I can’t exactly keep my mouth shut about the Oscars even though I talked more than enough about them yesterday, and there is this sort of post-traumatic-stress-disorder that accompanies the aftermath of the awards each year. But I’ll try to keep it brief. Especially since I could never compete with Uncle Grambo’s, minute-by-minute recap.
I’ve already exposed my deep appreciation for The Lord of the Rings, but I definitely didn’t expect it to win all 11 categories. While accepting the best foreign language film prize for The Barbarian Invasions, producer Denise Robert quipped her thanks for the New Zealand-based production of Rings not being eligible in this category, and I’m sure a few Master and Commander winners were thinking the same thing. Peter Weir, looked resigned to his also-ran fate from the first time he showed-up on camera.
Leaving aside any comments on the Sweep of the Rings, here are a few other random notes on this year’s Oscar night:
- I don’t get into the pre-show much because I’ve broken too many TVs listening to too many stupid red-carpet questions from people who act like the various celebs best friends but don’t even know the name of their subject’s film. But my girlfriend was watching that horrible excuse for a TV channel – E! – and suddenly Joan Rivers turned around. HOLY SHIT!! What the hell happened to her? Kids, consider that a public service announcement. Facelifts combined with botox can lead to dangerous results. Nothing on her face moved except her mouth. The combination of paralyzed eyelid muscles and really heavy makeup made it look like her eyes were closed the entire time. Forget her fawning over Gary Ross for no good reason … although maybe she’s shooting for the lead in his next film about a horse.
- Joe Roth, a movie producer by trade, never having produced a second of television yet chosen to oversee last night’s Oscar-cast, deserves kudos for not screwing up anything. In fact, while the show lacked excitement, the producer of the annual telecast really only has two important jobs: picking the right host, and making the show as short as humanly possible. Coming in last night at 3 hours, 40 minutes, sleep-inducing or not, you really can’t expect any better. Sure, the TV listings always say 3 hours, but there’s no one on that production team that expects to be off-the-air by 11:30 eastern. The show was somewhat shorter because there weren’t 50 unnecessary tributes to the greatness of the movie industry. In fact, there wasn’t one segment, whether I actually enjoyed it or not, that I would have cut, and I don’t believe I’ve ever said that before.
- Billy Crystal did a great job as usual. No, he wasn’t dead-on the entire evening, and no, not every joke hit, but everyone seems to have these unreasonable expectations for what the Oscar host can do. (The “Mystic River” song to Clint was great. “Seabiscuit,” not so much, but then, that’s how the movies were too.) It really is a thankless job, and quite simple, Billy is the best at it right now, although I’d love to see Steve Martin do it again.
- Major kudos to Tim Robbins for making the right social (as opposed to political) statement during his acceptance speech. Everyone was waiting for his Bush-bashing, and I’m sure Rush and Hannity are all pissed-off they don’t have Tim to kick-around on their radio shows this morning. A political statement wasn’t necessary, but the PSA he gave to silenced abuse-victims was right on target.
- Wow! Bill Murray looked pissed. I guess his Spirit win wasn’t good enough for him. As a connoisseur of misanthropy, Bill, I feel your pain, but get over it.
- I was almost as shocked as Errol Morris that his film won the docu prize over the more popular and accessible Capturing the Friedmans because I didn’t expect the conservative Academy (AMPAS is so definitely exhibit one against the idea of there being only liberals in Hollywood) to give the prize to a man who is so obviously a freak-of-nature. But he was right about his film potentially doing some good. Sadly, those in charge are probably too blinded by their own arrogance to recognize the similarities between that situation and our current predicament.
Eh … promise broken. Brevity, not a strong suit. Need to work on that as develop blog. Maybe leaving out preps and pronouns helps. My Oscar-fix is done and should hold me over for the next 10 months or so when those DTs should kick-in again right on sched.
Out of Focus 