Oscars 2008 Pre-game Shenanigans

an oscars without the canned quips would be refreshing

Yeah, hearing Clooney & Co bait the FCC with improvised 'filth' wd be way more exciting.

I mean, I kinda get why people like the long telecast, but I don't want to stay up until 1am just to find out that, yes, Atonement won after all.

Haha, it would maybe be the first time the movie winning outdoes the actual show for phony pomp.

from the NYT:

"...though a request had not yet been made, the union’s directors had already decided they would not grant a waiver for writers, including the prospective host Jon Stewart, to work on the show. Mr. Stewart declined to comment in an e-mail message sent on Tuesday."

I am envisioning the Oscars becoming a 60-minute PBS special.

he basically only does oscar films, which i think is lame but there we have it.

Except for that Terry Gilliam movie that no one saw.

And what is the deal with these Oscar-bait roles knocking me on my ass this year? First Amy Ryan, then Hal Holbrook. Now Vanessa Redgrave. I am turning into Rex Reed.

Eric, when are you coming out for Julie Christie?

have Atonement and Sweeney Todd both lost their Oscar glow, as far as getting 6-8 nominations goes?

Yes they have. I'm sort of wondering if Atonement will get anything outside of maybe one acting nod and costume design.

"Asked about the fate of the Oscars, one specialty distrib said Tuesday: 'It's like contemplating my own mortality. I know it's something I have to face, but not today.'"

-- from a 1.8.08 Variety story

outside of maybe one acting nod

the Ronan child or KK?

how in hell are Atonement's chances upped by the GG win, when they have no overlapping members w/ the Academy?

maybe the Hollywood Foreign Press can start bribing the Academy's membership too.

Atonement seems like such a Oscar film that it's really hard for me to imagine it getting snubbed in favor of Juno or Michael Clayton. I don't really understand the backlash: it got good reviews, right?

too mainstream

There is no empirical bump. But if Atonement was nominated by the Academy (since ballots came in before the GGs), it does give its chances for a win a minor boost. Of course, the Globes haven't predicted BP since Chicago, and even that seemed to just get in under The Pianist's wire.

Atonement is this year's Memoirs of a Geisha.

atonement was written by britishes, not your striking communiss americans: SUBTEXT.

so sight unseen i think it has the proverbial shot, and surely the fox-searchlight fake indie thing is over with now? again sight unseen i don't think 'juno' has the legs.

there's no way -- sight unseen -- that something as dark as 'no country' will win best oscar pic. and that might go for 'blood' too. where is the 'dreamgirls' candidate in the mix?

So, if Julie Christie wins the SAG award, she's a lock for Best Actress, no?

should i see atonement?

Rex Reed and Andrew Sarris certainly think so -- i don't think i could stand 2 hours of Keira Knightley though

you're jesting now, nrq.

yeah more or less. i will see 'no country', but probably not the other contendahs.

maybe living in flyover country is what amplifies Oscar season ... it's like the one time of year that most of the film-going world is on the same page about what movies to get excited over, et al.

Keira Knightley is onscreen for maybe a quarter of the film.

I don't know why I feel this vague sense of disappointment that Atonement's fortunes are falling. I haven't even seen it.

It would've been nominated in a heartbeat 10 years ago, but as Morbs pointed out, today's model Oscar juggernaut is jacked-up, bloody action picture with a name-brand director attached.

is this your way of telling me to stay away from There Will Be Blood?

there will be blood is not a jacked-up bloody action picture, fwiw. for truth in advertising it should be called there will be some blood, eventually.

i don't understand the fuss about no country, which i think is pretty medium-warm. but i guess since fargo didn't win best picture the coens are eligible for the career-recognition nod. plus cormac mccarthy is at the peak of great-american-artist lionization, which would probably help.

there's hardly any blood in 'TWBB'.

but more than in Juno, presumably.

I'm not sure there's any Oscared jacked-up, bloody action picture before The Departed. Maybe it was an anomaly.

'the godfather'

too arty to be "jacked up," and it's not an "action picture," it's a family melodrama.

with machine guns

i don't think it's any artier than 'the departed', and i like both films. and 'the departed' is not an action picture anyway.

all i'm saying is there have only been bloody films since the end of the 60s, and some of them have won oscars, and that's not a bad thing.

I wasn't talking good and bad. The Departed is significantly bloodier than The Godfather, and much less sentimental (and much worse).

So what does everyone think will actually win? If Atonement is there I'm still betting it'll win but if not it has to be No Country.

Atonement won't win.

The Academy's reminder list of eligible features:

http://www.oscars.org/80academyawards/reminder/reminder_titles.html

they should nut up and give it to 'zodiac' but having been released ages ago they won't.

Silence of the Lambs was released in February '91, but being a hit helped.

If Juno keeps making dough, I wouldn't be surprised if it's chosen over the bloodier (and superior) competition.

Morbs, that jacked-up bloody action epic meme came from you.

he basically only does oscar films, which i think is lame but there we have it.

Except for that Terry Gilliam movie that no one saw.

-- milo z, Wednesday, 19 December 2007 20:43 (3 weeks ago) Link

Daniel-Day Lewis has never been in a Terry Gilliam movie.

think milo means that film DDL did with his wife, dunno why.

xp: I know, EH, but they're your words and nrq is misusing my idea. I was pretty much speaking of The Departed and whatever followed (ie, I haven't seen NCfOM so I'm only guessing where it fits).

(and I plead not guilty to ever starting a fuggin' meme)

he basically only does oscar films, which i think is lame but there we have it.

I knew he didn't work much, but I didn't realize he's only been in a grand total of 8 films since My Left Foot.

why wait til Monday to forecast?

Pic: Into the Wild, Juno, Michael Clayton, No Country, TWB Blood

Actor: Clooney, Day-Lewis, Depp, Hirsch, Mortensen

Actress: Blanchett, Christie, Cotillard, Jolie, Page

Sup. Actor: Affleck, Bardem, Hoffman, Holbrook, Wilkinson

Sup. Actress: Blanchett, Keener, Redgrave, Ryan, Swinton

Director: PTA, Coens, Gilroy, Penn, Schnabel

...and the rest, as Bill Murray usta say, who cares? I think Joe Wright and/or Knightley might survive the Atonement inertia, but oh well.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/02/23/movies/20080223_REVENUE_GRAPHIC.html

mmm chocolate swirl!

Since (soon)this is no longer pre-game, shouldn't there be a show/postmortem thread?

OSCARTOPSY 2008

It's on Sky Movies right now.

OK, I laughed like a fool over Jon Stewart's Olympia Dukakis gag.

Badolf Titler. Hilarious, Jon. Really. Who's writing these jokes, Nelson Muntz?

I hope that entire room gets somehow blown to smithereens and only Javier Bardem is somehow spared

Rolling CHALLENGING OPINIONS thread 2008

I can't bring myself to start a new thread in October, but it has begun:

http://weblogs.variety.com/thompsononhollywood/2008/10/oscar-watch-wal.html