Oscar night 2005
To Mark Dansereau, Feb. 28, 2005
I had called Cate Blanchett, Morgan Freeman, Hilary Swank and Jamie Foxx, but I was a bit surprised that they didn't give Best Picture/Director to The Aviator. It just seemed like the sort of big-movie epic they like to honor, and an overdue prize for Marty. I was frankly amazed that they did not give Best Director to Scorsese. I mean, for christ's sake, how many times will they snub him? Is it because he lives in New York and not LA? Eastwood's already got one anyway... I just don't get it. I had thought Marty was an absolute lock. I would probably place the Aviator above Million Dollar Baby; I did like all of the artistry of The Aviator and especially its incredibly designed test-flight crash scenes, even though I thought Leonardo was hardly convincing as a 50-year-old. And the Senate hearings scenes toward the end sort of drop into the movie abruptly, after the story's made you believe that Hughes had already turned into a total basket case unable to tie his shoes, let alone get the best of a panel of hostile senators on national television.
We just saw Baby, and I do appreciate the power of it. Great performances all around. I don't want to spoil it , but you walk out feeling like you've been punched hard in the stomach by the turns the story takes vs. your expectations, and as the credits rolled I couldn't help but feel that the story's whole intention had been to crack me on the jaw in the last half-hour and yell "Ha! Got you!" as I fell to the floor, and that just seemed like really manipulative moviemaking to me. I just felt sort of... used. So I guess I don't know how to feel about Million Dollar Baby, but I think it is probably not the very best film of the year, anyway. Lots of people will disagree, obviously, including about 900 critics.
I felt bad that the very talented and graceful Annette Bening had to lose to Hilary Swank a second time; I felt very, very bad for Scorsese. And the fact that Paul Giammati was not nominated at all -- when everybody else associated with Sideways was, including notably inferior performances -- was just an obscenity, frankly.
Johnny Depp? He had no shot at all this year, and personally I thought he sort of sleepwalked through Finding Neverland, though it was nice, in a sense, to see an underplayed performance recognized over the usual overplayed ones (i.e. his gay-parody pirate in 2003). I think Depp was better in Blow and Ed Wood than in either of those movies, but anyway.
I liked Chris Rock's anti-Bush jokes, or at least the fact that he made them, though the long series of overtly political gags seemed uncomfortable in the audience -- Hollywood lefties like to keep their lefty sympathies a little more in the family on Oscar night. (Extending the Gap joke to the 1,400 deaths in Iraq -- "they're bleeding all over the khakis!" -- made me feel a little nauseous. He should've skipped that.) I did think he could've made more of an effort to make his opening monologue look and sound a bit less like his stand-up act, which is familiar to me from HBO. I still think Steve Martin does the best job; just perfect in deadpan tone, funny, and classy enough for the show, but then I'm in the tank for Steve Martin. Apparently the show's ratings last night were better than they've been for a while, so I imagine C. Rock will be back at some point.
I had called Cate Blanchett, Morgan Freeman, Hilary Swank and Jamie Foxx, but I was a bit surprised that they didn't give Best Picture/Director to The Aviator. It just seemed like the sort of big-movie epic they like to honor, and an overdue prize for Marty. I was frankly amazed that they did not give Best Director to Scorsese. I mean, for christ's sake, how many times will they snub him? Is it because he lives in New York and not LA? Eastwood's already got one anyway... I just don't get it. I had thought Marty was an absolute lock. I would probably place the Aviator above Million Dollar Baby; I did like all of the artistry of The Aviator and especially its incredibly designed test-flight crash scenes, even though I thought Leonardo was hardly convincing as a 50-year-old. And the Senate hearings scenes toward the end sort of drop into the movie abruptly, after the story's made you believe that Hughes had already turned into a total basket case unable to tie his shoes, let alone get the best of a panel of hostile senators on national television.
We just saw Baby, and I do appreciate the power of it. Great performances all around. I don't want to spoil it , but you walk out feeling like you've been punched hard in the stomach by the turns the story takes vs. your expectations, and as the credits rolled I couldn't help but feel that the story's whole intention had been to crack me on the jaw in the last half-hour and yell "Ha! Got you!" as I fell to the floor, and that just seemed like really manipulative moviemaking to me. I just felt sort of... used. So I guess I don't know how to feel about Million Dollar Baby, but I think it is probably not the very best film of the year, anyway. Lots of people will disagree, obviously, including about 900 critics.
I felt bad that the very talented and graceful Annette Bening had to lose to Hilary Swank a second time; I felt very, very bad for Scorsese. And the fact that Paul Giammati was not nominated at all -- when everybody else associated with Sideways was, including notably inferior performances -- was just an obscenity, frankly.
Johnny Depp? He had no shot at all this year, and personally I thought he sort of sleepwalked through Finding Neverland, though it was nice, in a sense, to see an underplayed performance recognized over the usual overplayed ones (i.e. his gay-parody pirate in 2003). I think Depp was better in Blow and Ed Wood than in either of those movies, but anyway.
I liked Chris Rock's anti-Bush jokes, or at least the fact that he made them, though the long series of overtly political gags seemed uncomfortable in the audience -- Hollywood lefties like to keep their lefty sympathies a little more in the family on Oscar night. (Extending the Gap joke to the 1,400 deaths in Iraq -- "they're bleeding all over the khakis!" -- made me feel a little nauseous. He should've skipped that.) I did think he could've made more of an effort to make his opening monologue look and sound a bit less like his stand-up act, which is familiar to me from HBO. I still think Steve Martin does the best job; just perfect in deadpan tone, funny, and classy enough for the show, but then I'm in the tank for Steve Martin. Apparently the show's ratings last night were better than they've been for a while, so I imagine C. Rock will be back at some point.
posted by Will @ 2/28/2005 05:08:00 PM
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