Oscar open thread

It's nice that Winslet finally got the Oscar, but her performance in "The Reader" was very performance-y and I'm not at all surprised that Hathaway's excellent performance was looked over.

Also, Mickey Rourke should've won Best Actor. Bah. I've realized by now that mine and the Academy's definition of a good performance differ slightly.

The awards were a mixture of good and bad.

I found the strident, moralistic and intolerant gay sex activism of Sean Penn and that Milk writer very tiresome.

"I think that it is a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect, and anticipate their great shame, and the shame in their grandchildren's eyes if they continue that way of support. We've got to have equal rights for everyone.

And there are these last 2 things. I'm very, very proud to live in a country that is willing to elect an elegant man President."

Sean Penn, acceptance speech

"But most of all, if Harvey had not been taken from us 30 years ago, I think he would want me to say to all of the gay and lesbian kids out there tonight who have been told that they are less than by their churches or by the government or by their families, that you are beautiful, wonderful creatures of value, and that no matter what anyone tells you God does love you and that very soon I promise you, you will have equal rights federally across this great nation of ours."

Dustin Lance Black, writer, Milk, acceptance speech

No wonder ordinary people aren't watching the Oscars, when they are tarred as bigots all the time.

Wow, I really need to be a more regular hawk of the obituary columns. Close to half of the actors profiled (Cy Charisse, Van Johnson, James Whitmore, etc.) I didn't even know had kicked in the past year.

But how does one set a Google Alert for that sort of thing? Easy to do (as I have) for the last living First World War veterans--there are less than a half dozen of them left. But how to cull hundreds of potential noteworthy names from the thousands of obituaries that run every day?

Thank you for posting the video. Had you seen it during the ceremony, you would have seen most of it from the perspective of those sitting in the furthest seat of the highest balcony. Even with a large screen TV, I couldn't read the names/ranks of those to whom the tribute was paid.

The only movie receiving nomination which I saw last year was Frost/Nixon, so I didn't have a dog in the hunt. I watch it for the red carpet and the theatricality of the whole thing. I liked the way the best and supporting actor/actress awards were presented - by having five prior award winners in each category pay tribute to each nominee before the winner was read. I didn't like the montage of other best picture films edited into the clip of each of the best picture nominees.

I liked the juxtaposition of Bill Maher's anti-God diatribe with the Slumdog Millionaire best score/best song writer's thanking of God for his blessings.

I rolled my eyes at Sean Penn's angry, vitriolic acceptance speech. I am sympathetic to gay people who want to live their lives but also sympathetic to religious conservatives who fear, rightly in my opinion, that legalized gay marriage will impact what the churches teach. I also cringed at de Niro's tribute to Penn in which he lauded Penn for meeting with foreign leaders. Saddam? Chavez? I'm willing to put my dislike of a star's politics aside and evaluate him or her on his or her work, but I don't want my nose rubbed in his/her politics.

I liked the set (and especially the Swarovski crystal curtain) and the placement of the orchestra onstage instead of in the pit.

I liked the Tina Fey/Steve Martin screen writers' segment and the fact that the presenters appeared to be sober.

I didn't like or get Ben Stiller's schtick which the audience seemed to think hilarious. It must've been an inside joke.

Expecting people involved in "Milk" not to talk about gay rights and equality is like expecting people who make Holocaust films not to talk about anti-Semitism or a film about Dr. King not to talk about African American civil rights.

Harvey Milk is a martyr figure, assassinated by a religious right politician weeks after defeating an anti-gay initiative sponsored by religious conservatives in California. His life is the stuff that movies and movements are made of.

There has been some discussion that the reaction in the gay community to Prop 8 was fueled, in part, by the release of "Milk," 30 years after Milk's assassination at the hands of Dan White.

Hi, Rachel,

Ben Stiller was doing his best Joaquin Phoenix impression. If you have a chance to watch the video of Phoenix's recent appearance on David Letterman (which you should be able to view online) Stiller's schtick will make perfect sense.

I was disappointed to see the award for Best Actor go to a political agenda, as opposed to Micky Rourke.

And, JJ is absolutely right.

The best movie I saw this year wasn't nominated for anything. That was "Gran Torino": interesting meaningful story, excellent acting (including a very special young woman, a good original song (when there were only 3 even nominated for Oscar?.

It makes it hard to take the Oscars seriously as recognition of artistic achievement, and not just as a political forum.

Is anyone else having any trouble this site while using Mozilla Firefox as browzer?

