Obligatory Oscar ramblings
for me there were really no high expectations about the this year's Academy Awards in general as a production and a show. i admit that my main motivation to watch this year's Oscar Awards Ceremony was merely to see how Jon Stewart was going to have a stab at hosting. But it was great to see Eric Bana and his nice curly do too.
view the Oscar nominees and winners if you wish.
although reviews of Stewart's hosting have been mixed, i actually enjoyed myself, and concluded that there is just no pleasing people, so fuck it all and have fun. when it was announced months ago that he will take the Oscar hosting helm, some people were scared that he will be too offensive, based on his incisive political satire on The Daily Show With Jon Stewart. Now that the gig is finished, he's accused of being too nice, too bland, with some jokes falling flat, or being lukewarmly received.
for all that has been said, no one accused him of being dumb. hah! i think it takes more than a bit of gray matter to point to a giant styrofoam Oscar statue and say, "Do you think if we all got together and pulled this down, democracy would flourish in Hollywood?"one has to admit that the meat of his funniest material still come from his social commentary and political zingers. although the Cheney-Bjork's swan dress dig is a little expected, one has to give gold medals to the diatribe on LA's immorality joke for at least its delivery. not to mention his take on movies who pursued journalistic truth "...needless to say, these are period pieces." even the funniest filmed gags were framed as political ads.
extra hearts too to Jon the soft-hearted Jew brutha giving props to Three 6 Mafia, and their unpretentious enthusiasm accepting their Oscar for Best Original Song: "For those of you keeping score at home, Martin Scorsese, zero; Three 6 Mafia, one." and i haven't gotten to the gay jokes yet! and the gay cowboy montage! and the Stewart/Clooney slasharama!
i think he achieved being cuttingly ascerbic but watered down enough for network execs not to have a coronary. after all, you gotta eat, you gotta make it to the next day to make the kind of comedy that you are really meant to make. the mere fact that he poked fun at everyone (Russell Crowe, George Clooney: how "Good Night and Good Luck" is also a line he says to his dates; Steven Spielberg: on how Jews might say "I can't wait to see what happens to us next!' Trilogy!" post-Schindler's List and Munich) including himself (the opening intro montage where you see every past comedian who helmed the Oscars as well as Mr. Moviefone saying no to another stab at it, only to be left with Stewart as the final option; saying after lukewarm snickers after a joke: "I'm a loser;" After another rib at Clooney: "I kid because i envy.") in order to make nice and did so with so much finesse deserves some props.
in the end, after the gold statuettes have been given away, i just hope people will now tune in to The Daily Show and have their shot of Stewart straight up, and not on the rocks.
On the division of the Oscar spoils itself... why do i feel like the conversation inside the decision-making chambers was "okay, lets give most of the artsy awards to Memoirs Of A Geisha, then most of the techie awards to King Kong?" Oh well. am just pleased as punch for Philip Seymour Hoffman, and i'm damn regretting it even more now that i passed up a chance to see Capote in a New York arthouse for half-price only to opt to pay full cineplex price for the chance to watch the disappointment that is Match Point, and to add insult to injury, watched Capote on pDVD. and despite being a Brokeback Mountain diehard, i knew that they wouldn't get as much as some people expected. but i am happy that they got the ones that i thought they should get - Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.
ETA: Backstage at the Kodak Theater. Turns out Paul Smith has a great sense of humor. :)
other Oscar fun stuff...
-- yay for the charm of further self-deprecation -- George Clooney razzing his own stint in Batman in his Best Supporting Actor award acceptance speech,and Keira Knightley attributing her own self-effacing nature to being "British" in the pre-Oscar show.
-- Steve Carell and Will Ferrell milking the crowd for a laugh by donning freaky makeup to present Best Makeup was great. am i the only one who finds Steve Carell in eyeliner and false eyelashes, or just plain Steve Carell in anything, a turn-on? he just might end up bundled right next to Stephen Colbert in my boy-toy baul.
-- Music: the obvious lack of Beyonce song numbers is comforting, although i had an OMG moment watching that production for "In The Deep" that will make Isadora Duncan strangle herself with a scarf and a steering wheel all over again if she saw it. And Dolly! you can be my perky little Nashville gay icon anytime. I love you! the inclusion of Bird York in the nominees and Itzhak Perlman playing snippets of the nominated scores for Best Original Score is a good choice. was just lent a CD sampler of some past Gustavo Santaolalla stuff, and i have to say that he deserved his award for the Brokeback Mountain Score.
-- boo to overlooking the glory that is Tim Burton's Corpse Bride over Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, although seeing Nick Park and Steve Box clothe their statuettes with large bowties that match their own was cute.
-- WAFFs and then some: i wanted to steal one of the penguin dolls that the "March of the Penguins" contingent carried to the stage when they accepted their Best Documentary Feature award. and when Chicken Little presented the Best Animated Short Film award, i realized that some people were right in saying that Chicken Little looked like that nerdy kid in American Idol.
-- Reese? Reese Witherspoon? all right, all right, keeping my yap decidedly shut.