Sunday, March 7, 2010

Oscar Night

Well that wraps it up for me. Good show, good winners, tired fingers. Now what am I going to write about on this blog for the rest of the year? Hopefully by this time next year, my plans for culturetilt.com will be in place and the Oscars will be a more interactive experience.

10:58PM
- Wait, what? No, "let's recap the nominees". No "please look at this final montage." Adam Shankman must have been backstage saying hurry it up. The Hurt Locker wins Best Picture. I can respect that the voters weren't tempted to give another one to Cameron. 15/24.

10:56PM
- 59 years old but looks like she's 40 Kathryn Bigelow wins Best Director, making her the first female Best Director. But how is this the "second nomination tonight"? They haven't announced Best Picture yet. 14/23.

10:52PM -
Sandra Bullock wins Best Actress. I've always liked Sandra, so I'm happy. Did they just call Barbra Streisand "Barber"? 13/22.

10:36PM -
Jeff Bridges wins. I like the "I will talk about you because I know you" approach better than what they did last year. Sandra vs. Meryl, James vs. Kathryn showdowns after the commercial break. 12/21.

10:26PM -
So they are going ahead and having friends of the nominees present the lead acting categories, instead of random former winners. No matter how they do it, I'm glad they kept the idea of having each nominee individually honored. But, I'm pretty sure Kate Winslet will come out after these people leave and actually give out the award.

10:18PM
- Read this online and thought it was interesting. The reason Mo'Nique wore a bright blue dress with a flower in her hair is because Hattie McDaniel, the 1939 Best Supporting Actress for Gone with the Wind and the first African-American Oscar winner, wore the same outfit when she won. And because of El Secretos de Sus Ojos winning Best Foreign Film, I'm pretty sure I just lost my office Oscar pool. 11/20.

10:08PM
- Tyler Perry, it's not all about you, you know. But hey, good try. The Hurt Locker wins Editing. So, looks like HL is winning Best Picture. 11/19.

10:05PM -
I'll admit, the only reason I predicted The Cove is because prediction sites were telling me to. Penguins won a few years ago; dolphins win this year. Always vote for animals. That short clip of Food, Inc. makes me want to hit up the local Farmer's Market more this year. The Cove wins. Why does Fisher Stevens look familiar? 10/18.

9:55PM -
Avatar wins Visual Effects. Oh my god I can't believe it. I did not see this coming from a mile away. This is the most shocking.... 9/17.

9:53PM -
As my previously referenced hero Robert Ebert pointed out on his Twitter, Farrah Fawcett was left off the In Memoriam segment. And here come the dancers! Not bad. Uh, George, what were you doing there? Up wins. 8/16. And again, at .500.

9:43PM -
I guess I should make a "how's it going" comment. I'm actually really enjoying it. Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are doing a great job, but I always like it when Steve Martin hosts. The clip segments are good, but I can tell now this is going to run longer than three hours. But, good job and not near as "young-skewing" as I thought it would be. Hopefully I'm not speaking too soon - the So You Think You Can Dance dancers haven't been on yet.

9:37PM
- This was one of my upset predictions.......and I was wrong. Avatar wins Cinematography. 7/15.

9:25PM
- Sound categories. Not much to say. The Hurt Locker steals one of Avatar's technical awards. But I predicted The Hurt Locker winning Mixing. Watch me get it backward. Nope, HL wins Mixing too. 7/14.

9:21PM
- I can respect the tribute to horror films, but it still seems pretty random. Hey filmmakers, if you make a horror film you have hardly any chance at all of ever getting nominated, so we'll show some clips in a three-minute montage and call it good, mmmkay?

9:11PM
- Again, didn't Sarah Jessica Parker present costumes last year too? Seeing Tom Ford makes me remember how much A Single Man was robbed in numerous categories. The Young Victoria wins and I'm batting .500. 6/12.

9:07PM
- Avatar wins Art Direction. Why did they have the star of Avatar present an Oscar to Avatar? 5/11.

9:01PM
- I was wondering who they would get to present Best Supporting Actress (because Heath Ledger was last year's winner)...I think Robin Williams is a great choice. Mo'Nique wins and gets a standing ovation. Very to the point speech. Kinda wanted more from her. Anyway, my drought is over. 4/10.

8:50PM
- I always like the way they present the Screenplay nominees. Precious wins Adapted Screenplay. First shocker of the night; no one was predicting that. But, much deserved. 3/9.

8:40PM
- OMG Ben Stiller...can't wait for the Zoolander sequel (yes, there's going to be a Zoolander sequel); Star Trek wins Makeup...why did I predict The Young Victoria? 3/8 (this is rough).

8:36PM
- I watched all of the short film nominees in the theater. They were all fantastic, so I really had no idea which ones to predict. Logorama wins Best Animated Short. Not my prediction, but it was my "should have won" (at least in my mind). Music by Prudence wins Doc Short (sure) - haha crazy lady charges the stage...no one cares....and we get the first cut off the mic of the night; The New Tenants wins Live Action Short...funny short. 3/7.

8:23PM
- Hughes tribute. Very tasteful. Nice to see Molly Ringwold and some of the other Hughes crew again. A little surprised they didn't get a standing O though.

8:16PM
- They should have Tina Fey present something other than Screenplay sometime. Yes, she's a writer. I get it. She can do more. But once again, very funny. The Hurt Locker wins Original. My first miss. 3/4.

8:04PM
- I certainly appreciate how doing Best Original Song this way cuts a lot of time out of the telecast, but I'd like more than 30 seconds of each song. Winner is "The Weary Kind." Woot. 3/3.

7:57PM
- Trivia - you wanna know how The Secret of Kells got nominated? They screened it for a week in LA, and nowhere else. Apparently enough important people saw it. Dammit, bring back "And the Oscar goes to...". Up wins Animated Feature. 2/2.

7:45PM
- I'm liking the multi-layered, multi-scene clips. I don't think we'll get them for the leading categories, but for now they're nice. But, "and the winner is..."?? Boo. Anyway, Christolph Waltz, as expected. 1/1. Wait, I don't think he was done with his speech.

7:37PM
- I'm really liking how Steve and Alec are playing off each other. And I love how Meryl Streep is a good sport.

7:32PM -
Okay, so Neil Patrick Harris is who Seacrest was referencing. I really like NPH, but hopefully this isn't in place of a monologue.

7:31PM -
Introducing the 10 lead acting nominees - awkward.

7:27PM
- Oscar producer Bill Mechanic is promising this will be the "best Oscar opening ever." Let's see...

7:23PM
- Every year, actors are built up so much as "locks" that I think I would really feel bad for any of them that lost. Remember how Eddie Murphy was touted as a lock for Dreamgirls, yet lost to Alan Arkin? He was pissed.

7:19PM
- Hey Whoopi Goldberg, you're a former Oscar winner. We should honor you by showing a commercial about your bladder leakage to an audience of billions.

7:13PM
- Seeing the 1947, 2010 10-nominee lineups makes me think about how many of this year's 10 will be obscure in about five years.

7:00PM
- I don't like how ABC does their own red carpet show. Just start the show at 7 dangit.

6:46PM - Ryan Seacrest just possibly implied that Kanye West will be doing something at the Oscars - WTF?

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