The Oscars were on tonight, and for the first time ever I really didn't have anyone to root for since I hadn't seen a single one of the nominated performances. It made for a completely different experience, I have to say.
Over the last few years, especially, there have been nominees I've felt very strongly should win, and the entire night was colored by whether or not they took home the little statue. Last year, for instance, was especially awesome because of Dustin Lance Black's win and incredible acceptance speech.
This year, I really didn't care. It would have been nice to see Colin Firth win for A Single Man, true, and the clip they showed looked really good. But overall, I just felt like a detached spectator.
Despite that, I completely loved the opening! It was a fantastic surprise to suddenly see Neil Patrick Harris come out and start singing! He was wonderful as the host of the Tonys and the Emmys last year, so it makes perfect sense that the Oscars didn't want to miss out on the NPH action, either.
It was the best moment of the show, I have to say. The song was cute and Neil, of course, was hot. I love that he's getting so much recognition for his talent these days.
Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin were amusing hosts (except for that hotel room bit before the horror movie montage; what the heck was that?), but I hope next year they'll just hire NPH to do the whole thing.
I'm very glad that a woman won best director, just because it was pretty ridiculous that the winners up to this point have all been (white) men, but other than that I really don't have much to say about any of the awards.
I did think it was sad that they didn't honor Lauren Bacall during the televised ceremony, by the way. Yes, a twenty minute tribute to John Hughes was nice (I listed The Breakfast Club as my favorite film for years), but they could have trimmed it down by five minutes to allow a Hollywood legend her moment.
It was nice of the show to provide eye candy for the tween crowd with Zac Efron (who, I must admit, I finally saw the appeal of when I watched 17 Again. He's beautiful, has a fantastic body, and great comedic timing) and the inexplicable Taylor Lautner (I was especially perplexed as to his appeal when they showed the footage from New Moon during the Horror Montage and he had that ridiculous looking long hair. Seriously?) but I'd still take Matt Damon over them any day of the week! He was achingly beautiful in Good Will Hunting, a full twelve years ago, and he's still got it.
Well, that's about it. Hopefully I'll see more films this year so I can get more into the spirit of things for next year's show.
Showing posts with label Oscars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oscars. Show all posts
Sunday, March 07, 2010
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Thoughts on the Oscar Nominations
I know that I'm pretty out of it this year (the only film that was nominated for anything that I've actually seen is Up), but the nominees for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards seem kind of... (insert shoulder shrug here). There just doesn't seem to be a lot to get excited about this year.
I am glad to see that Colin Firth was nominated for Best Actor for his role in A Single Man, but that was the only nomination the film received.
I'm also thrilled to see Nick Hornby, one of my favorite writers, nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for An Education! I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't even know he'd written the screenplay for this film before today.
Other than those two nominations, though, I see nothing to get excited about. This is probably because I've seen none of these films, I'm sure, but even so it seems that there is usually someone or something that I'm really rooting for at the Oscars. This year, not so much.
I'm sad that there were no nominations for Joseph Gordon-Levitt or (500) Days of Summer. After the Golden Globes, I'd thought there may be.
I think increasing the number of Best Picture nominees to ten makes some sense, but I think in practice it's going to be about nominating a lot of films that are just filler, with no real chance to win. Of course, that might lead to some great upsets in the future if enough people get behind one of the filler nominees at some point and upset the favorite. It will be interesting to see how much longer it makes the ceremony, too.
Well, I guess I'll have to try and see some of these films between now and March 7th. Maybe that will give me something to care about here.
I am glad to see that Colin Firth was nominated for Best Actor for his role in A Single Man, but that was the only nomination the film received.
I'm also thrilled to see Nick Hornby, one of my favorite writers, nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for An Education! I'm embarrassed to say that I didn't even know he'd written the screenplay for this film before today.
Other than those two nominations, though, I see nothing to get excited about. This is probably because I've seen none of these films, I'm sure, but even so it seems that there is usually someone or something that I'm really rooting for at the Oscars. This year, not so much.
I'm sad that there were no nominations for Joseph Gordon-Levitt or (500) Days of Summer. After the Golden Globes, I'd thought there may be.
I think increasing the number of Best Picture nominees to ten makes some sense, but I think in practice it's going to be about nominating a lot of films that are just filler, with no real chance to win. Of course, that might lead to some great upsets in the future if enough people get behind one of the filler nominees at some point and upset the favorite. It will be interesting to see how much longer it makes the ceremony, too.
