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2003
Oscar Thoughts for the 2002 Films
A few surprises. I didn't really care about the outcome last night. Not as much as I ever have before, anyway. But the show was okay I guess. Steve Martin was low-key, but good. Better than Goldberg or Crystal. One of my fav parts is always the "In Memoriam" section... Richard Harris... James Coburn... Billy Wilder... Meryl Streep gave a nice intro to Peter O'Toole accepting his Special Lifetime Achievement Oscar. And then O'Toole gave a nice speech. I hadn't realized, or remembered, that O'Toole has been nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role seven times, for: My Favorite Year (1982), The Stunt Man (1980), The Ruling Class (1972), Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969) (Robert Donat won the award for the original film version in 1939), The Lion in Winter (1968), Becket (1964) and, of course, Lawrence of Arabia (1962). That dumb fat bitch Michael Moore is an embarrassment.
Chris Cooper was, in fact, the best supporting actor -- by default. Supporting Actor is almost always my favorite and the most "competitive" category. Supporting actors are one of the best things about cinema. The villain. The best friend. The boss. The cop. The father. The grandfather. The Uncle. The neighbor. The manager. Last night's nominees were rather bland. Ed Harris as an angry young man dying of AIDS. Come on? John C. Reilly played the slow-witted husband to cheating wives in three movies last year. Road to Perdition was at best mediocre, and while Paul Newman was fine, he pretty much just phoned in his lines for that one. Chris Walken was good in Catch Me If You Can, but hardly worth a supporting actor nomination. Supporting Actress I was glad that Queen Latifah got a nomination for Chicago. She deserved it. Maybe that was enough. The winner, Catherine Zeta-Jones, who attended and performed at the Oscars even though she is nine months pregnant, was as good in the same film. Meryl Streep was great in Adaptation, but some of the shine of that performance was lost because I thought she was even better in The Hours. But that's not really fair now is it? But it's even more glaring and less unfair to say that Julianne Moore should not have won for The Hours, because she was great, but she was so much better in Far from Heaven. Kathy Bates (About Schmidt) deserved the nomination for her nude scene alone, she was good and funny, but that's about it. Catherine Zeta-Jones was also the first performer to win an Oscar for a musical since 1972. Actor All of the best actor nominees were good. Nicholson (About Schmidt) was as good as ever, but he's always winning Oscars. Michael Caine was great in Quiet American, and it would have been nice for him to get an Oscar for Lead Actor (he has two Supporting statuettes). I'm still pissed off that Nicolas Cage won an Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas, and then made about a dozen pieces of crap. So, I didn't want him to win for Adaptation, even though he was great in it and it was a solid film. Daniel Day-Lewis was one of the highlights of Gangs of New York. One could charge overacting, but it seemed appropriate in the context -- and he was kind of fascinating to watch. Brody was fine -- Pianist had been gaining award steam the last few weeks -- see Director and Screenplay. Dazed when his name was announced, Brody stood up and I think I heard him say "holy shit" on the playback. He raced to the stage, grabbed presenter Halle Berry, took her in his arms and gave her a long, deep kiss. But accepting his award, his joy turned tearful as he remembered making the film and thought about the war in Iraq. He said his experiences playing Jewish pianist Waldyslaw Szpilman trying to survive the Warsaw ghetto had made him "very aware of the sadness" war causes. "Let's pray for a peaceful and swift resolution," he said, which brought the audience to its feet. At 29, Brody becomes the youngest best actor winner, beating the previous record set in 1978 by a then 30-year-old Richard Dreyfuss, who won for "The Goodbye Girl." A stunned Berry was left openmouthed and gasping Sunday, although she appeared amused. Looking on from the audience at the Kodak Theatre was Berry's husband, singer Eric Benet. Backstage, Brody was asked about the kiss. "Well, if you ever have an excuse to do something like that, that's it,'' he said. "I took my shot.'' Did Berry kiss him back? "Oh yeah,'' Brody said, grinning. Actress I was glad Nicole Kidman won. But Renee Zellweger was fine in Chicago. Diane Lane, who I like, was good in Unfaithful. But nothing special, and the film is mediocre at best. Unfaithful is shoddy Adrian Lyne Fatal Attraction territory. I still don't understand this nomination. Do I need to see this film again? I did not see Salma Hayek as Frida. The only other performance that was as good was Julianne Moore's from Far from Heaven. Director Julianne Moore will get her Oscar one day -- and so will Marty (barring premature death). Martin Scorsese lost the director Oscar -- some say due to Miramax studio boss Harvey