Here’s everything you need to know about Sunday’s Oscars, including where to watch the live show, who’s expected to win and what the big controversies are this year. https://t.co/iVLWF96GGx
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 24, 2022
Bate: To restrain; to deduct; to fly into a rage…
Looking to watch the top Oscar nominees before the 94th Academy Awards air next Sunday?
There are many ways to catch up, and a trip to the theater isn’t absolutely necessary. Here’s where you can find the nominees online and on your TV. https://t.co/TuwNEaweiI
— The Associated Press (@AP) March 20, 2022
Three female comedians will share hosting duties, fans will choose two awards and some acceptance speeches will be recorded before the live broadcast as the #Oscars face a test to try and rebound from last year’s record-low ratings https://t.co/ksP125q9Bt pic.twitter.com/mAJQzvh4Ha
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 25, 2022
Oscars weekend kicks off with honors for Samuel L. Jackson, Danny Glover https://t.co/1WamgOp8y0 pic.twitter.com/Ay4eiXxA32
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 26, 2022
At a ceremony in Beverly Hills, documentary filmmakers nominated for #Oscars were celebrated pic.twitter.com/agyKSJyn5N
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 24, 2022
Beyonce, Billie Eilish among musical performers to take Oscars stage https://t.co/x9ISBes1Lc pic.twitter.com/sQFbLjjfi1
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 23, 2022
Take a peek inside this year’s #Oscar gift bags consisting of 52 items worth $138,000 pic.twitter.com/48doKrr8Vs
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 25, 2022
#CODA star @DanielNDurant brought his mothers to a pre-#Oscars @WomenInFilm event, saying: “They saved my life.” pic.twitter.com/c8TEoVR4E1
— AP Entertainment (@APEntertainment) March 26, 2022
Elsewhere: The peoples’ choices!
Diana musical and ‘Space Jam’ snag the most Razzie awards https://t.co/dtuDZKAVmA pic.twitter.com/5ZPGLkP4rP
— Reuters (@Reuters) March 26, 2022
Dorothy A. Winsor
There’s a small movie theater in my building, and they’re showing a number of the best film nominee movies in the next few weeks. I’m looking forward to it.
NotMax
Then, now and forever the absolute nadir of Oscar production numbers.
:)
Ken
…
Yes, yes of course. What else could it mean?
No, they have a combined price tag of $138,000. Many people mis-use “worth” in that way.
NotMax
Transplanted here from this morning’s COVID thread.
Baud
I didn’t realize there was a Lifetime Motherfucker Award.
Damien
I hate to say this, but despite having been in love with movies since I was 7 years old and making it my career, I just can’t watch the Oscars anymore. The trend of navel-gazing slice of life pieces getting slobbered on by the Academy has really discouraged me from watching any of the nominees anymore; specifically looking at you, Nomadland.
I’m not even that old, but I’d watch All Quiet on the Western Front, It Happened One Night, Gone With the Wind, Casablanca, Best Years of Our Lives, Lawrence of Arabia, In the Heat of the Night, The Godfathers (minus 3), the Sting, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Deer Hunter, Gandhi, Amadeus, and LITERALLY EVERY SINGLE BEST PICTURE WINNER FROM 1990-2015 BACK TO BACK before I’d spend even five minutes watching any of the past five winners.
Yeah I’m salty, come getcher sodium.
geg6
I have only seen one film that has an Oscar nomination. Kristen Stewart is nominated for playing Diana in Spencer. It was a terrible movie and a terrible acting job. There was nothing about what made her charming and beloved. It was all about her acting like a freak with all kinds of ticks and constant mental and emotional issues. I hated it.
CaseyL
The Oscars just seem less relevant to me each year, but that is likely from having been around long enough to see how many Best Whatevers don’t look all that “Best” in retrospect, and how many overlooked movies become classics. Oscars, like everything else, are driven a lot by zeitgeist.
I also find the speeches tedious, by and large. The few who stand out are the ones who broke the rules, or were sincere, and something other than a laundry list of people to thank.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Open thread?
Raven
Go Peacocks!!!!