Well, I guess I'll have to try and see some of these films between now and March 7th. Maybe that will give me something to care about here.
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Oscar Night
I just finished watching the Academy Awards and I don't think I've ever enjoyed any other Oscar night as much. First of all, I really liked the more intimate set design and tone of the evening. I also loved how they did the Acting awards this year, with five previous winners coming out and addressing this year's nominees one by one. It made it all seem really personal and special, which was much needed after that whole horrible "Let's have the winners accept from the audience!" debacle a couple of years ago.
I also loved Hugh Jackman as the host. It was nice to have someone sing & dance instead of doing a hit or miss stand up routine to start off the show. Anne Hathaway was pretty damn great too, when she joined him as Richard Nixon! After Rachel Getting Married and then tonight's performance, I think I have developed a little non-sexual crush on her!
It wasn't just the different tone of the evening that I loved, though. The greatest moment of the night for me was when Dustin Lance Black won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Milk. Having this amazing, openly gay, writer win for a movie about a man like Harvey Milk was incredible enough, but his acceptance speech really moved me. I actually had tears in my eyes and I'm pretty certain I've never cried during any award ceremony before!
He's certainly made a lifelong fan of me just by being so awesome and I can't wait to see what he does in the future. Of course, I still haven't been able to see Milk, which really upsets me! I've resigned myself to waiting for the DVD but I'm baffled that even with the Oscar nominations it hasn't played on the big screen anywhere near me.
Speaking of Dustin Lance Black, check out this piece he wrote on Harvey Milk for the 30th Anniversary of his death, which is a Towleroad exclusive. It's very much worth reading and just makes me admire him even more. (When you're done reading that, they also have an exclusive on Harvey's last love, written by Armistead Mapuin!)
Heath Ledger's posthumous win was also a moving moment, mostly because in my mind he was winning the award not for The Dark Knight but to make up for the Oscar he should have won for Brokeback Mountain when he was alive.
Sean Penn's win was unexpected for me. I'd hoped he would win, of course, but all the predictions seemed to be trending towards Mickey Rourke so I'd pretty much accepted that. I was moved enough by the win for Best Original Screenplay to tell myself that it was all right if the film didn't win anything else, but when Penn's name was called I was shouting with joy.
I was kind of sad that he (unlike Dustin Lance Black) didn't actually say anything about Harvey Milk while accepting the award, but he more than made up for it with his call for marriage equality and the reference to the signs of hatred that they'd all passed on the way in. His & Lance's wins are the best sort of in-your-face to that kind of mentality.
The fact that a film about Harvey Milk can finally be made is the best part of all, though. The awards are just the icing on the cake.
I wasn't surprised that the film didn't win for Best Picture (again, I'd not expected it to since all the predictions were trending towards Slumdog Millionaire), though deep down I was hoping that I'd end up being surprised there as well.
We still seem to be in a stage where it's okay to honor straight actors for playing gay roles but not to honor a gay themed movie as the Best Picture of the year.
We'll get there, though. I don't have any doubt about that.
I also loved Hugh Jackman as the host. It was nice to have someone sing & dance instead of doing a hit or miss stand up routine to start off the show. Anne Hathaway was pretty damn great too, when she joined him as Richard Nixon! After Rachel Getting Married and then tonight's performance, I think I have developed a little non-sexual crush on her!
It wasn't just the different tone of the evening that I loved, though. The greatest moment of the night for me was when Dustin Lance Black won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Milk. Having this amazing, openly gay, writer win for a movie about a man like Harvey Milk was incredible enough, but his acceptance speech really moved me. I actually had tears in my eyes and I'm pretty certain I've never cried during any award ceremony before!
He's certainly made a lifelong fan of me just by being so awesome and I can't wait to see what he does in the future. Of course, I still haven't been able to see Milk, which really upsets me! I've resigned myself to waiting for the DVD but I'm baffled that even with the Oscar nominations it hasn't played on the big screen anywhere near me.
Speaking of Dustin Lance Black, check out this piece he wrote on Harvey Milk for the 30th Anniversary of his death, which is a Towleroad exclusive. It's very much worth reading and just makes me admire him even more. (When you're done reading that, they also have an exclusive on Harvey's last love, written by Armistead Mapuin!)
