Thursday
Feb102011
Open Thread, Oscar Topics?
Thursday, February 10, 2011 at 2:00PM With just slightly over two weeks until Oscar night, I'm wondering what golden statuesque topics y'all would like to see covered here on the blog and/or discussed on the podcast? More than most years, many of the big topics felt played out by nomination time and The Social Network vs. The King's Speech even feels worth shoving aside. That's one reason that the Melissa Leo story blew up: it didn't have a lot of competition for conversation.
What's on your mind? Don't be shy.
P.S. Over the next couple of weeks we'll also bring back the regular movie series (Hit Me With Your Best Shot, etcetera...) and move on from 2010. Nearly dunzo!
Reader Comments (35)
Oscar Presenters are currently on my mind. I want to see if they have the same people returning over and over again. (I'm talking to YOU, Cameron Diaz!!!) Why?!? She's never even been nominated, lol. Tsk Tsk,,,
I would love to see former film co-starrs reunited. How about Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon presenting Best Picture?? Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman presenting Best Director.
Hell even Michael Douglas and Sharon Stone!
How fun would that be to see indebile former film roles repaired?? :-)
My mind is currently off the Oscars because I just watched the newest episode of Glee where Naya Rivera where's the sexiest nurse outfit I've ever seen.
I think Helena Bonham Carter will upset for Best Supporting Actress.
Helena Bonham Carter and Tilda Swinton should present together... Awesomeness factor: 12 out of 10
I'm curious of your opinion on the best actress race in the Independent Spirit Awards. It seems that at least in the past ten years it's almost like a runner up award to the eventual Oscar winner, Gabourey to Sandra, Melissa to Kate, Ellen P to Marion, Felicity to Reese, Catalina to Hillary, Julianne to Nicole, Sissy to Halle, Ellen B to Julia . . . Only Charlize winning both. Five of the six nominees are up for the Oscar. Does Natalie take it too? Do any of the other four Oscar nominees stand a chance at this "consolation" prize? Does Greta even have a prayer?
I want Michelle Williams to win Indie Spirit, though I doubt it considering Ryan Gosling got snubbed there too.
Even though I haven't seen Rabbit Hole yet I'm hoping for Nicole to win the spirit award. She's the only Oscar actress nominee to not win anything this year.
I'd rather see Helena Bonham Carter surprisingly win Best Supp Actress rather than Hailee Steinfeld!!!
Two completely off-topic (sorry) observations:
1. According to her Wikipedia page (and the sources cited), Michelle Williams won a futures trading competition in 1997. So random! Maybe she should have been in Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.
2. Christian Bale looked like Rasputin at the Golden Globes. Biopic? Sounds like something totally up his alley.
Sorry, carry on with the Oscar discussions. Anyone want to speculate on the celebrity-nominee matchups in Actress and Actor? I think Gosling for Williams is pretty obvious--snubbing Peter Sarsgaard didn't stop AMPAS from inviting him to present Carey Mulligan last year. Though maybe they should bring back Katie Holmes to introduce Williams for the lulz! Hawkes for Lawrence is probably a lock, too.
Penelope Cruz would be perfect for Javier Bardem if they weren't married, haha. Now it would just be incredibly tacky. Hopefully it'll be Josh Brolin (and then you wouldn't know if he's there for Bridges or Bardem ... or even Franco!). I would die in happiness if Jennifer Ehle showed up to present Colin Firth. It's actually a small possibility this year since Ehle appeared in TKS. I'll be pissed if they ask Renee Zellweger.
Others I can think of: Sean Penn for James Franco, Andrew Garfield for Jesse Eisenberg.
I think Jennifer Lawrence will get the Spirit Award & I pray on my KNEE for Dale Dickey to get Best Supp. Actress (But I guess everyone who follow this blog already know this...)
Sorry for being redundant, but for me she gave the best performence (all gender or categorie) PERIODE!
I'm curious to know who you think of the nominated people, who is likely to become a fixture (Fincher and Boyle 2 noms now, Michelle Williams second nod) and who is more likely to be one and done.
How about revisiting some of the earlier Oscar nods from some of our nominees, and see how they're holding up? Natalie Portman in Closer, Michelle Williams in Brokeback Mountain, Javier Bardem in Before Night Falls, the fabulous Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge! (or The Hours, but MR! is more fun), take your pick on Bening/Bridges/Rush's nods, Amy Adams in Junebug, Helena Bonham Carter in The Wings of the Dove... plus a Fincher (Fight Club) or Aronofsky (Requiem for a Dream) trip back for good measure.
Also, since we've seen comments from Amy Adams and others on Bale finally getting nominated, what are some earlier picks from his career that should have let us know he'd be picking up the Golden Boy eventually?
