There's a part of me that's tempted to blow off tonight's Oscars, since the only thing I really want to see is Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova perform the amazing "Falling Slowly" from "Once." (Watch the version from the movie here.) Plus, I may still be on the road when Jon Stewart starts his monologue. But for those who want to get worked up about red carpet fashion, the drinking of milkshakes, cattle stunners, etc., feel free to talk about all things Oscar here.One request: for the benefit of people (like me) who haven't seen all the nominees, please refrain from going too much into detail (or spoiler territory) about the movies themselves. i.e., saying "The dialogue in 'Juno' annoyed me" is okay, but talking about the ending of "No Country For Old Men" is not.
Play nice, and if I get home in time and can force myself to care, I'll weigh in in the comments.
Alan, I will be watching for the same reason as you. I saw Glen and Marketa in New York late last year, and Glen was giddy-crazy with excitement at the thought of playing at the Oscars. He wanted to win, but more than anything, he clearly thought the idea of taking this music that he loves SO MUCH to that kind of an audience was the best thing ever. I can't wait to see them perform that astonishing song.
ReplyDeleteWell, for the first in recorded history I actually agree with the 2-3 movies uncle Oscar picked. Blood and No Country are to me the greatest movies of the year along with Zodiac and Ratatouille, and I enjoyed Juno as well, so I'm really excited at the prospect of seeing people I actually admire picking up trophies all night long.
ReplyDeleteSadly this will not be the case for Hansard & Irglova, their movie the one that rounds up my personal top-5 of the year, but hey, you win some and you lose some. Once was a terrific movie.
How hard did last night's "I Drink Your Milkshake" sketch suck on "SNL"?
ReplyDeleteIt sucked harder than Daniel Day-Lewis drinking Paul Dano's milkshake.
I loved the Milkshake sketch. Heder did a great job with the voice and Forte's old man was very funny. The only thing that didn't need to be in there was the "I've abandoned my boy" gag.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it was pretty clear the audience didn't have a clue what the line meant because most of them hadn't seen the movie. I guess SNL jumped the gun on the whole "I drink your milkshake" cultural revolution.
I actually agree with a lot of the nominations this year too, but there were some massive oversights and some undeserving inclusions.
ReplyDeleteI thought Juno was terrible for the most part, but hit the occasional grace note (Juno watching Jennifer Garner's character - I don't remember her name - play with the children in the mall, for instance) and The Assassination Of Jesse James... got majorly neglected. Great film from both a technical and storytelling perspective.
Also, Michael Clayton's a pretty average film, enlivened by two good performances (Tilda Swinton and Clooney) and one great one (Tom Wilkinson), so I don't think that deserves half the nods it has.
Those gripes aside, There Will Be Blood for best film and PTA for best director, but if No Country and The Coens get the two big ones, I'd love that too.
Glen & Marketa performed on the Independent Spirit Awards yesterday (which, for the first time, was incredibly boring). Good song, good performance.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite movie of 2007, "Ratatouille," just won Best Animated Feature. I can go to bed now :-)
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, dez. Ratatouille was the best movie I saw in 2007. I put it #1 over No County, I'm Not There and There Will Be Blood (in that order).
ReplyDeleteI loved everything about it, from its perfect pacing, its wonderful story and its lack of genre cliches and conventions. It was the anti-Shrek.
I haven't watched the Academy Awards in years. Used to be something I looked forward to...then, it just got boring.
ReplyDeleteI just read the list of winners the next day...but I don't really care. Too many good movies have been overlooked and bad ones praised in recent years. I'm still reeling in shock from "Titanic" winning all those Oscars. So completely ludicrous.
Who replaced Jon Stewart with a dull clone of same?
ReplyDeleteMy favorite moment thus far: the clip of Joel and Ethan Coen sprawled on couches for their writing nomination while everyone else's clips involved typewriters.
ReplyDeleteSo far my favourite speech is Tilda Swinton's shoutout to the nippled batsuit. There are too many montages, even joke ones, and moments like where the female artist from Once is cut off for no reason are starting to piss me off.
ReplyDeleteI think Jon Stewart has had a few good moments... and now the artist is back on... for once a mistake is rectified.
They need to cut anything involving the Academy president and the honorary oscar. Who cars?
ReplyDeleteFinally caught up to the live telecast. As I said in the initial post, "Falling Slowly" was the only nominee I felt passionately about, so I may be biased, but the director letting Marketa come back out to give her speech -- and the speech itself -- was the evening's highlight so far.
ReplyDeleteKristin, I'm with you on the unmitigating horrors of the Titanic win. And don't get me started on the comparisons to GWTW.
