I’ve added my own Oscar Review to the Special by Kristie and Christian Schiller, so that the Oscars 2009 page has all the info on the 81st Academy Awards. Enjoy:
Well, it was that time again: movie geeks from around the world get excited by the conglomerate of shenanigans that is the Academy Awards, or as the friends call it, the Oscars. In Germany, we have to endure the show starting at 2AM and, as expected, it went way beyond the expected schedule, with host Hugh Jackman wrapping it up at six.
Of course, Renny and Andi joined me with chips and beer, proving that the Academy Awards is the perfect way to replace our complete disinterest in soccer, and we were cheering for our favorites, something that thankfully wasn’t recorded in any way because it would have gotten us a safe place in the geek Hall of Fame. And in expecting the unexpected, we got something that left us with a bitter aftertaste, proving that the Academy will always be the Academy, no matter what.
The Oscars are about the show and not about the winners, everybody knows that. But believing in change is healthy. Hugh Jackman was not only fresh, he was so good that his limited screen-time was the biggest disappointment. His opener was nothing short of brilliant, toying with current subjects like the financial crisis and the lack of important nominations for comic book movies and his own “Australia”: “The Academy loves to salute range: In “The Reader”, Kate Winslet who is British, plays a German… Nominated. In “Tropic Thunder”, Robert Downey Jr. plays an Australian actor playing an african-american… Nominated. Whereas me, an Australian playing an Australian in a movie called “Australia”… Hosting. Because of the recession, everything is being downsized. Next year I’ll be starring in a movie called “New Zealand”.” What ensued was a display of Jackman’s multiple talents, using cheap props in a musical performance, not “good for an action star”, simply AMAZING. Anne Hathaway joined him on stage, also shamelessly showing a powerful singing voice. Jackman had to finish by remembering that he, the tuxedo-wearing dancer and singer, is in fact Wolverine. Talk about finishing with a bang… Or maybe not, since a second musical act directed by Baz Luhrman had him performing a duet with Beyonce Knowles and KILLING it. Amazing.
But unfortunately, that was about it for Hugh Jackman, who was limited to short descriptions of the events that followed. And it’s in these events and awards that the Academy shows that it is not ready yet to acknowledge that cinema has changed, over the last 40 years. It seems that they have a hard time fitting into newer trends, and when they do, they overdo it and time it badly. Bollywood has played an important role in worldwide cinema for the last twenty years (or much longer) and only now, with an Indian movie directed by a Brit they decide to recognize it. “Slumdog Millionaire” might be a remarkable movie, but it is obvious that all the accolades it got from the Academy, specifically, are results of the shame felt by not giving the REAL Bollywoodian productions in the past their due respect.
There were, of course, the obvious awards: never had I or anyone for that matter any doubt that Heath Ledger was going to win. Not only because his Joker was one of the most remarkable performances in recent memory, but because not giving him the damn thing would put the Academy in a very tight spot with both the press and the public. “Wall-E” was another sure winner. Then there were the surprises here and there, with Sean Penn being one of the few to beat Mickey Rourke in an award ceremony recently, something that Penn himself recognized at the end of his speech. Pennelope Cruz was another “surprise”, although she was my personal choice for supporting actress. Kate Winslet, like Martin Scorcese a few years back, was the “pity” Oscar. Kate is one of the best actresses in the World right now (“of her generation” is the right term, but that would be a serious understatement), and she should have gotten an Oscar a long time ago.
I don’t want this post to take forever, so I’m not even going to START talking about “The Dark Knight”. The Academy gave it two awards, and in their minds “this should at least appease some of the fans”.
But then there’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”. Again, I agree that “Slumdog Millionaire” might be an incredible movie (I haven’t had a chance to see it yet), but “Benjamin Button” is, both technically and as a motion picture experience altogether, one of the most incredible achievements ever. While “Australia” was hyped as the new “…Gone with the Wind”, David Fincher’s “Benjamin Button” managed to merge incredible technical innovations with the kind of dramatic storytelling that reminds us why we love movies… It’s up there, in my highly qualified opinion, with “Casablanca”, “Citizen Kane” and “Forrest Gump”. But still, the Academy wasn’t ready to acknowledge the talent of David Fincher, who shocked the World and helped shape cinema in the new millennium with “Fight Club”… Strangely, it instead acknowledged Danny Boyle, who directed “Trainspotting” and “28 Days Later”. Yes, you could say that rewarding a director like Boyle is a sign of change, but why does it always have to have a little political footnote to it. Boyle is a brilliant director, and in any other year I would agree with all these awards, but when you’re rivaled by something as amazing as “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, it just doesn’t cut it.
In the end, it was the same story all over again. The Academy played it safe, and the least interesting thing during the night were the awards. Hugh Jackman is definitely the best host since Billy Crystal and is a welcome change for years to come… Let’s just hope he gets a little more working-time in the next round.
82nd Academy Awards in 2010: Jackman for pres… err… Host.
Below is the Oscar Special by Kristie and Christian Schiller
Glitz, glam, glory. Oh yes, it’s that time of the year: The Oscar nominations are out and preparations for the 81st Academy Awards show are in full swing.
