The Oscars

Well, I admit it, I blew off studying to watch the Oscars this evening, mainly for John Stewart who...well, he did O.K. Slow start but he got rolling as the evening wore on. It’s hard to be a comedian and an Oscar host. For Hollywood this is the most stiff and formal they get and the hosts are well warned not to rock any studio head boats I am sure. Though I did like the “If we pulled the Oscar statue down do you think we would have democracy in Hollywood at last?” bit. *chuckle*

First of all Dolly Parton, now damn that is the way to do it, isn’t it. No band, no special effects no randomly whirling dancers. Just walk out on empty stage and belt that puppy out. She doesn’t quite have the clarity and power she used to, but she sure as hell can still sing and still take over a stage. I mean, you really don’t realize that she is this tiny little thing of five foot nothing, did you?

Bravo Altman. Loved Meryl and Tomlins intro, that was brilliant. Altman has always been an actors director, very organic in letting a scene flow.

Rachel Wiesz for The Constant Gardener. AwRIGHT! She did a brilliant job in a brilliant film. That one…the story is powerful, it’s dirty and it’s gitty and it’s ugly and the writer put this incredibly beautiful love in the center of it…and the way story was constructed, how it unfolded, was utterly brilliant.

And Ralph Fiennes is always nice to look at and does “over his head”- bewildered so well.

Speaking of which, Clooney really is our Cary Grant, isn’t he? Male grace and charm, not something you see in American men anymore.

The music was interesting. The scores, I mean, because we had nominees from non-western countries. One of the first things our professor in International Music taught us music is very, very culturally specific. What sounds sad and mournful to us in America and western Europe may be a joyful harvest song in the Ukraine. Or a feasting song in Africa. The audio cues that communicate mood to us are something we are raised and trained to respond to, it’s not innate. So when the composers for a film like Memoirs of a Geisha and film about Japan written for a western audience, are writing the score they have to do some very tricky cross cultural composing.

BTW-Was this the night of Oscar Flubs? First the senatorial Morgan Freeman trips over a word (his recovery was cute) then like four or five other presenters (not counting Bacall, who was having some real trouble reading the teleprompter) flubbed their lines. Then there was the accidental cue that got into the televised feed form the camera director up in the control room.

I wish David Strathairn had won for Good Night and Good Luck, he’s one of those working actors that no one ever notices but is in everything. If you look at his IMDB profile, he’s got a resume as long as your leg. But I haven’t seen Capote yet, so I wouldn’t be surprised Hoffman fully deserved the honor.

Ang Lee, thumbs up for him. I have not seen Brokeback Mountain yet, but he has a very eclectic body of work and he masters all of it so elegantly. He’s the one who made one of my father’s favorite Comedies: Eat, Drink, Man, Woman which is a very Chinese film as is Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. But he has also done The Hulk, Sense and Sensibility and the Ice Storm. I like his style…it reminds me of Clint in a way because he allows the story to breathe rather than trying to squeeze it into a rigid format.

(Clint is still the master at letting a story unravel itself.)

Crash was a great film. It really, really plumbed the depths of American intolerance, an ugly side we like to hide. The little fears and biases and assumptions that can flare up into full blown racism with a single incident and how it creates it’s own destructive cycle. One review I read said Crash was one of those stories “in which everyone is at fault, and yet no one is a villain”. That’s a refreshing and realistic look in a polarized world such as the one we live in right now. And yet…while seeming one of those films that would make you want to stick your head in an oven (Like Galliopli or Leaving Las Vegas), it somehow manages to find hope in simple human dignity. In the universal human being we all reach out to in the most dire or simple circumstances. And it was beautifully constructed and told as well with an incredible cast. I like the fact that Bullock got to play something that wasn’t cute or pretty, Fraiser too. They really got to step outside their normal roles. As political as the Oscars are, this one definitely deserved the nod.

All the montages were excellent as well. Though I am waiting for the day they put “Sword and Sandal flicks” in their own subcategory. *chuckle*

Actually, I want to find the video store where these things are organized properly. Drama, Comedy, Action, Suspense, International, Documentaries, SciFi with sub catagories of science fanatsy (Star Trek and Star Wars) and science fiction (Contact, Bade Runner), Fantasy (I think we have enough films for it to rates it's own shelf). Animated films would simply be mixed in with the appropriate dramatic genre. Mizayaki's Prince Mononoke in fantasy, Deep Blue in Suspense, Cowboy BeBop in SciFi.

Chick Flicks and Date Flicks: there is a huge difference. "Date Flicks" are the romantic comedies that guys are usually dragged to within the first couple weeks of dating. "Chick Flicks" are the estrogen infused dramas that have every women in the audience balling their eyes out while every man beside them is looking confused (and usually a bit worried). Just Like Heaven is a date fick. The Joy Luck Club is a chick flick. I'd file 'em seperately.

Then the Historical Epics: Sword and Sadal (or Toga flicks), Sword and Armour (Medieval and Renaissance), Guns and Honor (everything from the Enlightenment through the Civil War) and modern history which covers everything from the Edwardian age through the 1960s. Then of course there is Internationl Historical films as well.

I could break it down even further, but that would be needlessly pedantic for my customers. :D

Anyway - All in all: Good show, no big surprises. Typical Oscars.

Will type more tomorrow, have a great day all!