The Los Angeles Times wanted Tom O’Neil out and about and live blogging the Oscars as early as 11:45am this morning. God bless him…
Blog
-
Ranking the Oscar-nominated features
Not long to go here, so I figured in the way of novelty I’d toss up a list of all 36 nominated feature films as I would personally rank them. Feel free to do the same with what you’ve seen, if you’re as bored as I am, that is:
1. “Slumdog Millionaire”
2. “Bolt”
3. “The Dark Knight”
4. “The Wrestler”
5. “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
6. “Trouble the Water”
7. “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
8. “Revolutionary Road”
9. “Milk”
10. “Iron Man” -
Solid quote
“We’re an industry town, obviously, but we’re a lot more than trendy clubs and the Hollywood sign and surfers…It’s an enormous community of different cultures and different people, and through that I hope it becomes a universal story. Because when it comes down to it, it’s universal struggles and people trying to do right by themselves, by their community, and struggling with power and greed and all of these things that we’ll struggle with for the rest of our lives.”
Documentary filmmaker Scott Hamilton Kennedy talking his Oscar-nominated “The Garden” to The Envelope’s Reed Johnson. I still can’t help but think “Man on Wire” is vulnerable here because this is a strong crop of nominees. And as noted, “The Garden” is an activist film, VERY much a local story and could be a vote of purpose. There are some folks out there sticking their necks out for “Trouble the Water,” but not many.
-
Andy Trudeau reviews the Oscar nominated scores for NPR
One of my favorite pre-Oscar specials is music critic Andy Trudeau’s analysis of the Oscar nominated original scores on NPR’s weekend edition. He used to stretch the piece over two weekends and discuss the pieces with the show’s host, but this year he both waited until the last minute and did the piece as a stand-alone by himself.Trudeau’s favorite of the nominees (and mine) is Alexandre Desplats beautiful work on “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” putting together compositions that can be played both forward and backward. Last year his pick was Darion Marianelli and “Atonement,” so maybe he’ll be spot on again this year — but I think we all doubt that.
“Call me old-fashioned, but if I had a ballot, I’d go for a score with strong melodies, crystalline orchestration; one that takes us on an emotional journey,” Trudeau says. “So I’m casting my one, unofficial vote for ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ by Alexandre Desplat.”
Listening to the piece I was suddenly taken with how competitive it might actually be. The A.R. Rahman win has become a foregone conclusion, and for many good reasons. In addition to the “Slumdog” sweep train, the Academy simply likes music from other cultures. “Babel,” “Frida and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” are examples. Maybe the work simply stands out a little more from the rest of the field. I don’t know, but it’ll be interesting to see how the re-instated allowance for CD mailers made a difference. “Button” probably has the most beautiful, listenable score, but Thomas Newman’s work on “WALL-E” is also brilliant.
Anyway, it’s a short piece, well worth the listen this Oscar morning. Head on over and feed your brain as we wait for the season to come to an end. And check out Gerard’s Tech Support interview with Desplat here and with Rahman here if you missed them in the last few weeks.
-
Ebert gathers his thoughts
Ahead of tonight’s ceremony, Roger Ebert has collected some final, scattered musings — among them, a modest semi-boast that he predicted tonight’s probable “Slumdog” victory a mere 60 seconds after seeing the film last summer.
He also anticipates a successful hosting performance from Hugh Jackman (the combination of being both Australian and a youngest sibling bodes well, apparently), and shares my inkling about Viola Davis:
I choose Davis because her performance provided, for me, one of those rare Yes!! moments, when an actor appears on the screen, electrifies you, and makes you intensely happy. A lot of people must have shared that feeling, I reasoned.
Which performance is objectively better is of course beside the point. You can’t grade art objectively. It is worth reflecting that many best actor winners over the years have likely not scored a simple majority in their categories. We’ll never know who lost by one vote. The secret ballots have been called a rebuke to democracy, but there is nothing democratic about it. If there was, there should be primaries.
