File under: Death to Oscar
Author: Elliot
I'd like to welcome our fan to our new blog as well. This just may be what takes the live Aubrelliot show down a notch and may result in us acquiring social lives while we're at it; no promises.
My thoughts on the snooze fest are unbalanced and unfair, just the way I like it. It was sort of like watching a live birth, in that there was a new format with likely-mixed results that had both saving graces (well, one that I can think of), and the consequential unsightly episiotomy that somehow justified Hugh Jackman pandering to his stage roots and the unfortunate awards show mainstay Beyonce showing more thigh than a Catholic schoolgirl who's just discovered cocaine and not even trying to masquerade the lip singing. It's unfortunate when the opening number is the best the show has to offer, which wasn't much to begin with. I'll borrow an observation that I read earlier in that it was, at the very least, tongue-in-cheek funny for Jackman to mention that The Reader was near unwatchable, foreshadowing for the rest of the evening's events? I do believe so.
However, I actually appreciated the new format for handing out the acting awards. It's good for the Academy to explicitly acknowledge the hard work done individually by these actors aside from the tacit acknowledgement in the nomination alone.
In all honesty, however, I can't say that I was exactly 'moved' by Dustin Lance Black's acceptance speech, but it was easily the most genuine and non-agenda-ey acceptance speech I believe I've ever heard. Not that it will do anything for the stone in my particular heart cavity, but it helps! It did diminish that of Penn, who was in the unfortunate place where he had to make an agenda by shaming people for their (albeit ridiculous) beliefs. He is easy to dislike, after all.
No real surprises like that of Crash winning a few years back to speak of. But there were a few times where I held my breath or made an audible gasp at an announcement. Two of those being Walts With Bashir (highly overrated in my book, I should give it another shot but I won't) and The Class being trumped by Departures for best foreign feature, a little seen but highly rated Japanese film; the other (slightly less surprising as the awards neared) being Penn beating out Rourke in a role that was practically a gimme from the studio producing Milk. Mr. Penn didn't create much with this role as Harvey Milk, his persona and everything that goes with it were available to him in a very public fashion, he mimicked. Mr. Rourke had the superior performance. There should be some very clear silver-lining with his loss though, now he has some incentive to not fuck up so much and quit acting like he doesn't care about the Oscar, despite its never-ending flaws the Oscar has more direct clout than any other accolade in film history. Why do you think people still consider Angelina Jolie or Hilary Swank good actresses?
I'm not going to even mention the best picture winner, as anyone reading this would know exactly how I felt about the most overrated film of the year, possibly the decade.
In summation, I can't say this was the most pathetically tedious awards show to date, I'll leave that to the Billboard Awards. Your thoughts?
I never have been one to speak to fashion except when I know what I like and hate, and I suppose that's the genuine critique of all art. I can say the following:
-Marisa Tomei looked like she fell in a laundry cart full of cloth napkins and bobby (sp?) pinned them together.
-I was remarkably surprised that, for once, I couldn't see Anne Hathaway's lipstick color from space.
-I am completely unable to fathom why people went gaga over Angelina Jolie's earrings.
-Kate Winslet's dress sort of looked like she constructed it herself.
-Mickey Rourke is the new Johnny Depp in terms of Oscars fashion. Being different just for the sake of being different does not make the different you're looking for. It's just weird.
-Miley Cirus (why was she there? Ditto Robert Pattinson and Zac Ephron) looked like Daryl Hannah's mermaid in Splash.
-Could Diane Lane look bad if she tried?
That's all for this gabfest. What do you think, Aub?
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