Chicago: Beef, Love and Understanding

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Kenan, it's just the consistent WAY you state opinions: as statements of great (lofty) authority, so strongly stated that they might as well be facts (along the lines of "Feces is NOT for eating"). This is not the same as being confident in your opinion. It comes across like you're the self-appointed arbiter of taste (as I've said before).

― Jesse, Monday, 26 February 2007 15:35 (seventeen years ago) link

I dunno, man. Children of Men had some pretty f'in awesome camerawork.

― kenan, Monday, 26 February 2007 15:37 (seventeen years ago) link

Also, this kind of thing is very political, too... the reason that movie didn't get more awards is because the studio fell down on the job of campaigning for it, or even marketing it. They were just kinda stumped as to what to do with it. And technical Oscars usually go to movies that are winning all the other oscars, not to movies that are most deserving.

― kenan, Monday, 26 February 2007 15:39 (seventeen years ago) link

Decent Oscar moments: Tom Hanks actually being pretty funny on the spot ("YES CHRIS, MORE FUN."), Ennio Morricone being cranky Italian dude

― Jordan, Monday, 26 February 2007 15:40 (seventeen years ago) link

I want to see Lives of Others now. Word has it that it's really great.

― kenan, Monday, 26 February 2007 15:40 (seventeen years ago) link

Children of Men should have won more awards I think, but then again I didn't see much of the competition.

The foreign language movie montage made me want to check out all 50.

― KitCat, Monday, 26 February 2007 15:44 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, I was sad how few of those movies I had seen. Some of them I've seen a dozen times, some I've never even heard of.

― kenan, Monday, 26 February 2007 15:45 (seventeen years ago) link

Maybe, just maybe, maybe the academy had a different opinion than yours, Kenan, and they didn't actually MISS anything.

Guys, I know what you're talking about w/r/t Kenan, but this was still somewhat of a surprise because Children of Men won the Cinematographers' Guild award.

What a boring Oscars. At least the part I watched. We turned it off like 2 hours in, which was still before almost all of the major awards. I like Ellen in general but they needed more EXCITEMENT and SPECTACLE.

Nick in hating the Oscars shocker. It maybe wasn't as memorable as most years, but I thought it was pretty entertaining. One thing I did notice, though, is that Ellen didn't really make jokes based on what had just happened. Maybe there just wasn't enough to make jokes about, like Three 6 Mafia's acceptance speech last year, or Jack Palance's one-handed push-ups.

I want to see Lives of Others now. Word has it that it's really great

It's pretty good, yeah. Kr and I saw it last week.

― jaymc, Monday, 26 February 2007 16:06 (seventeen years ago) link

One thing that did make the Oscars interesting this year was just how unpredictable it was. Two years ago, I think I had 14/15 in my office pool. This year I had 8/15. I even got half my money back last night for tying for last place among the nine people betting at the party I was at.

― jaymc, Monday, 26 February 2007 16:09 (seventeen years ago) link

What did you get wrong? The director, best actor & actress, and best supporting actress categories all seemed pretty locked up, and Arkin wasn't that much of a stretch for best supporting actor (veteran actor in a "surprise" nomination). Even The Departed for Best Pic didn't seem that surprising, given that they basically had to give director to Scorcese and Best Director & Best Pic often go together. Were there lots of weird categories in your office pool?

― n/a, Monday, 26 February 2007 16:15 (seventeen years ago) link

Wins I wouldn't have predicted: Supporting Actor, Animated Feature, Cinematography, Costumes, Foreign Film, Song, Best Picture, and maybe both Screenplay awards.

― kenan, Monday, 26 February 2007 16:18 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm still fuzzy on the line between visual effects and art direction. I guess visual effects is a purely technical award, and art direction is more big picture?

― kenan, Monday, 26 February 2007 16:20 (seventeen years ago) link

Going back to earlier:

Do you have your account set for the unlimited monthly rides?

No, I have the blue Card, the one that you just add money to when you want. It's so totally not bent, either. Well, no more than any of the other cards in my wallet, which all still work (including the scan card I have for doors at work, very similar to the Chicago Card). Of course now it has ~15 dollars on it and I can't use it. I'm going to their goddamned offices tomorrow to raise hell.

― dan m, Monday, 26 February 2007 16:22 (seventeen years ago) link

Chicagoist correctly picked Best Song by showing that Dreamgirls' three nominations would split its vote, and Randy Newman has won a billion times before (I think they said last night he's been nominated 17 times!) and his song on Cars sucks.

― n/a, Monday, 26 February 2007 16:22 (seventeen years ago) link

HELLS YEAH

― kenan, Monday, 26 February 2007 16:23 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, I don't disagree with what you said, Kenan. I liked Children of Men just fine and I didn't see Pan's Labrynth so I can't even express an opinion on it. And my Oscar-related opinions are pretty much in line with Nick's (except that I like to see what people wore, it is true). But my issue isn't with the content, it's with the form. We can be takling about, oh I don't know, office supplies or brands of lip balm and I would have responded to you in a similarly exasperated way.

