Speaking of movies, I just saw a preview for Offside, aka "Iranian women disguise themselves as men to watch the World Cup." Anyone know anything about it?
It's a massively boring show this year. Dunno why.
The Oscars are the best advertisement for TiVo that I can think of.
I'd forgotten about it this year. I guess it's just that I haven't seen the movies, but the Oscars feel more irrelevant this year.
I was happy to see that Pan's Labyrinth won some stuff, even if it lost for foreign language film. That was a great movie.
It's a massively boring show this year. Dunno why.
Isn't a woman hosting?
Movie but not Oscar note: I quite liked Lies and Alibis, which is charming frippery. Also, The Prestige was pretty good, too.
That is all.
Love Beyonce trying to keep the "I'll kill you, bitch" look off her face when Jennifer Hudson won.
The Prestige wasn't as good as the other 19thC magician movie.
When I look upon Celine Dion, the first thing that comes to mind is that somebody like Micheal Jackson will someday pay good money for her skeleton.
That's awesome for Hudson. Best Cinderella ever.
I turned on the TV this evening, saw Ryan Seacrest discussing the Academy Awards with Ellen Degeneres, and remembered why I was not planning to watch TV tonight.
So instead I am watching a DVD double-header, "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "Wild Strawberries".
I just saw it yesterday, so every Oscar Children of Men doesn't win seems like a personal affront.
Ennio Morricone getting a lifetime achievement (or whatever) award assuages the pain, though. Amazing that he's never won one previously. Although -except for the Mission and The Good the Bad and the Ugly- they skipped all his good films in the montage. Awesome that he gives the speech in Italian - and that Quicy Jones is next to him. Clint Eastwood once again unmans the rest of us who couldn't provide simultaneous translation onstage...
I was also about to comment on how I am bitter that Children of Men is probably not going to win a single award. Bah.
13: I think you're talking about The Illusionist, and you are correct. It was better.
Also, Dreamgirls was horrific, and Hudson was only slightly less horrendous than Murphy.
Did they really have to refer to Hugh Jackman as "the original Volver-ine?" Ugh. At least they're doing a minimum of pimping the presenters' latest projects.
Also, having Patton to flip to during the boring parts makes the Oscars much better.
The Illusionist was horrible. Haven't seen the Prestige.
I nominate Ogged for best original score.
during the boring parts
Awards shows have only boring parts. Unfortunately, my wife does not share my assessment, so I'm having to listen to it all the same.
Wasn't he already nominated in that category 18 times before? A regular Susan Lucci, that Ogged.
I'm the last guy who's going to get an award for scoring.
Dude, apo, it's all about "Oh no, she hasn't aged well" and "Good lord, he looks waxen" and "She's hot!" And then some shit about movies we haven't seen. Awards shows are the best.
Apostropher: a cohabitant who is watching an awards ceremony is no call for you to feel compelled to do so as well.
Little Miss Sunshine over Pan's Labyrinth? Bah!
How is Toby McGuire a star? How does something like that happen? In America?
25 + 29
A gracious acceptance speech, please.
31: Toby Maguire looked like he was covered in a thin sheen of Vasoline.
34: Lining up a studio head's daughter as his perma-beard certainly can't have hurt.
What's more American than Spiderman? It's not like he's going to win an award, and someone famous who isn't going to win had to hand them out.
I think Maguire is pretty good, actually. You need someone to play the boy on the cusp of adulthood roles.
I'm going to pretend that guy with the tail for the Devil Wears Prada silhouette was doing it Mapplethorpe-style.
17: You weren't cringing at Old Man Eastwood's horrible mishandling of the Morricone award? I found it really, really uncomfortable. Clint seemed pretty out of it (although amiably so), and I have my doubts as to whether his translation had anything to do with what Morricone was saying.
I thought Sharon Stone was for being terrifying.
I have a hard time thinking of a movie left me feeling more ripped off than Dreamgirls. Beyonce was the only thing worthwhile in the whole movie. (Actually, one the other original Dreamgirl and the replacement were both pretty good. But the parts were small.)
Beyonce's dress makes her look pregnant.
Kirsten Dunst just had *way* severe makeup and hair. Not good for her.
