For the final podcast, the original gang is back together: Nick, Joe, Katey and yours truly, Nathaniel. We'll be back soon for a new season but this time we close out the film year with the final discussion of Oscar's 2009/10 hoedown throwdown. You can download the podcast through Mediafire or Rapidshare. We're quite gabby this time (72 minutes) so bear with us as we pick apart the Oscar ceremony in our usual train-of-thought manner. Among the topics:- Neil Patrick Harris's opening number. Did it really happen?
- George Clooney escape from his famous attractiveness
- Secret love for Hope Floats
- Smug and sour bitches
- Up in the Air's shutout and Jason Reitman's Oscar future
- Barbra Streisand's diva shit
- Can loving Gabourey Sidibe be wrong when it feels so right?
- Avatar in 20 years. Did the Academy dodge a bullet?
- Shouldn't all of the acting presentations have been famous duos rather than current co-stars (like Pfeiffer & Bridges)?
- Hidden satirical messages
- Nick's competing Precious allegiances
- Navigating the difficult post-Oscar period
Previous Oscar Night Reviews: Fashion | Party Fashions | Tribeca Review | Best Moments | Worst Moments | Lingering Questions | Lingering (Gay) Questions | Hug it Out With Jeremy Renner | 'The Money Shot'
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35 comments:
Renee Zellweger should have introduced or praised Colin Firth don't you think? But then again, you'd die if you see Renee + Julianne + Michelle on one stage at the same time >.>
haha.
i think Rupert Everett shoulda introduced Firth (since it's a gay movie and all and other than Renee that's probably his most famous duet/co-star)
my choices for best actor woulda been
Pfeiffer - Bridges (they got it right)
Everett - Firth
Robbins - Freeman (they got it right)
Jennifer Lopez - George Clooney (since thats the movie they both made their first real critically acclaimed mark in ... and its still well regarded)
Renner has less options of course even though he's been working for years. so Farrel was fine.
actress it sshould abeen
Keanu intro Sandra
Tucci intro Streep is fine (though if they wanted to classic maybe DeNiro or Redford)
Mirren ... someone from Caligula. HAHAHA
and of course with Gabby & Carey their choices were fine since they're newbies.
A name-check in the podcast! I'm so honoured. (I'd like to clarify, however, that I never said Jennifer Lawrence will WIN next year. I'm not that crazy this early.)
A wonderful listen, as always. Two small points:
Nathaniel, surely you KNOW why "The Weary Kind" succeeded where "The Wrestler" failed. It's performed IN the movie. Simple as that. Had it been a credits ballad, I'll bet dollars to donuts it wouldn't have been nominated.
As for what Katey says about people in 20 years time assuming that Avatar won, I see her point, but I think Citizen Kane/How Green Was My Valley is the wrong comparison.
I think it's far likelier that The Hurt Locker will stand as this year's Annie Hall to Avatar's Star Wars. Casual moviegoers will wonder how it lost, sure, but the winner will retain its critical cred. Predicting how films will be viewed decades hence is a fool's errand, of course, but I can't see this win aging badly.
Hi Nathaniel. Why no iTunes yet? Or am I just being overeager?
RobUK... i can't do itunes anymore until i figure out why it was costin gme so much money. it was pulling huge amounts of bandwidth from the site and now the site is shut down unless i come up with more money which i don't have.
argh.
i hate computers. i am so bad at them.
but if you download the mp3 you can open it in itunes... and pretend it's like a fancy podcast ;)
this was so much fun, like I was at your Oscar party.......
my fave line has to be "... the black man, the woman, and the oppressors..." I almost fell off the elliptical laughing (yes you were my exercise soundtrack today)
Thank you! (all four, I'm so happy Nick participated)
"The Wrestler" was ineligible because it was included in Springsteen's album or something.
I think Cher should have presented Meryl.
Yeah, Renee should have presented to Colin Firth.
Good point, Guy, on the Annie Hall/ Star Wars. But as much as I like The Hurt Locker, I have a hard time seeing it being even as culturally important as Annie Hall today. Though thank you for helping me avoid making people think I see Avatar and Citizen Kane as movies of similar quality.
So thrilled you noticed Gabby Sidibe's mom reacting to the Steven Martin "The Jerk" joke. I LOVED that moment on the show.
Sad that you didn't include your naughty Cameron/Bigelow bits from the first podcast back in the remaining podcasts.
Great job on another season!
@ Katey: I would have recommended you get your head checked if you actually thought Avatar is even in the same league, or even in the same universe, as Citizen Kane.
I still maintain that Avatar's "cultural relevance" is completely overstated and a more appropriate comparison to its Oscar loss to The Hurt Locker is when The Godfather: Part II beat The Towering Inferno. I agree that the Academy "dodged a bullet" on that one.
I was really disappointed how the supporting categories were just pushed aside. Keeping the "early career" rule, I thought I'd list who I would've paired with the supporting nominees for their intros:
Matt Damon: Ben Affleck (no brainer)
Woody Harrelson: Wesley Snipes
Christopher Plummer: Julie Andrews (how great would that've been??)
Stanley Tucci: Tony Shalhoub
Christoph Waltz: Diane Kruger (anyone else?)
Penelope Cruz: Salma Hayek (who wouldn't have it any other way...Salma is so protective of her Pene)
Vera Farmiga: Sam Rockwell
Maggie Gyllenhaal: James Spader
Anna Kendrick: Kristen Stewart (OScars reaching out to kiddos)
Mo'Nique: Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Bonus points for anyone who can identify some of the more obscure picks.