Steeplejack
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
WTF?! She was barely able to get a word in edgewise, much less be disrespectful.
NeenerNeener
@NotMax: My God, how young all those actors look!
geg6: Yeah, Spencer was atrocious and has no business being nominated.
Baud
@Steeplejack:
Why are you WTFing the fact that Trump lies?
Suzanne
I saw one movie this year (“Death on the Nile”). I try to watch movies on streaming, but it’s hard with young children to watch at home. Spawn the Youngest is our pandemic baby and she is acculturated to nonstop cuddling and play. It makes it difficult to watch a movie.
I really enjoy the red carpet, tho. And then Tom&Lorenzo and the Fug Girls for the rest of the week.
Brachiator
Technological change has practically made the Oscars entirely irrelevant to me, and the pandemic may have been the final nail in the coffin.
I used to follow most of the major critics “best of” discussions, not because I was interested in their final judgments, but because reading why they liked various movies often helped me discover little gems that did not get a lot of marketing push.
I would watch the Oscars and practically forget who won the next day, but I would buy the LA Times, see the ads for the various winners and also be able to see what films had been expanded into my local theaters that I might want to watch.
Now newspapers are pretty much dead and the pandemic killed my movie watching habits. Worse, two theaters I regularly would go to went out of business.
A few years ago, I saw every movie that had been nominated for Best Picture. I have not seen any of the nominated films this year. A couple that I might be mildly interested in are hidden away in streaming services that I don’t use and will not bother to sign up for short term.
I have had some fun reading the annual Brutally Honest Oscar Ballots by Academy Members. I enjoy the comments of those who have knowledge and expertise in the technical branches. Sometimes you get hints of professional jealousies and biases, which are quite funny.
I think it a shame that they have removed some of the awards from the main broadcast. Some years I am more interested to learn what films were nominated for editing or production design than the major categories. And the bottom line is that movies don’t exist without the work of a ton of crafts people.
Geoduck
@Baud: A double lie, since you know he didn’t actually watch any of the proceedings.
Yutsano
I’m just here for the red carpet gowns.
Steeplejack
@Baud:
Touché. It’s just that usually there is an identifiable point of departure in reality. This just hit me as so unexpected, like if he said windmills caused cancer or . . . oh, wait.
@Geoduck:
Good point. Part of my surprise is that Trump even noticed the hearings.
Tony Jay
@Steeplejack:
It’s Trump. He’s still furious with the Liberal Media editing footage of Biden grabbing a pizza with the troops to remove all the MAGA caps, marines being dragged off by MPs while shouting “Trump is my President!” and all the other things which totally happened.
After all, everyone knows that military men respect Trump for his service.
debbie
Something’s wrong when Glover and Jackson are consigned to the second stage, Beyoncé gets full star treatment. Cheap shot, Academy. Who’s made you the most money, huh?
NotMax
Last time I watched an Oscar telecast Bob Hope was still standing on stage squinting at cue cards.
Maybe this year they’ll have the envelopes brought out onstage by drone.
;)
Brachiator
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Trump has quite a fantastical imagination. Maybe he should try to write a screenplay. He might even think that he deserves an Oscar for something.
germy
debbie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I don’t know how she maintained her composure. I’d have leapt up and ripped their faces off within the first couple of minutes.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Steeplejack: I was surprised. As you say, it had no contact with reality at all
ETA: I strongly suspect he didn’t actually watch any of the hearings. Not his idea of entertainment
NotMax
@Brachiator
Can you believe this gem was overlooked at awards time?
//
Steeplejack
I probably won’t watch tonight. Ninety percent of the acceptance speeches are cringe-worthy, especially the ones where one member of a team hogs all of the time, and I haven’t seen any of the nominated movies anyway. I saw exactly one movie in a theater last year, The French Dispatch, and it got exactly zero nominations. I’ll get the snark/cringe/gaffe details from social media tomorrow.
Cacti
Yes, that totally makes it sound better. LOL
Brachiator
I forgot to include a couple of fun links to Oscar Voter ballot comments. Some might contain some mild spoilers.