Clint Eastwood once again unmans the rest of us who couldn't provide simultaneous translation onstage I rather suspect that the translation was prepared ahead of time?
Why do the musical pieces always sound the same? Powerful-voiced women with long straight hair and bosomy outfits singing forcefully but without much actual emotion. Yawn.
I'll take this thread to 49 by myself, if I have to.
I do agree that awards shows are awesome, though. Also that this year the dresses are boring. Sad.
Tommy, by my Italian, Clint was good-enough-for-government-work in his translation. And his "I should have worn my glasses" that was clipped off at the end was awesome. On my good days, I aim for "amiably out of it."
I wonder how many of the ancestors of the people on stage were owned by Strom Thurmond's family.
cusp of adulthood roles.
I think "cusp" has to refer to something less than a ten year increment. I can smell the Clearasil through the TV.
Ouch, Ogged. How do you come to think of these things?
45: So did Jennifer Lopez', but I kind of liked it anyway. And Anika Noni Rose's dresses have been hawt.
48: At least she was wearing adequate support garments. There's only so much we can ask of Kirsten Dunst at once.
48: Clint's translation was different enough from the Italian that I don't think it was prepared.
And Beyonce and J-Hud should have switched dresses - they would have looked better in each other's dress than the one they wore.
Probably I'm just being suckered b/c I like them both, but Travolta and Queen Latifah are actually amusing.
If you closed your eyes during that song, you could totally tell which woman was beefier by the sounds of their voices.
Doris Strom Costner, a cousin of the late senator, said Sharpton should be proud to know his family's connection to hers. "He's in a mighty good family," she said by telephone from Edgefield, S.C.
Asked how she feels to learn of evidence that her family owned slaves, she said: "I can't help it. I'm 74 years old, and I certainly can't help it. I don't feel one way or the other." Most white South Carolinians at the time owned slaves, she said.
Classy.
If you closed your eyes during that song, you could totally tell which woman was beefier by the sounds of their voices.
And, yet, her voice kind of sucks.
"He's in a mighty good family," she said by telephone from Edgefield, S.C.
Like their piano. Or the horses.
Sharpton should be proud?!? Of the family that owned his great grandfather? Proud, exactly, why?
Man, am I glad Thurmond's dead. The potential for awful, grotesque reactions to this would have been just too huge.
Can we have an official banning of all commercials alluding to old movies? Thank you.
Most white South Carolinians at the time owned slaves, she said.
As I recall, that should be "most rich South Carolinians".
62: Come on! She has a good voice. Plus, the whole church gosepl singer--American Idol--Oscar story is awesome.
Doris Strom Costner
I can't wait for the Kevin Costner shipwreck that will come out of his need to atone for the sins of his ancestors...
68: Ugh.
Has anyone actually *seen* Little Miss Sunshine? Does it manage not to completely suck, even though my local paper said this morning that it was a "family values" film? Also, has Alan Arkin actually won anything before? Because I heart him, and his winning could make up for the movie sucking, if it did.
Has anyone actually *seen* Little Miss Sunshine?
I liked it.
51: Interesting. Whatever lingering shreds of Italian I retain wouldn't be enough to judge, and I hadn't thought to try to apply it quickly enough anyway. But the length of the blocks of Italian relative to their translations had left me suspicious.
But hey, if it was done on the fly, good job to Mr. Eastwood. I might've been predisposed to thinking he was out of it on the basis of his sort of awkward ad-libbing with Degeneres.
How does Will Smith manage not to be annoying? I always feel like I want to be annoyed by hime, because he's so freaking wholesome, and yet, somehow he manages to amuse anyway.
Most white South Carolinians at the time owned slaves, she said.
It's probably a sign of progress that she felt the need to include the "white" there.
Has anyone actually *seen* Little Miss Sunshine?
I have. It's okay, but I wouldn't call it Oscar-quality.
I loved Little Miss Sunshine -- it is "family values," though in a really dysfunctional way.
I'm sure Kevin Costner's checking into rehab right this minute as the first step of atoning for his ancestors' misdeeds.
Well, I figured Clint must have picked up some Italian doing all those movies with Leone. I was imagining the translations were prepared just for safety's sake, not because I figured he was deliberately trying to fake it. But good for him, that's cool.
How does Will Smith manage not to be annoying?
