The 80th Academy Awards

The ceremony took place two days ago and was dignified and entertaining, just like the previous one hosted by Jon Stewart. He was funny, engaging, and witty, which is what you'd expect from an Oscar's host.

That said, Whoopi is still my all-time favorite...

Just like two years ago, I haven't watched the vast majority of the nominated movies from this past year, so my comments will be mostly limited to the ceremony itself.

A wave of sadness actually filled me every time they showed a clip from a nominated movie or performance. Sadness for not going to the movies anymore as much as I used to. Sadness for having missed so many good movies for a few years now. But the requirements of my life now don't leave much time for going out anymore. I guess I'm just getting old...

Anyway, I liked the montages, as usual, although this year, for the first time, I felt like they were abusing the medium a bit. I'll blame the recently resolved writers' strike and the possibility that the telecast might have been stripped of all celebrities, which would have meant even more montages (like Stewart himself joked about) and I'll assume they had readied more than usual and wanted to keep most of them in. We'll see next year.

The introductory clip was cool and Stewart's opening monologue appropriate. The presenters were all more or less spared overly lame dialogues, although the "I'm Halle, you're Judy" one did flare out pretty quickly. Steve Carell and Anne Hathaway sold theirs the best I thought. I really thought they were introducing the documentary category, and they didn't look like the best choice for that award. This proves again the comedic talent of Carell.

Since fashion is always very important at the Oscars, I liked most of all Katherine Heigl's fabulous red gown, while the worst dressed had to be Diablo Cody, who brought to mind the adage, "If you don't have the guts to wear it, don't." What's with the hand and the envelope in front of her crotch??! If you put on a dress like that, wear it with you head held high or don't wear it at all. I can only imagine her struggle on the red carpet...

A special mention must be made for Jennifer Hudson though, who looked like a marshmallow in that white dress. Doesn't the poor thing know that black slims you down, while white inflates you? This is the second ceremony she attends and the second poor dress choice she makes. The girl needs a personal shopper, pronto!!

And now we come to the awards themselves. I'm glad to say that nothing upset me and that I was surprised quite a few times by the choices of the Academy, choices that show how the old guard is slowly dying off, leaving room to a new generation of voters that aren't afraid to make unconventional choices.

More or less in the order in which they were awarded, here are my personal thoughts:

