Supporting Actress will be a surprise. Either the kid of the babysitter will win. The Academy does not like TV and that's where Jennifer Hudson came from, American Idol. The Japanese girl from Babel was in the story that most people felt didn't belong, although she went commando long before Lindsay Lohan, Paris, or Britney, but that's not enough. Sharon Stone, BTW, will never ever win an Oscar. Although the French did give her their artistic medal, for her body of work. Write your own joke there.
Adapted Screenplay - Children of Men was brilliant, Borat was brilliantly funny and the other three had their moments of literary lucidity. I'd be happy for either of the first two. But especially Borat.
Original Screenplay - Pan's Labyrinth was the second best movie of last year and Del Toro deserves to be recognized for his writing, as well as Best Foreign Film. The storytelling, the images, the words, brilliant.
Animated Feature - It's L.A., it's Freeways, it's Prius vs. Hummer, it's CARS.
Documentary Feature - AL GORE, AL GORE, AL GORE. If he wins this AND the Nobel Peace Prize that he's been nominated for, he'd better run for President. Of the United Earth!!! That resume sounds suspiciously like the good guy genius Prez in some futuristic 50s sci-fi flick. But he's real. And young people would actually vote. Please, please, please.
Documentary Short Subject - Which one was about the Holocaust or Holocaust survivors or the families of Holocaust survivors? Which one was about people with differing abilitiea? Which one was about impoverished people fighting the vestiges of colonialism AND the ravages of AIDS? That documentary short subject will win!!!
Original Song - And I'm Telling you I'm Not Going can only be sung by the two Jennifers, Holliday and Hudson, and it couldn't be nominated as it was written for a Broadway show over 30 years ago! I defy anyone to sing any of the three nominated songs from Dreamgirls. Randy Newman, a son of the Academy and the man who wrote I Love L.A. wins.
As for the others, good luck and enjoy the singular pleasure of just being nominated. Keep telling yourselves that. And as always, war is over if you want it.
Showing posts with label Children of Men. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Children of Men. Show all posts
Sunday, February 25, 2007
2007 Oscars - Ellen makes Britney hair jokes,world crumbles
Comfy, down-home, just so pleasant Ellen DeGeneres is hosting the Oscars shortly and as the world crumbles and the US moves closer and closer to Roman Empire style fascism (we even get the word from their use of fasces - for god's sake, i think they're even on the back of the dime!!!) wouldn't it be great if in between the Anna Nicole and James Brown aren' t buried yet jokes, and the Britney shaving her head and in and out of rehab daily jokes, wouldn't it be great if daughter of N'awlins DeGeneres took the Smirking Chimp to task and asked point-blank why he and his administration have forsaken the people and the city of New Orleans??? I bet she'd get a standing ovation. After reading last week about pallettes of money airlifted to Iraq and subsequently disappearing, it is clear that our Iraq policy is like an eating disorder, binge and surge, binge and surge. With the same dire results - unhealthiness leading to premature death. And still Guiliani leads any Democrat in winning in 2008!!!
With that note, on to the Oscars.
I saw almost everything nominated for almost every category this year - thanks to screenings at the Arclight and studio DVDs. So here goes:
Best Picture - Sadly, the single Best Picture last year was Children of Men and Cuaron was the Best Director. But the geniuses at that studio released it around Xmas (Santa loves a post-apocalyptic thinker) which was too late for the top reviewers to even include it in the Best of Lists at year's end. Que Lastima, Senor Cuaron. So instead, Letters from Iwo Jima gets the "Eastwood knows what war really is" vote, which is almost an anti-war vote. 62 years after WWII we get a film from the enemy POV. This means, of course, that in 2069, the Repiblican Party will finally understand the first thing about the Middle East/the Muslim World. Prepare for 6 decades of death and destruction. Babel is the ultimate multicultural document but we get beaten over the head with the constant theme of "we don't hear each other, we don't listen to each other". If the powers of Hollywood llisten to their housekeepers and nannies, this wins in a runaway. But they don't. They have yet to hear or listen to their many Marias and Luis's. In a year of humanity and humanizing films, the Queen, or rather, the person of the Queen of England, is far too inhuman to win. Picture, that is. Mirren is a lock for Best Actress. But that's for later. Little Miss Sunshine might just spliut the important votes and sneak in but too many people in L.A. can spell pastiche. So, no go. So it's Scorsese, for a minor work, after getting jobbed for all the major ones. The Departed is at best a "crowd pleaser" (thanks, Alex) and features the two most egregious moments in a Marty Eyebrows film - that lame shot of the rat at the end (WE GET IT! WE GET IT! IT'S A MOVIE ABOUT RATS!!!) and the scene with Leo in the doorway and Vera Famigna (apologies for spelling) actually says something like, "You look so vulnerable", taking us out of the movie completely and into the heads of teenage fan magazines and Leo's agents. But The Departed it is.
