Every year I think I won't get caught up in these award shows; Globes, Grammys, SAGS and finally Oscars. I stayed away from Globes and SAGS, but couldn't resist peaking into the Grammys and now I'm in full blown Oscar mode. Not that red carpet BS -- I will never care what people are wearing, who had a face lift, or if I ever see Joan Rivers again. But, here I am at 1:30 in the morning watching Tavis Smiley (who I never watch, barely have an awareness of) with clips of Actors and Directors from the nominated movies. Seeing Sean Penn just now really confirms that he should win over Mickey Rourke. Mickey is not acting so much as living out his dream revival on screen. Penn is acting. Wow! The clip I just saw could not be more different from his actual persona. Also, I'm so glad I saw Slumdog Millionaire. Clips do not do that experience justice. I'm astounded that people can simply refer to it as a wonderful movie. The flash back scenes and "real time" torture were so horrific I could not watch a lot of it -- necessary, compelling, but extremely difficult to watch. You should have that warning. I feel it should win Best Picture (even tho I haven't seen the other four.) I'll see all of them on DVD, but I really didn't need to see a re-enactment of Tricky Dick on the big screen. That, along with the intimate scenes (and Nazi angle) of "the Reader" can be seen in the privacy of my own home. Ditto for Milk and Button.
So, I hope to see Kate Winslet, Sean Penn and Danny Boyle celebrating Sunday night. (Boyle, along with 18 yr old Dev Patel and the beautiful Freida, on behalf of the many Oscars Slumdog deserves and I hope wins at the 2009 Oscars.) Get game -- click on the title link and make your predictions now!!
8 comments:
These days, I rarely go to the movies. I made an exception a few weeks ago to see Frost/Nixon with a couple friends, and I loved it! It was the best movie I had seen in a long time. The characters were complex, and the movie didn't indulge in the usual over-simplistic characterizations. I also saw Milk and thought that was good, although not as good as Frost/Nixon. I will definitely see Slumdog Millionaire after hearing so much about it - it sounds like there will be parts I won't want to watch . . .
kay
Just to be clear, I'm sure Frost/Nixon is a fabulous piece of work and I'm anxious to see it. It's just that to pick one of the five to see this past week, Mo and I went to Slumdog for big screen viewing. I think this was a great year for movies. I caught cute Dev Patel on late night last night, and he is so fun in real life. His character is pretty bleak. I also forgot to mention Hugh Jackman -- I'm with Oprah. He can stay up there on stage for five hours and I won't mind! this should be a good show!
Well as you can imagine my household has been abuzz for some time now and we are geared up for "the boys" tomorrow night with their various favorites and passions. There is frustration that Dark Knight was not nominated, that The Reader was while Revolutionary Road was not and so on. I support the notion that Slumdog is the clearly the best and have seen all the contenders but Frost/Nixon (it's just one I'll see at home). I liked Revolutionary Road quite a lot - one of those which sat on my mind for a while. Milk was incredible, Doubt was good - very evident that it was a play. Button is charming in ways and quite interesting in it's visuals but it does not succeed in greatness. I'm not sure if I'm becoming jaded or not but while there were several quite excellent movies - overall the quality seems to just not be there. With all the power and dollars of Hollywood, that this little Slumdog shines so brightly - hmmm.
BTW today's comment from mamabyrd!
Yahoo! The Trifecta of Oscar results -- Kate, Sean and Slumdog. I'm thrilled with tonight's outcome. I have more to say, but for now I'll just enjoy the moment. I think the outcome was perfect and the show was beautiful tonight. Highly enjoyable!
i thought last night's oscar show was better than it has been in recent years. it struck just the right chord with me, and i laughed during the opening segment. thought hugh-baby was quite wonderful. i had worred beforehand that he would be too broadway-y and over the top, but he did a good job. good on ya, hugh ;)
ok, there were "some" awkward moments, but overall i thought the whole thing moved along rather well. i liked the idea of past winners coming forward to present the oscar for this year in that category, although it was stilted and awkward at times (think sophia loren, whom i adore, but c'mon!). but conceptually, i liked the idea. it's a way to pay homage to the whole history of film and oscars. 20-somethings who didn't think the telecast was hip enough (according to a review i read online this morning)? well, we all know they have the attention span of a gnat, so f*ck 'em if they can't take a joke. i hate the idea of having to cater to a set of people who don't appreciate the whole history of film. remember greg thinking "the matrix" was the best movie ever made? lol. now that he's actually studied film, he has a sense of perspective and what it takes to make a good movie. all those attention-deficit 20-somethings could learn a lesson or two about how the present comes from the past and how they are intertwined.
so yeah, there were some glitches along the way, like the curtains failing to open in the first presentation. but hey, sh1t happens. as for the "in memoriam" segment, although i didn't mind at all that queen latifah was singing in the backgroundj as the pictures of the deceased were displayed, i DID mind that the camera panned out on some of the faces and we missed close-ups of the face and name. i thought that was particularly poor.
meanwhile, i thought jackman did an admirable job. he's charming and high energy and struck just the right note between showmanship and the business of hosting. way to go, hugh! plus he's such nice eye candy ;)
i did think some of the categories were presented quite well, and in an original way, especially the screenplay awards. cool set, good effect with the typewriter and blank page, and can't do better than steve martin and tina fey as co-presenters ;) i particularly liked the order in which the categories were presented as well, from the beginning to the end, with appropriate set decoration each time. i thought that was innovative and well done. and clumping the categories the way they did helped move things along.
as for the winners, although there were no big surprises, there were also no big disappointments, at least for me.
Mo, thanks for that great review!
I loved it -- as a "show", Hugh, the staging, and especially the outcome of the main categories. My only complaints: I didn't like that song and dance thing with Beyonce. I didn't see any point to it. Why not feature actual music from 2008 movies? Like Bruce Springsteen, for gawd sake! It's a shame (crime) we didn't see Peter Gabriel doing his own song.
I liked the opening song and dance by Hugh, but felt worried he was getting too sweaty jumping around and carrying stars on stage. But, after all, he IS the Wolverine and semi-feral. I love him, and really enjoyed the show, so for me it was a success!!!
Mama B? MB? thoughts from across the pond? Post 'em!
I give them a lot of cred for changing it up. I really liked the idea of the previous actors paying tribute to the current. Needs some work though as some of the comments were so beautiful while others seemed to slight their nominee. Jackman did better than expected.
No one likes anything 100% but overall It was good. As for not appealing to the younger crowd - most of my crowd was younger and thought the opening bit and the bit with the "Pineapple Express" crowd was hilarious. They weren't real high on the high school musical/Beyonce bit but hey, overall they were engaged and entertained and I think surprised that they enjoyed it as much as they did. It went fast, was on time.
On the voting - really not too many surprises. We were split on Actor, I was pretty certain they would bypass Mickey Rourke, particularly when the applause level was so low and others felt he HAD to get it. Oscar is very traditional and the only thing that makes them embrace someone like Sean Penn is someone they find even more distasteful and Rourke certainly fit that bill.
As to Actress, I recall a conversation Mo, Jami and I had the year Rene Zelleweger was up about the type of classic ladies Oscar likes for their poster girl and I felt really sure that Kate Winslet would be the one. I did expect though that they would spread out more of the other Oscars for screenplay, editing, visual, etc. But, Slumdog pretty much killed everyone else off.
Still disappointed that "The Reader" was chosen over "Revolutionary Road" and the boys will forever be unhappy about "Dark Knight." As always a good time was had by all. -- mamabyrd
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