AML:

"Gran Torino" wasn't nominated for anything? That's surprising. I had the impression it had been nominated for something. My wife and I just saw it this last weekend and thought it very good -- one of the better movies we've seen in a while. The denouement was not only unexpected but also satisfying on many levels.

A minor point but probably of interest to some here: the Catholic priest, and religion generally, receives very sympathetic treatment in the film.

AML and Barmy, for those who haven't seen "Gran Torino" yet, this is a SPOILERISH comment, but I thought this was a wonderful film.

My favorite part (to those who have seen the film) was the marvelous double "fake-out" and I won't say any more. You know what I mean if you've seen the film. Clint Eastwood has won at the Oscars too many times, I think the Academy overlooked this terrific performance mainly because he has won so many times.

Yes, Barmy, I agree that the treatment of religion, the wide range of attitudes toward religion and the changes in the characters, all felt real and true. And the young priest was putstanding.

Gran Torino deserves a second viewing, more than some of the other films deserve a first.

Alicia: "Clint Eastwood has won at the Oscars too many times, I think the Academy overlooked this terrific performance mainly because he has won so many times."

It doesn't seem to have held them back in Meryl Streeps case, for one. And it wasn't just the performance, but also the story, the direction, production, and some of the music. His hand was in everything and bravura throughout. To not nominated and of these just underlines that something political is going on.

I didn't see Milk - but to describe those two speeches as "gay sex activism" is utterly moronic. I'm no fan of Sean Penn's sanctimonious demeanor - but Black's mildly political acceptance speech was reasonable and heartfelt.

I was happy to see Kate Winslet win for "The Reader." What a frustrating and compelling movie! That film is so interesting for its strengths, its flaws, its ambiguous resolution (What lesson did Hanna learn?) - a sincere attempt to understand a complex and unfathomable period of history. Winslet often chooses courageous, challenging parts and that award was well-deserved.

The musical number with Hugh Jackman & Beyonce' looked like someone forgot to take their ritalin.

I liked how they grouped the technical awards together. I appreciated their attempts to try something new with the award presentations.

Love Slumdog Millionaire!

The memorial tribute honored Paul Newman most of all, and implicitly honored his conservative life. The appearance of Van Johnson, Richard Widmark, and Charleston Heston also reminded one of manly and courageous virtues. (Heston was badly treated; his tribute should have been as long as Newman's. No doubt his NRA presidency and his open Christian witness galled the hollywood establishment enough to give him short shrift.)

I know Newman was a conventional liberal democrat. But he was not self-righteous or annoying about it, he actually gave millions to charity instead of just whining for the government to help, and he was the husband of one wife his whole life long.

Lancelot - Paul Newman was married twice, not once. His marriage to his first wife for nearly a decade before divorced her and married Joanne Woodward.

Ratings were up this year

Wasn't last year's Oscars the lowest rated ever?

Hmmm...this year's was the third lowest rated so you are correct.

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/02/23/sunday-ratings-academy-awards-up-from-last-years-record-low/13282

http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/02/17/academy-awards-show-ratings/12818

"Slumdog Millionaire best score/best song writer's thanking of God for his blessings." Rachel

TR: Rahman is interesting in that, as I recall, he was raised Hindu became atheist than converted to Islam. He might be one of the tolerant mystical-type Muslims, but whatever it's nice to see someone say something nice about any Muslim here.

On a different matter I do think a tendency of the Oscars to hector us, and be so self-congratulatory, does start to get grating the older I get. It doesn't even matter if it's a cause I approve of or not. If one of them started giving a huge lecture about Aung San Suu Kyi or even the persecution of Christians in Iraq I could see myself sighing. There's sometimes too great a whiff of "look how great we are, look how we care about things, look what good people we are" when they do this. On top of that it goes long because of all these loving tributes to themselves and their own history. At this point I feel like just give us the awards and the speeches, stop telling us how great you think you are. Limit this frippery to significant anniversary editions. (The 50th, 75th, 100th, etc.) Although the memorial is good. Queen Latifah has a fairly good voice and I don't mind that segment.

Anyway as for the thing itself I find Kate Winslet sort-of likeable and charming. I liked her Dad whistling. Also some of the Hindi music was interesting.

Sean Penn called the audience/academy a bunch of homo-loving commies, or something to that effect, presumably because they voted for and/or cheered for his win.

Even though he sounded like a drug-addled cretin, on this one point he was, of course, more correct than he imagined.

In any case, Mickey Rourke should've gotten that particular Oscar, but it was given to Penn largely for P.C. reasons, and as a way to make up for passing up the gay cowboy movie from a couple years ago.