You probably instinctively favor the lighter ones.
Ok, dysfunctional family values I like. I'll put it on the Netflix list.
78: Nope, because I loathe Tom Hanks.
I missed the intro to the current montage. What the fuck is this? An all-star tribute to prejudice and war?
I saw Little Miss Sunshine on DVD, and was underwhelmed after all the hype. But it's still good.
This Michael Mann (or whoever put it together) montage is awesome.
Oh hey, James Brown! Have I missed the "who died this year" montage?
32: The computer and the TV are in the same room of the house.
Has anyone actually *seen* Little Miss Sunshine?
That's actually the only movie nominated for anything that I *have* seen. It doesn't suck. Aside from Arkin, it isn't Academy Award material, IMO, and the end really doesn't measure up to the rest of the movie, but it's still a very fun film. The "family values" crowd surely wouldn't consider it a "family values" movie.
Ok, Kate Winslet also looks severe, which is quite a feat. I'm going to say that the super blond hair pulled back to the nape of the neck is not a good look for most women.
69(!) -- I thought LMS was an excellent movie.
81 - It's movies that are "distinctly American".
84: But, but, she's . . . fat! Relatively speaking, that is.
Fucking Academy. Is The Departed any good?
No dead people montage just yet.
What's up with the hair tonight? I especially don't get the long-hair-over-one-shoulder look a couple of women were wearing.
89: So prejudice and war it is, then.
Aw, c'mon, Ogged. It's nice to see an old woman win something.
Is The Departed any good?
The Departed is great.
I like that Kate Winslet totally walks like a guy.
Clint did a lot of Spaghetti Westerns. His Italian probably better than Roberto Begnini's Enlgish, at the very least.
And Children of Men seems cursed, dammit...
I love Jodie Foster. I'm tempted to do that to my hair, but it would be too much upkeep. Also, doesn't she just have the best walk and body language, ever? You'd know it was her if all you could see was a silhouette kind of jigging the way she does.
92 - Here's your dead people montage.
Jodie Foster looks baaaaaad.
Bad as in bad-ass! I will hear nothing against Jodie.
What the heck did Bruno Kirby die of? He waasn't that old.
I hate popularity-contest clapping during the dead people montage.
I love Jodie Foster no matter how she looks, Becks, you meanie.
Jodie Foster is awesome! And beautiful! Which is why her uncharacteristically bad styling was all the more disappointing.
Okay, even the dead people montage was boring.
100: give her a break, Becks. Not only did her friend die, but I don't think he made it into the montage.
Why was Jodie Foster in the dead people montage? I hadn't head she was in poor health.
101: Leukemia.
I didn't care for Jodie's hair, but love her dress. No fair of her to deprive us of her awesomeness by only doing a movie every few years.
Okay, maybe the Oscars are boring, but isn't it awesome to see Philip Seymour Hoffman up there instead of Jack fucking Nicholson?
108 - Ack. Didn't know. I'm "watching" it on TiVo and must have fast forwarded through her saying that.
What in the hell is going on with Phillip Seymour Hoffman's hair?
OMG, are *none* of the best actress nominess playing girlfriend roles? Hallelujah.
113: But did Jack shave his head? What happened there?
And was there ever any doubt about Helen Mirren?
Brits' acceptance speeches are always better.
I liked Little Miss Sunshine. It's the only one of the Oscar nominees I've seen, and I was surprised it was nominated. Enjoyable as all get-out, but mostly just silly.
Helen Mirren has a gorgeous dress.
I know we're supposed to love Helen Mirren, but she leaves me cold.
No, everyone said she was going to win it, but it's damned nice to have 3 of the 5 nominees nowhere near young, and all of them justifiably playing lead roles.
Jack with the shaved head, who the fuck knows. The man is insane.
I love Helen Mirren, Ogged, you meanie.
118: Best acceptance speech? She fawned over Elizabeth, for god's sake. I wanted whoever won to point out that the nominated roles were ofr the first time ever actually all good ones.
I kind of thought Helen Mirren was like Judi Dench: one respects her; perhaps one is a little intimidated by her. Love doesn't really enter into it.
FOr a woman older than my parents, Helen Mirren looks great. Ogged, what are you talking about?
