Day: March 2, 2011

I put in my two cents in the comments section of David Bianculli’s blog, in response to his thoughts about Oscars Night 2011.   Some further elaboration on my part below (I sort of live-micro-blogged it on my Facebook feed when I was watching it; kind of fun).

I appreciated that Bianculli and Entertainment Weekly’s Ken Tucker struck a nice note about the night – there were highlights and good stuff.

Really.  There was.

I thought that a lot of reviews about the Oscars broadcast was way too negative and hard on the presentation; honestly, Roger Ebert and Alan Sepinwall made it seem like God-awful tv.  I think that might be an exaggeration (seriously – there are way worse things on tv than a boring Oscars show; pick any night of “Jersey Shore” – and I tried to watch a half hour of Snooki and the Situation et al., of NJ, and I had to walk away.  Really.).

And, okay, comparing this Sunday’s Oscars to past Oscars doesn’t make it great or bad or anything either.  Granted I’m not an Oscars tv historian, but surely the past Oscars nights were not exactly Greatest TV Ever?  Then again, I’m probably the one tv viewer who didn’t hate that David Letterman tried to be funny with his Oscars hosting gig; he tried; the Uma-Oprah gag just gathered no positive response from the live audience.  I don’t begrudge Letterman for that; it just wasn’t his night at all.

James Poniewozik of Time was more even-handed about his critique, but he conceded that he felt tired about the broadcast.  I guess it depends on what you’re looking for in an Oscars night.  How many surprises or weird moment or great moment do you want?  Oscars isn’t the Golden Globes (thankfully; let the Oscars be the Oscars, I say; let them celebrate the history and present of movies and to continue trying to teach and reach out to us, for better or worse).

Personally, I thought this latest Oscars night was nice, even if not that exciting and a little unsurprising or a tad dull (if only because it had rather unsurprising results: I kept hoping that my sentimental favored movie, “True Grit” would have won something, even if I did like “The King’s Speech”).

At the start of it, I thought it was pretty cheesy.  I mean, really – James Franco and Anne Hathaway entering Alec Baldwin’s dreams to get the secret of hosting Oscars, a la “Inception”?  James, Anne: why Baldwin?  Why not Billy Crystal’s brain?  Billy Crystal was a better Oscars host and he’s funny; I guess I’m not a big Baldwin fan.  And, James entering the Oscars stage with his cell phone (was he really tweeting on Twitter as he did that?  Please!) – that was a bit much irritating for me.

Kirk Douglass was being a good sport/ham.   And, seeing Tom Hanks and Billy Crystal at the Oscars was a real joy.

Some amusing moments included James Franco’s “Congratulations, nerds” to the special effects awardees.  Franco in Marilyn Monroe drag was not nearly that funny – and I kept hoping that Anne Hathaway would have gotten Hugh Jackman up on stage with her (Hathaway sings well, I must say).

Melissa Leo’s winning Best Supporting Actress – well, I liked that she seemed honestly happy and thrilled, and her rambling felt natural.  Kind of amusing that she let out the f-word, and that the silent bleep caught it in time.  (although, I really like Hallie Steinfeld as Mattie in “True Grit”; she was so strong as a strong character).

Christian Bale’s winning Best Supporting Actor – good for him.  Sweet that he got all choked up thanking his wife and daughter; he came off as a real person, not a actor caught up in craziness (which happens).  And he didn’t let out the f-bomb (and had the good humor to reflect on his past f-bomb incident while showing gratitude for his win).

I loved director Tom Hooper’s “Listen to your mother” bit!  And, I thought Mandy Moore and Zachary Levi singing the song from “Tangled” was sweet (when I saw “Tangled,” I kept wondering if that was really Zachary Levi’s voice; so I’m pretty impressed – tv’s Chuck is talented!; and I really liked that they kept it simple; simple can go a long way; ).

The no applause of the “In Memoriam” portion was respectful (although I remain a not-fan-of Celine Dion).  Lena Horne’s quote at the end of the “In Memoriam” was fitting and powerful.

I was charmed by Colin Firth’s Best Actor award acceptance speech.  He even saluted his significant other – how sweet!  (but – as a disclaimer – I, like so many others, have a crush on him since “Pride and Prejudice” and my crush on him will continue unabated…).

