's better than her film.

but more to the point: you MAKE EXCELLENT COMMENTS about the best actress problem.

PFEIFFER, LINNEY, CLOSE, WEAVER, MOORE, and at least a dozen others are too talented to win the Oscar. That's just the way it goes... Oscar only really likes to award "accomplished" actors if they're male (hence the median age of Best Actor being so much older than best actress --and there's an even wider berth between supporting actor and supporting actress ages I believe

Anonymous said...

There was a golden era in the early nineties though, with that string of performances: Foster, Thompson, Hunter, Lange, Sarandon, McDormand. (The only one I would argue with is Lange, because i really don't like the film but still, it's JESSICA LANGE. And she was over forty!)
Those performances! Those films! I mean, McDormand for Fargo???
What happened? Were they high to have such good taste?

Anonymous said...

I knew that Marion Cotillard would win lead actress for "La Vie En Rose", and I kept the faith since last June when I first watched the film. So glad that she won the Oscar. "Thank you, life. Thank you, love. And it is true there is some angels in this city!" Daniel Day-Lewis and Marion Cotillard rank up there as the best lead acting winners this decade.

Love the wins for Diablo Cody, "Falling Slowly", Javier Bardem, "The Bourne Ultimatum", and "Sweeney Todd". Has anyone here seen "Taxi to the Dark Side"? Weird win. Ugh to those silly "Enchanted" songs. What was the Academy thinking in even nominating them in the first place? Poor Amy Adams and Kristen Chenowith.

Decent show this year.

Unknown said...

I think Julie doesn't care enough to win another Oscar. I think she realized that the whole campaining thing has that circus like athmosphere; she is to classy to join the whole campaining thing.

On Marion's winning; it's the same way I feel about Halle Berry's winning. On one hand, I like the fact that a foreign language performer actually won an Oscar. On the other hand, I am not too thrilled about her performance. In a year with great performances from Tang Wei (Lust,Caution) and Carice Van Houtten (Black Book), why Marion's performance was singled out? Oh yeah, because she supposedly "became" Edith Piaf. Blah!

I don't care much about Oscar in term of quality; I abandoned that long time ago. I do understand that casual moviegoers still view it as the holy grail of cinematic achievements. That said, I am extremnely please that Tilda won. I don't care how and why she won; but if people will check out her works more because of this, I am all for it. The same goes for Viggo for got nominated in Eastern Promises. Maybe he got nominated because of the whole bathhouse fight scene? I don't know either but if that's the way he got nominated, I am all for it.

Ahhh..Oscars; so fascinating yet so frustrating. They can do more things right than wrong but they usually go for the bad ones.

Anonymous said...

Poor Kevin O'Connell. Guy can't catch a break. But at least it's losing to a worthy challenger like "The Bourne Ultimatum". But there's no excuse for "Transformers" losing to those god-awful hokey effects in "The Golden Compass".

The only thing that annoys me about Tilda Swinton's win is after all of the awesome indie performances that she's given over the years (like "Orlando", "The Deep End", "Stephanie Daley", "Young Adam"), she doesn't get the Academy's attention until she's in a glossy, mediocre Hollywood mainstream project with the Clooney. Funny how that works out with timing and Oscar-friendly projects.

Anonymous said...

Marion's biopic winning doesn't so much annoy me as much as the fact that Marion Cotillard has won for a foreign language performance...and Liv Ullmann NEVER has.

gabrieloak said...

It's interesting that how some insist that Cotillard gave the best performance of the decade when there have been some amazing performances in other foreign films recently. Tang Wei is a a good example, she was far superior to Cotillard, IMO. But it's hard to market Asian actresses in America.

One should also note that La vie en rose though more acclaimed in Europe wasn't so well received over here. It's kind of interesting that Picturehouse was able to do such a good job selling Cotillard's performance.

Anonymous said...

I said best of the Oscar winners this decade you jerk, since you were ever-so-subtly hinting at what I said. And I'll firmly stand by Marion Cotillard being one of those performances that will be looked at as one of the best female Oscar winners this decade.

John T said...

One has to wonder as well, if someone like Helen Mirren, had she been playing a fictional queen, would have succombed to the pretty young Penelope Cruz.

Also, one perf that is a biopic that I never associate with the whole imitating win thing is Marcia Gay Harden. She beat out the pretty young thing, plus the Miramax machine, in 2000, and I suppose in hindsight one would think that she had the biopic hook, and yet she still pulled off the upset.

John T said...

Also, for the curious, here is a chart since 1993 of the biopic performances that have lost to fictional:

1993: Holly Hunter beats out Angela Bassett (playing Tina Turner) and Debra Winger (playing poet Joy Gresham)
1994: Jessica Lange beats out Miranda Richardson (playing T.S. Eliot's first wife Vivienne Haigh-Wood)
1996: ALL ORIGINAL!
1997: Helen Hunt beats out Judi Dench (playing Queen Victoria) (why, of all years, did they choose this year to go with Hunt over the biopic?!?)
1998: Gwyneth Paltrow beats out Cate Blanchett (playing Queen Elizabeth) and Emily Watson (playing Jacqueline du Pre)
2001: Halle Berry beats out Judi Dench (playing Iris Murdoch)
2004: All ORIGINAL!

