Better meta on the oscars

[jlh]

Yes, I put it in the TIVO. Yes, I'm rewatching it, alone, because I'm obsessive. Also, I had to watch the second half of Ryan's red carpet, and for reals: the way he handled Gary Busey proves everything I say about his abilities and professionalism. He's piles of awesome, under a veneer of complete ridiculousness.

The opener was lame, but I appreciate that Jon Stewart didn't even bother trying to do the Billy Crystal-style opener, but focused on the monologue, which fucking rocked. (I particularly enjoyed the Yom Kippur joke, and the reaction shot of Wesley and Spike at the black president joke.)

Best Costumes: Jennifer Garner's weird boob squish and loose hair looked better full frontal on camera as she was presenting then they did on the red carpet. The woman who won for Elizabeth was fucking awesome.

80 Years of Oscar Montage: Oh Clooney, you're so clearly nervous and trying not to show it, which is sweet. The montage was awesome, but I do miss the ridiculous and mysterious production numbers, the interpretive dances of the costume nominees and/or best songs. It led a silliness that the show sort of needs, which is why it's nice that Stewart is back.

Best Animated Feature: The Anne Hathaway and Steve Carrell bit was adorable. The win was disappointing. Brad Bird talked too long.

Best Makeup: : Oh Katherine you were so nervous, woe! There is nothing about this you couldn't do! And you looked fantastic! Also again, thank god Norbit didn't win. Yay La Vie en Rose! Yay for makeup that's just about making someone look kind of like someone else and also aging winning, rather than like, massive craziness.

"Happy Working Song" Wow, you go Amy Adams! You owned that stage and you were on it all by yourself! Fantastic!

Best Visual Effects: The Rock was possibly the best presenter all evening. Fucking hilarious. Those who saw The Golden Compass feel it was the only Oscar it should have won, and so it was.

Best Art Direction: Cate Blanchett, gorg. Sweeney Todd, totally deserved, though I liked that American Gangster was nominated as you don't often see that for that kind of film.

Supporting Actor Montage: I like that they dealt with the whole history thing with these montages. They give the sense of the span of time without getting overly self-important, and it's always fun to see the old footage of the awards themselves. Oh, wasn't Cuba Gooding Jr. the best? Doesn't it suck that there aren't enough good parts for him?

Best Supporting Actor: I really loved Jennifer Hudson's dress; I think she looked sleek and beautiful and the hair was perfect. Everyone knew Javier Bardem was going to take it, and the Spanish, definitely awesome.

Fake Montages are awesome sauce! Binoculars and periscopes! Bad dreams!

"Raise It Up": So on the red carpet Keri Russell told Ryan that her friend told her she should rap in her intro to the song, and Ryan said "yes, you should do 'Bust a Move' and then started doing it, and Keri said, "wow, I love you so much more now." Me too, Keri. Me too. Oh, right, the song: fantastic. A little generic-black-church-blah-blah, except maybe for the opening with just a man and a piano. And what was with the people in the "pews" on stage?

Best Live Action Short Film: Oh, Owen, we love you so. But I hate that for this, and animated short, and the docs often, you have to find some special screening to see the movies in the first place. Also, why were they all foreign?

Best Animated Short Film: I hate the whole presentation by the animated character thing. It's silly. Also, I'm not sure Peter and the Wolf is really in danger of going away and needed to be saved by an animated short.

Best Supporting Actress: Again, love the montage, especially Ruth Gordon. Tilda Swinton was a total surprise, but go her, because she's been so amazing for so long in so many things. Also, fucking awesome that she used the opportunity to go after Clooney.

Scientific and Technical Awards: Oh, Jessica Alba looks so great, doesn't she? It's sort of adorable that they get some little starlet to host the awards for the engineers, but it also makes you mindful of how completely behind-the-scenes is male and the girls just mostly get to do the pretty work.

Best Adapted Screenplay: I love me some James McAvoy long time, and it's cute that Josh Brolin had such a huge film this year, and also that he apologized to Jack for his non-impersonation. Yay Coens!

Process Montage: Seriously, no one cares.

