What a night at the Oscars, eh?
Big night for diversity and sexual assault awareness.
While it’s no longer cool for us to say “boys will be boys”… I believe it’s still within the legal PC bounds of good taste to say “Chris will be Chris.”
He did a pretty good job of calling out all the major inequality themes re: Hollywood that’s been on everyone’s minds and tongues for the past few months. Though he did go a little easier on the Establishment and a lot harder on Jada than I expected.
I thought his most pointed call-out wasn’t a race issue but a gender equality issue when discussing the absurdity of having both a Best Actor and a Best Actress category. “It’s not as if they are running a track and field event and Robert De Niro has to say, ‘Whoa, I better slow down my acting so Meryl Streep can catch up…” It’s worth your time to search for and watch Rock’s opening monologue. It should be easy enough to find.
I was pretty bummed when Lady Gaga didn’t win the award for Best Song (or whatever the official nomenclature is) after her highly emotional and powerful performance of “Till It Happens To You.” But when Sam Smith gave his amazing acceptance speech calling on for equality and encouragement for the LGBT community I was like, okay… he’s cool.
But to me, Lady Gaga’s performance was definitely the highlight of the night and one of the most moving performances I’ve seen in a while. At least since her performance of the US National Anthem at the Super Bowl… which was also quite impressive. She’s quite the talent, that’s for sure.
As far as the movie stuff goes, I can’t really comment much because until I see the Oscars I never realize how many movies I haven’t seen throughout the year.
I’m happy and unsurprised that Leo won for Best Actor. Pretty impressive speech he gave re: The Environment. Of course it was a given he would speak about environmental issues knowing how passionate he is about the subject. And it also makes sense to discuss it seeing how critical Nature was to the success of his film. [See: The Revenent: It’s Really Good (for a laugh)]
I’m less happy that Tom Hardy did not win Best Supporting Actor and very surprised that, if Tom didn’t win it, they didn’t just give it to Sly Stallone for sentimental reasons (it certainly wouldn’t be for any acting reasons). As a former Intelligence Community (oxymoron, I know…) guy, I have been meaning to see The Bridge of Spies so I cannot judge the dude who did win. I cannot even judge him based on his past performances because I don’t even have clue who he is (although there is a tinge of familiarity so I’m sure I’ve seen him in this or that).
As for Best Actress… didn’t see “The Room” or is it just “Room,” but just based on the clips shown Brie Larson looks like a worthy winner. As for Best Supporting Actress… didn’t see “The Danish Girl” but Alicia Vikander is definitely the “It Gal” of the moment so I assumed she would win.
While Mad Max swept all the technical and nitnoid whatnot awards, I thought for sure The Revenent would sweep the Big Three. It got two with Alejandro González Iñárritu winning Best Director (two years running now), and Leo’s win, but missed on the biggest of all.
Haven’t seen Spotlight, the winner, yet. I’m still waiting on it to hit Redbox and then I’ll have to wait until Redbox texts me a free movie night before I do. Yeah, I’m cheap like that.
As far as the presenters go… it seems that there is a budding bromance between Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling. They were quite funny together and could make a pretty good living as a comedic duo.
And did anyone else get confused between Kate Winslet and Patricia Arquette? Did they look like copies of each other because they were sharing the same pair of glasses? Or are they secretly Pond Crossing Twins?
Speaking of Patty Arquette, you should check her out on twitter and see the work she’s doing with the #EqualMeansEqual documentary that is in the works. As you probably know she’s a major, outspoken proponent for Women’s and Gender Equality Issues. She believes because she called out Hollywood last year in its poor record of equality in pay between men and women that she has lost several potential acting gigs from it. Check out the good stuff she has going on at @PattyArquette at the tweet machine.
As typical, Sasha Baron Cohen provided the most cringe-worthy moment. His “Ali G” skit is no longer fun(ny), as it now comes off to me only as being stale and rather desperate.
Still, all in all I thought The Oscars overall was a great show. One of the most entertaining in a long while.
I’m really looking forward to seeing what impact all the awareness to diversity this year will have on next year’s nominees.
Aaand… that’s a wrap.
I must say I do not get the whole Gaga thing. One minute she is wearing a meat dress, the next she is biting the hand that feeds her by denouncing her record company and the industry that made her a household name. Her commercial with Tony Bennett for Barnes & Noble was everywhere in December, and she has been the go to person for all the major events & awards shows this season. Her national anthem was good, but there have been far better (Marvin Gaye at the 1983 NBA game for one, Whitney Houston for another). Her tribute to David Bowie at the Grammys was nothing more than an extended ad for Intel, and why was she the only artist allowed to salute him? Every other tribute usually includes more than one performer, but not hers. And now she has revealed she was a sexual assault victim. Is that why she was flipping out on the piano like she was having a seizure??? I do not get or like over the top antics like that. To me, less is more powerful. And until last night, I never heard of her alleged sexual assault. In the past she used sex, sadomasochism and violent images in her stage show, but now she is advocate to empower sexual assault victims. I don’t know about you, but I have had enough of these mixed messages from people.
