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Best Picture: The Constant Gardener How much it deserves to win: Very much indeed Status: Not nominated
Best Actor in Leadin Rôle: David Straithairn, for Good Night and Good Luck HMHDTW: very close btwn. Phoenix and Straithairn Status: nominated, likely to loose to Heath Ledger
Best Actress: Ziyi Zhang for Memoirs of a Geisha HMSTDTW: Keira Knightley deserved the oscar of those nominated Status: not nominated
Best Surporting Actor: Robert Patrick for Walk the Line HMHDTW: Very much, although kudos goes to Ashton Stall for making at least parts of A History of Violence watchable (God that was a bad script) and also to Brenden Gleeson for a great comic performence in Harry Potter. Status: You guessed it, none of them have been nominated
Best Surporting Actress: Maggie Smith for Ladies in Lavender HMSDTW: no real contest Status: bloody typical
Art Direction: Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire HIDTW: All of the nominated ones are actualy very good Status: As often happens, the nominations in the categories which recieve little press atention make more sense.
Cinamatography: The Constant Gardener HMIDTW: Very much, but Memoirs of a Geisha was very good too Status: I guess we'll all have to root for Memoirs of a Geisha
Directing: Good Night and Good Luck HMIDTW: Less techinicly sophisticated than The Constant Gardener, the film still deserves credit for its depth and power. Status: not bad actualy.
Film Editing: The Constant Gardener HMIDTW: Very much indeed Status: No idea
Foreign Language Film: The Best of Youth HMIDTW: It deserves the Best Film Award. Status: despite a 95% favorable review on Rotten Tomatoes including steller reviews by Ebert and Roeper, this extraodinairy film has passed largely beneath the radar of even the arts film community.
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I found Good Night and Good Luck a film that attempted to be deep and powerful and never actually achieved it, personally...
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Totally with you re: W&G, Steve. I got the best ab workout of my life by laughing uncontrollably for the entire, what, hour and a half of that movie. Brilliant, brilliant...
Pelegius: Keira Knightly in what?
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The W&G guys were *so cute*. Best acceptance speech ever; I *loved* the mini-bowties for Oscar.
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Best Actor/should: Joaquin Phoenix, Walk the Line Best Actor/will: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote
Best Picture/should: Walk the Line (not nominated!) Best Picture/will: Brokeback Mountain
Best Actress/should: Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line Best Actress/will: Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line
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"Serenity" for best director, best screenplay, Nathan Fillion for best actor, Summer Glau for best actress.
Since none of those nominations happened, after W&G I'm not interested one way or another for any of the rest, so I'm just enjoying Jon Stewart.
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I would like to thank 3 6 Mafia for waking me up from my montage induced stupor with their rousing rendition of "it's hard out here for a pimp" and their ' traveling minstrel'-style acceptance speech.
[ March 05, 2006, 11:50 PM: Message edited by: Kristen ]
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You have got to be kidding me. I thought that was just nominated to fill out the category. With the rest of the movies nominated, I wouldn't be more surprised if the award was given went to a write-in campaign for Aeon Flux.
Of all the great movies made last year, the big winners ended up being Crash and Memoirs of a Geisha. Every time I watch these things, I'm reminded of how useless and unimpressive the Academy and its awards are.
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Wow. Big upset, for both Crash and for 3-6 Mafia. I think my favorite line from the whole show was Jon Stewart's "Martin Scorsese: 0. 3-6 Mafia: 1." It made me fall out of my chair laughing.
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Yeah, for all their big talk about how progressive Hollywood is, they made a statement tonight about its true nature. One of Hollywood's most obvious talents has always been finding things that everyone really pretty much agrees on and presenting it in a way that makes an audience feel that they're taking a bold and courageous stand.
That's why movies dealing with the destructive consequences of the natural human desire for justice and vengance, a man's search for compassion and understanding toward a convicted murderer, and a gimmick/stereotype-free love story between two people of the same gender will never stand a chance against a film that makes the revolutionary and progressive point that "black people are just as good as white people."
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quote:Originally posted by Evie3217: Wow. Big upset, for both Crash and for 3-6 Mafia. I think my favorite line from the whole show was Jon Stewart's "Martin Scorsese: 0. 3-6 Mafia: 1." It made me fall out of my chair laughing.