Weinstein's embarrassing campaign that appears to have backfired. I was fine with Roman Polanski winning. He'd never won and while The Pianist is a very good movie, Chinatown and Rosemary's Baby are brilliant. Roman Polanski now lives in Paris and, with a U.S. warrant out for his arrest (because of a conviction 25 years ago for having sex with a 13-year-old girl), could not attend the Oscars ceremony. Thirteen is cutting it close, even for statutory rape. As he was about to be sentenced, Roman fled the United States and arrived in France in 1978. But my choice for Best Director was Stephen Daldry for The Hours. Rob Marshall (Chicago), and Pedro Almodovar (Talk to Her) were also nominated and did good work. Best Picture Chicago was second best, so I have no real complaints. But The Hours was the best. The Pianist was third. The fourth, Gangs of New York, had some wonderful stuff in it, but it never quite gelled and was digressive. Easily the most undeserving nominee was The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, part two or three, of an already overlong fantasy epic for kids and the Dungeons and Dragons set. Chicago was the first musical to win best picture since 1968's Oliver! Chicago came in with a leading 13 nominations, followed by the crime epic Gangs of New York with 10. But Gangs was shut out in every category. Martin Richards, the producer of Chicago who collected the Best Picture award, said he thought it was inappropriate to use the Oscars as a political forum. "I'm against war. Anyone that is sane is against war. But I'm also pro my troops," he said backstage. "And when they come back, I want to see them come back happy and healthy." Screenplays Talk to Her was uneven, at best a quirky 3 star comedy, which certainly did not deserve an Oscar for screenplay. But of the other nominees... Jay Cocks, Steve Zaillian & Kenneth Lonergan's Gangs of New York script was meandering and one of the problems with GONY. Nia Vardalos' My Big Fat Greek Wedding is a phenomenon to me. Who loved this movie? Who liked it? Who thought it was funny? Who thought it was romantic? Who thought this movie was any more than a two star movie that screams straight-to-video? And that the awful, Screenplay 101 rough draft type script was nominated for an Oscar is beyond me. I didn't see Carlos Cuaron & Alfonso Cuaron's Y Tu Mama Tambien. My choice for this category was Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven. For adapted screenplay Ronald Harwood won for The Pianist. The Pianist succeeds as a movie because of Polanski and Brody and the cinematography much more than the somewhat droning screenplay, which also saves it's most interesting character for the last half hour, and leaves him underused and underdeveloped. Bill Condon's Chicago was fine, but again, the screenplay was not even in the Top Ten Best Things About Chicago list. Peter Hedges, Chris & Paul Weitz, getting a nomination for About a Boy was a gift. Charlie Kaufman & Donald Kaufman's Adaptation was the second best of the nominees. By far the best of the adapted screenplay nominees was David Hare's The Hours -- this film seamlessly brought us back and forth between three different eras spanning 60 years, and all of it seemed completely real. This was a great screenplay. Cinematography Connie Hall was a good photographer, but Road to Perdition was kind of a one-note project -- it was dark. RTP was overrated. The other nominees were all superior films -- but also all had superior cinematography: Chicago, but even more: Far from Heaven, Gangs of New York and The Pianist were all wonderfully shot. Song I heard Eminem was not asked to perform (or asked not to perform, rather -- or simply told he was not allowed to perform) because the producers of the show were all freaking out like Tipper Gore about something or other. I was surprised, and glad, he won -- it was by far the best song nominated. And the Paul Simon track from the children's cartoon movie was a ridiculous nominee. Score I have no serious problems with the other awards, except that Elmer Bernstein should have won for Far from Heaven, rather than Elliot Goldenthal's Frida score. Philip Glass' music for The Hours was good, as for Thomas Newman's Road to Perdition -- it's hard to love a score to a movie that just lies there. John Williams sucks. I just thought I'd put that in since he was nominated. He's one of the most overrated people at anything ever, his whole mindset into scoring music for films is wrong -- "When in doubt, hit them over the head with rousing adventure music!" Animated Feature The Japanese film Spirited Away won for feature-length animation against the usual kiddie crap blockbuster stuff from Hollywood (Ice Age, Lilo & Stitch, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Treasure Planet), all of which involved wisecracking dogs and cats, I think. Spirited Away, from Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki, was a huge hit in his home country, but an English-language adaptation did only a modest $5.5 million in the United States last fall. Other Awards I don't really care about the effects awards, Chicago