Fair enough. I must admit that if I was using “Yes!!” moments as my criteria, I’d be predicting Marisa Tomei, but I have yet to hear anyone breathe even a word of criticism about Davis’ performance. Almost a pity that one of the night’s most exciting contests will be settled right off the bat.
-
“It’s just us talking. It’s Oscar night.”
There’s always a healthy amount of irritation slung about during an Oscar season regarding the 6,000-strong body of men and women charged with choosing the year’s “best” in filmmaking accomplishment. Some say the group is out of touch, others say voters aren’t educated enough in the arenas they choose to award. For me, I’ve always felt like the group doesn’t approach the task with the proper amount of care and sense of responsibility, a responsibility that should be taken quite seriously.With that in mind, and regardless of any public bias against the man speaking the words (I’ve gone into that before), this Tom Cruise monologue that opened the 2002 Oscar telecast, six months after the 9/11 World Trade Center attack, crackles with the kind of spirit I wish was always apparent out of this organization. When moments of passion such as this are few and far between, moments which lack any real sense of dishonesty or showmanship (beyond Cruise’s skill as an orator), I feel there is something wrong with the proceedings.
I know Bill Condon and Larry Mark are going to aim at making tonight swift and fun, but I hope it doesn’t lose a certain well-intentioned sense of sincerity and duty. It’s a tough line to walk, and a thin one between self-righteousness and honest passion. Cruise nailed it.
-
Who are you pulling for?
Anyone want to come clean on soft spots for this contender or that? Here’s just another space to get all of that off your chest. You all know who I’m pulling for, probably to a fault.
-
Post your predictions!
Alright, I figure I might as well open up a thread for everyone to really go on the record. If you haven’t already joined our Oscar poll, go do it. In the meantime, and maybe for those not participating in the poll especially, crank out your lists of predictions in the comments section below and we’ll see who was closest to the mark when the dust settles.
-
2/22 Oscarweb Round-up (OSCAR DAY EDITION)
• David Carr tugs the heart strings with a nice write-up on “Smile Pinki” subject Pinki Kumari Sonkar. [The Carpetbagger]• Tom O’Neil warns of the kiss of death that the Independent Spirit Award for Best Actor has become. [Gold Derby]
• Another tired Oscar bitch-slap piece from traditional media. [New York Times]
• Gideon Levy tears “Waltz with Bashir” a new one. [Haaretz]
• Kate Winslet and the “Fakebooking” craze. [Daily Telegraph]
• Elizabeth Snead catches up with Aaron Eckhart at the Indie Spirits to get his thoughts on a potential Oscar win for “Dark Knight” co-star Heath Ledger. [The Dish Rag]
• Speaking of the Spirits, Roger Ebert responds to the swift show, goes out of his way to praise Rourke’s “show-stopping” speech. [Chicago Sun-Times]
• Producer Graham King re-visits his Oscar win for “The Departed” two years ago. [The Independent]
• Anne Hathaway shows a little humility. Probably a good thing after that cringe-worthy BFCA acceptance speech. [USA Today]
-
Who needs an Oscar…
… when you have the gold medal from Nathaniel Rogers’ peerless Film Bitch Awards? After teasing us for far too long, Nat has finally wrapped up his nominees and revealed his rankings. Anyone with a passing acquaintance with The Film Experience of late won’t be surprised to learn that “Rachel Getting Married” has done rather well, but I’m thrilled to see justice at last for Sally Hawkins, his Best Actress winner. Take that, Academy.
Dig in here. It’s a riot.
-
More on ‘Departures’ and a potential foreign upset
UPDATE: Well, it seems Tom has pulled the post down. Perhaps, as commenter Josh notes, he got his info a bit twisted. I’ll leave this here for now but check Josh’s explanation of the process. The waters were muddied there for a bit.EARLIER: Tom O’Neil writes the following over at Gold Derby:
A few days ago Gold Derby reported exclusively that “The Class” got nominated thanks to the new procedure that permits the academy’s internal foreign-film committee to overrule voters and add as many as three titles to the five in the category. (EDITOR’S NOTE: This seems to be the misinterpreted information.) The new rule was instituted to dispel the kind of outcry that followed last year’s omission of previous Cannes winner “4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days” (Romania).