Hmm...celeb match? (My one rule is: Presenter can't be in the movie they're nominated for or in a movie nominated for Best Picture):
Lead Actor:
Rebecca Hall for Javier Bardem
Julia Roberts for James Franco (or a "Hathaway introducing Franco gag." They are the hosts, after all.)
Emma Stone for Jesse Eisenberg
Julianne Moore for Jeff Bridges
Meryl Streep or Renee Zellweger for Colin Firth
Lead Actress:
Kevin Spacey or John Cusack for Anette Bening
Jean Reno for Natalie Portman
Bill Engvall for Jennifer Laurence (outside of John Hawkes, he's the only male who has any business to talk about working with her at this point, and Hawkes violates a rule I have and I think the Academy should share.)
Philip Seymour Hoffman for Michelle Williams
Ewan McGregor for Nicole Kidman
I pray they don't present the awards the same way they've been doing. It was awesome for the '08/'09 ceremony, when each past winner had a nominee and said something really nice about them and their performance...I loved that. But last year it just got really messy - the Oscars were messy in general last year.
I miss seeing the clips for both supporting AND leading. Please bring them back, and stop the corny speeches.
unless it's more speeches about colin farrell spooning with jeremy renner
I completely agree with Philip in that I miss clips at the ceremony. I especially love seeing the actors reactions to those clips. I keep wondering if there will be a shock in the acting awards come Oscar night. Somethings feels like it just goes has been going too smoothly but I can't say which category will surprise (probably Best Supporting Actress, but who knows).
Also, are you going to do the "how did they get nominated" this year for the nominees. They are always so insightful and hilarious at the same time.
The Harry Potter franchise is getting some kind of lifetime achievement-ish award at the BAFTAS. Any chance this is the beginning of awards raining down on the series next year? Or will it be relegated to cinematography and art direction nods, just like always?
I know you're not a fan of The Deathly Tent, but the series overall has brought such pleasure (and with a lot of finesse) over the years. Seems to me like it's "due" for some attention.
Last year's Oscar ceremony was actually one of my favorites in recent years, and I really liked the speeches given to the leading actor nominees. I just wish all of the people who gave said speeches were actually involved in the movie that the actor/actress was nominated for.
A few things on my mind:
1) How many Oscars will The King's Speech actually win? In some years, you can watch the earlier awards and see if a single film is sweeping the techs which indicates a sweep year (and lazy voters).
2) I work in Post so I'm still peeved about Inception's Editing snub. I mean, I know the general voting body doesn't know what editing or sound mixing actually is and usually vote Best Picture, but when a craft group doesn't even know their own craft, that's just ridiculous. Guess I'm rooting for Black Swan (club sequence alone) or Social Network (the opening webpage making sequence alone) to win on their merit, but I know King's Speech will get this simply because it's winning Best Picture.
3) I seriously hope that this year's show is a return to form as far as the actual telecast goes. Last year's was just fucking awful. I loved the '08 Oscars with Hugh Jackman (minus the ridiculous middle of the show "Musicals are back! (But not really)" musical number.). The whole presenting the categories as "these are the elements that go into making a film. Let's start with screenplay" approach was nice and gave the show a narrative.
3b) ...And let's keep things simple. Present the awards in a straight forward manner with clips, do a quick "Honorary Oscar Dinner" montage, do a quick "Tech Awards Dinner" montage, an In Memoriam, perform the four Song nominees and get out of there. Last year's, Best Picture nominee montages for the first ten bumpers were a nice way of presenting that, keep that. Otherwise, the stars and presenters bring enough glitz on their own and how many "From the beginning of time..." "Here's a random horror retrospective" montages do you really need?
sanfran -- i'm trying not to think of the inevitable prizes for Harry Potter next year. isn't it enough that it's dominated the cultural landscape for an entire decade? Can i get some relief?
Not Oscar related but I thought I'd say: Deakins interview, piece on Jane Eyre, piece on The Bening... today has been a helluva good day at the blog. Great stuff.
No guts, no glory? The Social Network is still going to win Best Picture. I told you first.
Having friends or former coworkers come present nominees can actually work if they choose the right people. Way better than the crappy intros Frank Langella, Brad Pitt, and Richard Jenkins got from Oscar winners who had no prior interaction with the nominees. I miss the clip reel too, sometimes, but we do get it for the other categories. I could actually do without the individual Best Pic nominee introductions--they're long and unnecessary for films that are, for the most part, already overexposed.
I've been trying to decide if I want Alexandre Desplat to win for scoring The King's Speech. Is that the film score I want his name etched down in history for? I'm thinking no. On the other hand, that he doesn't have an Oscar for consistently excellent work these past few years is baffling to me.
But what do I know? I wanted him to win for The Queen over they unending diddly-diddly-doos of Babel.
