For better or worse, I’ve been watching the Oscars without a miss since my birth. This year I’ve a real rooting interest since we’ve seen every nominated best picture. We just saw the red carpet introduction with dinner (which included about nine glasses of wine to accompany my wife’s perfect salmon dinner), and for the first time in my memory, all the women (and men actually) looked absolutely perfect and in wonderful taste. But, Helen Mirren, described by the very funny announcer as the “fox-eternal”, at age sixty, is the best looking sexiest woman of the lot; she’s incredible; throw in the unbelievable talent and she’s just indescribably delicious! Moreover, it’s snowing out here! A great night. Can anyone, though, explain to me how the eminently forgetable The Departed even got nominated? Totally lacks the spirituality of the wonderful Hong Kong original Infernal Affairs. Really heavy handed stuff. Ryan Gosling definitely deserves best actor for Half Nelson, a wonderful little film! (And, the young girl who plays Drey gives a bravura supporting performance that was even better IMO than the nominated very fine performance of the little girl in Little Miss Sunshine.) Gotta go make some popcorn. Happy Awards night to all.
Hey, PhilO, although I didn’t watch until the last half hour or so, agree totally regarding Helen Mirren! What a woman!
Half Nelson is a film that I doubt very seriously will show up in theatres around here (too dark subject matter, they also did not bring Little Children) so that is a movie I cannot comment on, but I always thought Forest Whitaker was the big winner in the Best Actor category regardless, Which proved to be the case. His portrayal of Idi Amin was breathtaking, did you see it?
All in all, lots of fun. Now, what will we be watching THIS year???
We got to see all the best pic nominations this year, but are dieing to see Forest Whitaker’s performance, The Children, Children of Men, Volver, etc. Half Nelson was a dark movie that somehow was uplifting; try to see it.
My disappointment last night was the success of The Departed - I just don’t get it. Awkward adaptation of a great foreign film, ham fisted direction, and a nomination for the engaging but totally undeveloped supporting character of Wahlberg.
Probably, the best overall show they’ve ever had though and Ellen Degeneress was good.
My wife and I looked up the Oscar award winners/nominees from 1940s on to see how many other times they got it wrong. Wikipedia had all that in one place and we printed it out. Some great movies did not win through the years, including Scorcese’s Taxi Driver in 1973 (guess it all evens out). The funniest thing was that Wikipedia had Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles winning in 1991, when the actual winner was Silence of the Lambs. Error or just messing with us?
I’m somewhat embarrased to admit that we haven’t seen any of the films nominated for best picture, director, actor, actress, supporting actor or supporting actress this year.
We did, however, see all three films nominated for best animated feature.
In truth, it’s because of my wife’s job; her sucky, stressful, complicated, emotionally-poisoned-office-environment job. When we get a chance to go to the theater for a movie, she just wants to see something simple and fun. (And I can’t blame her for that.)
This year is a two-fer. I watched most of both Grammy’s and Oscars and I don’t know why.
I will say that there were some pretty heavy-hitters this years among the nominated and that was a good thing. I think movies happen to be good lately. Definite cycles. A while back, it seemed like a string of sequels plus the usual farces.
I thought giving Alan Arkin the Oscar was dumb. That was not a major part compared to his competitors. I think it was more of a collegial acknowledgement than award for his work in that movie.
I actually think Helen Mirren has improved with age, and I’m happy to see that in a woman. I used to observe this occurring with certain male celebs–Fred Astaire, and Frank Sinatra (up to a certain point) come to mind–but I’m gratified and somewhat reassured to see the phenomenon in a woman.
This probably sounds somehow stupid and sexist even though I’m a woman. Hmmm. I think the thing with Helen Mirren is how widely recognized her attractiveness is. It is probable that many 60 y/o women could exude similar attractiveness if they believed it about themselves.
Slude, I don’t even have a job of that sort, and I still feel the same way about movies. I think real life is just heavy enough, and movies are for escape and fun.
We enjoyed the movie, just didn’t think it was either a great movie or the best of the year. But, keep this in mind. The first time I saw the Godfather (I, after reading the book), I said I didn’t think it was so hot and didn’t get all the fuss. I saw it a second time and felt it was pretty darn good after all. The third time I felt it was a really terrific movie. It wasn’t until the fourth viewing that I came to think of it as an American classic, on my all-time favorites list.