Me too. I've been disappointed in the hosting choices the past few years, but Jon Stewart started the long road back to recovery. At least he had some very good one-liners.
quote:Originally posted by Baron Samedi: Yeah, for all their big talk about how progressive Hollywood is, they made a statement tonight about its true nature. One of Hollywood's most obvious talents has always been finding things that everyone really pretty much agrees on and presenting it in a way that makes an audience feel that they're taking a bold and courageous stand.
That's why movies dealing with the destructive consequences of the natural human desire for justice and vengance, a man's search for compassion and understanding toward a convicted murderer, and a gimmick/stereotype-free love story between two people of the same gender will never stand a chance against a film that makes the revolutionary and progressive point that "black people are just as good as white people."
I think we have to remember that the Academy is rather far behind in these respects. Remember the hullaballoo when Halle Berry and Denzel Washington won in the same year? It was like the civil rights movement come again. Give it several decades.
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I liked Crash. The Terrance Howard/Thadie Newton storyline was as arresting as anything I remember seeing in years.
quote:That's why movies dealing with the destructive consequences of the natural human desire for justice and vengance, a man's search for compassion and understanding toward a convicted murderer, and a gimmick/stereotype-free love story between two people of the same gender will never stand a chance against a film that makes the revolutionary and progressive point that "black people are just as good as white people."
WIth Brokeback Mountain, you get the sense that gay relations are tricky business. With Crash, you get the sense that race relations are a muddle. Crash wasn't about how black people are just as good as white people any more than Brokeback Mountain was about how gay people are just as good as hetero people. If anything, both movies show that relationship just are, and there is no simple way to deal with them, one can only use your flawed judgment and endure the consequences and attending degradation.
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Quite frankly, I think they picked it because they're self-centered: Crash is race relations in Los Angeles, which Hollywood (or course) intrinsically understands and is hard at work trying to fix. Posts: 1784 | Registered: Jun 2001
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Well, I suspect they picked Crash because it was so good.
The great thing about Crash is not the portrayal of racism, but rather the portrayal of relationships. It is an interesting commentary that the movie attributes the various racist problems ocurring throughout the movie to a desire to reach out to other people. As a film, I think it was pretty impressive because it seems difficult to pull off - it required strong performances from the whole cast and a script/directing that allowed the relationships to be muddled without allowing the plot itself to become muddled and confusing.
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<rant> I watched about 15 minutes of the Oscars and caught two montages and the "March of the Peguins" win for best Documentary (and one unfunny Jon Stewart joke about pimps being like agents with better hats).
The first montage was a throwback to classic film noir of the 30s and 40s, lots of Bogart and Bacall (and in case you didn't realize that was actually her hosting the montage, there was a 40-foot blow-up of Baby as a young woman on the screen behind her). My cynical thought as I watched it: "Oh, I guess the studios are trying to drum up business for their classic film libraries."
The second montage was of issues movies: Born on the 4th of July, All the President's Men, Brokeback Mountain, Look Who's Coming to Dinner, etc. While I enjoyed most of these movies individually, I felt like taking all these snippets and pasting them together to make a statement about Hollywood's progressive ideals stank of sanctimoniousness. And right in the middle of this pinko-liberal montage, larger than life, was John Wayne. Mr. Progessive himself. All dressed up and off to shoot someone. It was like they'd hired an ex-staffer for Nancy Pelosi to put together this thing on Hollywood's liberal tradition and afterward decided it needed some toughening up and so threw in a shot of John Wayne to appease the masses. Okay, so I'm making a big deal of a short segment, but I did warn you it was a rant. You are now free to return to your regularly scheduled programming. </rant>
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I thought it was rather amusing how several presenters had "There's nothing like seeing it on the big screen" scripted into their presentations. Poor rich Hollywood people. They're afraid of DVDs, Cable, and BOOKS! (Go Larry McMurtry, btw)
Jon Stewart's jokes fell flat as pancakes (even though I really liked him as host.) The evening was just really boring. They even finished 30 minutes early!