• The Golden Compass wins Best Visual Effects; I thought for sure that the last Pirates movie would take this one, or Transformers. The Golden Compass's effects must be pretty amazing...
• Sweeney Todd wins Best Art Direction; I was obviously pleased that a team of Italians took the award, but mostly this made me think of the "sometimes less is more" saying, since from the clips shown, Sweeney Todd had the most understated art direction of the five nominees.
• Javier Bardem wins Best Supporting Actor; although apparently he was the odds on favorite here, I was afraid that the Academy would have gone for the sentimental choice and awarded Hal Holbrook. I'm glad it didn't happen. Bardem also gave a very nice and touching speech.
• Tilda Swinton wins Best Supporting Actress; this one really surprised me and although she seemed to have garnered much support toward the end of the awards season, I thought that again the Academy would have gone for the old-timer and awarded Ruby Dee. My beloved Cate Blanchett didn't win, which is too bad, since she's always fantastic, but I happen to have seen Michael Clayton and Tilda Swinton was superb, so a well deserved award. She looked very surprised as well, by the way.
• The Bourne Ultimatum wins Best Editing, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing; yeah! I was really glad to see this movie getting recognized since I, again, happen to have seen it and it was very good, certainly deserving to be rewarded, and the Best Editing Oscar is a big reward indeed.
• Marion Cotillard wins Best Lead Actress; WOW!! This one really made me sit up! I haven't seen the movie, but in the clips they showed she was phenomenal, so she totally deserved to win, but again, I thought the Academy was gonna go with Julie Christie, as the sentimental favorite. Awarding Cotillard, a French actress starring in a movie that virtually nobody saw this side of the Atlantic and that was (GASP!) subtitled showed that sometimes the most deserving really does win. And that the Academy's demographics are, again, changing.
• Nicole Kidman presents the Honorary Award to a production designer who's 98 years old!! Holy crap!! Could Nicole be any more gorgeous and understated in her divine presence? I have to shamefully admit I caught very little of what that guy was saying (God bless him though, still sharp as a whistle), since I was way too busy admiring her beauty. And that dress... and the necklace!
• The song from Once wins Best Song; I later found out this was indeed the odds on favorite in this category, but I had read that Alan Menken was getting ready for yet another Oscar (from another Disney movie) and I'm glad it didn't happen. Granted, usually multiple nominees in the same category end up hurting themselves by splitting their votes, thereby reducing their chances of winning the big prize, allowing a dark horse to come in and snatch it, but I still feared Menken would have taken it. As for the songs themselves, I found the first from Enchanted quite boring, the second one, slightly less boring, and the third quite interesting mostly because it was sung by the hottest man in the Kodak Theater (John McLaughlin, OH MY GODS!!). I liked the winning song but I was moved the most by the one from August Rush, which gave me goose bumps throughout (that little girl's voice was amazing!!)
• I rejoiced when Stewart called Markéta Irglová back on stage to give her acceptance speech, which had been cut off by that annoying orchestra after her winning partner had given his thanks, especially because what she had to say was very powerful and touching. Go Markéta! Gods I hate it when they cut acceptance speeches. Damn, I just won an Oscar, let me talk. If I speak over 3 minutes, then cut me off, but 30 seconds?! Fuck you!
• The In Memoriam segment was touching as usual, whether we know the artist or not, but the decision to now include executives and (wait for it) agents gave me pause. What's next? Publicists and spouses? When are we gonna see the pets paraded on screen?
• Dario Marianelli wins Best Score for Atonement; I rejoiced because he's Italian, actually one of two nominated this year!! I haven't heard the score yet though :(
• Sicko doesn't win for Best Documentary (and all Michael Moore's haters everywhere rejoice); I was surprised but I didn't know who the odds on favorite was, so maybe it was just me. I actually haven't even seen Sicko, but I did see No End in Sight, and it was a powerful indictment of this administration if there ever was one.
• Diablo Cody wins Best Original Screenplay; I later found out she was a shoo-in, but I was surprised and glad since Juno's script was great and I like to see this woman, former exotic dancer, have success after many years of trying in this business. It's the classic Cinderella story, and who doesn't like one?
• No big surprises for the Best Actor, Director and Picture, so I'll move on.
• I rewound three times when Scott Rudin thanked his partner (he must mean business partner...)... from the stage... while accepting the Best Picture Oscar... and called him honey!! I just about squealed with glee since something like that would have been absolutely unthinkable just 10 years ago. Too bad there wasn't a camera ready to show his "honey," that would have been sweet. Go Scott!!!
  

That's it I guess, so overall a good ceremony, with a few nice surprises and several well deserved wins.

By the way, did anyone else notice how that slippery area of stage right in front of the microphone stand just wasn't getting cleaned? Was anyone else hoping waiting for a big star to end up on his/her butt, shoes flying towards the audience like projectiles??

And finally, I had never seen Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock) live, and I was floored by how handsome he is. Good Heavens!

All right Oscars, good job this year. Now on to the next round of candidates for '09!

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The Sun

Lying on the couch in the family room this afternoon, soaking in the dying sunlight, I thought, the Sun, our star, gives us life. We wouldn't be here without it.

Is the Sun God?

One Day of the Iraq War

This video is incredible:



Keep in mind that all the things this video mentions we could do with the money wasted daily in Iraq could have been done over and over, every day, for the past 5 years.

How many problems could we have solved in this country already?

When are we gonna stop wasting money away in a country half around the world and start using it to make our lives better here in the US?

Just asking.

The State of the Union according to Bush

This was just too good not to post:


This guy is just delusional. It's sad and hilarious at the same time.

He really has turned into Baghdad Bob.

In Memoriam

I should have posted this earlier.

Last week, only seven days before the sudden death of Heath Ledger, we had lost another promising and very young actor to addiction and possibly depression, Brad Renfro (1982-2008).

I remember seeing him for the first time on film when he played the part of a young kid who witnesses a murder in The Client, alongside big marquee names like Susan Sarandon, Tommy Lee Jones, Mary-Louise Parker, and Anthony LaPaglia, and stealing every scene he was in.

Afterwards, I saw him in three other movies, Sleepers, Apt Pupil, and Bully, all very good films, and he was excellent in all of them.

The characters he played were often troubled individuals, so perhaps his own tribulations and inner demons helped him in tackling them.

One thing is certain, he was very talented and would most certainly have created many more indelible characters in the years to come.

