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Melody
Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 3:19 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 2242 Location: TX
That little kid singing the gospel number blew them all away.

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Nancy
Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 3:21 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 4607 Location: Norman, OK
Finally catching up with the Blanches today. Congratualtions to Lorne on the fantastic posters. (Loved the frog.) I also liked the Minutiae Minutes.

It was a very close race. Here's the count for Best Song:

"Falling Slowly" - 5
"PoP Goes My Heart" - 4
"Hard Sun" - 3
"When Your Mind's Made Up" - 3

Plus a late vote for "Hard Sun" that would not have changed the winner.

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Marj
Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 3:28 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 10497 Location: Manhattan
I liked both Amy Adams and Kristen Chenoweth. Adams may not be as good a singer as Chenoweith did her song in character. I found her utterly charming. And I am definitely going to see Enchanted.
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jeremy
Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 3:37 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 6794 Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
Somebody told me that Tilda Swinton lives in a castle in Scotland with two men.

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lady wakasa
Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 3:43 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 5911 Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
jeremy wrote:
Somebody told me that Tilda Swinton lives in a castle in Scotland with two men.

And a dungeon in the basement...

(Well, it sounded good, anyway...)

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inlareviewer
Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 3:45 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 05 Jul 2004 Posts: 1949 Location: Lawrence, KS
Trish wrote:


Only two votes for Christie, how sad, she was wonderful
It would have been 3, except I saw The Savages, and, as noted in Current Film at the time, my Blanche nominations were shot to hell in a Big. Red. Pillow.