Comments from a member of the Directors branch.
Comments from a member of the Actors branch.
A sample comment:
I didn’t realize that Academy members got copies of the scripts. A nice little perk.
sd
NotMax
@NotMax
To avoid confusion, please read that as [airquote]gem[/airquote].
:)
germy
Enough champagne to fill the Nile!
geg6
I do admit that I could have watched another film with nominations, West Side Story, because I recorded it from HBO a couple weeks ago. I just haven’t gotten around to watching it yet. I loved the original and have heard good things about this one.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@debbie: also, Elaine May. I don’t know enough pop culture to speculate as to which pair of pretty young things with a bad, pre-written comedy exchange were decided to be more worthy of prime time than Elaine May (and Glover and Liv Ullman). Yeah, yeah, my lawn.
and while looking for that tweet, I found Elaine May’s brief review of ET. You’ll probably disagree with it. Consider your trigger warned.
germy
Brachiator
@NotMax:
Liked that the reborn Trump gave himself big hands.
Could definitely win some Razzies.
Gin & Tonic
I’m waiting for Sean Penn to melt down his Oscars in protest at the Academy not inviting Zelensky to address the crowd. At least I’m assuming he won’t be invited, and this is something Penn threatened yesterday.
Notwithstanding Penn’s many and documented, um, issues, he has been lately a real friend to Ukraine, and has spent much time there.
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
LOL, I don’t believe the sincerity of that remark in the least. And yes, Elaine deserves far more respect than she’s getting.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@debbie: I haven’t seen ET since it was in theaters, but I bought into every damn minute of it. But I’m enough of a snarky bastard to have laughed out loud at that line
NotMax
Academy running out of time to award an Honorary Oscar to Mel Brooks.
Just sayin’.
Baud
@debbie:
That’s why I plan to nominate you to the Supreme Court when I’m president.
debbie
JMG
@NotMax: Brooks has won at least one actual Oscar, Best Screenplay for The Producers in 1968. I’m not sure actual winners are eligible for honorary ones.
JoyceH
@Gin & Tonic:
I saw Penn talking about that yesterday, and it sorta baffled me. Does Zelenskyy WANT to address the Oscars?! Yeah, his background is in film and television, but it seems like an odd venue given his current situation. And sort of a come-down from all his recent appearances, talking via Zoom to various national legislatures. Oh, but now, wait – I need to talk to the audience at the Oscars? Really?
cmorenc
If the 98% of the oscar program which comprises pageantry and speeches by winners thanking their director and their mother “without whom this would not be possible” is your thing, well knock yourself out watching it. For me, i can wait until tomorrow and read the entire list of winners in under a minute.
Meanwhile, i will be spending my evening watching far better drama,, the pair of regional ncaa basketball finals, festuring a real-life cinderella team in st peters trying to pull an upset over traditional powerhouse UNC, who this season can be awesome or awful on any given night. Awesome unc night and st peters’ glittering coach turns into a pumpkin smashed in a 20+ point loss. OTOH UNC will be working against the historical fact that even though both duke and unc make into the ncaa tournament far more years than not, one or the other have always lost before they would have played against each other. And should UNC win today, next up would be duke in the natonal semifinals.
mrmoshpotato
That’s what the Space Jam remake gets for having no Basketball Jones!
NotMax
@JMG
Per Wikipedia:
Gin & Tonic
@JoyceH: I think that was Penn flying by the seat of his pants.
Sister Golden Bear
The first time I’ve back to the movie theater was a few weekends ago to watch the short films. They were all excellent — and the Polish entry was extraordinary for a film school project.
But it would’ve have been nicer to watch at home since four of five were extremely heavy topics and it would have been nice to have a chance take an emotional break between them.
Though my favorite, “Please Hold,” took a bitingly funny take on an important topic. (Think Kafka’s “The Trial” crossed with those automated customer service “voicemail hell” phone lines.)
Steeplejack
@Gin & Tonic, @JoyceH:
Sean Penn has been a friend to Ukraine, but the idea that Zelenskyy must speak at the Oscars is some cosmically huge Hollywood ego bullshit.