― Jenny, Monday, 26 February 2007 16:23 (seventeen years ago) link

I think I called Randy Newman and James Taylor together onstage as a "Summit of Suck."

Julia thought it was funny, anyway.

― kenan, Monday, 26 February 2007 16:24 (seventeen years ago) link

I love Randy Newman, I wish he had sung the song instead of Lames Taylor.

― n/a, Monday, 26 February 2007 16:25 (seventeen years ago) link

jenny: I will take more care with my lofty accolades in the future. I like Jesse's point that this kind of rhetoric does not convey confidence in my opinions... more like browbeating.

― kenan, Monday, 26 February 2007 16:25 (seventeen years ago) link

James Taylor looks like Lurch these days.

― n/a, Monday, 26 February 2007 16:26 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.retroheadz.de/castle-frankentele/images/lurch.jpg
[Removed Illegal Image]

― n/a, Monday, 26 February 2007 16:28 (seventeen years ago) link

Anyways, you get the idea.

― n/a, Monday, 26 February 2007 16:28 (seventeen years ago) link

I loooove Randy Newman in the 70's. But his "in it for the money" movie schlock makes me want to kill. He's kind of a Stevie Wonder-esque example of talent wasted on kitsch.

― kenan, Monday, 26 February 2007 16:28 (seventeen years ago) link

I liked his sad song from Toy Story 2. And I like his voice enough that I don't really care what he's singing.

― n/a, Monday, 26 February 2007 16:29 (seventeen years ago) link

I called Randy Newman and James Taylor together onstage as a "Summit of Suck."

Now see that's just a stone cold truth.

― Jenny, Monday, 26 February 2007 16:33 (seventeen years ago) link

Categories I got wrong in the office pool:

Picture (I went with Babel. I had a hunch that the same voter pool that went for Crash would've liked Babel, as it had a patina of self-importance about it. Also, the Best Pic and Director used to match up all the time, but that's only been the case half the time in the last 8 years -- cf. Spielberg winning in '98 for Saving Private Ryan, Soderbergh in '00 for Traffic, Polanski in '02 for The Pianist, and Ang Lee in '05 for Brokeback Mountain, none of which won Best Pic.)

Supporting Actor (I went for Murphy)

Animated (I went with Cars. Only surprised at Happy Feet because it went against what most pundits were predicting, but I was never really sure why Cars was seen as the favorite.)

Foreign (Like everyone else, I went with Pan's Labyrinth)

Cinematography (I went with Children of Men)

Score (Alexandre Desplat seems to be getting a lot of attention as an up-and-coming composer, and the score for The Queen in particular had good buzz, so that's who I chose)

Song (I went with the prognosticators in choosing "Listen," even though after I actually heard all of the nominated songs performed last night, it seemed clear that Etheridge would win)

Other categories I missed:

Art Direction (I chose Dreamgirls)

Costume (I chose Dreamgirls ... this is the one I'm most kicking myself for ... again, I paid attention to Oscar pundits, when it seems obvious in retrospect that Marie Antoinette was the one to beat ... Academy voters still love big 18th C. period-piece dresses)

Editing (I went with Babel and think it prob. would have won this category if it had also won Pic, although I'm glad that Schoonmaker got it -- The Departed was an exceptionally well-edited movie)

Animated Short (everyone seemed to think it would The Little Matchgirl)

****

I don't think there were any categories that featured a MAJOR upset. (Best Pic was always up in the air since the nominations were announced.) But their tendency to choose the 2nd favorite instead of the favorite -- Arkin over Murphy, The Lives of Others over Pan's Labyrinth, Santoalalla over Desplat -- made it a little harder this year.

― jaymc, Monday, 26 February 2007 16:38 (seventeen years ago) link

I would have been about as wrong as you, and in exactly the same ways.

― kenan, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:02 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm still fuzzy on the line between visual effects and art direction. I guess visual effects is a purely technical award, and art direction is more big picture?

As I understand it, visual effects is special effects, like CGI, scale models, explosions, etc., whereas art direction is like the cinematic equivalent of "set design." Pan's Labyrinth was a deserving winner here because it created a unified look from the old house and the woods and the labyrinth: old and dark and mysterious. I think the category has to have some overlap with costumes, too.

― jaymc, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:05 (seventeen years ago) link

ok, ladies: who's hotter

Alfonso Cuarón
http://www.cojeco.cz/attach/image/max/c8/ba75/c8ba75b1a3c54a458f3e5f231ed514f3.jpg

Alejandro González Iñárritu
http://www.godlis.com/nyfilmfest2003/images_nyff2003/21%20grams/inarritu4_200w.jpg

or Guillermo Del Toro
http://elmundo.canal-si.com/fotos/28746.jpg

(actually, just the first two. heh.)