I also like this new tradition of acknowledging all the nominees for their acting before announcing the winner.  Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock did such nice jobs of it and I do think that people should be acknowledged for their amazing efforts (even if they don’t get that statuette).

Steven Speilberg’s saying that the nine Oscar Best Picture non-winners were in good company was solid.  The video of the speech from “The King’s Speech” as a foundation/background for the clip montage from all the ten Best Picture nominees was also nice.  I think the Oscar folks really did a good editing to match the right clips to the king’s words (words that observed the eve of World War II and concerned a changing world and desire for better and hope for peace in the face of danger – kind of timeless stuff, actually).

I liked that Anne Hathaway put in a lot of effort and spirit.  I kind of wanted more from James Franco, but then again: I’m not sure how much to expect from actors who usually aren’t in the position of hosting three hours of stuff (and I wasn’t sure how much guidance were they given about their task).

The pacing of the whole thing was probably a bit off (but no worse than usual from past years – Billy Crystal was so right about that, when he came out on the stage and said as much).  I thought the auto-tuning “musical” gag ran too long; it would’ve been funnier if it was tighter (but the gag did make the scenes from the Harry Potter and Twilight movies hilarious).

I was really touched to see all the winners come out at the end with the PS 22 kids’ singing “Over the Rainbow.”  That was a great moment to end the night, with a great song. (even if a little late for the kids…!)

Oh, and take a look at Colin Firth on “The King’s Speech” on Charlie Rose.  Mmm.  Colin Firth.   (yes, I’m very superficial).

Eli Wallach was among those with a lifetime achievement award at the Oscars (along with Francis Ford Coppola).  I liked that they had his clip of “I live to act” remark from his acceptance speech.  A.O. Scott of the NY Times has a charming profile of Eli Wallach, noting that Wallach is his great-uncle.  The accompanying video of A.O. Scott visiting his Uncle Eli and Aunt Anne (Jackson) was also sweet stuff.  A.O. Scott even touched on this in his Oscars video with David Carr.

Yes, Natalie Portman won for Best Actress.  She is also someone with a science background back in her Harvard days, somehow balancing her intellectual and acting sides, as this article by Natalie Angier notes in the NY Times.  The article also cites Hedy Lamarr (who helped develop torpedo guidance systems during World War II), Mayim Bialik (ex-Blossom of tv fame and now a recurring neuro-biologist character on “Big Bang Theory” and a real-life neuro-biologist), and Danica McKellar (ex-Winnie Cooper of “The Wonder Years” tv fame; and later a math honors graduate of UCLA who’s advocating for better math education for girls – and currently doing the voice of Miss Martian on “Young Justice”) as examples of actors who understand and work in the science and math fields.

Somehow, James Franco continues his education (pursuing a Phd. in English at Yale) and acting.  I don’t know how he does it, but apparently with little sleep.  Oh well!

MSNBC.com – with a comparison of the two True Grits.   I haven’t seen the original True Grit, so I have no basis of comparison, but I really did enjoy Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Hallie Steinfeld, etc., and apparently the Coen brothers tried to be true to the original book “True Grit,” so that goes.

On a not-Oscars movies thing: I had seen the trailer for Josh Radnor’s “Happythankyoumoreplease” when I went to see “True Grit” last week; I was impressed by the preview.  Yes, it’s the guy who plays Ted of “How I Met Your Mother” – again playing a romantic but skeptical artist (this time, a writer, not an architect) with a circle of friends in NYC – and he wrote, directed, and starred in this film.  Hmm!  The NY Times profiles Radnor and his soon-to-be-released film.  I’m looking forward to this…

And, a non-movies and science-related note: Congressman Rush Holt, a former five-time Jeopardy champ and a nuclear physicist, managed to beat Watson in a game in Washington, DC.   Yay, a Democrat is going to save humanity from machines.  Sorry to Ken Jennings.  A nice video from CBS on Holt’s observations – including how we can invest in our human capabilities.  Ain’t that the truth?

More posts later; “Fringe” and “Community” are still good tv as far as I’m concerned…