Now what did I think about this year's Oscars? I'm glad you asked. A lot of people seemed to like them. I found them quite boring. Don't they have some kind of acrobatic act every year? And a tribute to the movies? Really? Did we run out of themes here? I guess it makes sense to not have this ultimate ceremony, seeing how it was a pretty weak movie year. While I loved The Artist and thought it was amazing, it wasn't THE GREATEST MOVIE EVER, you know? The other nominees as well weren't chill-inducing, holy-smokeballs-never-seen-that-before kind of movies. They haven't been like that since 2008 if you ask me. We really need to get rid of this ten movie nomination system here.
And wasn't I so good with the winners? Actually, it was fairly predictable this year. No surprises. Last Monday on the 20th, I went to the Jacob Burns Center in Pleastanville, NY to attend an Oscar Talk with Mark Harris, one of the columnests of Entertainment Weekly (and husband to Angels in America playwright Tony Kushner). He talked with former head film critic of The New York Times Janey Maslin on stage and showed clips of all the nominees. Now I found them to be condescending, but as my friend Erika Panzerino pointed out, they are critics. And critics are like hipsters: they don't like what everyone else likes. For example, most critics love The Tree of Life and Glee despite their general awfulness.
Anyway they didn't seem too thrilled with The Artist, which they predicted to win based on the fact that it has won every single non (and totally useless) Oscar award. They spoke of it as if it was that movie that won everything. And they hated Extreme Loud & Incredibly Close. They believed it shouldn't have been nominated at all, and like me, hated the main character. Did anyone else notice that during the ceremony, like, one person cheered for the movie when announcing the nominees for Best Picture? So...awkward...
I myself got to ask them a question (and no, Erika and I weren't the youngest ones attending). I asked what they thought was the best well written movie of the nominees. They told me they believed A Separation was great for Best Original Screenplay, and for Adapted Screenplay they liked Money Ball. They wouldn't elaborate on why they thought so.I can see Money Ball as a good one. I liked the dialogue in that movie because most of what they were saying seemed to be an accurate depiction of how baseball guys would talk. Neither of those won. The Descendants won for Best Adapted Screenplay, and, much to my excitement, Midnight in Paris won Best Original Screenplay. I got excited. Yes. Yes I did. I really love that movie. Yeah...my birthday is Sunday if anyone is thinking about gift ideas...I have a blu ray player...
No real surprises either at this year's awards. The only one I was off about was Meryl Streep winning. I knew she could do it but I honestly thought it wasn't her night. Viola Davis seemed to be the one to win it. I really can't tell though if Streep deserved it, because I haven't seen The Iron Lady and I've only seen the same clip whenever they talk about her performance. But her speech was wonderful, no? I didn't sigh Meryl, I swear!
You know what we haven't talked about yet? Snubs! This year a lot of people were snubbed, and when I say a lot of people, I mean Ryan Gosling. Seriously? The dude was nominated in both acting categories at the Golden Globes, starred in three critically and audience acclaimed films and is overall the most attractive person in the entire world. And the Academy snubbed him! They refuse to acknowledge all things Gosling! They even cut him out of a clip of The Ides of March when it was nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. Seriously? At the Oscar talk they believed that because Ryan was in so many movies, it hurt him. Well Jessica Chastain was in like, thirty movies this year and yet she was still nominated? And you know who else is missing? Michael Fassbender for Shame, even though he was nominated in every award. I guess the Academy hates young, attractive men. Which is awful. Because attractiveness aside, both actors are good at their professions. If you've seen Ryan Gosling in Lars and the Real Girl you couldn't tell that he was the suave and polished cool guy in Crazy Stupid Love. Michael Fassbender can go from playing a kick-ass villain in X-Men First Class to sweet and caring boyfriend in Fish Tank.
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| Sometimes, I live up to the stereotypical teenage girl. |
And yet the Academy snubbed them both. Also snubbed? Kristen Dunst for Melancholia, Elizabeth Olsen, and Michael Shannon. A study showed that 94% of the 5,800 Academy members are old, white, and LA based men. Something tells me they don't like young people too much.
Alright, I'll have to get back to writing and working on that first vlog again now that the Oscars are over. Now I know how my family feels when Football Season is over...oh wait...movies are all year long. HA!
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| Look at how dapper Jean is! Look! Also the people I babysit for know the designer of Meryl's dress...pretty cool right? |
Nice post, Grace!
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