Best Director - Or not. Can they give the Best Picture to Clint's film but Best Director to Marty? Watch them do the opposite - Best Picture to Marty but Best Director to Clint. The man's a 100 and he made 2 movies at once. And he plays jazz piano.
Just watch. As Art Fleming used to say on Jeopardy, Stephen Frears, Paul Greengrass, Alejandro Inarrittu, just watching.
With that note, on to the Oscars.
I saw almost everything nominated for almost every category this year - thanks to screenings at the Arclight and studio DVDs. So here goes:
Best Picture - Sadly, the single Best Picture last year was Children of Men and Cuaron was the Best Director. But the geniuses at that studio released it around Xmas (Santa loves a post-apocalyptic thinker) which was too late for the top reviewers to even include it in the Best of Lists at year's end. Que Lastima, Senor Cuaron. So instead, Letters from Iwo Jima gets the "Eastwood knows what war really is" vote, which is almost an anti-war vote. 62 years after WWII we get a film from the enemy POV. This means, of course, that in 2069, the Repiblican Party will finally understand the first thing about the Middle East/the Muslim World. Prepare for 6 decades of death and destruction. Babel is the ultimate multicultural document but we get beaten over the head with the constant theme of "we don't hear each other, we don't listen to each other". If the powers of Hollywood llisten to their housekeepers and nannies, this wins in a runaway. But they don't. They have yet to hear or listen to their many Marias and Luis's. In a year of humanity and humanizing films, the Queen, or rather, the person of the Queen of England, is far too inhuman to win. Picture, that is. Mirren is a lock for Best Actress. But that's for later. Little Miss Sunshine might just spliut the important votes and sneak in but too many people in L.A. can spell pastiche. So, no go. So it's Scorsese, for a minor work, after getting jobbed for all the major ones. The Departed is at best a "crowd pleaser" (thanks, Alex) and features the two most egregious moments in a Marty Eyebrows film - that lame shot of the rat at the end (WE GET IT! WE GET IT! IT'S A MOVIE ABOUT RATS!!!) and the scene with Leo in the doorway and Vera Famigna (apologies for spelling) actually says something like, "You look so vulnerable", taking us out of the movie completely and into the heads of teenage fan magazines and Leo's agents. But The Departed it is.
Best Director - Or not. Can they give the Best Picture to Clint's film but Best Director to Marty? Watch them do the opposite - Best Picture to Marty but Best Director to Clint. The man's a 100 and he made 2 movies at once. And he plays jazz piano.
Just watch. As Art Fleming used to say on Jeopardy, Stephen Frears, Paul Greengrass, Alejandro Inarrittu, just watching.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Ford Pardons Nixon!!!
So the papers and the blogs are filled with how history will judge Gerald Ford. Here's how - He was a cipher who denied America and the world a lesson in democracy and civics by pardoning an ex-President who should have gone on trial for his crimes. There's a direct line from the pardon of Nixon to the boorish, yahoo behavior of Bush the Lesser. Had Nixon gone to trial perhaps future leaders of America would have thought twice before embarking on their cowboy antics. And never forget, the only man who voted for Gerald Ford was that same disgraced Nixon. Or as I like to call him, "Richard Nixon, the only man ever to resign as President of the United States." Any time we can push that spike deeper in Nixon's dusty heart, we should do it.
