2008 Oscar blogging
Multiple award winners:
- No Country for Old Men: 4
- The Bourne Ultimatum: 3
- La Vie en Rose: 2
- There Will Be Blood: 2
Jon wraps things up at 8:48 PST, making tonight one of the shortest Oscar ceremonies I can recall. Overall verdict: no huge moments that we'll remember, either for good or bad. Jon did quite a credible job given the limited amount of time the writers were able to work on the show. The men looked handsome and the women, glamorous. And next year, I'll have seen more of the nominated films so that I can do a better job (she says, once again).
Denzel Washington comes out also only wearing a suit. He can pull it off, but I'd definitely rather see him in a tux. He goes straight into the best picture nominees, giving it to No Country for Old Men, making it tonight's big winner.
The best director retrospective is interesting in the number of times it's been won by actors—I have to wonder how often the actors vote to give it to one of their own. Martin Scorcese gives the award to Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men.
Helen Mirren comes out to give the award for best actor. That's a lovely dress, and again, it's nice to see some color. The winner is Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood; no surprise there.
Harrison Ford—"either an internationally acclaimed actor or an auto dealership"—is only wearing a suit, not a tux, dammit. He's giving the best original screenplay award.
WTF? The pic of Brad Bird typing on his laptop had the apple logo removed? What was up with that??
The winner is Diablo Cody for Juno. That's a world class bad dress, and the tattoo isn't helping any.
There's only four awards left, and it's still under three hours. Damn, for the first time in years that I can recall, people on the east coast may actually get to be in bed before midnight. Unless there are a lot more commercials, I can't see it going overly late.
Tom Hanks is, thankfully, wearing a tux with an actual bow-tie. He introduces a group of soldiers in Baghdad, who introduce the nominees for best documentary short subject. The winner is Freeheld. Hanks then introduces the nominees for best documentary feature, which goes to Taxi to the Dark Side. I guess the Academy didn't want to hear Michael Moore rant tonight.
Amy Adams comes back out (wearing a new dress) to give the best original score award. My guess is Atonement, as I suspect that it won't win anything else. And it goes to Dario Marianelli for Atonement—Tom's impressed at how well I'm predicting these without having seen any of them.
Hillary Swank looks just lovely, although I suspect that that dress might have feathers also. She's introducing the RIP montage. I don't remember them including agents and industry executives before; I wonder if that's new?
Cameron Diaz, looking good—great dress, so-so hair, but overall more than acceptable for the Oscars. She gives the award for best cinematography to Robert Elswit for There Will Be Blood. Tom brags about how he knew him back when.
Coolest bit ever: Jon brought out the woman who didn't get a chance to say a word earlier, who gave a nice little speech. Good for both of them!
John Travolta was announced, and makes his entrance dancing with one of the dancers from the last song. He's giving the award for best song, which goes to "Falling Slowly" from Once. The guy who won isn't even wearing a tie, probably because he wasn't expecting to win. The woman never got a chance to even say thank you, and it wasn't like he talked that long, either.
And it's the third of three nominated songs from Enchanted, "So Close." I suspect that they'll cancel each other's votes out.
Penelope Cruz looks lovely, although it appears it's another dress with feathers. Are feathered dresses this year's theme? She gives the best foreign language film award to The Counterfeiters from Austria. You can never go wrong betting that either the best foreign film or best documentary winner will be about Nazis.
Nicole Kidman probably looks the worst she's ever looked at the Academy Awards, or in other words, better than I (or 99% of the human race) will ever look in our lives. I'm not sure what the goal was for that necklace. She gives an honorary Oscar to Robert Boyle for his years of art direction.
Renée Zellweger comes out to give the award for best editing to Christopher Rouse for The Bourne Ultimatum.
Jack Nicholson comes onstage, playing his best role: Jack. I didn't think they could do a quick montage of 79 best picture films, but they manage. It's sad to realize how many of them I still haven't seen (yet).
We interrupt Jon playing Wii Tennis, who then introduces Colin Farrell. He's introducing another nominated song: "Falling Slowly" from Once.