116: I don't think any of the best supporting actress roles were girlfriend roles either. Yay!
were ofr the first time ever actually all good ones
Classy to insult all the former nominees.
I didn't say she doesn't look great; I just said she leaves me cold--like she's not very likable, I mean.
126: Nope, I love Judi Dench.
129: Not at all. There's a distinction between *roles* and nominees: one can play a girlfriend role well, but a girlfriend role is a thin fucking role to play.
I don't mean that I'm down with her royalist tribute, just that the Brits usually don't have laundry lists of thank yous and are also quite clean and articulate.
Completely agree with 102.
(But dissing Foster's styling is really, really reaching for the fug. Dare I say it suggests desperation in a situation of fug shortage.)
The Oscars are always dull, but I've got to say this is the best-produced and probably the best-hosted I've seen them. Except for that vaccuum-cleaner bit just now.
Aren't there any elegant and lustrous movie star ladies left in the world?
129: Although, okay. This is why I tend to put my foot in my mouth, because I would totally say something like that.
Aren't there any elegant and lustrous movie star ladies left in the world?
Yeah, in porn.
134: There are tons, where is this question coming from?
So 2/5 best actor nominees are playing white man's burden roles?
I'm dying to see the Last King of Scotland.
Forrest Whitaker is fucking awesome. Yes.
Is there any famous person who seems more totally awesome than Forrest Whittaker?
Forrest Whitaker annoys the hell out of me.
Everyone should rent Half Nelson. Ryan Gosling was amazing.
Take that, Helen Mirren's acceptance speech.
Yeah, I love him. Ghost Dog! Although he was in Species, for which I haven't fully forgiven him.
So I was looking up to see why he was awesome and Wikipedia already includes the award.
It turns out that Becks has a cold and flinty heart; who knew?
He directed Strapped, which is the prime example of why it's impossible to make an anti-gun gun movie.
Becks is clearly correct re Whitaker.
You're all going to shout me down, but there's something about him that I just don't buy. He rubs me the wrong way. And he totally sucked up The Shield.
Speaking of old guys....
Actually, I think one thing I'm enjoying about this is not only the absence of Jack Nicholson, but the absence of a lot of the Hollywood standards. It's nice to see people up there who have done independent and character roles for a fucking change, y'know? Could American cinema finally be growing up?
Half Nelson was great. But Becks is clearly smoking two full grams of crack while watching this.
Whittaker is the go to guy when you need a large conflicted sweaty black man with good intentions.
Becks, Tim, and gswift are all bad people, clearly.
152: Absence, my ass. They keep cutting to his leering mug in the audience.
Whittaker is the go to guy when you need a large conflicted sweaty black man with good intentions.
That's the comment of the night, right there. I concede that there's something a bit too self-serious about him, but that works in a lot of roles.
Time for Marty's "it's about goddamned time" speech.
157: They'll do that until he drops dead, but at least the asshole's not up on stage.
Could American cinema finally be growing up?
No, I'm afraid you're just getting old, so the world is beginning to fill up with young people.
Whitaker seems labored at everything he does. That's the part of real life I don't want intruding into my movies.
"Jack with the shaved head, who the fuck knows"
Clearly he's laughing because he got all the mopesies out with his hair. This, I think, is that final bit of evidence I needed.
161: Or rather, maybe the people who are at the top of their careers are about my age. Which isn't exactly cheering, but, hey.
Could American cinema finally be growing up?
You must be kidding. American cinema was much better in the past. We're regressing. Cripes, Scorcese--a certifiable genius--finally wins an Oscar for a movie that is technically adept and little more.
AAAAAAAAACK NO! I blame 160. Go away, Jack!
All right, we're maturing, but we're still racist. Thank god. If things changed too fast, my aging heart wouldn't be able to handle it.
I feel ill. I haven't even seen the movie, and I feel certain The Queen was better.
170: He was a great actor in his youth, then he settled into a caricature of himself: smug, sexist, and smirky. Ick.
We can't really blame cinema; all of our arts are regressing. And that's as it should be. And sweating convincingly isn't all that easy.
172: You know you'd hit that, B.
smug, sexist, and smirky. Ick.
You make it sound like that's a bad thing.
I actually expected it to be "Letters from Iwo Jima." But I'm pretty sure that either The Queen or Babel was actually the best film of the year.