Cephalus Max
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I wanna live wherever you live.
Baud
@Steeplejack:
Yeah, it sucks because he’s doing right by Ukraine but I agree.
mrmoshpotato
@Cephalus Max: Berwyn!
mrmoshpotato
@Sister Golden Bear:
I’m sorry. I didn’t understand your response.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Indeed. Not the venue for it, where it may be followed with “We’ll be back after this important message from UltraDouche.”
;)
Miss Bianca
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: have to admit, my response to ET seems to fall on Elaine’s side of the scale. I remember a guy I worked with at the time won my heart utterly and completely with his drawling assessment of ET as “relentlessly heartwarming.”
Sure Lurkalot
I saw about half of West Side Story. We started it late and I guess it wasn’t that compelling for me. But I should go back and finish up my incomplete. Also saw Coda, which, for all its predictability, had decent performances.
The gift bags are ludicrous. One year my uber wealthy boss got an Xmas box from AmEx as a reward for charging dog knows how much on his card. It was a couple of grand worth of stuff, mostly dupes of stuff he already owned but he kept it all. Is it a symptom of late stage capitalism to coddle the wealthy like this?
germy
@NotMax:
DeSantis is running campaign commercials already?
Baud
@germy:
Heh. DoucheSantis.
Sister Golden Bear
@mrmoshpotato:
A representative will be with you in 10-20 years.
Sure Lurkalot
@Sister Golden Bear: I love shorts and thanks for the recommendation for Please Hold. It’s on HBO Max per Google.
citizen dave
The Razzies keep it classy and short. Love the Razzies.
I’ve seen four the best picture Oscar nominees. Thought The Power of the Dog and Don’t Look Up were really boring. Licorice Pizza was boring-adjacent, but somewhat entertaining. I liked Nightmare Alley, an old-school noir. Very well done. Tried watching Drive My Car one night but there were no subtitles. I read that HBO has fixed that. Hope to watch it soon. Have no interest in watching Dune, Belfast, or King Richard (because Will Smith is on my list). Might check out CODA at some point.
WaterGirl
@mrmoshpotato: Wait, who lives in Berwyn?
That’s where I grew up.
WaterGirl
@Sure Lurkalot: They couldn’t have donated the $138,000 to Ukraine instead????
JML
The speeches at most award shows are ludicrously bad, especially the Oscars. Usually just people reciting a list of thank yous and generally being uninteresting. I suppose that makes the great speeches all the more memorable?
debbie
@Baud:
God help the country!
germy
@WaterGirl:
The TV host Svengoolie has a running gag where he often mentions BERWYN! and an unseen crowd or audience whines the name in response. I think he is from Berwyn.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Counter Programing:
Women’s Elite Eight (7 PM Eastern)
South Carolina vs
CinderellaCreightonStanford vs Texas
Bonnie
I think the Oscar ratings have to do with the quality of the movie nominations. Although, my mind is boggled by the number of movies they nominate these days. I can barely afford to go to five movies a year; let alone ten. I hate that Hollywood of today seems incapable of making PG movies. I am constantly appalled at the very bad language I hear and the numerous sex scenes, which never add any thing to the movie’s story. I would never let a kid under 18 watch any of the new movies. But, then, I am old; however, I am thinking it is about time for the pendulum to swing back to the glory days of Hollywood.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@NotMax: He doesn’t need one as he’s already won one for “The Producers” plus he has his wife’s Oscar for “The Miracle Worker”
Sure Lurkalot
@WaterGirl: For a lot of the attendees, $138K is couch change, so I hope there’s mention of some much larger largesse.
Wyatt Salamanca
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Trump is consistently full of shit.
Why can’t this asshole get laryngitis or carpal tunnel syndrome so that we could be spared from his idiocy for a couple of weeks?
Aziz, light!
The Academy so often names the not-best-picture as best picture that I lost interest in their choices years ago. I have felt this way ever since the eminently forgettable Shakespeare in Love got the nod over Saving Private Ryan. C’mon, man.