He was only 25. His sudden and unexpected passing brings to memory that of River Phoenix, another promising and talented young actor gone too soon.

He'll be missed.

Juno

This is a very nice comedy from a writer I just discovered as the latest columnist in the pages of Entertainment Weekly magazine, Diablo Cody (odd name for a woman...)

The story is very simple: teenage girl and boy have sex, girl gets pregnant, decides to have the baby and put him/her up for adoption.

The execution is simple and carried out with a light touch by Jason Reitman, the director of Thank You for Smoking, another very good satire of our society that I just recently watched (and haven't posted about yet, oops...)

We've seen this type of story before, and often the mother to be ends up changing her mind and keeping her baby, a rallying cry for the anti-abortionists, so I was glad to see that in the end the baby is indeed given up and our heroine goes back to her teenage life, a little changed by the experience maybe, but still a young girl at heart.

My fear was precisely that Juno would end up changing her mind and wanting to keep her baby, which, at her young age, would be, in my opinion, the wrong choice.

The screenplay felt fresh and brisk, almost bubbly, and was very skilled at treating such a controversial topic in a very mature and at the same time innocent and very matter of fact way.

The actors are all really good, starting with the very promising Ellen Page, in the role of Juno, and Michael Cera, who turned out to be a pleasant surprise for me, since I feared that all the recent buzz about him was overrated.

In the supporting roles of Juno's parents, Allison Janney and J.K. Simmons are excellent, while I was left a little cold by Jennifer Garner, who still has to prove to me that she's a good actress, and Jason Bateman. Although maybe the coldness was intentional, given the plot developments...

The soundtrack deserves a mention too, since the songs are both cheerful and gloomy and feel very intimate. Quite a feat to pull off.

Anyway, a good comedy that has just raked in four Academy Award nominations (Best Picture, Director, Actress and Writer), besides winning a bunch of other awards along the way.

Grade: 8.5

In Memoriam

Heath Ledger (1979-2008) was found dead yesterday afternoon in a Manhattan apartment. The cause of death or the circumstances are still unknown.

Heath was a great actor, truly talented, and he'll be sorely missed by the artistic community. He was so young, and still, had already amassed an impressive resume.

Principal photography has just wrapped on the next installment in the Batman series, The Dark Knight, in which Heath played the Joker, a role brilliantly played by Jack Nicholson in the original Batman movie from 1989.

He will, however, forever be remembered for playing Ennis Del Mar in the achingly beautiful Brokeback Mountain, which won him many accolades, among which his first and only Academy Award Nomination.

Following is a beautiful montage of scenes from Brokeback Mountain.

How I wish...

... that Al Gore had been allowed to challenge the Florida vote back in 2000... How much better off we'd all have been if it had been him in the White House for all these years instead of that couple of douchebags no one will ever be able to tell.

But this video clearly shows how gays and lesbians (and all those who are pro-civil rights really) would have gained a lot from having him as #43:



What he says is so true and profound, it almost hurts to think he was denied the right to be President.

Less then a year!

Wow!! I just took this snapshot of my blog's little gadget whose only purpose is to remind me that the reign of terror of the WORST president of the United States ever is less then a year from being over.


Yes!! A year from now there will only be the ghosts of Bush and Cheney in the White House, and hopefully the new occupants will work hard to restore America's image at home and abroad.

Gays and Lesbians as role models

A new research has revealed that lesbian couples are emotionally closer than gay couples and gay couples are emotionally closer than heterosexual couples:

Psychologist and researcher Robert-Jay Green of the Rockway Institute and of Alliant International University in San Diego says the studies of lesbian and gay couples found that the homosexual couples had flexibility about gender roles and an equal division of parenting and household tasks.

In a series of studies Green conducted with Michael Bettinger and Ellis Zacks, lesbian couples were found to be emotionally closer than gay male couples who, in turn, were found to be emotionally closer than heterosexual married couples.

"It all comes down to greater equality in the relationship," Green said in a statement. "Research shows that lesbian and gay couples have a head start in escaping the traditional gender role divisions that make for power imbalances and dissatisfaction in many heterosexual relationships."

Heterosexual couples could learn from gays couples about sharing housework and childcare, using softer communication in conflict and having more nurturing behaviors toward one another and their children, the researchers conclude.

How is the religious right going to spin this one now?

Ah, yes, they'll just ignore it.