Forrest Whitaker comes out to give the best actress award, which goes to Marion Cotillard for La Vie en Rose. That one was a surprise; I thought she had no chance at all.
Dame Judi Dench and Halle Berry are announced, but instead we get two guys who we can't identify. They give the awards for best sound editing and best sound mixing to The Bourne Ultimatum.
Miley Cyrus comes out to introduce another nominated song: "That's How You Know" from Enchanted, sung by Kristin Chenoweth.
Josh Brolin and James McAvoy do bits from various movies, and then give the award for best adapted screenplay. The winners are Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men.
Jessica Alba comes onstage, which gets Tom's immediate attention. I ask him what she's wearing and he says, "A throw rug." I disagree; I think it involves feathers. She gave the Sci/Tech awards.
Another retrospective, this one for best supporting actress. Alan Arkin gives the award, wearing a suit. Pffft. The Oscar goes to Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton, who gives a speech that makes us both laugh out loud.
Jerry Seinfeld voices his character from Bee Movie to give the award for best animated short. The award goes to Peter & the Wolf.
Owen Wilson is wearing a tie/cravat. IMO, he should be thrown offstage for just that. He's giving the Oscar for best live action short, which goes to Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets).
Yes, I like retrospectives, but salutes to "binoculars and periscopes" and "bad dreams"? Those, I can do without. Kerri Russell looks great introducing the song "Raise It Up" from August Rush.
I'm a sucker for retrospectives, and the one for best supporting actors of the past gets me just the way you'd expect. Jennifer Hudson gives the award to Javier Bardem for No Country for Old Men.
Cate Blanchett always looks amazing or pathetic. This year, she's somewhere in between. That necklace does nothing for the dress, not that the dress is that great. She's giving out the award for art direction, which goes to Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
Dwayne ("The Rock") Johnson comes out—why? Oh, for best visual effects. The award goes to The Golden Compass, which was a surprise to us.
Jon shows why he's not singing tonight, followed by Amy Adams singing a best song nominee: "Happy Working Song" from Enchanted.
Katherine Heigl looks lovely. It's nice to see a woman wearing color and dressing formally. She's giving the award for best makeup. La Vie en Rose wins. Tom says that he's glad to see that Rick Baker didn't win for just another latex-fest.
Tom reminds me why the music from Get Smart is playing as Anne Hathaway and Steve Carell come on stage—they're working on it now. They give the award for best animated film. The award goes to Ratatouille, as it should (imo).
And we're back from the first commercial break, which gave me a chance to almost catch up. Damn, George Clooney looks great. As always, the man knows how to wear a tux. He introduces the 80th anniversary retrospective, which shows some nice bits from the past.
Jennifer Garner, wearing a nice dress and an amazing necklace, gives the award for best costume design to Alexandra Byrne for Elizabeth: The Golden Age.
Jon does a nice job of introducing the show, without singing, and without even too much political comment.
And here we go, off to the show… Nice opening montage, and it's a pleasant surprise to see a host that's wearing a proper tuxedo.
Once again, I'm doing Oscar blogging, and once again, I've seen almost none of the nominees. Every year I say that next year will be different, and every year, nothing's changed. Sigh.
Live Oscar Blogging and Snarkfest
Oscar blogging should be starting very shortly. This is my 7th year straight doing Oscar blogging, and if you want to read my previous go-rounds, you can see them at:
Want to chat with me during the show? Follow these directions:
For Mac OS X:
• Logon to any iChat account (AIM or .Mac)
• Select File > Go to Chat
• In the Go to Chat dialog, fill in oscarchat for the chat name and click Go
For Windows:
• If you don't already have it, go to AOL.com and download AIM, and do what's necessary to get a screenname (AIM is free and you don't need to have an AOL account to use it)
• Launch AIM
• Choose People > Send Chat Invitation…
• Invite doriasmith to join you in the room oscarchat — you'll be transferred into the room instantaneously.
I may or may not be reading Twitter, as I can only pay attention to so many things at once…
All entries © 1999-2010 Backup Brain, LLC