2011 Oscars
As usual, we watched the Oscars at my house last night and did the traditional contest where we fill out our ballots and try to predict the results. I won with a score of 17 correct out of 24 awards. Did anyone out there beat me?
I thought it was a pretty good show, with Franco and Hathaway (mostly Hathaway, who looked amazing all night in each one of her many dresses) doing a creditable job of hosting. One of my favorite parts was the auto-tuned musical version of some of the movies:
The biggest surprise was that David Fincher didn’t win the award for best director. The Social Network deserved at least as much recognition for directing as it did for its script (Aaron Sorkin won the award for best adapted screenplay). I was glad to see Inception get some recognition, sweeping both sound editing and mixing as well as visual effects. I also thought the award to The Social network for best score was well-deserved.
Discuss these issues and any other Oscar-related stuff here.
Posted on February 28, 2011, in Movies, Television and tagged Oscars 2011. Bookmark the permalink. 24 Comments.
Steve Evans
RJH
Scott B.
John C.
Susan M
Aaron Brown
ninemoons
John Harrison
kulturblogadmin
Kyle M
Brad
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MCQ
Wm
Rebecca
Ivan
Geoff J
btdgreg
Clark Goble
Aaron R.
Tim J
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gibsonbn
Thoughts in random order:
* I didn’t think there was anything remarkable about Trent Reznor’s score for The Social Network. (I didn’t think there was anything remarkable about the movie, either, for that matter.) But I will say that Reznor’s looking remarkably respectable these days.
* It was wrong to bring Kirk Douglas out. He was a fine actor back in the day, but now he looks like the crypt keeper who found a plastic surgeon. His presentation was downright painful.
* The King’s Speech was a really good movie that was made a great movie by the acting. It’s a worthy winner, even though I preferred True Grit (and probably both Inception and Toy Story 3 as well, though neither had a realistic shot at winning).
* The show itself was pretty dreadful. Anne Hathaway was downright annoying, and Franco may or may not have been chemically enhanced. I like both as actors, especially Franco, but they were not good hosts.
* It’s an odd rule that sequels can only be nominated in the best adapted screenplay category (see Toy Story 3).
* I thought Haley Steinfeld got unfairly snubbed. I haven’t seen The Fighter, but if her acceptance was any indication, when Melissa Leo played a crazy woman, she may not have been acting.
* I’m disappointed that Exit Through the Gift Shop didn’t win (and not just because I would have loved to see how Oprah reacted to the situation). It was one of the best documentaries I’ve ever seen. Instead, “Inside Job” (which I haven’t seen) feels like the sort of documentary diatribe that the Academy regularly awards, then moves on to the next one.
I’m surprised you didn’t like The Social Network, Greg. But I agree about Kirk Douglas. I couldn’t even understand what he was saying.
I’m not a huge fan of The King’s Speech, but it felt like the kind of movie that the Academy would reward, so I predicted it would win, except for the director award.
I thought Franco was probably stoned, but I liked Hathaway. I would probably like her no matter what she did though.
I’m really disappointed about Exit as well. I was really looking forward to Banksy on the oscar stage.
I predicted the Melissa Leo award, but every interview I have seen with her suggests she is a different sort of cat. I think her win is deserved, however.
The girl from True Grit seemed an awful lot like the girl in the original version to me.
In ten years we’ll look back and wonder what on earth everyone was thinking heaping praise on The King’s Speech. Actually we probably won’t think about it much at all while movies like The Social Network, Inception, and Toy Story 3 (oddly enough) will stand the test of time. It was entirely predictable and pathetic that it would win.
Franco was horrible as a host. Hathaway was easy on the eyes, but acted more or less like a thirteen year-old girl. All this recent pandering to younger demographics that the Academy is doing in its Oscar broadcasts is ridiculous. And it isn’t even working, the ratings were down 10% this year.
The Fighter is a great film. Bale and Leo both deserve their awards.
