Oscars 2015

andy greenwald, reviewing the show as a telecast (not much talk about what should or shouldn't have won) with the daggers:

By mid-show, even Harris knew he was bombing, but he appeared powerless to do anything about it. His puns atrophied. His skit partners sold him out. The simple act of throwing to commercial took on the airless tenor of a proof-of-life video.

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/american-snoozer-the-dull-earnest-predictability-of-the-87th-academy-awards/

where the 30th anniv tribute to The Goonies went, i can't imagine

Could have sworn the opening song showed a brief Goonies clip, too!

Yep, Goonies at 2:29:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h48wcCnP9A8#t=149

Looking forward to Blue Ivy's rendition of "Goonies R Good Enough" during the 2040 telecast.

Or whatever will have replaced the telecast several times over by the year 2040.

in two years the 50th anniv of The Graduate will demand a Disneybot's soiling of "Mrs Robinson"

Paul Simon medley.

Well, we already know Ass wins eight Oscars in 2505.

Ass The Movie?

BTW, isn't "Everything is Awesome" the Lego Movie's brainwashing anthem?

gay civil war! over treason joke.

When asked about Harris’ comment, Greenwald told BuzzFeed News at the Governors Ball following the Oscars, “I’m just gonna go ahead and treat it as a joke. I thought it was pretty pitiful, given Hollywood’s fondness for congratulating itself for doing things like standing up for McCarthyism and blacklists. So to just casually spew that sort of accusation against someone who’s not even charged with it, let alone convicted of it, I think is, you know, stupid and irresponsible.
“But I’m trying not to make too much out of it,” he concluded, before adding with a laugh, “Although I’m not succeeding.”

http://www.buzzfeed.com/adambvary/glenn-greenwald-on-nph-snowden-joke-at-oscars#.tl20JzAxj

Wait ... what?

http://defamer.gawker.com/oscar-winning-imitation-game-writer-graham-moore-im-n-1687449330

read that last night

So...should we tell him or let him find out on his own?

oh, gurl.

I went to the MoMA screening of Imitation Game and there was a Q&A after with Moore and a couple of the actors. Matthew Goode jokingly felt him up several times.

Master Moore is suddenly the most interesting person to be Touched by an Oscar:

His mother was formerly the City of Chicago's chief lawyer and First Lady Michelle Obama's chief of staff.

Oh boo hoo over Snowden. I just knew we would get a pompous political speech regarding that.

"Another movie about showbiz and its lovable nutcases?"

Yeah, I remember when they gave serious awards to Topsy-Turvy and A Prairie Home Companion and... oh wait

Perhaps this had more to do with their love for both a comeback story and middlebrow pretension, visual and otherwise, the need to exclude independents, and maybe even the fact that Boyhood goes out on psilocybin?

could you go out on whatever it takes?

Sean Fennessey of Grantland on the creepiest of the major victors:

Eddie Redmayne is 33 years and 47 days old. He has appeared in 14 feature films. He has an Oscar for Best Actor now. He’s just barely younger than Clark Gable was when he won the award for It Happened One Night in 1934. And Redmayne is actually older than Nicolas Cage when he won the award for Leaving Las Vegas in 1996. Cage and Gable appeared in a combined 56 movies by the time they won the award, and seemed to have lived for many years, and through many, well, experiences. Eddie Redmayne — his eyes wet, his body trembling, and his voice approaching the giddy squeee of a teakettle — seemed like a tiny boy. He clutched his award as if it were a sickly animal, petting and cooing it into his breast....

Redmayne, who seems like a nice and hardworking person, promised to “polish him” while genuflecting before his statuette. He seemed a little too excited to be in possession of one. Many have already described his speech as “adorable,” which is the sort of word we use to describe newborn calves. For me, it was as ghastly and exaggerated a response as I can imagine. OK, maybe not the most ghastly.

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/oscars-after-party-birdman-or-the-unexpected-virtue-of-four-hour-awards-shows/

Totally had a moment of trying to remember which movies Nicholas Cage and Clark Gable had done together before realizing I'd misread the quote.

re Redmayne: Does playing an ALS sufferer count as going "not full retard" even if the guy might be a genius? If Rain Man counts I think this does too.

Eddie Redmayne — his eyes wet, his body trembling, and his voice approaching the giddy squeee of a teakettle — seemed like a tiny boy. He clutched his award as if it were a sickly animal, petting and cooing it into his breast....

This writing borders on hate crime.

xxxp not sure what the critique is here? he was too sincere or not sincere enough? perhaps a slightly weird dude caught up in a moment he didn't anticipate?

well there are big ripped hunks in mersh movies, then there are Redmaynes. nothing in between.

nothing in between

Well, me, if I had my way.

perhaps a slightly weird dude caught up in a moment he didn't anticipate?

he's been collecting trophies for two months plus!

Maybe he's one of the few remaining people who think that winning an Oscar, unlike the rest of that Foxcatcher trophy room junk, still actually means something.

Not saying he's right, necessarily.

preeeeeetty ironic for fennessey to call redmayne's reaction to redmayne's victory "ghastly and exaggerated"

We loathe most that which we see in ourselves.

thought the speech was great (though I'd have guessed him mid 20s tbh)

Rich Juzwiak, in the comment section of his Graham Moore/"I'm Not Gay" piece:

"This is like Dumbledore in reverse."

could you go out on whatever it takes?

― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Monday, February 23, 2015 2:12 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

This writing borders on hate crime.

― Eric H., Monday, February 23, 2015 3:13 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

fixed that for you

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/24/movies/awardsseason/oscars-show-growing-gap-between-moviegoers-and-academy.html?_r=0

Summary: Oscars are elitist because American Sniper didn't win Best Picture. No, this isn't Fox News.

Not gonna bother reading the article, but fwiw, with the exception of Hurt Locker, Birdman is the lowest grossing best picture adjusted for inflation since Marty in 1955.

http://news.moviefone.com/2015/02/23/lowest-grossing-best-picture-winners-oscars/#slide=3358693

(Still kind of amazing how singularly low Hurt Locker's gross actually is among best picture winners, adjusted or otherwise. That's a record that's likely to never be toppled.)

or by Ava DuVernay's next one? (how about an a-g James Baldwin biopic)

hurt locker overearned

Yeah I was gonna say: before AS went wide The Grand Budapest Hotel was top grossing nominee. Meanwhile The Imitation Game has quietly and consistently hung around the lower reaches of the top ten and made $85 million..

Saw a recap of all the speechifying last night, and piscesx is right, probably more than ever before. I didn't really notice because everything said was what everyone wanted to hear. The famous '70s equivalents--Brando, Bert Schneider, Vanessa Redgrave--were greeted by waves of hostility.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B-nkLmyVIAA5upx.png:large

Yes

100% agreed

nerdz

let he who is without hit points cast the first d20

Redmayne was excellent in Theory of Everything, as was Felicity Jones, but they and the cinematography were the only good things about it. Even at 2 hours it seemed cursory and shallow.

Redmayne was excellent. Jones was paint-peelingly boring.

Yeah. She was the only nominee who wasn't even praised a little and disappeared from all mention.

So who's winning? My money is on Birdman.

It certainly has the profile of a best picture winner.