Do you guys honestly think that people didn't vote for Brokeback because of the homosexual theme? They obviously liked Ang Lee's interpretation. I imagine it was just a case of not voting for the movie everyone expected them to vote for. Maybe they were all trying to be different... Posts: 6415 | Registered: Jul 2000
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quote:That anyone today thinks this is a deep, meaningful, or unexplored point baffles me.
It's been explored, and it'll keep being explored until it ceases being an issue in the American circumstance.
Kasie, Should I rent Walk the Line? I usually don't like bio films. I didn't see Ray, I was bored by Ali, and while I like Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon is hard for me to watch and listen to.
As to a host, I haven't seen the Oscars since Ellen Degeneris hosted them, but I liked her.
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Kasie: I definitely agree the L.A. factor was important in getting Crash the win. Ebert et. al seemed to be inclined towards Crash winning, beforehand, for that very reason. I liked Crash more than most movies I've seen this year (except King Kong!), but perhaps that says more about the lack of quality films that were made in 2005...
Narnia: You got the DVD thing too? Didn't you feel like that was the entire point of those montages? Sigh, of course the big screen is better--provided I don't have to pay $20 to see a movie in the near future.
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I fell in love with Johnny Cash and Walk the Line. Warning in advance: it's a slow movie, so my guess is you'll either hate it or love it. Still, I was absolutely floored by Joaquin Phoenix's performance -- he really *was* Johnny Cash, and quite frankly the fact that he did all his own vocals really made this movie sing (npi). As for Reese...it really depends what you don't like about her as to whether or not you'll enjoy this performance. She drove me insane in Legally Blonde, but I thought she came across as real in Walk the Line. She isn't that ditzy, floaty character she's played before -- though if you watch her in the onstage scenes, she does pick up that persona. I actually thing that was the genius of her acting here, the contrast between the perky singer and the conflicted single mother trying to deal with the realities of show business.
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I'd be interested to hear what you think of Johnny Cash's music if you checked it out, Irami.
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Irami, you gotta see Ray. I don't usually like biopics either, but I was really moved by Ray. Jamie Foxx was incredible.
quote:America isn't ready for a gay-themed movie to win the Oscar - that's why Crash won.
Which is why Philadelphia did so poorly at the Oscars, like, a decade ago. Please. It wasn't that great an upset. There had been some murmurings of Crash unseating Brokeback's shoe-in (where does that phrase come from, btw?) for some weeks.
edited to put the right movie name in there. Philadelphia was not nominated for best picture, but won two Oscars of the 4 catagories for which it was nominated (it had 5 nominations...two were for best music). In 1994.
quote:I found Good Night and Good Luck a film that attempted to be deep and powerful and never actually achieved it, personally...
I found the complete opposite. I found it was a film that didn't try to be deep and powerful, and yet managed it. There were no yelling matches, no violence, no car crashes, no terrible weeping, and yet it was a really, really great film.
There aren't many films like that around.
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quote:Irami, you gotta see Ray. I don't usually like biopics either, but I was really moved by Ray. Jamie Foxx was incredible.
Yes, Yes. Jamie Foxx was born and raised to play that part. Often movies leave me flat as I get to know a person that I really didn't want to know. Not this one. Ray may be the best bio ever. This assessment is from a fan of "The Glen Miller Story"
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I was expecting Brokeback Mountain to win. Its a good movie with incredible acting, abeit some slow moments plot-wise. I've seen it twice and left the theatre both times with tears in my eyes. I was equally impressed with the varietry of audience members it has attracted, proving that gay rights isn't strictly the domain of young liberals.
HOWEVER, I couldn't have been more thrilled with Crash's win. This movie has been momumental in altering my perspective of my own prejudices and it opened an important dialogue in my family regarding racism, especially inter-race relations. I don't understand how so many people can dismiss this film as just another movie with an unnecessary message. Most movies that deal with race has done it on strictly a white-black level and they depict racism as something foreign. What I loved most about Crash was that it really is a mirror. It opens the possibility that racists may not be "other people" but "ourselves." Outright racism may be dying but a subtler form hidden by self-denial is still strong in this country. The cast and crew should be applauded for bringing this evolved vision of the issue forward, and for doing it so well.
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Crash depicted subtle racism in a not-so subtle way. Just trying to make the distinction clearer.