He was a great actor in his youth, then he settled into a caricature of himself
About Schmidt? Hello?
I didn't see the Scorcese flick, but I saw The Queen, and on that basis, I contest 171.
174: I can safely put Jack in the "not if he were the last man on earth" category, Tim. Along with you.
Wasn't Babel just Crash 2: Internationale?
We can't both be the last man on earth, B.
What the hell is with all the people here not having seen The Departed? Even I made it out to that movie.
I only know one person who saw The Queen and she thought it was unremittingly horrible.
177: I'm not saying he isn't *capable* of acting when pushed. But mostly he's been allowed to slide and play the jackass.
180: I rather doubt it. Admittedly, I haven't seen either, but Inarritu is a fantastic director, and Crash sounded like it sucked.
I don't enjoy paying to see movies in theaters, usually, because they're so long and expensive.
182: I saw The Departed: not so great.
181: If. There are many people who could potentially, being the last man on earth, be responsible for the end of the human race.
Let's say each person in one's "last man/woman on earth" category ended up as the last group of men/women on earth, with you as the only other remaning person. Would preferences change because in principle one could choose between them? Would you be more likely to pick one from the group even if you'd never pick them if any were the only option?
186: Cala, you want to come babysit? Seeing movies in theaters is something I miss terribly.
I walked out on The Queen, and I don't think I'd ever walked out on a movie before. There was something actually offensive about it. Or I was tired.
188 -- SCMT is saying that you and he cannot both be the last "man" on earth, treating "man" as a synonym for human in hopes of getting your goat.
189: Meaning would I sleep with Tim if only to spite Jack? Possibly.
188: Don't slide around, B. In all cases, you'd be the one responsible for the end of humanity--which is the way the betting goes, anyway--as you'd be doing the refusing.
186: Sure, but it's probably impractical.
"I rather doubt it. Admittedly, I haven't seen either"
Let's all enjoy this for a moment.
Humanity would have to admit that it was pretty funny it died out because B refused to have sex with someone.
196: Feel free; I pass judgment on movies I haven't seen all the time.
194: Nope. You can only ask so much of a woman, beyond which no reasonable person would hold her responsible.
I saw The Departed: not so great.
You're high. I didn't think the ending was as good as the rest of the movie, but I enjoyed it.
183 - *cough*
One person in real life, dear Becks.
198: Alanis Morrissette would write a song about it.
: Meaning would I sleep with Tim if only to spite Jack? Possibly
Ah, B. I never doubted that sex with you is a spiteful experience.
Meaning would I sleep with Tim if only to spite Jack? Possibly.
Yeah, well that'd be one good reason.
181: If. There are many people who could potentially, being the last man on earth, be responsible for the end of the human race.
Way to deny women agency, B.
202: Hm, preventing Alanis Morrissette from writing another song might actually be more important to me than preventing Jack Nicholson from being responsible for half of humanity's genetic inheritance.
205: Nice try, Ben, but it's precisely because women have agency that I say that.
You mean because you could not say it, had you no agency?
Did y'all notice Al Gore suck all the air out of the room as soon as he started to speak? The place was ready to go nuts for him, and then it was all "Oh, it's still Al Gore."
Though I still think he'd be a good president.
Yeah, poor Al.
PK was all, "isn't that the man who said 'oh no, it would take too long to count all the votes, so George Bush can be president'?" But then he added, generously, that there was no way Gore could have known exactly how awful a president Bush would be, so it isn't really his fault.
I SWEAR TO GOD I have not brainwashed this kid.
What the hell is with all the people here not having seen The Departed? Even I made it out to that movie.
I saw back when they were calling it Infernal Affairs. A good movie, but not Academy material. I got no impression that The Departed was any better.
Infernal Affairs was really good.
not Academy material
People have been saying that in this thread about several movies, but the Academy Awards are always about pretty good mainstream movies that are "favorites" or "due" for some arcane Hollywood reason.
Ogged, never contradict me. The Academy Awards are about validating my every opinion about every movie that has ever come out.
In that case, allow me to congratulate you on your excellent middlebrow taste.
Yeah, I'm not sure what "Academy material" really means. The Academy seems to get alternately lambasted for being too shallow and mainstream, or too obsessed with dramas and not shallow and mainstream enough.