"That's How You Know": Miley Cyrus, cute, a pro, slipped on that same spot in the stage that everyone else did. For the best thoughts on Kristen Chenowith, see wordplay's entry on the subject.

Sound Editing, Sound Mixing: I'm kind of over Seth Rogan for a lot of reasons, so while they were adorable, I sort of didn't care and thought the joke was lame. That said, I hate that they presented these two awards in a little package, even if both of them went to Bourne.

Best Actress Loving these montages! (Klute is a great movie that everyone should see, by the way.) Forest Whitaker is made of awesome, pretty much. Yay Marion Cotillard!

"Falling Slowly": Oh, Colin Farrell, you're so caring. This was easily our favorite musical performance of the evening.

Best Picture montage: Oh JACK. I like that the best picture montage was separate from the award.

Best Editing: Renee is so damn squinty. And Bourne wins again! DUDE. Trend!

Honorary Award for Production Designer Robert Boyle: You know, Nicole always looks great, but I wish she'd taken a tier off that necklace. Fantastic honorary award here.

So the whole, let's get the foreign actress (this time Penelope Cruz) to present the foreign oscar thing is really old. Go Austria, though.

"So Close": McDreamy is a Mainer. Just thought I'd put that out there. Song was boring, though.

Best Song: Travolta reads gayer every year, doesn't he? Yay Once! Interesting what applause it got just with its nomination being read. And then Jon Stewart wins my heart permanently by bringing the woman back out to give her acceptance speech.

Best Cinematography: Oh Cameron Diaz. There Will Be Blood did have huge vistas, so there you go.

People who died, died montage: Favorite montage, but I hate Hilary Swank. I love, though, that they ended on Heath.

Best Score: Amy Adams is just a cutie, isn't she? But why were many of the examples from John Williams? What is that about? Atonement, you know, whatever.

Best Documentary Short and Feature: I'm really beginning to find Tom Hanks sort of irritating. The servicemen thing was a nice idea, though I'm not sure how well it actually worked. That said, I love the irony that the short doc that won was about a fight for benefits for same sex partners in New Jersey, and the feature about the war in Iraq.

Best Original Screenplay: I love that Diablo Cody got her award from Harrison Ford. Perhaps my favorite hand off of the evening.

Best Actor: Seriously, these montages are fabulous, especially the focus on John Wayne's speech. Helen Mirren looked awesome. Daniel Day Lewis, also awesome.

Best Director: That the montage started with Lemmon and Matthau was genius. That Marty finally got his was fantastic. Yay Coens!

Best Picture: What's exciting about Denzel giving out Best Picture is that this presenter slot is for establishment types. So, yeah. Yay Coens!

On these let's remembers, I feel, it was so 70s hollywood royalty wasn't it? Streisand, Speilberg, Michael Douglas (and Catherine Zeta-Jones), Elton John. Well, okay, Poitier. That one was good.

Comments

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

Best Song: Travolta reads gayer every year, doesn't he? Yay Once! Interesting what applause it got just with its nomination being read. And then Jon Stewart wins my heart permanently by bringing the woman back out to give her acceptance speech.

Oh, didn't he just? <3333 Jon is such a mensch. And I love the song so much.

And Javier Bardem is very sexy (IMO) IRL. Whereas his Anton Chigurgh (sp?) scared the bejeebers out of me.

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I started getting nervous about that slippery spot on the stage!

I so do not like Kristen Chenoweth. I much preferred Amy Adams--though I'm glad Once won and what class, JS, for letting the woman come out and finish her speech which was really nice.

Btw, I assume you have seen the Jimmy Kimmel clip?

[toastoos.livejournal.com]

More people need to love Ryan. Seriously. He is just not appreciated enough.

I haven't seen any of the movies nominated and that's probably why I enjoyed it as much as I did, since I wasn't focused on the hollywood politics of it all. Jon Stewart was pure awesome. I hope he's back next year.

And I now have a great desire to go buy the Enchanted soundtrack.

[tartpants.livejournal.com]

Brad Renfro seemed like a pretty big person to forget from the dead montage. I know he was an addict, and hadn't worked lately, but he did some big films in his day. :(