Now Gold Derby can tattle a bit more. An excellent source tells us that the committee used its prerogative fully, bumping three films nominated by normal procedure in order to add their own choices. (EDITOR’S NOTE: This, too. It seems the added films came during the first shortlisting process.) What were the other two? We don’t know for sure, but it seems logical to assume that they were other art-house darlings beloved by film critics who’d probably raise a ruckus if they were overlooked…
How utterly screwed up this element of the Oscar process is. It’s already pathetic that a special committee has to be there for oversight in the event that a film is snubbed that might cause some outcry, but hey, if there’s outcry over your choices, don’t bend to the will of the people and/or the critical fraternity. Have the balls to stand by your own shitty taste.
Anyway, it’s more and more obvious that, as I’ve been saying, the members that tend to vote in this category simply have it out for non-traditional filmmaking, end of story. This band-aiding of the situation is just folly and, truthfully, there needs to be an entire re-working of the category’s process from the ground up.
-
‘The Wrestler’ wins big at the Indie Spirits
Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler” walked away three trophies at today’s Independent Spirit Awards, including top honors for Best Actor (Mickey Rourke) and Best Feature.In his greatest acceptance speech of the season, Rourke seemed fully uninhibited, almost as if he said, “Screw it, ballots are in,” and he cut loose. The tough guy thing poked through here and there as well as a lot of humorous forgetfulness. (He thanked Searchlight honcho Peter Rice and Rice’s “boss, Jim Jimanopoulos, or something like that.” Of course he meant Fox studio chief Jim Gianopoulos). But mostly, it was expletive-laden (like the Spirits like), raunchy and overall, still strangely endearing.
Rourke briefly dedicated the award to recently deceased pet chihuahua Loki, of course, in a choked-up moment that seemed to beautifully contrast with the rest of the rant. He held the mic like a rock star might, pushing it away during the applause moments and bringing it back to his lips to finish his thoughts. He also dedicated a solid 60 seconds to his friend Eric Roberts. “Whatever he did 15, 20 years ago should be forgiven,” Rourke said. “Eric Roberts is the fucking man and he deserves a second chance. I wish there’d be one God damned filmmaker in this room that’d let him fly because the man is something else.”
Melissa Leo’s speech in acceptance of the lead actress award — not so much. She rambled, she seemed self-involved, overly dramatic, pompous…let’s just say it’s probably a good thing she hasn’t accepted too many awards publicly this year because I think it would have damaged her Oscar chances. That’s just me, but it’s a hell of a performance and justly rewarded tonight.
“Milk” won two trophies early on, James Franco taking down a win in the Best Supporting Actor category and Dustin Lance Black’s first screenplay award. “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” also secured a pair: Best Screenplay for Woody Allen and Best Supporting Actress for Penelope Cruz.
Tom McCarthy won the Best Director prize despite his film “The Visitor” not showing up in the Best Feature category, while Charlie Kaufman took home the Best First Feature prize for the exceptional “Synecdoche, New York,” which also won the pre-announced Robert Altman Award.
(More, plus the full list of winners after the jump.)
-
You were right, I was wrong: Guy’s final predictions
(Expanded thoughts and reasonings on yesterday’s list of predictions.)It’s years like 2008 when I throw my hands up and admit (albeit with great reluctance) that my family and friends have been right for the last two decades. Carla, Tom, Kim, Auntie Mavis: I give up. I am insane to care as much as I do about the Oscars. They are stupid. They don’t matter, and I really should find something more important and rewarding to care about, like, oh, needlepoint classes or professional darts championships.