John T said...

Oh, and my rankings (and I swear, this will be my last consecutive post) for this decade in this category would be:

1. Nicole Kidman
2. Helen Mirren
3. Julia Roberts
4. Reese Witherspoon
5. Charlize Theron
6. Halle Berry
7. Marion Cotillard
8. Hilary Swank

NATHANIEL R said...

well i think the thing with biopics is that there are different kinds. Obviously imitation is more of a hook if people know who you're pretending to be ;)

so i guess if we combine this post 93 chart to the former 70% biopic winner charts we'd see the full story. It definitely started shifting in the 90s though to where that was the thing to do if you wanted a nomination. And now it's the thing to do if you want to win.

it's weird because it's tough to imagine many of our greatest actors and actresses pretending to be other celebrities. Not everyone can do that. It's but one skill of many within the acting arsenal.

hopefully some of the other skills will be rewarded in the next few years so we can stop talking about this.

i know some people hate me for bitching about it annually but i'll stop as soon as Oscar does ;)

NATHANIEL R said...

john --why must you tempt me with a list? my order of the past 9 years of winners

1 Julia Roberts (bio)
2 Charlize Theron (bio)
3 Nicole Kidman (bio)
4 Reese Witherspoon (bio)
5 Helen Mirren (bio)

and the last three I feel roughly the same about. I get why people love them but I personally am very underwhelmed...

Halle Berry (original)
Hilary Swank (original)
Marion Cotillard (bio)

none of the eight were my favorites in their years ;) It's been since 1996 and Frances McDormand in Fargo when my best actress won the big prize.

I predict the biopic frenzy will end the moment it would require they give an Oscar to any of my 4 favorite unOscared actresses: WINSLET, MOORE, PFEIFFER and BENING

Oscars live to punish me. It's like an S & M relationship.

"thank you sir, may i have another" [WHACK]

Anonymous said...

What I find amusing is how the actresses who win Oscars are generally very beautiful women, or at least very glamorous, and also generally quite young, but on the other hand when you're a male actor beauty does not help you, you're not taken seriously (how many years for Johnny Deep to win ?), you shouldn't be too beautiful, if you're middle-aged and fat that's perfect, or skinny, or out of rehab...

Anonymous said...

I think some of you guys are truly pathetic I highly doubt that Julie Christie cares so damn much about losing. GET A LIFE!!! AWARDS aren't everything just enjoy the damn movies.

Anonymous said...

talk of angelina as mother teresa? Renee as Janis Joplin? camryn diaz as yoko ono? you guys are going to go bananas!!!!

Camryn Diaz is Yoko Ono!

NATHANIEL R said...

Hee.

will Justin Timberlake play John Lennon?

Anonymous said...

He's already played Elton John.

Anonymous said...

So Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova are an item now? And she's not even 21 yet? Wow.

gabrieloak said...

Hansard waited until Irglova was of age before he became involved with her. He's known her since she was a teenager.

Anonymous said...

Am I the only one who thought Amy Ryan, with her toothy open mouth grin and her blue dress, looked like she could be the Bening's younger sister?

Anonymous said...

well, i must say - it was lots of fun sending in comments as the oscars progressed last night. i just read the ratings were horrible. as with every year - not happy with everything. But the good news is Ruby Dee didn't win just because she's been around forever. Too bad Julie Christie lost, but I assume she could care less. She didn't seem particular interested in or impressed with the proceedings last night. And, she is a past winner. They should have had her present Best Picture. I've seen enough of John Travolta (what's the deal with the hair? - painted on?)...Tom Hanks...denzel.

adam k. said...

daveylow Just write a comment on one of the posts on my blog. That tribute was actually the culmination of a months-long tournament involving lots of actors. It's a time capsule waiting to be discovered, if you haven't already ; )

Anonymous said...

Nathaniel... Why in the look-back clips of previous winners before the award presentation did they omit certain winners?? Anna Paquin and Marisa Tomei were oddly eliminated from the Supporting Actress look back and they won in the 90's... I dont understand why they just picked and choosed which winners they wanted to show?

Also, did anyone else notice how much Julie Christie looked like Megan Mullaly as Karen from Will & Grace??? I thought it was her for a second!!! lol

lawyer tony fernando said...

Nat, did you noticed the Brad renfro snub? the academy officially said that they choose not to add him, but boyu they did showed Steve McQuenn´stunt. Oh, and they didn´t show Whoopy and Steve Martin in the hosts segment, but they did show David L., so I ask you WTF?

Anonymous said...

Black people didn't win, I know there are many who are overjoyed at this.

ryansumera said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
ryansumera said...

more thoughts.