ReplyDeleteHelen Mirren made that crappy intro sound great... she truly is a wonderful actress isn't she?
ReplyDeleteNo real surprises except maybe for Tilda Swinton, but at least it finished before 12. I think Stewart was much better than Ellen and he should be asked again.
I was a bit disappointed that Sarah Polley didn't win Best Adapted Screenplay, but the Coen Brothers were a juggernaut, so I didn't expect an upset.
the director letting Marketa come back out to give her speech -- and the speech itself -- was the evening's highlight so far.
ReplyDeletetotally agreed -- may be my favorite Oscar moment ever! And both their speeches were so sweet and wonderful. 'Make art.' Nicely put, Glen!
But I wonder, was it Stewart who made the call to bring her back out? He seemed really into them and the song and I'd bet he said, 'To hell with it, I'm bringing her back out!' Loved that moment. So real and cool and I got the sense that he was genuinely please for both of them.
Who wrote that lame line about Harrison Ford? Put that writer back on strike.
Who wrote that lame line about Harrison Ford? Put that writer back on strike.
ReplyDeleteHaha, totally agreed. I loved that Jon Stewart also seemed disgusted by the line and delivered it almost apologetically.
I'm guessing Stewart gave Marketa some of "his time" (that is, he gave up some of the prescripted jokes he had to tell so she could have her moment). Well done, Mr. Stewart!
ReplyDeleteThe other surprise of the night (besides Tilda) was Marion Cotillard because I'm pretty sure the buzz was for Julie Christie. Other than that, a pretty boring show, even though a bunch of things I liked won and I was right on 15 of the 19 picks I made, hee hee!
yeah, the whole original song scene -- from reaction all the way to Marketa getting back on stage to give her thanks -- is now my favorite Oscar moment ever.
ReplyDeletethank goodness Jonny Greenwood's score for There Will Be Blood was disqualified, otherwise I think my indie music head would've exploded ;)
During the memorial for those who died over the last year, did anyone hear Brad Renfro's name mentioned? Heath Ledger was included and he died a week or two later than Renfro. Maybe I just missed it.
ReplyDeleteDuring the memorial for those who died over the last year, did anyone hear Brad Renfro's name mentioned? Heath Ledger was included and he died a week or two later than Renfro. Maybe I just missed it.
ReplyDeleteHe was not mentioned. The "In Memoriam" segment is only for Academy members. Academy membership is relatively small and not published, but presumably Renfro is not a member. He was never a nominee (which usually leads to an invitation to join), and his "contribution to the field of motion pictures" was probably not significant enough to get him invited.
Can I just ask a question. For the past few years, whenever they have the unseen person announcing "And now, so-and-so from such-and-such-a-film", it is not possible to hear that person - at least in the NZ broadcasts. You can hear that there is someone speaking, but it is so turned down and muffled that it is completely incomprehensible. And it happens every year, for the last 4 or 5 years, and I cannot imagine why it would be like that, especially since they clearly have the long passages of music underneath that are quite dull unless you are listening to the person speaking.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, last year I read something, I can't remember what, but it made me think that the US broadcasts didn't have that problem for some reason, but I wanted to confirm this year. For those of you in the States, can you hear the voiceover announcer?
I thought Jon Stewart was funny and did a great job. I thought that the Best Picture line-up was really strong this year, and I like that the Academy spread the wealth and lots of movies got at least an Oscar. As everyone have mentioned, letting Marketa back to finish her speech was one of the best Oscar moments in recent years.
ReplyDeleteAs everyone have mentioned, letting Marketa back to finish her speech was one of the best Oscar moments in recent years.
ReplyDeleteNice moment, yes. But the winners who were not media darlings or favorites of the host or hip did not get that privilege. But Glen Hansard seemed to be having the time of his life as he played that song, and it was very nice to see he and Marketa win.
It looked like Javier Bardem was bleeped towards the end of his acceptance speech (maybe a word or two in Spanish). Any idea what it was?
ReplyDeleteI get the Canadian feed of the broadcast and the voiceovers along with them. I did notice that there was a slight sound issue right at the beginning, in that it didn't seem as loud initially and then the stereo effect kicked in.
ReplyDeleteI didn't notice a bleep with Javier, just the Spanish.
Both Miley Cyrus and Katherine Heigl can't read a teleprompter so hopefully they won't return next year. Helen Mirren schooled most people on how to work the lame jokes/intros with flair.
Thanks, Nicole, for confirming that. In that case, I wonder why the NZ version has silent voiceovers.
ReplyDeleteThe milkshake sketch was a movie reference? No wonder it made no sense to me.
ReplyDelete