“In ten years we’ll look back and wonder what on earth everyone was thinking heaping praise on The King’s Speech. Actually we probably won’t think about it much at all while movies like The Social Network.”
I look at this the other way around. I think The King’s Speech will hold up just fine. It’s a very personal movie with very strong performances. Although it’s a period piece, the subject matter is very universal.
I actually think The Social Network might not fare as well. Think of if ten years ago, someone had written a movie about MySpace, or twenty years ago about USENET. It’s so tied to a particular time and a particular set of assumptions–Sorkin’s fairly obvious conceit that social networks are actually alienating, etc.–that I think it could be very dated very quickly.
I think The Social Network will have some staying power because to me it’s less about Facebook and more about what motivates huge financial success, and the cost that has on personal relationships.
It’s like a Citizen Kane for this day and age, if not in its quality, then in its themes, at least.
I think Sorkin’s screenplay was brilliant and he deserved the award. (Although, it seemed like he walked up there to accept it as if it was a foregone conclusion.)
I don’t think I’ve ever been more disappointed at the Oscars than when Hailee Steinfeld didn’t get the award (BTW, how insane is it that the studio put her up in the supporting actress category). I don’t know if Leo’s performance was better, but I was amazed by Steinfeld.
True Grit was definitely my favorite movie of the year, but I wasn’t surprised that it didn’t get awards. I’m interested to see The King’s Speech because I like Colin Firth and The Social Network just so I can have an opinion on it.
Franco’s hosting performance endeared him to me, but he wasn’t very good. It was entertaining in a perverse sort of way, though. He was definitely playing it cool, making sure everyone knew that he thought the whole thing was lame. I liked Hathaway’s mugging and stuff. She did as much to liven up the proceedings as she could.
I think you’re right that Franco was trying to convey that feeling. The oddest thing about his performance was that he assiduously refused to look at Hathaway throughout the entire show.
The thing I loved about The Social Network was that it seemed so original. It was unlike any movie I’ve seen recently, in its manner of storytelling, it’s score, its dialogue. It seemed fresh. The King’s Speech didn’t strike me that way.
I decided a while back I just couldn’t watch the Oscars anymore. I used to watch them every year and then every year say how lame they were. It would be OK if they were really funny but they haven’t been for some time.
I finally saw True Grit on Saturday. I really enjoyed it.
I just beat you, MCQ, going 19/24. My biggest muff was predicting Social Network for director.
I liked the hosts fine (mostly for Hathaway), but I admit I’m more a Billy Crystal man.
I would have loved for Hailee to win, but I knew there was no chance so I didn’t put her down. I don’t think she was much like Kim Novak in the John Wayne version at all, who was like 21 when the movie was made, whereas Hailee was more age appropriate and played it with more strength, I thought.
I’m going to need to see that Oscar ballot, Kevin. Better scan it in and email it to me for verification.
All you King’s Speech haters are just disgruntled colonials with monarchy-envy.
The hosts were dreadful. Probably the worst ever, at least in recent history. Nothing they did apart from the opening montage was very good.
As soon as I heard the subject matter and cast of King’s Speech I knew it would win Best Picture and a slew of other awards. The Academy loves British Royalty. Add in the fact that you have an actor with a disability but not going “full retard” and how could it lose?
I pretty much picked every award correctly, and I’m OK with the way things fell out, even though I really wanted John Hawkes and Jennifer Lawrence to win Supporting Actor and Actress, respectively, for Winter’s Bone.
I haven’t seen The Fighter, but I’ve been a big Melissa Leo fan for a long time, so I was glad she got an award.
The fact that Christopher Nolan wasn’t even nominated for Best Director for Inception was nuts. Like the movie or not, it was by far the best (and most) directed movie out of that whole group. The only thing even close is Black Swan.