-surprisingly, that hannah-cyrus creature wasn't bad at all.

-cotillard might have won but it's blanchett who's the best actress for the night (i love, love her "i know" reaction to her best actress clip as well as her homage to streeps ebulliency in losing to sarandon some years back, when tilda beat her on the supporting actress category.

-the chenowith number was blah. she would have been more effective if they got her to present instead, i think.

-props to amy adams for soldiering on with her number without any productions effects.

John T said...

I just hope that the biopic thing stops before someone truly atrocious benefits: I have nightmares about Jessica Alba playing Rita Hayworth, and then Oscar selling its soul.

The Jaded Armchair Reviewer said...

Oh well Laura Linney, try again in another four years.

Anonymous said...

since american beuty all the best cinematography winners were also nominated for art direction. And this year the same. But this truly was one of the great years for good looking films.

Glenn Dunks said...

You know, I'd be angry at that last anonymous person for calling us racist. But they're anonymous so I don't care.

Dave, they also omitted Jodie Foster's first win and Hilary Swank's second.

You know what my biggest problem with the ceremony was (apart from cutting the winners off and then having a pathetic and unnecessary montage) - the presenters. They were just so unimportant for the most part. As much as I don't care for Travolta (or his spray on hair) at least he's "Hollywood Royalty". How many times are we going to have to listen to Cameron Diaz mess up her lines? She can't say "cinematography" so don't get her to present it.

So true though, where's Anna Faris' Oscar for portraying Diaz so true-to-life. OmgAnnaFarisisCameronDiaz!

Glenn Dunks said...

Anon 7:06 I mean

Anonymous said...

I just wanted to say I copied all your predicitions and won at my friend's little party!! I got 7 wrong, second place got 10 wrong!!

Thanks!!

Anonymous said...

But Cameron Diaz was one of the most appropriate presenters of the night. She's one of the biggest female stars they've got. And she was so good at ad-libbing around her tiny slip-up.

I liked the montages of previous acting winners. They seemed to omit intermittently up to 1990. After 1990 didn't they just omit one performance of anyone who doubled up (for obvious time-related reasons)?

John T said...

See, I don't mind that Cameron and Travolta were there-they both are Hollywood A-listers, even if they aren't as talented as say a Day-Lewis or a Christie. I have a bigger promise with Miley Cyrus, Jessica Alba, Katherine Heigl, and Patrick Dempsey presenting. Yes, I am aware that they all made movies this year, but they are as a whole television stars, and Alba is just an awful actress (don't know the other three's work well enough to judge). These are presenter slots that could have gone to nominees that didn't present like Laura Linney, Daniel Day-Lewis, Johnny Depp, and Ellen Page, or significant A-listers from this past year like Jodie Foster, Angelina Jolie, Keira Knightley and Will Smith. Leave the Oscars to the actors and stars!!!

Oh, and wasn't Queen Latifah supposed to present-was I in the bathroom when that happened?

Anonymous said...

The best presenters were Helen Mirren and Forrest Whitaker, I felt. Mirren is a goddess and Whitaker was very classy. And they both succeeded in selling what they were saying (which doesn't happen too often at the oscars).

NATHANIEL R said...

js hee --that is so true. i hadn't even thought of it. Every 4 years Laura Linney gets a little thank you from Hollywood.

Here's to 2012!

adam k. said...

I didn't have a problem with Cameron Diaz, even they she couldn't pronounce her category. But yeah, maybe they should just put her back on Animated Film, where she usually is.

I really don't think Linney will ever win an oscar, and that makes me sad.

And duh, the reason Faris didn't win an oscar is that she wasn't ACTUALLY playing Cameron Diaz. The character's name was not that. There was no news about it. But I seriously bet that if the character WAS for some reason presented as the actual Cameron, Faris would've gotten a nomination.

adam k. said...

But isn't it ironically kind of more fun when it's not made explicit who the person is playing, but you get it anyway? That's what people should really win oscars for.

Anonymous said...

Oh, and wasn't Queen Latifah supposed to present-was I in the bathroom when that happened?

Queen Latifah had a family emergency and had to cancel at the last minute.

Glenn Dunks said...

"She's one of the biggest female stars they've got."

Which is incredibly sad. She has only had Shrek the Third (which wasn't nominated) and The Holiday in the last two years. And the latter was deemed a flop. As Nat writes about in his other entry it'd be terrible if they rewarded box office hits and their stars, but Diaz isn't even the star of any hits (that aren't animated) in many years. Ugh. I just really dislike her like I suspect Sofia Coppola does.

I didn't like Whitaker presenting. Yet again he spoke so softly softly that I could barely make out what he was saying. Mirren is blessed, however.

Anonymous said...

Forest Whitaker was fine. He was classy, elegant, and appropriate for what he was doing. I love hearing him speak, and wished that he had made better acceptance speeches in his "Last King of Scotland" run (though he redeemed himself for the most part in his Oscar speech).

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