Oscar Night 2010:
The "Live" Blog!
A Techtite
Review
I’m going to do something different this year and
follow the lead of many a “blogger” online, and offer my “LIVE” take of
each moment of the Oscars as it happened. This is the actual words I
typed live while watching the telecast; each moment, as it happened,
when it happened. Oh; and pardon the potential for typos; as I
said...LIVE! Here we go…
The evening opened with nominees for best actor and
actress all on stage at once. After all their names were announced to
rousing applause, they were escorted back to their seats; a really nice
start to the show that surprisingly enough should’ve probably been the
way they started every Oscar telecast for 40 years by now.
Then came Niel Patrick Harris’ musical number. It was
not as good as his Emmy hosting gig though it was a nice salute to the
days when the Academy awards began with a musical number (you know; back
when the opening musical numbers were good).
Then arrive hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin. Their
opening monologue was mostly funny because it was from the old school
“machine gun” style of comedy: keep the jokes and puns coming non stop,
and hope that most of the jokes are a “hit” and not a “miss.” Sure,
there were “misses,” though many of the jokes were funny, particularly
the pun: “Hey look; over here is the Inglorius Baterds section…and over
here [points to other side of audience] are the makers of the movie!”
One change this year: ten nominees for Best Picture.
Many deserved compliments have been made about this, though it made for
an even better show due to the periodic announcements of each nominee,
after every one-tenth of the telecast was over. It was a nice testament
to how good of a movie year 2009 was (for the most part!). Avatar.
Precious. Disney/Pixar’s Up. This year; it really was an honor just to
be nominated. Each of these truly were the top ten films of the year.
Best Animated Film was
presented by a gorgeous Cameron Diaz and a dapper Steve Carrell, who
introduced a funny shtick, where the lead stars from each nominee said
what it would mean to them to win the award. Given how hard it must’ve
been for each animation team to come up with footage of each character
like this at the 11th
hour, this was an impressive achievement in itself. Of course;
Disney/Pixar’s “Up” won, though did you know that this was the first
Oscar for this particular Pixar producer? I did not expect that.
Best original song was presented by young stars Amanda
Seyfried and Miley Cyrus, the latter of whom wore a dress which will
lead to many a tween boy reaching puberty, though I digress. The song
from Crazy Horse won, though that’s not my complaint. Was it too much to
ask that each song was sung during the Oscars, as they usually are?
What’s with all the anti-musical-number sentimentality these days? It’s
going to be a very non-musical, “wordy” Oscar night. Bummer.
Tina Fey presented alongside Robert Downey Jr. Yes, as
a matter of fact; it took me this long to figure out that the concept
this year was to have each award presented by two people. Two hosts, two
stars, two presenters, for each award. Anyhow; Tina and Robert were the
presenters for best original screenplay. Props to the editing where each
film clip was offered with the script typed onto the screen in the
foreground; a nice touch. The winner: The Hurt Locker. Nice acceptance
speech that thanked everyone from American soldiers fighting overseas to
his late father, who sadly passed away last month.
Next, Molly “Sixteen Candles” Ringald and Matthew
“Ferris Bueller” Broderick, offered a long overdue salute to John
Hughes. Finally; a movie montage that I can enjoy. Too bad John had to
pass away last year before someone finally said “Hey that guy whose
films defined the 1980’s deserves an Oscar moment.” Well; better late
than never, right? Everyone from Molly to Matthew to a now adult
Macaulay Culkin shared the stage and offered anecdotes about the late
director. Then his family in the audience stands to rousing applause. A
nice part of the evening.
Forgive me if this blog fell apart for a few minutes
after that wonderful John Hughes memoriam. Lots of anecdotes were shared
around the family room for a few minutes afterwards. Here’s a few awards
that followed immediately afterwards with a few thoughts. Animated short
film doesn’t include a Pixar short; interesting. Logorama won; looks
good, probably download it off of iTunes if possible.
Best Short Documentary once again fails to convince me
that the documentary Oscar should be given on Oscar night. Okay; so
documentary producer #1 (for “Music By Prudence”) was about to hog the
mike. Did producer #2 have to be so rude about interrupting him midway
into his speech? Memories of Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift are
inevitable here. Whatever this woman was so desperate to say didn’t
amount to much: her speech was interrupted by “get off the stage please”
music. The proceeding winners for live action short film were much more
humble; only one of the two producers said anything.
Now Ben Stiller offers his obligatory annual “how can
the Academy embarrass poor Ben Stiller THIS year?” moment. In short:
he’s dressed as a Na’vi from Avatar. “This seemed like a better idea in
rehearsal.” Now that was funny. The running gag where he speaks in alien
gibberish? Not so much. Ben presents make-up. Star Trek wins. Yay!
Best adapted screenplay comes next. Jeffrey Fletcher
wins for PRECIOUS. Wow; George Clooney looked like he was sitting on a
thumbtack at the start of the show; what will he look like if Up In The
Air wins nothing, tonight? No matter; Precious winning for best adapted
screenplay is a very pleasant surprise! Great moment with a genuinely
surprised Jeffrey offering a sweet speech.
Roger Corman and Lauren Bacall both get an honorary
award. The bad news? For one thing it was given earlier so they don’t
get any acceptance speech. Then Queen Latifah announces that they are
sitting in the audience tonight, and while they did indeed get a
standing ovation…it sure took awhile for everyone to finally stand up
and applaud such seasoned Academy members as Corman and Baccall. What
was up with that?
Sigourney Weaver presents Best Art Direction. Avatar
wins. Say what you will about the movie winning Best Picture; it really
did have best Art Direction no matter what the trolls say. Another nice
and humble speech. No “king of the world” nonsense. Yet.
