Before getting to my thoughts on tonight's Oscars, I'd like to take the opportunity to thank Lyz, Robert, Larry, CS, Marshall, and Thaddeus for their contributions to The Best Picture Countdown. Couldn't have done it without you guys!
As for tonight's show... man, that was kind of painful. Maybe next year Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law could host? A few stray thoughts:
* To whomever decided to play the King's speech over the montage of Best Picture nominees: That was icky.
* I don't know which sounds weirder: Oscar winner Trent Reznor, or Oscar winning film The Wolfman.
* Favourite presenter: Cate Blanchett, particularly her casual "gross" at the end of the nominees montage.
* Favourite audience member: Helena Bonham Carter, whose facial expressions were consistently priceless (I particularly liked her "WTF" shrug to Tim Burton after Tom Hooper hugged Geoffrey Rush and Colin Firth but not her).
* Favourite winner speech: David Seidler.
* Least favourite moment: I pretty much cringed my way through Anne Hathaway's little musical number (she's a good singer, I just found the whole thing ill-conceived).
* Apparently there is no tape delay in the Canadian feed since I heard Melissa Leo's F-Bomb crystal clear. Yay Canada!
* Roger Deakins goes home empty handed once again. *sniff*
... And that's pretty much that. I'm going to be taking a little blogging break since I feel like I did nothing during the month of February except blog, but I will be back with new content on March 14th, including reviews of Oscar nominee Incendies and next year's Best Picture winner The Roommate. If you need something to hold you over until then, check out my review of Blue Valentine at Culturazzi.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Winner Predictions
Best Picture: The King's Speech
Best Director: Tom Hooper, The King's Speech
Best Actor: Colin Firth, The King's Speech
Best Actress: Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Best Supporting Actress: Helena Bonham Carter, The King's Speech
Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale, The Fighter
Best Original Screenplay: David Seidler, The King's Speech
Best Adapted Screenplay: Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network
The Best Picture Countdown #74: A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Director: Ron Howard
Starring: Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly
The line between genius and mental illness is frightfully thin. Vincent Van Gogh, Friedrich Nietzsche, Bobby Fisher – all brilliant, all just a little bit crazy. Add John Forbes Nash to that list, the brilliant mathematician who suffers from schizophrenia and is the subject of the Ron Howard directed Best Picture winner A Beautiful Mind. Though the film itself sometimes runs the risk of falling into some A Very Important Film trappings, it ultimately rises above its more formulaic elements.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
The Best Picture Countdown #11: You Can't Take It With You (1938)
Director: Frank Capra
Starring: Lionel Barrymore, Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Edward Arnold
The moral of the 1938 comedy You Can’t Take It With You can be summed up in 3 words: Life is short. It’s a story about seizing the day, doing what you love to do, and making the most of the time you have. Directed by Frank Capra – his fifth movie in six years to be nominated for Best Picture and the second to win – it is a kind hearted comedy about nice people (some of whom don’t quite realize how nice they are) with a sweet romance mixed in. Capra made a lot of movies like that, but it’s to his infinite credit that he managed to make each of them unique and classic in their own way.
The Best Picture Countdown #17: Going My Way (1944)
Director: Leo McCarey
Starring: Bing Crosby, Barry Fitzgerald
Sandwiched between 1943’s winner Casablanca and 1945’s winner The Lost Weekend, the earnest and light-hearted Going My Way looks slight in comparison. It’s a sweet movie that hits all the right emotional notes, though it seems quite dated today. Still, it’s a fairly entertaining film and ultimately quite moving – a good pick as Best Picture until you realize that it was nominated against Billy Wilder’s noir classic Double Indemnity and George Cukor’s psychological drama Gaslight.
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