And The Oscar Goes To......

[hushhush]

I agree on that one.
Sometimes I wish there were an Oscar time machine where they could go back and fix things. They could back to that year and give the Oscar to Glenn for Dangerous Liasons because Jodie is going win an Oscar for Silence of the Lambs in a few years, anyway (and though Jodie was kick-ass in The Accused, I actually thought that SotL was an even better performance).

While they're at it, they could yank Gwenyth's Oscar for Shakespeare in Love and give it to Cate Blanchett for Elizabeth because Gwenyth has gone on to do pretty much sod-all after SiL while Cate Blanchett is continuing to kick ass year after year and only has a Supporting Actress for The Aviator Oscar to show for it. (and I consider that a make up Oscar!)

[Atreides]

Jan 29, 2012 15:26:48 GMT -4 hushhush said:

I agree on that one.
Sometimes I wish there were an Oscar time machine where they could go back and fix things. They could back to that year and give the Oscar to Glenn for Dangerous Liasons because Jodie is going win an Oscar for Silence of the Lambs in a few years, anyway (and though Jodie was kick-ass in The Accused, I actually thought that SotL was an even better performance).

While they're at it, they could yank Gwenyth's Oscar for Shakespeare in Love and give it to Cate Blanchett for Elizabeth because Gwenyth has gone on to do pretty much sod-all after SiL while Cate Blanchett is continuing to kick ass year after year and only has a Supporting Actress for The Aviator Oscar to show for it. (and I consider that a make up Oscar!)

Completely agree with you on all points. 1988 was one hell of a competitve year. Glenn Close was phenomenal in Dangerous Liaisons but she was up against Jodie Foster, Meryl Streep, Sigourney Weaver, and Melanie Griffith (okay, there was the weak link).

Cate needs a Best Actress Oscar to go on her mantle. With her theatre career in full bloom though, I'm not sure when we'll see her in a lead role again though.

[afterglow]

If The Help win the Oscar for Best Picture, would that be just as bad or waaay worse than Crash's Oscar win?

[iClaudia]

Good question.... I'd go with just as bad. At least "The Help" isn't actually vastly overrated in the way that "Crash" was. The focus is on the performances rather than the movie itself.

[huntergrayson]

I don't think it would be as bad. Despite its problems, I think The Help is actually executed well for what it wants to be (a conventional melodrama with a traditional Hollywood 3-Act structure - seriously, the beats fall in the exact places where a screenwriting seminar would place them) and, yeah, the performances are good across the board. Whereas the acting in Crash ranged from "decent" to "unintentionally hilarious" and all of the characters seemed like mere pawns to the message.

[Deleted]

I don't think we have to worry about it winning Best Picture, I'm fairly certain The Artist or Hugo is going to take it. Little Miss Sunshine also won the SAG ensemble award, and it ultimately lost the BP Oscar to The Departed.

Then there's also the film editing correlation, most of the time the winner for film editing also wins BP. The Help wasn't even nominated for film editing. So if we go by that category it'll be The Artist, The Descendants, Hugo, or Moneyball.

[angelaudie]

Yeah, SAG isn't really the best indicator for which film will win BP at the Oscars. Best Ensemble should really be called, "Film with the largest cast" since the film with the most cast members is generally the winner of Best Ensemble.

I know some think Viola and Jean have the leading categories locked but I'm not so sure. There are many cases of an actor or actress winning the SAG award but losing the Oscar. Things like last minute campaigning, an actor nominated for an Oscar but not a SAG, or the non actors that can vote in the acting categories can make a difference. Gary Oldman, for example, is nominated for an Oscar in the lead actor category but wasn't nominated for a SAG. In theory, Oldman could pull off a surprise win (which will lead to me screaming and shaking and crying in the corner) or take enough of votes away from Jean that could to another actor winning. It's possible there are actors that haven't seen The Iron Lady but will see it before sending in their Oscar votes which could result in Meryl pulling off a win.

The supporting categories I think are the only acting categories that have locks on them. I love it though since it's been awhile the Oscars have had some categories that are truly question marks.

[forever1267]

For those of you crushing on The Artist's Jean Dujardin, My New Plaid Pants has some cute and slightly risque and Gay -centric photos and .gifs of him. He really is quite attractive.

[huntergrayson]

I just want to say that I SAW HIM FIRST. Also, he just signed with William Morris Endeavor, so expect his new hollywood agents to campaign hardcore for him.

Also, Uggie's trainer has announced his retirement but he will be in a skit/part of the telecast.

So, the Kodak has understandably removed its name from the theater, given the bankruptcy issues. It's to be determined whether the Academy will buy the theater outright (or pair with another company to do so) or move to the Nokia (blah).

The closest theater doing it is in Philly, so it's a bit of a hike for me, but AMC is having their Best Picture Nominee marathon again.

An interesting column over at Grantland about whether anything can beat The Artist.
Awesome tidbit from the author:

I happened to be in the Oscar auditorium the year Crash won Best Picture, and I can report that what sounded on TV like a gasp of surprise resonated in the theater as something closer to horror. Very few people I ran into that night had voted for Crash. But it didn’t matter, because the vast majority of Oscar voters weren’t anywhere near that theater. They were at home watching TV. And a lot of them loved Crash.

[Deleted]

With all this talk about Gary Oldman's very first Oscar nom, I had to look at how many Oscar noms Kenneth Branagh has and it turns out that this is his fifth nomination but only his second as an actor. His last acting nom was more than 20 years ago (for Henry V) and the last time he was nominated (for writing) was in 1996. Kenneth, where were you all this time?

Another Oscar fact: if Dujardin wins he'll be the first French actor to win an Oscar. Last Frenchman to be nominated for acting was Gerard Depardieu in 1990. Wow. I know Jean is already hugely popular in France but I bet they'll worship him even more if he wins this one.

I love Oscar trivia. Yes I'm bored, why?