won most of the other ones (art direction, sound, costume design and editing), which is fine. I think there should be a new category: Best Titles Sequence. Ratings, Iraq and Political Statements Reportedly, the "wartime" Academy Awards telecast on ABC Sunday night was the least-watched Oscar ceremony since Nielsen Media Research began keeping records in 1974. An estimated 33.1 million people watched -- down sharply from the 41.8 million who watched the Oscars last year. The Academy Awards, often the most popular entertainment program of the year, was beat by last month's "Joe Millionaire" finale, which had 40 million viewers. The previous Oscar lows came in 1987, when 37.2 million people watched Platoon win best picture, and 37.8 million in 1986, when Out of Africa won. Because Platoon and Out of Africa suck. Oscar's record was the 55.2 million viewers in 1998, when Titanic won. But Titanic's even worse, so I can't figure this out at all. For about the first two hours of the show, the Iraq war was hardly mentioned, but then burly (fat and sloppy) "social satirist" (simple-minded rabble rouser) Michael Moore took to the podium as the winner for a best documentary feature, his anti-gun movie "Bowling for Columbine." "We live in a time where we have a man sending us to war for fictitious reasons. Whether it is the fiction of duct tape or the fictition (yes, I think he said "fictition") of orange alerts, we are against this war, Mr. Bush. Shame on you, Mr. Bush!" Moore cried. His statements
set off a round of boos in the audience, some cheering, then more boos.
The noise became so loud, Moore could not be heard finishing his speech. Victory speeches on Oscar night addressed the U.S.-led conflict in Iraq in dramatically different tones - Michael Moore was retarded, Adrien Brody was heartfelt and Chris Cooper was subtle. Each drew dramatically different reactions. Moore received a standing ovation when he won and his fiery criticism of President Bush and the war first drew cheers, followed by a cacophony of boos as he shouted. Moore was the only winner to directly criticize the U.S. president. While Moore's
remarks were polarizing for many, Brody united the crowd in a standing
ovation with his soft-spoken, sympathetic speech after winning the best-actor
award for playing a Holocaust survivor in The Pianist. "Whatever
you believe in, if it's God or Allah, may he watch over you and let's
pray for a peaceful and swift resolution," he said, adding: "And
I have a friend from Queens who's a soldier in Kuwait right now, Tommy
Zarobinski, and I hope you and your boys make it back real soon." Chris Cooper, who received the supporting-actor prize for Adaptation, ended his speech with a soft-spoken reference to the conflict. "In light of all the troubles in the world, I wish us all peace." Backstage, he declined to comment further. "I really did say all I wanted to say up there," he said. The specter of conflict in Iraq, and the relevance today of the film's harrowing images of the wartime devastation of Warsaw, may have helped sway the motion picture academy's voting for The Pianist, say some. "The fact that this movie depicts the extermination of Poles and Jews, and addresses this in our current reality, definitely had an influence on the great recognition it won," prize-winning director Krzysztof Zanussi told Reuters. I'm not sure if I'm pro or anti this war. I'm anti Bush's handling of it. But this quote sounds as if it is comparing the US to the Nazis, where I see it more as the reverse. The US is the US again, but Saddam and Co. are the Nazis. But maybe I'm misreading Zanussi's quote. On the Net: |
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| Someone asked me what I thought would win the in re the Oscars. These were sort of off the top of my head guesses:
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So here's what I would want to win -- of what's nominated:
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Complete List of Oscar Nominations! (I will comment on all this later.) Complete list of 75th annual Oscar nominations announced Tuesday in Beverly Hills, Calif., by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: Picture Actor
Actress
Supporting Actor
Supporting Actress
Director
Foreign Film
Adapted Screenplay
Original Screenplay
Animated Feature Film Art Direction Cinematography Sound Sound Editing Original Score
Original Song
Costume Film Editing Makeup Visual Effects Documentary Feature
Documentary Short Subject
Animated Short Film
Live Action Short Film
Academy Award Honorary Oscar
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Complete List of tedstrong.com Award Nominations! (I will comment more on this later.) tedstrong.com picks the Oscars! This is if tedstrong.com nominated! We don't follow rules! We don't pay attention to the studio marketing campaigns! We don't take bribes (but we would consider it)! And, we give you SIX nominees instead of five! Now, let's keep it real! Picture/Top Ten
Actor
Actress
Supporting Actor
Supporting Actress
Director
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Supporting
Actor