Last year’s broadcast was at a record low. Strange, since nowhere the star density is higher, on earth at least, than at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood. The fun begins before the actual show, on the red carpet: results of styling marathons do not always have the desired outcome to say the least. As far as fashion goes: we wonder why Cher has yet to realize that Bob Macky is not exactly couture (we still pity the person sitting behind her and her Mega-Mohawk). Another felony barely escaping arrest was Gwenyth Patrow’s sad gothic nipple shocker. It is not an accident that she has never appeared on any best-dressed list since. And who can forget Björk’s swan dress with matching egg clutch? And Tilda Swinton must have been very, very late for last year’s ceremony because she forgot to dry her hair, put on makeup and chose to wear a garbage bag. Eye Candy Galore!
But he fun doesn’t stop there. Oh, the drama! Cuba Gooding Jr. almost had to be dragged of the stage, Michael Moore’s “Shame-on-You-Mr.-Bush”-rant caused the broadcast to have a 10 second time delay from now until eternity and Gwenyth Paltrow is rumored to be hiding her Oscar because she is so ashamed of her hysterical crying. Halle Berry was hysterical as well but she had the guts to personally show up at the Razzies and accept her worst-actress-award for Catwoman. And of course Adrian Brody used his win to smooch her.
In order to get the ratings back up, the Academy has invited this year’s „Sexiest Man Alive“ Hugh Jackman to host. There probably won’t be a re-enactment of the shower scene from Australia (damn you, Academy!), but he will look positively dashing in a tux (Billy Crystal, eat your heart out). And since he has a Broadway background we can expect the evening to be quite entertaining.
But how meaningful are the awards? Is it more than feeding narcissism, is it actually rewarding filmmakers for excellent achievements? You just need to take a look at the nominees to see that the Academy doesn’t agree with moviegoers. “The Dark Knight” was not nominated in any of the major categories (the guys have something to say about that in Episode 1 of CFC TV). Perhaps this is due to the fact that the average age of the Academy members is getting higher, while the average age of moviegoers is about 20.
But things seem to be changing nevertheless. For a couple of years now, the Oscars are not imitating the Golden Globes anymore. Especially since „Brokeback Mountain“, that won every major award of its season and was awarded with the best director prize, and then lost best picture to „Crash“. Was the academy smarter than the critics? There were supposedly around 10.000 copies of “Crash” sent to the Academy members. Or maybe Hollywood wasn’t ready for the gays (keep reaching for that rainbow!). But that might change this year with “Milk”.
But the Academy also likes to be political. It took 38 years to award the statue to an African-American actor since Sidney Portier in 1963. An injustice many were not ready to accept. But when aside from Sidney Portier (for lifetime achievement), Halle Berry and Denzel Washington were both awarded best actor nods, the show turned somewhat into a farce. Fortunately this seems to have cut he Gordian knot and since then Jamie Foxx and Forest Whitaker have been awarded for their outstanding achievement.
And thankfully things have changed even more since then.
But that still doesn’t mean that there isn’t more room for improvement: Best Picture of the year still means Best American Picture or English-speaking movie. Only a handful of foreign-language films even managed to get nominated in the ultimate category, but yet a single one has to actually win. The closest were “La vita e bella” (1998) and “Crouching tiger hidden dragon” (2001). And awarding an actor for a foreign-language film is just as rare – but it happens: Marion Cotillard’s win last year followed Sophia Loren in 1961 and Robert Benigni in 1998.
The Academy also has several genres that they like to snub: “The Dark Knight” is breaking ranks as an action film, “The Silence of the Lambs” was the first horror shocker to be awarded and “The Lord of the Rings” only managed to snatch a statue after the third try. And if the Academy hadn’t acknowledged Peter Jackson’s tour de force directorial achievement they would have lost all credibility.
But the Academy seems to enjoy biopics. They rarely win the best picture award but the actors are key for success. Since 2002, 5 actors, who portrayed real-life characters, won. Since 1999 only two actresses won for roles that were not based on an actual person in the best actress category. If this is a trend, either Sean Penn (Milk) or Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon) will be battling it out. Angelina Jolie is the only actress this year with a biopic, we’ll see if she can beat Kate Winslet, who has been nominated 6 times, no wins – yet. Or Meryl Streep’s 16 nominations record. She received her last Oscar 1982.
But there is yet another rule: train-wreck comebacks are a sure-fire way to win the Academy’s hearts and minds. And who might be a better comeback kid than Mickey Rourke in “The Wrestler”.
The only sure thing that seems to be “certain” is the posthumous best supporting actor award for Heath Ledger. “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”, nominated a whopping 13 times, seems to be a strong contender for best picture. But “Slumdog Millionaire” has been stealing all the other awards this season. So we have no idea what to expect on Sunday. All we know is that there are bound to be surprises. And maybe Hugh will take his shirt of.
On that note – Enjoy The Show!!!
- Posted by kristie and Christian Schiller
Popularity: 3%