February 23, 2009
10 Random Questions About the Oscars
Since we liveblogged the Oscars last night (click here for our lively chat), it's only appropriate that an Academy Awards recap (see also: the winners list) be presented as a meme. I tag all of you in a photo of Tina Fey and Steve Martin.
1. Is it just me, or does the easily excitable Danny Boyle still seem as surprised as everyone that Slumdog Millionaire was the film of his to take the proverbial cake? "Really? This middlebrow crowd pleaser?"
2. How did Departures (a/k/a "the Foreign-Language Film nominee in the wild-card fifth slot that nobody has actually seen") win a trophy, Mr. Roboto? Even The Baader Meinhof Complex would've made a more sensible surprise.
3. Does Miley Cyrus in Narnia© Barbie® come with any accessories?
4. Sean Penn's a worthy winner, but in a parallel universe, could Mickey Rourke's Oscar speech have been any more raucous or outlandishly digressive than his wonderful acceptance rant from the previous night's Spirit Awards? (And as Question 4B, why hasn't anyone given Eric Roberts a meaty comeback role?)
5. Even though glitzy musical numbers have been the bane of many a year's awards show, why was I so won over by Hugh Jackman's sweded recession spectacular?
6. Why didn't Man on Wire's Philippe Petit put the "fun" back in funambulism by tiptoeing up to the stage from the farthest balcony? Regardless, balancing an Oscar on your chin gets you in the highlights reel for the next six decades.
7. Does each year's loudest film always win Best Sound Editing? That's how I rationalized (and correctly predicted) The Dark Knight in my Oscar pool.
8. How did Greg Cannom win Best Makeup Design for Benjamin Button when he told me himself that he only aged Brad Pitt with practical appliances from ages 62 down to 47? I wasn't wowed on Blanchett's aging effects, either. It should'a been Hellboy II.
9. Speaking of Pitt, must we live in a world where any time Jennifer Aniston and Angelina Jolie are in the same room together, we still need to point out ("Camera three, cut to…") a divorce that happened four years ago? Also, Brangelina will stop posing like royalty if you stop treating them like they are.
10. Aside from that, was this the most enjoyable, least offensive, quickest paced Oscars in years?
Posted by ahillis at February 23, 2009 10:08 AM
Aaron, I can't help but ask: What meaty comeback would you place Eric Roberts in?
Posted by: Joe Bowman at February 23, 2009 11:18 AMNot sure on that. Maybe a post-apocalyptic drama about a high-level government employee who has to live with the guilt that he pushed the button himself while on a bender. Or the sequel to The Wrestler. Or better yet, a sequel to The Pope of Greenwich Village, costarring The Wrestler.
Posted by: Aaron Hillis at February 23, 2009 11:24 AMIf Daryl Hannah's game, so am I!
Posted by: Joe Bowman at February 23, 2009 11:37 AMDon't get me started on Hellboy II, Aaron. All the hand-wringing over TDK's lack of love at the Oscars and yet this visually inventive genre masterpiece gets a goose egg. Another nomination or two at least would've been nice.
Posted by: Craig P at February 23, 2009 11:40 AMYou think Boyle's still smarting over not getting the big prize for A LIFE LESS ORDINARY or THE BEACH? We're not talking about Scorsese here.
Posted by: ehynes at February 23, 2009 11:52 AMNot smarting, just shocked. Aren't you? Would you have called that one four months ago?
Posted by: Aaron Hillis at February 23, 2009 11:56 AMBenjamin Button wins makeup because the Academy doesn't understand how it was made (if they did, it would have likely cleaned up a few other categories, too, like editing).
Departures isn't as big a foreign-language surprise as some may think (though I kept denying that it might happen to friends). It's the only film of the five that had people bawling in the screening I saw, and that tends to win votes, even if it's not the best of the bunch (that distinction goes to Revanche -- or better yet, the not-nominated Gomorrah).
Posted by: Peter Debruge at February 23, 2009 1:24 PMDon't dis Angelina -- I'm very protective of my future second wife.
Posted by: Flickhead at February 23, 2009 1:26 PMNo, I wouldn't have and didn't call that one four months ago, but maybe we both should have. Considering what they've pulled off in recent years - three straight Best Pic noms for three films not remotely Best Pic-worthy (though god knows what that even means) - nothing about Fox Searchlight's marketing genius should surprise us ever again.
Posted by: ehynes at February 23, 2009 1:30 PMFox Searchlight is as indestructible as Sophia Loren. But won't age as well.
Posted by: vadim at February 23, 2009 3:59 PMAs far as foreign film goes, I figured Bashir covered too many categories to win. It was animated and a documentary so people would feel it was in the wrong category for foreign language film. I read that supposedly the panel that decides the foreign film nominees were strong-armed into including The Class and Baader Meinhof, which were not originally in the top 5 votegetters, which might indicate the Academy (and remember the only people who vote on foreign are the people who prove they see all five) weren't that enthusiastic about them. As far as Eric Roberts goes, I think he still suffers from that time years ago when Julia's star was rising and he tried to grab on by implying that he'd slept with his sister or something sick like that.
Posted by: Edward Copeland at February 24, 2009 11:06 AM
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