With the year waning I thought I'd mention my bests for the year:
Book - The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I didn't think anything could be as brutal and beautifully written as his Blood Meridian, but The Road is post-apocalyptic fiction at its best and most brutal. It also has my favorite line of the year - "When he went back to the fire he knelt and smoothed her hair as she slept and he said if he were God he would have made the world just so and no different." Perfect. I've thought about the four women in my life I could've said that about. Each time it makes me smile. Perfect.
Movie - Children of Men. Hmmm, a theme here? Post-apocalyptic future? What a movie. Cuaron is a genius. And his Mexican compatriots, Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth is a close second) and Inarittu (Babel, amazingly compelling) are simply the best and most challenging directors working in movies today.
Music - Kids in America by The Hold Steady. Literate, writerly, poetic. If you like words to go with your power chords, this is the music for you. Lots of words.
Artist - Zak Smith. A remarkable sense of color, his love for women jumps off the page. And I don't own a piece of his. New Year's Resolution - Must get piece by Zak Smith. Hopefully a piece from 100 Women, 100 Octopuses. What a great name for a show. What great pictures.
TV Show - Countdown with Keith Olbermann. The conscience of a nation, Keith loves democracy and Fred Merkle. How's that for the world's lamest personal ad. But God, is he good. I've loved him since he was part of the best twosome ever on ESPN when he teamed with Dan Patrick. Compare Keith with the frat-boy fatuousness of Stewart Scott, who BTW, is as uncool as the side of the pillow we sleep on. Booyah! that!
Magazine - The Believer. If they just published the two-page charts I'd buy the magazine. But each month renews my faith in good writing. I remain a Believer. Juxtapoz is right up there for me. But ease up on the tattoos and the tikis. There are those of us who don't need sleeves or Chinese characters on our necks to make a statement. And tikis? Pacific-Islanders don't even like tikis. Trader Vic likes Tikis. Been to Trader Vic's lately? Oh, not 85? Ohhhh....
Quote - War is over if you want it. (Since we're trying to live up to Cormac McCarthy's fiction, this quote works every year. Sadly.)
Write if you get work.
With the year waning I thought I'd mention my bests for the year:
Book - The Road by Cormac McCarthy. I didn't think anything could be as brutal and beautifully written as his Blood Meridian, but The Road is post-apocalyptic fiction at its best and most brutal. It also has my favorite line of the year - "When he went back to the fire he knelt and smoothed her hair as she slept and he said if he were God he would have made the world just so and no different." Perfect. I've thought about the four women in my life I could've said that about. Each time it makes me smile. Perfect.
Movie - Children of Men. Hmmm, a theme here? Post-apocalyptic future? What a movie. Cuaron is a genius. And his Mexican compatriots, Del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth is a close second) and Inarittu (Babel, amazingly compelling) are simply the best and most challenging directors working in movies today.
Music - Kids in America by The Hold Steady. Literate, writerly, poetic. If you like words to go with your power chords, this is the music for you. Lots of words.
Artist - Zak Smith. A remarkable sense of color, his love for women jumps off the page. And I don't own a piece of his. New Year's Resolution - Must get piece by Zak Smith. Hopefully a piece from 100 Women, 100 Octopuses. What a great name for a show. What great pictures.
TV Show - Countdown with Keith Olbermann. The conscience of a nation, Keith loves democracy and Fred Merkle. How's that for the world's lamest personal ad. But God, is he good. I've loved him since he was part of the best twosome ever on ESPN when he teamed with Dan Patrick. Compare Keith with the frat-boy fatuousness of Stewart Scott, who BTW, is as uncool as the side of the pillow we sleep on. Booyah! that!
Magazine - The Believer. If they just published the two-page charts I'd buy the magazine. But each month renews my faith in good writing. I remain a Believer. Juxtapoz is right up there for me. But ease up on the tattoos and the tikis. There are those of us who don't need sleeves or Chinese characters on our necks to make a statement. And tikis? Pacific-Islanders don't even like tikis. Trader Vic likes Tikis. Been to Trader Vic's lately? Oh, not 85? Ohhhh....
Quote - War is over if you want it. (Since we're trying to live up to Cormac McCarthy's fiction, this quote works every year. Sadly.)
Write if you get work.
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