Speaking of big red pillows, I think this belongs here more than in Current Film, so shoot me with an air gun:
What to say about the 80th annual Academy Awards ceremony, which I watched this morning after going to a movie last night? Well, it wasn't short (3 hours, 20-some minutes), it was, acceptance speeches apart, synthetic and subdued in tone (judging from the bulk of the business-as-usual patter, the writers lost their senses of humor on strike), an internationale as far as the winners went. The bulk of the recipients were either from foreign countries and/or out of the Hollywood mainstream, as every pundit is noting today. I found this both oddly hopeful and ominously telling at once. Lost count of how many times the camera returned from commercials to the same "80th Annual Academy Awards" brand-name logo on the great big Kodak stage screen -- seemed like a trade show. Oh, wait, that's right -- it was. Jon Stewart was relaxed, with an almost puppyish quality that certainly disarmed the house. But, barring a few good jabs early on and mercifully dispatching with the political quips up front, he eventually seemed to be in Daily Show Lite mode. Finally made this observer feel that he wanted to put his Debacle Year-hosting out of every one's memory. That said, although the pregnant-ladies/Jack Nicholson bit and Cate-Blanchett-plays-a-pit-bull-and-me bits were duds, the Wii-ball game with that astonishing child soloist from the August Rush number (one of two musical numbers that in performance just barely justified their inclusion) was a hoot, however stunt-ly; his pulling Marketa of Once back out to finish her acceptance speech (though both she and Glen's failure to note their director was another oddity of the excitable) was a new Oscar Host's Classiest Moment, big gold star to Jon Stewart. He certainly kept things moving, albeit on the whole more efficiently than inventively (which could sum up the whole telecast). Speaking of moving, I found all four acting recipients very affecting in their various ways. La Cotillard's clear surprise was very touching, her spontaneity making me forgive her overlooking Piaf (hello?) and that quilted scallop dress came off better on camera than on the Red Carpet, where she looked like a curvaceous duvet. Daniel Day-Lewisohn's kneeling bit to Queen Helen shouldn't have come off, but it so did, and his speech was a model of how to be prepared to accept without coming off gushy or insincere. Ditto Javier's burst of Spanish (and how lovely to see Pilar Bardem, that icon of politically active single-mom actresses, looking so regal and maternal at once). Although Ms. Swinton's outfit and hair made her look like Archie Andrews as a Benedictine monk, she couldn't have been more delightfully off-the-cuff extemporaneous. The honorary award to Robert Boyle was inspirational, he was very dear in his dotage, the only real distraction there was that diamond waterfall hanging from The Ex-Mrs. Cruise's neck, which lodged around her right teat and never budged -- evoked Neely O'Hara on the Joey Bishop telethon in Valley of the Dolls. Other great speeches: Mr. Rouse's tribute to his dad, both documentary and the animated short recipients, Mr. Elswit's short and sweet Andersonage, the Golden Compass group thank, Brad Bird's last-minute-save of his guidance-counselor recollection, and, yes, Diablo Cody's burst of unalloyed overwhelmitude (less so her leopard-print negligee). Not so great speeches: Both Coen Brothers turns, weirdly self-conscious while trying to appear the opposite, though at least conversational in their anecdotes; Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo's (looking gewd in plunging-neck blue) garbled Sweeney thanks without either mentioning Sondheim; the live-action short team's blowing their shot and noting the same; and the recurring usage of "I want to" before "thank," my ongoing pet peeve with all such things. The August Rush number was more or less a a high-school gospel choir concert outing, but they certainly were into it (the abrupt non-ending was a staging error, chopped their applause in half), and the Once number was static in execution, but weirdly mesmeric in pull; all three Enchanted numbers made me relieved that I'd been warned off it -- after last year's predigested Sister Act, The Musical premiere in Pasadena, I've been worried that Mr. Menken is locked into self-satisfied plasticity, and the Enchanted songs were insipid to the extreme, very little difference between what they were presumably satirizing and what they delivered. And that's just the songs themselves, not their generic staging. Whomever advised Amy Adams to appear in one of Joan Blondell's Footlight Parade discards did her a huge disservice, though she was undoubtedly The Night's Bravest Trouper; La Chenoweth had scant use of her upper register (her strongest suit), relying entirely on grins and squints, and the choreography was substandard Miss America pageant level (though I could hear Bran Bentley's heart racing from Los Angeles; his Kristin jones is well documented); the ballad and balladeer might as well have been on that Simon Cowell talent contest. A triad of treacle. Best looks: Anne Hathaway, gorgeous in empire red rufflage/draping that corresponded with her cascading hair; Christie Julie's salute to the Marcel; Ms. Adams' non-singing dark emerald strapless, Katherine Heigl, again in red, looking like Lana Marilyn Turner Monroe; all three expectant females (barring La Belle Nicole's over-necklace); La Belle Penelope, Mme. Swank and La Linney, tres beeyooteefull in black; Amy Ryan's navy simplicity and Keri Russell's oyster-colored ball gown. Queen Helen's diamond sleeves and uber-red satin also made quite a statement. Li'l Renee certainly dripped in lame, but she didn't seem comfortable, and Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Garner tied for worst hair decisions. Mlle. Ronan's hair was pulled too tight for her face, and Mlle. Page looked slightly drab. And Alexandra Byrne, with Tina Fey's glasses, Edna Mode's hair and a Daktari muumuu, was curiously ill-clad for a costume designer. The men? Well, there was Clooney, The Chanel of Heartthrobs, and everyone else. The Deppster looked, for him, subdued, and I did like DD-L's faint hint of piracy around the ears, whereas Viggo! only needed a top hat and he'd have been ready for Great Expectations. Nicholson was Nicholson, and Colin Farrell's snarky noting of the water-slick spot where he almost slid spoke volumes about, well, Colin Farrell. The Superbad stars' bit about Halle Berry and Dame Judi Dench didn't play the first time, let alone the second, and, sorry, Seinfeld, but Bee Movie was a bust, and so was that animated presentation. On the other hand, the closed-circuit computer presentation by the troops in Iraq was one of the Aclademy's better moments, came off very nicely. Other Non-Sequiturial Oddity: The Make-up win reminded me anew that they made Marion look as much like late-period Garland as late-period Piaf, which is its own comment. Sid Ganis cannot really compete with the late Jack Valenti, I fear, for personality on camera (the faux-industrial-espionage/PSA for tabulating was a cute idea, but it sort of thudded). However nostalgic/fun, the clips of past winners made me enormously grateful that AMPAS helped engineer the end-of-strike maneuvers, for nearly four hours of clips would have been indistinguishable from an AFI faux-event (and can only imagine the pique had one actually watched it live). Not a terrible show, all things considered -- I got verklempt at the Memoriam shots, and the 79 previous winners montage found me getting increasingly "Boo"-prone as the 80s gave way to the 90s, peaking with my pelting the television with rolled-up Kleenex at the next-to-last entry, so that was therapeutic -- but hardly an Auspicious Anniversary Spectacular (and the strike can only be ridden so far in explanation -- if this was Plan A, I'd hate to have seen Plan B, let alone C). The ratings were 14 Nielsen points lower than the previously least-watched telecast. The Oscars remain an hermetically sealed entity devoted to convincing the public that they are the sole keepers of cinematic excellence; this here organization has more integrity in its little finger, presentation wise. inla out.


Last edited by inlareviewer on Mon Feb 25, 2008 5:31 pm; edited 10 times in total

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jeremy
Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:19 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 6794 Location: Derby, England and Hamilton, New Zealand (yes they are about 12,000 miles apart)
I found all the songs and their presentation dull in the extreme, Whenever one came on, I switched over to 'Dave' to watch three minutes worth of a rerun of Stephen Fry presenting his terribly good, but cringingly condenscending quiz show, QI. Stephen Fry now there's a superlative host.

Actually, Jon Stewart was OK. His Iraq films' joke was probably the best of the night, though it made the audience shift uncomfortably - the slebs feel uneasy about being seen laughing at poltically pointed jokes, but most of their discomfit probably came from the fact that they didn't need to be reminded about the year's flops.