That said, I think there were better films in the Best Picture category than The Departed. But I had no illusions that Babel (which probably deserved it) would win -- the Academy had too much atoning to Scorsese on its plate.
213: I said it about Little Miss Sunshine, and I stand by it.
Saiselgy's review of The Departed, in which he correctly notes that it features a truly badass song.
Mr. B's Oscar theory, which I think is excellent, is that whatever movie employs the most people in Hollywood always wins for best picture.
216: It's hard to have an opinion without having a perspective. Attempts to do so usually either A) develop new perspectives (develop a new critical dialectic) or B) descend into schizophrenic incoherence. It's pretty inevitable that the Academy is going to be systematically unfair to some category, simply because the Godlike perspective of neutrality is so hard to actually achieve.
Also, I think the Prozac is messing with my ability to type. :/
Altman would have had a garage full of Oscars under that theory.
I hope you didn't just give the game away, Nbarnes phd.
223: Only that I'm a fan and habitually do page searches on the longer comment threads here for 'bitch'.
223: I think it was the Prozac.
224: Aww! Thank you.
Everyone else: SEE?!?
Overmedicated guys who can't type love Bitchphd. I'll print up the t-shirts.
Everyone else: SEE?!?
Some dudes have a thing for the crazy ones.
Hey, it's someone. Don't be such a snobby mental health bigot.
You guys are just saying that because no one does searches for *your* comments.
226: You should get it printed on teddy bears instead.
(Baked beans are like my version of Prozac, except they can't be relied on.)
Actually, someone made a yahoo pipes thing that does filter out comments by certain individuals.
Hm, that would be kind of handy, Ben.
Yeah, but it couldn't just show my comments, for even the most radiant diamond shines brighter in an advantageous setting.
235 would be an example of a comment that could profitably be excluded.
220: It's pretty inevitable that the Academy is going to be systematically unfair to some category, simply because the Godlike perspective of neutrality is so hard to actually achieve.
True. I guess one way of ameliorating that would be to have genre subcategories ("Best Comedy," etc.) but then you'd have the interminable struggles over why X film was placed in Y category when it clearly belongs in Z.
Reading threads is so much quicker since I started filtering out everyone but OPINIONATED GRANDMA.
How'd you know we were talking about filtering?
It sure is quiet in here.
Since when has SB confined SBself to on-topic comments?
It's a highly suspicious coincidence.
239: There's also a big problem with 'genres that aren't Acedemy-worthy no matter how well executed'. I refuse to believe that the hypothetically best possible Pauly Shore vehicle should get an Oscar. I just can't live with it. However, I remain convinced that there's something seriously wrong with a system that can't wrap its head around Alien being one of the best movies of 1979.
Late to the party here, but God bless Helen Mirren for validating that someone can be in a lot of pre-Cinemax trash and still be a fantastic actor. From "The Extravaganza of Golgotha Smuts" and Age of Consent to Oscar-winning Dame Helen. Plus, she's fucking magnificent in The Long Good Friday, so there.
Reese Witherspoon has a chin.
More specifically, she has stolen someone else's chin and glued it to her own chin to create a MegaChin. Lord have mercy, she could hurt someone with that thing.
Helen Mirren is awesome. Now I want to go rewatch all the Prime Suspects.
I just realised yesterday that Helen Mirren was born Ilyena Vasilievna Mironov. (The rest of the world probably knew this already.)
Dudes, Reese Witherspoon's chin is *nothing* compared to Celine Dion's.
How does one "just realize" something like that?
He was familiar with Helen Mirren, and also familiar with Ilyena Vasilievna Mironov, but hadn't realized they were the same person.
In related news, not many people realize that Groucho Marx's true name was Lars Swenson. He only went into vaudeville after he hurt his back loading haybales. To the end of his life he regretted not being able to continue his original farm-labor calling.
Dudes, Reese Witherspoon's chin is *nothing* compared to Celine Dion's.
Rah heard the words "and now, Celine Di--" and hit fast-forward. I missed it. Darn.
Off topic Question: Does anyone know how to do a really good comment search. There's an Emerson comment that I've been looking for for a while, but I haven't been able to find. It's part of the Relationship-Free life manifesto. It was on a thread about sex and marriage, and he says something like, "Some say that sex builds intimacy, but I say that it just ..."