― kenan, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:09 (seventeen years ago) link

It's fucked up that that boring-ass Etheridge song won, esp. when Dreamgirls had 3 nominations.

― Jordan, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:10 (seventeen years ago) link

Did anyone see the red carpet bit where some woman was interviewing the Three Amigos, and she said "Now there's a lot of debate about which one of you is the most attractive," and both Cuaron and Del Toro pointed to Innaritu, and then she said "...but I have to say I'm going with you, Guillermo" and then everyone chuckled -- but it was kind of mean, because the subtext was "you're totally not the most attractive"!

― jaymc, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:11 (seventeen years ago) link

Poor Comic Book Guy.

― kenan, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:14 (seventeen years ago) link

It's fucked up that that boring-ass Etheridge song won, esp. when Dreamgirls had 3 nominations.

I didn't see Dreamgirls, but based on the performances last night, it totally makes sense that Etheridge won. Beyonce and Jennifer Hudson totally did the flashy showstopping diva routine, but the songs themselves just weren't that interesting. Etheridge's song was oatmeal, but it felt like something the Academy could connect to, with its half-baked liberal pieties.

― jaymc, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:14 (seventeen years ago) link

"Clean the Sweet Tarts out of your beard and we got a deal!"
"Don't try to change me, baby."

― kenan, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:14 (seventeen years ago) link

Cuaron and Inarritu are attractive in the same way, but I'm going with the latter if only in the photos compared here.

― Laurel, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:15 (seventeen years ago) link

http://myspace-750.vo.llnwd.net/00647/05/75/647735750_l.jpg

― jaymc, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:15 (seventeen years ago) link

I guess I probably would've gotten most of those categories wrong too.

Dreamgirls got greedy with three nominations.

I think Chicagoist also said Babel wouldn't win Best Pic BECAUSE it was too similar to Crash.

― n/a, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:15 (seventeen years ago) link

Cuaron has a hot Wayne Coyne/Jaymc thing going for him.

― jaymc, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:16 (seventeen years ago) link

Innaritu is hot in a kind of obvious, smoldering way, but for my money Cuaron looks more... I dunno... pleasant? Plus he makes better movies.

― kenan, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:16 (seventeen years ago) link

Yeah, I think I'm only really objecting to Cuaron's beard & long-ish hair: distinguished, of course, but less rakish.

― Laurel, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:18 (seventeen years ago) link

I'm kind of snobby about the Oscar prognostication. I don't really trust anyone besides online writers like Sasha Stone, Kris Tapley, Nathaniel Rogers, or, back in the '90s, Alex Fung. Even daily newspaper critics aren't really monitoring the buzz as closely as some of these folks are.

― jaymc, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:19 (seventeen years ago) link

I thought that first guy was George Harrison at first.

― dan m, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:21 (seventeen years ago) link

But John, you got like 4 or 5 categories wrong because you overrelied on what other people were predicting!

― n/a, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:22 (seventeen years ago) link

LISTEN TO YOUR HEART WHISPERS

― n/a, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:23 (seventeen years ago) link

I was afeared the Babel would win, and next to that I guess I was hoping for The Departed, if only because it's solid, workmanlike, entertaining, and pretty much unobjectionable. (Also hella bloody.)

― kenan, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:25 (seventeen years ago) link

Cuaron has a hot Wayne Coyne/Jaymc thing going for him.

HE SURE DOES!

Plus that second guy is too tan. And I wouldn't kick Guillermo Del Toro out of bed for eating crackers ifyaknowwhatimean.

― Jenny, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:25 (seventeen years ago) link

And you KNOW he would be eating crackers, so that's a good thing for him.

― kenan, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:26 (seventeen years ago) link

Would you kick him out of bed for eating fried chicken? Because that also seems like a real possibility.

― kenan, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:26 (seventeen years ago) link

HAHA I just caught the /Jaymc in the Wayne Coyne comparison. My concurrance still stands!

― Jenny, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:27 (seventeen years ago) link

Maybe, maybe not. I read Oscar buzz all the time, so it's hard to say what I would've picked if I didn't know anything about what was favored. I probably would've chosen Marie Antoinette and Happy Feet, sure, but then again I don't think I would've known to pick Letters from Iwo Jima for Sound Editing or West Bank Story for Live Action Short if I didn't check out the consensus. My only point is that I'd rather pay attention to Oscarwatch.com and TheFilmExperience.net than Roger Ebert or Chicagoist.

― jaymc, Monday, 26 February 2007 17:28 (seventeen years ago) link

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