The thing I do notice about her when she is being crammed down my throat is her diamond studded ear buds & microphone to match her diva like persona. Yes she can sing and play the piano but so can a lot of people who’s names we will never know. And had it not been for her Madonna like antics at the start of her career Gaga would have never become a household name. I believe she started this new sophisticated persona of hers a year ago when she appeared on the Oscars to perform a salute to Julie Andrews & The Sound of Music. Then she contributes one line to a song (according to many sources including Linda Perry) mainly written by Diane Warren, who has never needed a writing partner before to compose a great song, and Gaga is nominated for an Oscar. Enough of her exposure. There is plenty of talent out there. I say let’s give someone else a chance to shine minus all the Gaga hoopla & baggage. I must say I do not get the whole Gaga thing.
Wow. Uhm… it seems like that has been building up for quite a while now. I hope it was cathartic. 🙂
Seriously, I really appreciate you sharing it all here, TVV, and I hope others respond to it because there are a lot of societal and gender issues brought forth with it that should be discussed.
As for me, I don’t really follow her much but, as she is often in the spotlight, it’s hard not to be aware of her goings on.
Yes, she certainly has evolved. I see that as a mature, good thing. She’s still very young. And I’m sure much of her evolution has not only to do with her being a maturing woman – it probably has to a lot to do with the fact that she suffered from what could have been at least a life-altering, if not life-ending disease. Plus… she got married. That changes everyone, whether they want to change or not.
As far as her talent, that’s determined by one’s taste so not much to say there other than a lot of folks seem to like her.
As do I… especially the trajectory that she is on…
LOL actually it was building since the Grammys but until I read your comment I failed to see the intensity of my comment LOL!!! Thanks for giving me a place to read, enjoy and vent!!! 🙂
🙂 The pleasure and honor is all mine, friend.
I enjoyed Chris Rock’s opening monologue. Who else could call out the equality issues better than that and slam it in the audience’s faces? All while being humorous and maybe getting close to the line of inappropriate. I also enjoyed their skit about African American actors trying to get roles in Hollywood right now. Very creative and funny.
Sarah Silverman was a bit weird. Or a lot weird. And rambling. I’m more used to her being funny so that was a bit of a surprise. Gaga = awesome but I’ve also been a Sam-fan for awhile now and happy to hear his speech. I like the song from Spectre, too. While Gaga’s performance was an emotional, stirring hit (esp with all of the survivors joining her… wow, tears!), I still like Sam’s song better.
I loved a lot of the dresses and jewelry but hey, I’m a girly girl who digs her sparkles.
Hmm.. I must have slipped out for snacks or something because I totally missed the Silverman thing. As for Sam, I’m a little indignant about all the heat he’s taken over his acceptance speech. He only meant it all in the most positive way… ah the internet trolls.
Chris Rock did a great job, true. I saw both Revanant and Bridge of Spies. Both were wonderful but so different. That said I felt Hardy did a lot more than the other guy. Again both were great and well acted but still Hardy had a tormented character and physical endurance alone, just wow. The other had to work with Hanks and was phenomenal…I just go with Hardy on this one given the physical demands of the role. I know this acting and not PE but still.
That’s great info, niaaeryn. I can’t wait to watch The Bridge so I can compare; although, I’m a huge TH fan so the other is going to be quite the underdog.
Hi Kurt. Thanks for reading my post & becoming a follower. Reading your (and your readers’) thoughts on the show made me realize how much I forgot to touch upon.
The Revenant wasn’t my favorite Leo movie (lots of silence & grunting from pain), but I rooted for him to win. In addition to Revenant, the other movies nominated for whatever reason that I did see were Spotlight, Room, Creed, Straight Outta Compton, Inside Out, 50 Shades and Steve Jobs. I regretted the last two, but at least Jobs was a free screening.
Hi, JS. Thanks for stopping by and adding to the discussion. I’ve written a review on The Revenent so I won’t spend time on that. As for the others you mentioned, I haven’t seen them except for Creed and SOC.
Creed was boring for the most part, which is too bad because I’m a huge fan of Sly Stallone; though it’s more for his films and less, way less, for his acting. And while SOC was entertaining and I enjoyed it, it didn’t deserve a Best Picture nom in my estimation; however, without a doubt Jason Mitchell deserved a BSA nom, especially before Sly. He nailed it and got ripped off bad over what were probably sentimental reasons for it more than likely being Sly’s last chance.
Not overly excited about seeing the other ones you mention but I’ll probably end up watching Spotlight, for sure, and Room, perhaps, at some point.
Good stuff.
Great analysis. Tracy Morgan as The Danish Girl was the highlight of the night for me.
Dude… that was a bit unsettling.