Queen Helen oozed regal confidence and well done Anne Hathaway for not being afraid to show off her alabaster complexion - it seemed that her vampiric dress had sucked all the colour out of her. Definitely, no trips to the tanning salon there. Do I detect a sea change. Probably not.

Irrideemably middle-brow as I am, I still think Atonement was unfairly snubbed. Unfortunately, I think its fine attributes had been lost under a thick coat of tar from the Master Merchant and Ivory Piece Theatre brush. Though arguably, this was the filmmakers own fault for promoting itself as this year's English Patient.

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Marj
Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:38 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 10497 Location: Manhattan
What never fails to amaze me is on the night of the Oscars people are having fun and this year as well as in Jon Stewart's last outing thought he was terrific. But the next day he gets torn apart.

Inla --We rarely disagree but wow, do we ever today. Considering how high the expectations have become since the days of Billy Crystal, it does indeed take more than 8 days to pull off a good hosting job. So they scratched the skits and some other bits but all in all, I thought Stewart was excellent.

PS. It's never going to play as well on the following day. Never. It's one show you don't Tivo.
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inlareviewer
Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:47 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 05 Jul 2004 Posts: 1949 Location: Lawrence, KS
Marj wrote:
What never fails to amaze me is on the night of the Oscars people are having fun and this year as well as in Jon Stewart's last outing thought he was terrific. But the next day he gets torn apart.

Inla --We rarely disagree but wow, do we ever today. Considering how high the expectations have become since the days of Billy Crystal, it does indeed take more than 8 days to pull off a good hosting job. So they scratched the skits and some other bits but all in all, I thought Stewart was excellent.

PS. It's never going to play as well on the following day. Never. It's one show you don't Tivo.
I did. I am glad I did. Had I watched it live I'd have not stayed tuned in to the end. And I hardly tore Jon Stewart apart. He did fine, but it wasn't what he is capable of, and he couldn't and didn't make that show any more or less than what it was. The 8-days-to-make-it-happen excuse doesn't hold, since all I or any other entertainment journalist in Tinseltown have heard from colleagues, Aclademites and Mr. Cates himself for months now was that Plan A was being prepped as though there would be no strike, and the strike ended, and the whole thing felt as though it had been scramble-assembled. Either Ganis, Cates, and the rest of the gang were sh*t-kicking, or this was the spectacle they had planned. Yes, it's all about them having fun, and I'm sure they did, but its effect on the whole was business as usual, on the 80th anniversary show. Again, not a terrible show, all things considered, but not a memorable event, either.


Last edited by inlareviewer on Mon Feb 25, 2008 5:05 pm; edited 6 times in total

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chillywilly
Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 4:52 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 8250 Location: Salt Lake City
jeremy wrote:
I still think Atonement was unfairly snubbed.
...
Though arguably, this was the filmmakers own fault for promoting itself as this year's English Patient.

I did pick it in my Oscar voting sheet to win Best Score. The academy seems to at least like scores from films like Atonement.

I've not watched it yet, and for the most part, due to it's comparison with TEP. But I will, for the sake of those that liked it out here, give it a view.

On a side note, the part in the show last night where they showed the list of each Best Picture winner over the years, I realized how many I saw and the few I didn't see.... for example, Dance With Wolves, which to this day, my fiance bugs me about not seeing it.

This may be kind of cheesy, but I also learned something else last night while watching that list. Both my fiance and I have Best Pictures named after us. Rebecca (won 1940) and Marty (won 1955)

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Marj
Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 5:01 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 10497 Location: Manhattan
Quote:
So either Ganis, Cates, and the rest of the gang were shit-kicking, or this was the spectacle they had planned. Yes, it's all about them having fun, and I'm sure they did, but its effect on the whole was business as usual, on the 80th anniversary show.


Inla - You were indeed being kicked assed. Or shit kicked. And once you were the anniversary didn't make much difference. 8 days or not, he was excellent. I'd like to see anyone else try to pull this off in 8 days.

Chilly--You didn't miss much. Dances with Wolves was a dud.
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inlareviewer
Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 5:16 pm Reply with quote
Joined: 05 Jul 2004 Posts: 1949 Location: Lawrence, KS
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Syd
Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 5:20 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 12887 Location: Norman, Oklahoma
I got the impression that the montage of winners they had before each of the major winners was sort of what they were planning if the writer's strike had continued. I look at those as "How many of these can YOU name?" moments.

The order in which the awards were presented was odd. Especially the placing of the documentary awards toward the end seemed particularly strange. Freeheld looks like a really good short documentary.

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lshap
Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 6:12 pm Reply with quote
Site Admin Joined: 12 May 2004 Posts: 4246 Location: Montreal
Marjorie,

Quote:
It's never going to play as well on the following day. Never. It's one show you don't Tivo.


Couldn't agree more. It's like rerunning a baseball game.

Quote:
Dances with Wolves was a dud.


Couldn't agree less. Costner morphed into many bad things as the 90's wore on, but his big breakout epic was beautiful and extremely well done.
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