Heath Ledger's posthumous win was also a moving moment, mostly because in my mind he was winning the award not for The Dark Knight but to make up for the Oscar he should have won for Brokeback Mountain when he was alive.
Sean Penn's win was unexpected for me. I'd hoped he would win, of course, but all the predictions seemed to be trending towards Mickey Rourke so I'd pretty much accepted that. I was moved enough by the win for Best Original Screenplay to tell myself that it was all right if the film didn't win anything else, but when Penn's name was called I was shouting with joy.
I was kind of sad that he (unlike Dustin Lance Black) didn't actually say anything about Harvey Milk while accepting the award, but he more than made up for it with his call for marriage equality and the reference to the signs of hatred that they'd all passed on the way in. His & Lance's wins are the best sort of in-your-face to that kind of mentality.
The fact that a film about Harvey Milk can finally be made is the best part of all, though. The awards are just the icing on the cake.
I wasn't surprised that the film didn't win for Best Picture (again, I'd not expected it to since all the predictions were trending towards Slumdog Millionaire), though deep down I was hoping that I'd end up being surprised there as well.
We still seem to be in a stage where it's okay to honor straight actors for playing gay roles but not to honor a gay themed movie as the Best Picture of the year.
We'll get there, though. I don't have any doubt about that.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Milk Gets Multiple Oscar Noms
I was just looking over the list of Oscar nominations, which were announced today, and I'm thrilled to see that Milk was nominated for eight awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Actor for Sean Penn and Best Supporting Actor for Josh Brolin. After the film's nearly complete shut out for Golden Globe nominations, this is certainly great news!
It's very exciting, though I STILL have not been able to see the film! Maybe now that it's a multiple nominee it will play in my area? I'm honestly quite surprised that it hasn't been here before this since I don't exactly live in some backwoods area that avoids films with gay themes.
From what I've heard about the movie, it sounded like James Franco deserved a nomination for Best Supporting Actor as well. Overall, though, the film did very well today and I think we can all be very excited about that.
Looking over the rest of the nominees, there are only three performances that I've actually seen this year: Richard Jenkins, nominated for Best Actor in The Visitor; Anne Hathaway, up for Best Actress in Rachel Getting Married, and of course Heath Ledger, posthumously nominated for Best Supporting Actor in The Dark Knight.
All three were very memorable performances, in very different ways. Jenkins, a character actor probably best known for his work as the dead father on Six Feet Under impressed me so much with his quiet but powerful performance. If he wasn't nominated against Sean Penn, I'd be rooting for him. I think I am rooting for Hathaway, who really surprised me with her work.
What can I even say about Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker? I still believe that he was completely robbed of a much deserved win in Brokeback Mountain and if he does win the Oscar next month, I think I'll see it as much as being for that film as for The Dark Knight.
I'm of course rooting for Milk to win everything for which it is nominated, no question. Maybe I'll have a chance to see some of the other performances and nominees before the awards are given out and can form some sort of an informed opinion of who should win all the other awards.
It's very exciting, though I STILL have not been able to see the film! Maybe now that it's a multiple nominee it will play in my area? I'm honestly quite surprised that it hasn't been here before this since I don't exactly live in some backwoods area that avoids films with gay themes.
From what I've heard about the movie, it sounded like James Franco deserved a nomination for Best Supporting Actor as well. Overall, though, the film did very well today and I think we can all be very excited about that.
Looking over the rest of the nominees, there are only three performances that I've actually seen this year: Richard Jenkins, nominated for Best Actor in The Visitor; Anne Hathaway, up for Best Actress in Rachel Getting Married, and of course Heath Ledger, posthumously nominated for Best Supporting Actor in The Dark Knight.
All three were very memorable performances, in very different ways. Jenkins, a character actor probably best known for his work as the dead father on Six Feet Under impressed me so much with his quiet but powerful performance. If he wasn't nominated against Sean Penn, I'd be rooting for him. I think I am rooting for Hathaway, who really surprised me with her work.
What can I even say about Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker? I still believe that he was completely robbed of a much deserved win in Brokeback Mountain and if he does win the Oscar next month, I think I'll see it as much as being for that film as for The Dark Knight.
I'm of course rooting for Milk to win everything for which it is nominated, no question. Maybe I'll have a chance to see some of the other performances and nominees before the awards are given out and can form some sort of an informed opinion of who should win all the other awards.
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