OtherRobert, I know just what you mean! I wanted Desplat to win for his score for "The Queen;" I wanted him to win even more for his score for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button." I'd have loved for him to have been nominated for "The Ghost Writer," which was my favourite score of 2010.
However, the score for "The King's Speech" is, IMHO, very blah. Ten minutes after walking out of the theatre, I couldn't remember it. A few weeks ago, after he got nominated, I bought the soundtrack CD, played it through...and ten minutes later, I couldn't remember it. Enough said!
Nathaniel-I have to challenge this thought process on Harry Potter. What would it say if the most successful movie franchise of all-time (it's out-earned Star Wars, Batman, and Bond) never went home with a single solitary Academy Award. Yes, it's dominated the cultural landscape, but there has to be some Academy recognition here as well. We're not talking about a Transformers situation here-there are some superb technical elements here, with incredible art direction, cinematography, and one of the most iconic scores of the past ten years. It may be exhausting, but there has to be some respect paid-the series, like it or not, is a part of film history now (not in the same way as Casablanca or The Sound of Music, but in the same way that the Batman movies and Bond movies are).
OtherRobert & Bill_the_Bear
Desplat has The Tree of Life and the final HP installment coming out next year possibly pulling in duel nods (if Tree of Life's music is original, I'll predict he wins right here and now) so I'm not holding my breath/sending my prayers for him this year. Especially when three great score are nominated this year (Dragon, Inception, Network) I'd hate to see him take it. Let him wait for it until the nod is rich a la Giacchino. However, yes, he should've won by now for some of his unjustly snubbed strokes of brilliance like Birth, Girl with a Pearl Earring and Lust Caution.
Graham -- I hope you're right on your last two points (3 and 3b). Last year's presenting really DID get messy, as Philip said.
Robert -- thank you. I've been feeling discouraged lately. it's so weird i used to post just a photo at the old blog and there'd be 25 comments. I build a beautiful new home and suddenly everyone is quiet. *scratches head*
otherrobert -- agreed in terms of history. But then how often do oscar wins reflect someone's best work?
Mark -- The Tree of Life score, is, like all of Malick's stuff a mixture of pre-existing musics and new score (i spoke about it with Desplat) so I guess we'll just have to see how the Academy rules on it a year from now.
John T -- it's not like Bond & Batman won all that many prizes, either. I guess i'm just discouraged when the movies get too much like TV. I really don't think Oscars should be given to cumulative achievements and Harry Potter is EXACTLY like a big budget cable event, people waiting for the new season to start each year (each season is 7 half hour episodes shoved together and released all it once), with the same beloved cast and special guest stars and new Big Bads (which are all really the same Big Bad). Give it an Honorary Emmy and let's move on. You know 4 years ago I was starting to enjoy it (Order of Phoenix) but it's just SO DAMN REPETITIVE. I really can't stomach it anymore. I know i'm in the minority but I don't recall every wanting to see *anything* every year for a whole decade... except for maybe Woody Allen movies from 1985-1994 but they had different casts, characters and plots each time ;)
I guess i just can't understand how people aren't bored with it yet. Lord of the Rings was only 3 years long! And James Bond gives you huge breaks in between your episodes.
John T: Potter'll take Cinematography and Art Direction, but not a whole plate of wins. (Maybe 4 noms total (VFX, Cinematography, Score and Lead Actor.)) And which Batman movies are we talking here? The Nolan series is going to be iconic, but the question is: Iconic like the Dollars trilogy, where the last film released is so good it's undeniable, the Godfather trilogy where it fails to stick the landing, or the Once Upon a Time Trilogy, where all three films (I've only seen West and America) are supposedly very good, but one is forgotten for some reason (In this case, Begins is going to become a curio, like Duck You Sucker!/Once Upon a Time...The Revolution/A Fistful of Dynamite.)
Sorry, I meant 5. (Cinematography, Art Direction, Score, VFX and Lead Actor.) But your point on Nolan's Batman is off, John T. Nolan's not perfect (why did he get so many scads of noms for the thoroughly average Inception), but Memento, The Prestige and The Dark Knight are better than most of what Hollywood forces on us. All of them are, in their own way, masterful cinema. And at least two Nolan Batman's will survive, if not all 3. The question is: Which ones?
Volvag -- there is no way in hell that Harry Potter is going to be nominated for Best Actor.
but i do worry that they might give it a best picture nomination just as a way to commemorate the series which would be okay (if the film is good) but because of the rabid fandom in all age groups i worry that IF it is nominated, couldnn' it win? yikes.
Nathaniel -
Thanks for clearing up some stuff about the Tree of Life's score. Cool to see Malick is gonna go for his classical mix-tape route yet again. His selections are always stunning yet unexpected. Ugh, this gets me even more excited for the movie.
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