I haven’t seen Inside Job, but I predicted it to win because it deals with an “important” topic, unlike the Banksy movie (which I liked a lot), which was clever and funny and thought-provoking but, in the eyes of the Academy, ultimately trivial. Since the Academy likes to reward “important” movies, I was rooting for Restrepo to win Best Documentary. For those who haven’t seen it, it’s about two cameramen embedded for 15 months with a troop of soldiers in the Korangal Valley in Afghanistan, which is widely regarded as one of the most dangerous assigments in the Army. This troop is set up on the side of a hill, so the usual barriers don’t protect them from gunmen on the top of the mountain, and they take fire daily. There is unbelievable footage of real firefights, but the filmmakers refrain from showing unnecessary graphic shots of dead or mutilated bodies on either side (they are also very careful to present the footage apolitically, without interjecting their own opinions). There’s also interview footage with several of the soldiers taken after the deployment is over. It’s a really powerful movie, and I’m sorry it didn’t win.
6 – If Social Network had truly been a movie about Facebook, then I think you’d be completely right. However I think the story transcended the pop and the novelty of the time its set in, and is a story about popularity, greed, acceptance, and megalomania. Timeless themes.
Four thoughts:
1) They should ask Robert Downey Jr. to host next year. His presentation of the SFX awards with Jude Law was the best-written and best-delivered moment of the evening.
2) It’s hard to completely blame the hosts for the lameness of the show. They were given the worst possible material to deliver. Anne Hathaway at least is easy on the eyes, has a natural sweetness and humor, and worked her ass off trying to turn the sow’s ear of a script into a silk purse.
3) Sorry, but I loved the presentation by Kirk Douglas. The Oscars love to trot out one Golden Age Geezer to give him/her a last moment in the spotlight before the final exit music is played. I loved that Kirk refused to follow the script, flirted with the ladies, and milked the moment for all its’ worth.
4) Regarding the argument as to which movies will have the longer shelf-life, I found it fitting that Spielberg reminded viewers that many of the best-loved “classics” didn’t win Best Picture, e.g. Citizen Kane and Raging Bull. I thought it was a nice little acknowledgement that the Academy often gets it wrong. That said, I had no strong feeling for any of the nominees this year, so I didn’t care who won.
I won my group who watched together with 16 correct. I’m quite proud of that score since I have not seen the great majority of the movies involved and it just attests to my movie geekness in guessing what the Academy will pick (I got half the foreign film/documentary ones right on picking a title I thought they would pick:) ) I’m a little surprised some of you got best picture right and not best director as those go hand in hand almost without exception.
I’ll also echo what’s been said about the hosts. Though I like them as actors, possibly the worst ever hosts. One of the lamest Oscars overall, really.
Hear it now–The best pick for an Oscar host is and should be Kevin Spacey (though I’d love to see John Stewart back or even Stephen Colbert, but that’s just not going to happen)
Besides the Auto tune part my favorite was when Justin Timberlake made fun of Kirk Douglas
Kevin Spacey wouldn’t be bad. I do think they need to find a Bob Hope/Billy Crystal type that can do it year in and year out. Personally, I think Jerry Seinfeld would be great. He’s certainly not busy and thus he could devote his time and attention to the one event each year.
The problem with the Oscars is that all the actors/actresses treat it as a super dignified event, when they need to realize that it’s just a huge heaping of self-love. I like Ricky Gervais’ Oscars Intro on his website.
I missed the Oscars–I moved this weekend and my cable isn’t turned on yet. I would have watched just to see what Banksy would do if he won. I was hoping he’d send three people up to accept for him–all of them females. Oh well.
Steinfeld was submitted for best supporting even though she was in almost every frame of the movie because the Coen brothers knew Natalie Portman had a lock on Best Actress. It was just a gamble that she would be more likely to upset the Supporting category.
Susan, the Academy had already banned Banksy from appearing for some strange reason. At least that’s what NPR said.
I heard they weren’t going to allow him to appear in disguise. But I also heard they were ok with him showing up however he wanted to. Wouldn’t be surprised if Banksy started the rumors himself!