Sarah Jessica Parker helps present Best Costume Design
and is the target of “is that what you wore to the Oscars” jokes. The
Oscar goes to The Young Victoria. Frankly the nominees for this category
were all over the map this year.
Well, it had to happen, didn’t it? Tonight’s
obligatory “why did THIS need a film montage during Oscar night?”
moment: Horror movies. Egads. Who came up with this snafu? Everything
was so great up to this. Mute button used very quickly. NEXT.
Sound Editing goes to Hurt Locker. Then it wins for
Sound Design. Just before you an say “maybe it will beat
you-know-who”…Avatar wins Oscar #2, for cinematography. Another deserved
win for a visually stunning masterpiece. Still think that Best Picture
should go to most visually stunning film, though that will have to wait
for later.
Demi Moore presents the annual memoriam. Remember last
year when Oscar night was ridiculed for the singer in the foreground
with the memoriam in the background? Well, they learned their mistake
this year. Nice film clips interspersed with the photos of each Academy
member memorialized.
Disney/Pixar’s “Up” wins for best musical score. To
those who disagree; there’s this awesome moment at the start of the film
where all voice acting stops and we see the life of the old man in the
film, from childhood to senior life, with not a word spoken. The music
carries this whole moment brilliantly. That’s a deserved win in my book.
Visual Effects next. Do I even have to say who won?
Seriously; unless someone wanted to say “to heck with fairness I hate
you James Cameron,” no way would Avatar not win this one. Some of the
Avatar FX wizards got their first Oscars tonight. Cool.
Best Documentary feature goes to The Cove, produced by
Louie Psihoyos and Fisher Stevens. No offense to Psihoyos though it’s
amazing when a comedian (Stevens) best known for silly comedies like
Short Circuit shows a smarter, intelligent side such as this. Nice
speech, with a "text this number" message held in the background.
Interesting.
The Hurt Locker wins Oscar #3 for Film Editing. Speech
says that he likes how the movie didn’t have test screenings. I don’t
know how that’s evsn slightly relevant though whatever. Coincidentally
The Hurt Locker is the next Best Picture nominee presented, immediately
after this award. Holy segue, Batman!
Best Foreign Film category
follows. In case you expected this year’s Oscar night to stay on
schedule: none of the top Oscars have been given yet, and with 10
minutes until
11:30 EST,
this is going to be a long night.
Now we get to the acting awards. I guess now is a good
time to mention that earlier at moments I didn’t blog properly:
Christoph Waltz won as Best Supporting Actor, while Mo’nique won as Best
Supporting Actress. Neither award had that flattering “five Academy
members on stage praise each nominee” moment from last year. No; that
would be saved for the main acting categories…
After a short clip of each nominee’s performance, Tim
Robbins, Colin Farrell, Vera Farmiga, Julianne Moore, and Michelle
Pfeiffer come on stage to praise each of the Best Actor nominees. Their
anecdotes for each are quite charming, particularly Tim Robbins for his
former “Shawshank Redemption” cell mate, Morgan Freeman. Kate Winslet
then comes onn stage to open the envelope and hand the Best Actor Oscar
to…Jeff Bridges. This is his first Oscar win, ever, after five
nominations. “Thank you mom and dad for turning me onto such a groovy
profession.” Sweet.
Best Actresses quickly follow. The anecdotes come from
Michael Sheen, Forrest Whitaker, Oprah Winfrey, Stanley Tucci, and Peter
Sarsgard. Let me tell you; with all due respects to each of these
performers, when Oprah praised Gabourey Sidibe; that alone made it an
honor just to be nominated. Gabourey was visibly in tears. Sean Penn
opens the envelope and the Oscar goes to…Sandra Bullock! “Did I really
earn this or did I just wear you all down?” Cute.
Barbra Streisand presents Best Director. She praises
how the “first woman” might win, or the “first African American.” Then
she basically says in so many words, yeah; the others put their visions
on screen pretty well too. Um…whatever, Babs. The show is 24 minutes
overtime. Get on with it, please. Best Director goes to Kathryn Bigelow.
“The time has come” says Babs. “There’s no way to describe it…this is
the moment of a lifetime.” With all due respects, girl; yeah, it’s nice,
though once again sci-fi is given the shaft by Oscar, so forgive me if
I’m not totally happy for you. I’d offer a quote from Ain’t It Cool
News’ live blog about this moment, though the server over there just
crashed. That alone should tell you what the sci-fi community feels
about Oscar’s snub. Again.
Why am I staying up for this? Is there any chance for
a “split decision” this year? I doubt it. Tom Hanks reminds us that 1943
was the last time 10 Best Picture nominees were given. He forgets to
remind us which 10 films were nominated, however. The Hurt Locker wins.
I will say this; Kathryn’s speech was very humble. She has little to be
embarrassed about tomorrow, so all she has to worry about are all the
fans of Avatar. That wasn’t meant as sarcasm. I’m just saying. Good
speech, Kathryn.
Here’s a good anecdote to
conclude my first Oscar “blog.” During the credits of this year’s Oscar
telecast, they play the theme to E.T.; another sci-fi film that was
timeless yet, sadly, almost totally
snubbed by Oscar. However: E.T., if memory serves, lost to Gandhi. Fair
enough. It’s hard to debate that one. It
is
pretty easy to debate
this one. I’m just
saying. The first female director won. Yay, I suppose, though minutes
later I’m just not feeling it. Wake me tomorrow and I may feel
differently. Maybe…
---Techtite
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