WaterGirl
@Sure Lurkalot: each gift bag is worth $138,000? That’s not the total for all the bags together? Holy fuck that’s obscene. And 100 times more so given how much help Ukraine needs.
Wyatt Salamanca
@NotMax:
This short 2020 sf film was also inexplicably slighted by the Oscars
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1DM8Chsr_0
Kathleen
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I never saw ET. I laughed out loud at her review. I’ve adored her since I was 10 or 11 years old. My dad and I listened to her and Mike Nichols on the network radio show Monitor on Sunday nights. Even their pauses were hysterically funny.
Sure Lurkalot
@Bonnie:
I find this to be the case all too often and also the staging trying too hard to be artful.
Though my bigger issue with a lot of movies is the violence and violent subject matter. Suspense is one thing, but when I spend the first half hour cringing and covering my eyes, I just have to admit I chose wrong again.
Raven
@cmorenc: This blog used to care.
Sure Lurkalot
@WaterGirl: I looked it up and yes, a $138K gift bag for every nominee.
I also learned that they once stopped giving them out because, wait for it, THEY ARE TAXABLE and you know, in a 50% bracket, that’s REAL MONEY.
I know there are some very generous and civic minded actors but it has always distressed me to see the disparity between what some industries earn and what value they bring to society.
Raven
@WaterGirl: My dad taught at Sunnyside School.
Raven
@Bonnie: I’m old and I totally disagree with you.
Nelle
I have a friend who won an Oscar (screenwriting, I think) who never got a word in as one of his co-winners used up all the time. Kevin Wllmott, Black Kkklansman. Spike Lee held onto the mike.
debbie
@Raven:
If it serves the plot line, I’m fine with whatever’s involved. I can always look away for a moment (ie, the Coen Brothers’ use of that stun gun in No Country for Old Men).
debbie
@Nelle:
That happens a lot, sadly.
Mornington Crescent
@Baud:
The Oscars are televised, so it’s a Lifetime Monday-to-Friday Award.
Sure Lurkalot
@Raven: I like
beergratuitous sex scenes!Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mornington Crescent: they’re dropping MF-bombs on Lifetime? Like, “A Storybook Small-Town Motherfuckin’ Christmas”?
piratedan
@Raven: i agree, I would much rather watch some actors portray a sense of love, lust, caring, desire onscreen rather than the gratuitous loss of life and violence that tends to reinforce the feeling that life is cheap and while that may be case when it comes down to brass tacks, I would much rather see the trauma that is dealt with when a life is taken thru violence. Would like to see films stop glorifying violence as a whole.
Anyway
@WaterGirl:
These are “luxury items” given for branding purposes to people in the public eye. I agree it’s obscene but comparing the dollar value to what Ukraine needs is nonsensical. These are freebies given at a conference or trade fair – these goodie bags were probably made up weeks ago.
I wish they gave those bags to people working the event as well…not just the stars.
Steeplejack
@Raven:
St. Peter’s didn’t have a good first half.
Brachiator
@Aziz, light!:
The Academy has a very long history of bypassing the better film for Best Picture. “How Green Was My Valley?” won over “Citizen Kane” in 1942. “Chariots of Fire” won over “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” “Forrest Gump” won over “Pulp Fiction.”
And so it goes.
I will fight you. Shakespeare was wonderfully acted, well scripted and included witty nods to Renaissance theatrical history. Everything you want in a Best Picture. The opening section of Private Ryan was heartbreaking and magnificent, but the movie ultimately was a conventional and somewhat thematically muddled war film.
Sure Lurkalot
@Sister Golden Bear: Just watched Please Hold and thanks again for the recommendation, which I second.
BroD
Are movies still a thing?!
Sure Lurkalot
@Anyway: From CBS News:
The “Everybody Wins” gift bag is distributed by LA-based Distinctive Assets to the five nominees in each of the four acting categories and the nominees for “Best Director.” It’s a collection of gifts that includes everything from gold-infused olive oil to $10,000 worth of plastic surgery.