It just seems that in most entertainment, a racist is depicted as "a person who hates all black/white/asian people," or what not. But in reality, its becoming more and more about those individuals who go to work everyday in a racially diverse office and come home and complain that the neighborhood is going to hell because of all the mexicans/blacks/chinese, etc. As a society we denounce stereotypes but are still held in chains by them. I'm thinking specifically about Sandra Bullock's character and her speech about how she wanted to cross the street when she saw those two black young men nearby. While her character was certainly the proud-racist, that fear can be evident in the most open-minded people. Think about the ending with the good cop, how he hated what his partner did to that woman and how he seemed like the modern color-blind man. And yet, his behavior at the end showed that deep inside, he's scared of a person because of their appearance.
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quote:Shoo-in "easy winner (especially in politics)" (1939) was originally a horse that wins a race by pre-arrangement (1928; the verb phrase shoo in in this sense is from 1908)
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I haven't seen Crash, but I've seen the racism that Shanna is talking about.
My ex-stepfather was an incredibly bigoted man but he couldn't see it or admit it. He would tell you "But I see a black doctor!" Yes, he did, only because he knew that doctor's brother from way back and they were the "good" kind of black people. I actually remember being taught by him that there were different kinds of black people. Some were just black people, and they were pretty much okay you could do business with them (but never date one of course) but then there were the vast majority of black people who were in fact, n------s. Those you could never associate with at all, no matter what and they were the cause for all the ills in the world, it seemed.
Praise God I had a compassionate, loving grandfather who had raised my mother better than that, and I spent a lot of time with my grandparents and they took me to church and taught me that there was only one race of people on this planet and if God chose to create some whose skin looked different than mine that was God's business. My job was to love my neighbor as myself, regardless of what he looked like.
I swore my kids would never be taught such hatred, and we are adamant about not allowing racial slurs in our house.
I have to believe it will get better, in time. Not as fast as we like, but frankly, the generation of my step-father is most likely not going to change, they're going to have to die out and we can only hope their offspring don't inherit their prejudices.
Just the other day we were talking about Martin Luther King Jr., and my five year old son said "Someone killed him because they didn't like what he was saying. Isn't that sad? People shouldn't be killed for saying they want people to live together."
And Crash really was an intense movie. There was this one scene in it, and everyone who has scene it probably knows what it is, that just left me in agony. It was a good portrayal of human misery, realistic without too much sentamentality. I hate too much sappy sentamentality (*cough* Spieberg)
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3-6 mafia was NOT an upset (IMO). There were only three nominations and they were mediocre at best. It definitely felt like a bandwagon vote (just like Crash was the anti-bandwagon vote) to me. I was completely expecting it to win just because it was 'edgy.'
But I'm cynical like that.
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quote:Originally posted by Belle: I have to believe it will get better, in time. Not as fast as we like, but frankly, the generation of my step-father is most likely not going to change, they're going to have to die out and we can only hope their offspring don't inherit their prejudices.
My grandfather, 95 this year, changed long ago. He was probably a generation ahead of your step-father. Although influncenced by the time in which he was born, less than 50 years after the civil war ended and more than 50 years before MLK, he has risen above the racist and discriminatory society that he was born in. And I'm proud of who he is and the courage it takes to do that. So Belle, have hope, people of that generation have been known to change.
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Was the pimp song important to the movie somehow? Because I wasn't all that impressed with any of the songs, really. I guess part of the problem is I don't care for rap and wouldn't know good rap when I see it. Plus, I couldn't understand what they were saying, so if there was an important message there, I missed it...
I was a little disappointed with the humor at the show. Stewart's opening monologue seemed forced, though there were a couple of great moments. Ben Stiller in the "green screen" suit was pretty funny, as was Tom Hanks's demonstration of what happens when a speech goes too long.
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Well, the movie was about a pimp who didn't want to be a pimp any more and so made a rap song about being a pimp, trying to use that as a ticket out of poverty. A significant portion of the movie was THowards' character writing and recording music.
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The award that I agree with most overwhelmingly is Best Score for Brokeback Mountain. That movie with inadequate music would have been much, much poorer for it.
As proven by the endless fake trailers for other buddy movies. Flashes of Jeff Bridges and Jim Carrey are suddenly poignant due to the music.
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