Is there a good way to search just comments posted by John Emerson?
252: I should have said "just discovered". I like Emerson's truthier explanation, though.
Very happy that The Lives of Others won best foreign film. Everyone should see it. Love love love it. The actors are amazing.
Celine Dion was horrible. I've never really listened to her sing, and now I feel qualified to make a definitive judgment that she has no artistry and lacks pitch control. Also: she shimmies inappropriately.
The Pilobolus segments were just embarrassing. They might pick up some dollars from the lower-middle-brow audience, but, oy, they just confirmed every nasty thing the dance world has been saying about them for years.
253 - Lars Sweson s/b Leroy Washington. When he was born in Oakland in 1972, who would have guessed that he would become the great Jewish comedian of the golden age of radio?
255: Not in the least. Imagine "darn" delivered the most flat, sarcastic tone possible in my comment.
259: I kept saying, "They cut off a guy trying to thank his wife for this?" every time they were on stage. Blargh.
Pilobolus is a genus of fungi that commonly grows on herbivore dung.
I see the name doesn't need further rectification.
The dance troupe was actually named after that fungus.
I went to see them on a date when I was in college. One of the dances they did was this extremely erotic duet between two guys. I was thinking "Good choice for a date, fella! get the girl all turned on with some sexy dancing and then bring her back to your place..." and made some flirty comment to that effect after the show was over. He was like "What? Erotic? It was two dudes." and then was all patronizing like I was an idiot for thinking that. I asked him to take me home instead.
On the other hand, I loved the sound effects choir.
The Foley choir was wonderful. I wanted it to go on for another ten minutes.
Reading this entire thread was an annoying experience. If everyone's standards for movies are so incredibly high, someone should actually suggest what should have won the various awards, instead of just saying "ehh...this bores me" like Nero when presented with a dancing troupe of 4,000 trained elephants.
To follow will be a synopsis of the positive and negative comments made in this thread.
Upon further investigation, 267 only applies to the last half of the thread.
264: That's comically obtuse in the telling but sounds like it was no fun to experience.
How did someone that cluelessly straight decide to take his date to see a dance recital?
Would it be ingracious to remark that 4000 dancing elephants might get boring after the initial shock and wonder wore off?
Better not.
267: I could be specific, sure. I actually think justice was done in most of the categories. Possibly exceptions are Original Song (I loved An Inconvenient Truth but not for its theme music -- but then all the entries in that category were uninspiring), Adapted Screenplay (I feel like as an adaptation "Children of Men" was the most interesting of those films), and the big one being Best Picture, in which the nominations were a little odd (I loved Little Miss Sunshine but I'm not sure why it was on that list instead of Half Nelson or Volver), and the winner was a little dubious (The Departed was a fun film but not IMO better than Babel, which most assuredly is not "Crash 2" -- more like the kind of movie that "Crash" tried and failed to be).
271: That was my reaction to the hypothetical, too. There's nothing intrinsically interesting about 4,000 dancing elephants. I'd rather see Pan's Labyrinth again.
Speaking of Pan's Labyrinth, this was great.
I watched Pan's Labyrinth and Children of Men within a week of each other and it just about broke me. Both are pretty fucking amazing.
The Departed fuckin' rocked my livah! Frankly, I think it is superior to Infernal Affairs, which is also an excellent movie. However, while IA is the more elegant gangster film, Departed manages to foreground race, class, gender and sexuality in virtually every scene in a way that few films can match. Also, I think that Matt Damon's climactic line must serve as a long overdue rebuke to Steven Spielberg's dreary Freudian monomania.
Pan's Labyrinth was, as I've said before, excellent, but it doesn't stay true to its fairy tale roots. Fairy tales are (perhaps necessarily, but certainly generically) recursive. PL, unfortunately, hews to a fairly linear narrative which doesn't allow the reader as much interpretive agency.
The Queen was interesting as a "five minutes into the past" costume drama, but Amelie probably had more trenchant things to say about Princess Diana's death. And I hated Amelie. I suppose if you see Tod Browning's Freaks as the essential expressionist film, you would be more than simply amused by The Queen's collection of grotesques, but I'll put my money on M every time.