“[Some articles] make it sound like I walk around with a briefcase full of $140,000 in cash and hand it to these nominees,” he says. “In fact, $5,000 of that $137,000 [value] is physical products that they can take out and put in their cupboard or re-gift to their mom or kid. The rest are invitations or offers that have no taxable consequence and no true value unless they redeem it.”
This year, the most expensive offering is an all-expenses-paid trip to Turin Castle in Scotland. Guests who accept the offer will have full access to the 17th century castle, complete with butler service and a bagpiper welcome when they arrive. The value of the three-night stay is $50,000.
“Let’s say that Will Smith doesn’t go on the trip. His bag isn’t worth $137,000; it’s worth $137,000 minus $50,000,” Fary says. “If he doesn’t go to the Golden Door, that’s another $15,000 off. And if he doesn’t use the home renovation services from Maison Construction, that’s another $25,000 off.”
Fary says that in the 20 years he has been giving gift baskets to Oscar nominees, no one has ever gotten the full value out of one.
No one has gotten the full value because it’s chock full of stuff they can all easily afford and probable deemed not good enough.
Ken
@Sure Lurkalot: Wait until next year, when the gift basket has $200,000 in NFTs.
Wyatt Salamanca
@Brachiator:
To say nothing of these iconic acting performances that lost out such as Orson Welles for Citizen Kane, Bette Davis for All About Eve, Peter O’Toole for Lawrence of Arabia, Al Pacino for The Godfather Part II, and Denzel Washington for Malcolm X.
Sure Lurkalot
@piratedan:
As well as the sheer number of films with violent themes and their making violence seem more commonplace than it is. Though America has excelled in mass shootings of late and generally.
Baud
@Sure Lurkalot:
It reminds me of the ValuPak coupons I get in the mail.
germy
This photo
Martin
I think the growing disinterest in the Oscars is just a byproduct of a society where our betters fuck everything up and then demand a pat on the back. I’m not suggesting that our film celebrities are doing that, but they’re still our betters and still demanding a pat on the back. Our ability to cope with the billionaires and politicians and TV pundits and all that shit spills over to the other members of the celebrity class that aren’t actively fucking up the world.
Add to that our need to not do this. We can go on YouTube or elsewhere on social media and find untold talent that goes unrecognized. Why even tolerate some shitty movie when you can find something like this, 17 year old that was then bullied off of social media. I don’t see any reason to celebrate Sam Jackson. Sam made it, and he knows he made it. I want to celebrate the people that deserve to have made it but didn’t.
Citizen Alan
@NotMax: Before I even clicked, I knew what it was. The horror, the horror.
Martin
@Ken: If we’re lucky all of the NFTs in the world won’t be worth $200K.
Baud
@Martin:
That’s why we all love Balloon Juice. You’ll never find any of our betters here.
Brachiator
@Wyatt Salamanca:
To say nothing of these iconic acting performances that lost out such as Orson Welles for Citizen Kane, Bette Davis for All About Eve, Peter O’Toole for Lawrence of Arabia, Al Pacino for The Godfather Part II, and Denzel Washington for Malcolm X.
Yep. The 1970 Oscar went to John Wayne for True Grit. It should have gone to Dustin Hoffman for Midnight Cowboy.
But 1969 was a great year for movies. The films nominated for Best Picture: Midnight Cowboy (winner), Anne of a Thousand Days, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Hello Dolly! and Z.
Best film not nominated: the ultra-violent and superb The Wild Bunch.
Raven
I suggest you watch “A Decade Under the Influence” if you think and of this is new in film.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@NotMax: made it through a minute and a half, long enough to see Glenn Close’s look of confused distaste
Martin
@Baud: Well, the FPers are all my betters, but they don’t get paid and have to put up with me, so it seems pretty fair.
Wyatt Salamanca
@Martin:
That’s a great tagline for Balloon Juice.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
@Wyatt Salamanca:
Pacino lost to Art Carney for “Harry and Tonto” because the feline lobby has their claws wrapped around the Academy
Raven
@Brachiator:
Pete Postlethwaite should have won in for “In The Name of the Father”. Much better film that Dublin.
Wyatt Salamanca
@Raven:
Yes, one of my favorite documentaries.