Hey, Robert. She wasn't comparing quality. Relax, man.
Charlize Theron would have been ideal for Renner, since they seem to be friends as well as former co-stars, and she is an Oscar winner. And I would have gone with Nicholson for Streep, Dench for Firth, Pitt for Clooney, and Betty White for Bullock.
@ Alex:
Big Night, White Men Can't Jump and Shadowboxer, right?
@ James T: Yes, I know that. I listened to the podcast. Hence, "would have recommended," as opposed to "I recommend."
I was confused, sorry :)
maggie gyllenhaal : jake gyllenhaal
It's funny that you guys laughed at Howards End. My 11th grade English teacher (who was a huge movie buff) described Howards End thusly: "It was three hours of Anthony Hopkins dusting stuff." I remember my best friend and I laughing so hard at that. To this day, neither one of us has watched Howards End because of his description because we always end up in the same thought: "Why see it when we've already gotten the plot synopsis?"
Which actress has the reputation for being a sourpuss? You guys were talking about it at the 35-minute mark or so and I tried to rewind it and figure it out but I haven't been able to. Is it Maggie Gyllenhaal? Vera Farmiga?
I know it's a TV-pairing but I would have loved to see Jennifer Ehle introduce Colin Firth. Everett would have been lovely too!
But I still haven't actually watched the show so.... Anyway, thank you for a great coverage!
I finally watched the clips with the complete presentations for Best Actor and Best Actress. I think they shouldn't be presented by their co-stars in the movies they're nominated for. It's lame, and it makes it not only uneven but it also makes people question the whole thing. There were no other Clooney's friends available? The guy seems to be friends with half Hollywood and you bring Vera Farmiga? Anyone watching who had missed Up in the Air would've wondered why she was there.
I think it worked better last year, not only because of the surprise factor, but because being honored by legends like Shirley McLaine or Robert DeNiro makes it more shocking (and an award itself) for the nominees. I guess they'll eventually find the right formula. For me it'd be something like Oscar nominee/winner presenting someone he/she really likes. It can't be so difficult if there's enough time between the nominations and the show. And if they have co-starred in the same movie at some point, great.
And I'd also include the supporting categories in this type of presentation. Or else when you include it in the trailers, say "Supporting Academy Award Winner/Nominee".
Was lovely to hear your voices!
I'm always a bit down when Oscar season ends...
I think Penelope probably stole Salma's Oscar mojo more so than Halle's. It's almost like their careers switched right when they did Bandidas.
I'm really happy that Nick is back. Sugah, he is too much! But I can understand his need to stay away as this year was more unbearable than most years including the year of the Slumdog.
I think I realized how much I disliked this season too when I caught myself screaming in joy when Precious beat Up In The Air for screenplay. I wanted to call it so much but was afraid to. I was just so upset that people thought that Precious was the 5th spot when clearly it wasn't. That editing nom and Mo'nique winning despite the backlash was more than enough proof. I would argue it was the #3 movie and had more support than Inglourious Basterds
I have never in my life blamed the producers for the failing of an awards show. I've routinely blamed network interference (ie: CBS and the Tonys: if you don't want to broadcast the full ceremony, then let PBS take over), audience voting, and inconsistent categorization, but never the producer. Adam Shankman has made me change my mind. As far as I'm concerned, the man managed to eliminate all charm from the awards ceremony with a seemingly interminable series of horrible decisions. Dancers for best score but no best song performances? Inane opening number hyped to the heavens? A bad horror film montage introduced by bad not-horror actors? The return of those friends introducing friends nominee announcement but only in lead so supporting actors got awards clips? Running over time even with all the stupid cuts? Failure. Absolute failure.
What am I missing with the Mo'Nique/Joseph Gordon-Levitt connection?
Welcome back, Nick! You were missed!
And "Slumdog" was awesome. Glad it won all of its Oscars!
"Up in the Air" was screwed. Its screenplay ran circles around "Precious". That's an awful win, and for everyone loving upsets, be careful what you wish for when the unexpected win's a bad one.
Something was mentioned about why "The Wrestler" was snubbed when it served the same purpose as "The Weary Kind" did in its film. It's only b/c "The Wrestler" was an end credits song that the voters snubbed for not being part of the actual film. "The Weary Kind" was a big part of their entire film, and then it justly steamrolled the awards circuit (and avoided the Globes curse!).
@ AKA
Shadowboxer, Lee Daniels' directing debut.
@ Henry
Remains of the Day is the Hopkins dusting movie. ;-)
@Paul: Yep, those are all right. Tucci and Shalhoub are really good friends too. Tucci appeared on Monk and Shalhoub is starring in Tucci's Broadway directorial debut coming soon.
@AKA: Mo'Nique and Joseph Gordon-Levitt played lovers in Shadowboxer. How crazy is that?
Oh, and what I really liked about last year's acting presentations is that it sort of felt like, for me, a group veterans welcoming their fellow actors to the club. This was just their friends being nice to them. And Julianne Moore's only known him 3 days! C'mon.
I guess I understand blaming the producers for everything one didn't like about the Oscars (even the "overlength" which happens every single year). But even in that case, why is it all on Shankman and none on Bill Mechanic?
Is Jason Reitman a mean guy?
I don't get the sudden hate.
I'll always be a Streisand apologist and I have to admit I totally loved all that Diva crap she pulled. She wouldn't even walk down the stairs without assistance! Wonderful.
Joe... i think that's because people understand who Shankman is? And being known means you suck up the blame / credit.
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