But who am I kidding? I will always care about the Oscars, even in years like this when the race is so dry, and its significance so questionable, that I take great care in not caring. In a year when so few of my personal favourites have cracked the contenders list, it has at least been interesting to sit back and watch the furore unfold over the Academy voters’ spectacularly self-sabotaging antics this year.
I’ve been wrong about a lot of things this year (Kris scoffed at my naive suggestion back in July that “Happy-Go-Lucky” could be a Best Picture nominee, and he was right to), and right about … well … “Milk’s” nomination for Best Costume Design. (Hey, let me salvage some glory from this year’s meagre spoils.) I don’t expect to be a hell of a lot more successful with the following predictions, but you never know. It’s still been a lot of fun riding out the season with you this year – here’s to a better slate of contenders (and a lot less grousing from me) in 12 months’ time.
BEST PICTURE
Apart from the fact that it is the most imaginative and entertaining of this year’s feeble clutch of nominees, the reason “Slumdog Millionaire” has a stranglehold on this category is because it’s the only one of the five that has any discernible relationship to contemporary cinema. The other four all feel to varying degrees like the finely-tooled Best Picture winners of decades past, but the younger, more curious Academy members have been moving away from such self-consciously packaged ‘prestige product’ in the past few years – even if they need a lot of pointing towards what to reward in its stead. -
Conan bids farewell to ‘Late Night’
I told myself all week to make sure I caught Conan O’Brien’s last show on Late Night yesterday, and, no big surprise, I totally forgot. I told myself it was probably just as well since for many, many years the show fell out of favor with me. I was a huge fan in the Andy Richter years back in my high school days, but somehow when Richter left, after maybe a year or so, Conan began to seem stale to me. I don’t know why, I don’t know if it was growing up, whatever, but it stopped connecting.I’ve been revisiting the show lately, mostly in the way of reminiscence since I knew the clock was ticking. And luckily enough, given this day and age, I was able to track down the final episode here. I kind of thought it would be same old, hollow, etc., and to some extent, it was slightly underwhelming for a farewell show. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say I was a bit choked up watching this 15-year-old chapter of the late night comedy tour come to an end.
I particularly liked O’Brien’s acknowledgment of late night king (in my opinion) David Letterman, who everyone know deserved “The Tonight Show” long ago. Here’s what the exiting “Late Night” host had to say of his soon-to-be 11:30 competition:
David Letterman invented this late night show. He is, I believe, one of the most brilliant broadcasters for all time. I have a terrific amount of respect for him and what he did. He set the bar absurdly high. Living in his shadow has been both a burden and an inspiration.
The White Stripes performed a solemn ditty and Will Ferrell made an appearance. Andy Richter, of course, came out for a trip down memory lane, but it’s all over now.
O’Brien begins his stint hosting “The Tonight Show” June 1.
-
Want to win cinematography? An art direction nod helps.
I’m surprised I completely forgot about this little, some might say meaningless statistic, but with all the predictions for “Slumdog Millionaire” taking the cinematography win at tomorrow night’s Oscar ceremony, the Oscarweb seems to be in the same boat.You have to go back to 1999 and “American Beauty” to find a film that won the Oscar for Best Cinematography but was not even nominated in the art direction field. Before that, 1995 and “Braveheart,” 1992 and “A River Runs Through It” and 1991 and “JFK.”
“Mississippi Burning” (1988) and “The Killing Fields” (1984) were the only examples from the 1980s and then you see some more frequency in the new American cinema hey-day of the 1970s. But if you stretch the timeline back to 1979, you only find six films in 20 years that managed to win the lensing trophy despite coming up short of a nod with the designers.
The only films nominated in both categories this year are “Changeling,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “The Dark Knight.” Most might use that as the ultimate excuse to throw their money behind “The Dark Knight,” which was revolutionary behind the camera with it’s implementation of IMAX technology and because, dang it, it looks amazing. And God knows my fingers are crossed for Wally Pfister, but I think all of this might make a better case for Claudio Miranda and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”