@Brachiator:
At least they got it right a few years back by giving Parasite the award for Best Picture.
zhena gogolia
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch: Art Carney is a great actor.
Wyatt Salamanca
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
I loved Art Carney as Ed Norton, but his win over Pacino still blows my mind.
Old Dan and Little Ann
I thought the Oscars were stupid when I was 12. Nothing has changed in 35 years. We watched Belfast last night. It was underwhelming and basically meh.
Brachiator
@Martin:
The Oscars used to be a special event where we would see celebrities kicking back with their peers. Today we can see celebrities 24/7 on our phones. Celebrity sightings used to be rare. Now we can’t get rid of them.
Another big problem is that the Academy insists on nominating films that few people have seen, and that even fewer care about. Many of these relative obscure films are wonderful and deserving, but it does not create a big viewing audience.
Movies on streaming services are now included in Oscars and Emmys. I imagine that the most creative YouTube works will be nominated for Oscars in the future, assuming that the Oscars survive.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Most shocking upset was Al Pacino winning for “Scent of a Woman” over Steven Seagal in “Under Siege”
SiubhanDuinne
@WaterGirl:
Next door to where I grew up.
ETA: Berwyn next door to Oak Park, I mean, not adjacent houses.
NotMax
@zhena gogolia
The 1958 made for TV version of Harvey in which he starred streaming on Tubi. Very different feel than the classic Jimmy Stewart film.
Brachiator
@Raven:
From reviews of the film, I knew that Daniel Day-Lewis would be good, but I was not prepared for and was blown away by Postlethwaite, and the father-son relationship depicted. I foolishly thought that the movie would “only” be about politics.
Still an amazing film.
David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch
Having Zelensky speak at the Oscars isn’t that far fetched. A precedent was set when Anwar Sadat and Yasir Arafat spoke at the Oscars in the late 70s (video)
jnfr
I am also here for the fashion, though we do love movies and usually have snarky opinions about everything. Mr Jnfr and I make special snacks and open a bottle of champagne as if we were really partying, which we actually don’t like in person :)
@Yutsano:
The males have definitely upped their red carpet game too. I credit Billy Porter.
debbie
@Raven:
I missed that one. Thanks.
debbie
@David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:
Both sucked. Hoo-Haw!
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: Yes, I always say that Berwyn is next door to Oak Park.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Only Berwyn of which I’ve previously been aware is in Pennsylvania.
Steeplejack
The decreasing interest in the Oscars is (also) a byproduct of celebrity overexposure. A-list, B-list, C-list and D-list actors are all over TV and social media on a daily basis. You can’t escape them even if you want to. But even 20-odd years ago the Oscars were still a somewhat rare opportunity to see Hollywood stars being “themselves.”
@Brachiator:
What you said.
Miss Bianca
@Brachiator:
Thank you. Just saw it again recently and, mirabile dictu, I thought it was *better* than I remembered it being. For all the reasons you mentioned. Can’t weigh in on the relative quality of Private Ryan, never having seen it. (and doubting I ever will, frankly).
df
Are you baiting us with that headline? ;)
PaulB
Add me to the list of people who thought that Shakespeare In Love was the better movie. I also agree with the note above that the opening sequence in Saving Private Ryan was brilliant but the rest of the movie was mediocre, at best.
The letdown for me was palpable, moving from that amazing opening sequence to what, frankly, was manipulative dreck after that, particularly the ending. It was jarring and it annoyed the crap out of me. I’ve rewatched SiL several times; I’ve never rewatched SPR.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
that intrigues me
Another Scott
Dead thread, but on topic.
Zooks. He seems upset.
(via nycsouthpaw)
Cheers,
Scott.
Martin
Ok. I might start watching the Oscars again.
Good on Will. That was over the line by Chris. Don’t make fun of people’s medical conditions without their consent.
hilts
@Martin:
You mean good on Will Smith for physically assaulting Chris Rock because of a hurtful joke?
Bad on Chris Rock for telling a hurtful, tasteless joke but worse on Will Smith for his meltdown and his lame bullshit apology.