2007 Oscars Recap

Hey everyone! The 79th Oscars has come and gone, and I must express relief that it's all over. After the past several years of boring ceremonies, my expectations were sufficiently lowered for this one. What I didn't expect though is that they would go 45 minutes over. I only padded my DVR for 30 minutes. So yep, I missed Best Actor, Director and Picture. Thank God for Youtube. The fact that they cram these three awards into the last 15 minutes is telling. I think saving best picture for the end is one thing, but 3 of the 7 most anticipated awards happen in the last 15 minutes of a 4 hour show? Something is out of whack. I also just don't understand how the producer of this show could have so underestimated the length of the show. No one's speech went on for 45 minutes, so did they just never do a full run through? Fire this man at once! And finally, once again, we have too many sound awards, too many songs, and too many montages/tributes. Enough already!

As for what went well, I thought Ellen was a good host. I enjoyed her tone and opening monologue. She wasn't too mean, too political or too bawdy. She was light and that was refreshing. That said, I still long for the return of Steve Martin.

And now for how I did on my predictions. I predicted 16 awards - what I thought should win and what I thought would win. For the would wins, I got 10 out of 16 - or 63% accuracy. For the should wins, I got 7 out of 16 or 44% accuracy. I was happy to see that Marie Antoinette picked up the Costume award, Pan's the Art Direction and Arkin the Best Supporting Actor. Those were all in the Should but not Will category! I can't take too much credit here. I think this was the most predictable year in decades.

And now for my own awards of the night:

• Best Use of Color: Emily Blunt
• Best Dressed: Reese Witherspoon once again, Cate Blanchett as always, Rachel Weisz (sans the necklace) and Gwyneth Paltrow's art deco gown
• Worst Dressed: Cameron Diaz and Meryl Streep
• Best Dressed Men: George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio, Peter O'Toole (I adored his smoking jacket)
• Best Fashion Analysis Ever: Randolph Duke
• Worst Excuse for a Human Being - Much Less a Correspondent: Ryan Seacrest
• Biggest Trends: Neutral colors, Beaded dresses, Long straight hair
• Belle of the Ball: Helen Mirren - she had more shout-outs than Jack Nicholson
  
• Biggest Mystery: Where was Rachel McAdams? Ryan Gosling brought his mom and sister - the jerk!
• Worst Trend: Prepared, read speeches. These people are in the entertainment industry! Why can't they memorize a few lines - and yes, I'm specifically talking to you Alan Arkin. And a bazillion others. There wasn't a speech of the night that knocked my socks off. Forest Whitaker was MUCH improved over the Golden Globes, even if he did use note cards.
  
• Biggest Upset: Alan Arkin beating Eddie Murphy. Now if only Peter O'Toole could have pulled off the upset for Best Actor, I'd have really been happy. Tell me again how Lawrence of Arabia doesn't have an Oscar??
  
• Biggest Headscratcher: Happy Feet winning the animated award
• Biggest Attempt to Boost Self Esteem: The Gospel Choir that marched down the aisles at the end of Ellen's opening monologue singing about how great it is to be nominated. I can only imagine what the Brits must have been thinking during this bit of bizarreness.
  
• Most Overplayed: A tie between everyone telling us how this is the most international/diverse telecast EVER and them telling us how great they all are for being environmentalists. I wonder how many private planes were flown to this ceremony? And something tells me JLo did not arrive via Prius.
• Biggest Disappointment: The opening montage. While I admire the idea of having Errol Morris document the nominees' reactions to being nominated, I thought this was a huge letdown. I went back to last year's Oscar entry and was reminded of how much I loved that opening montage of all these characters from movieland intermingling. It was magical. This year's was frustrating. I didn't know who 90% of the people were - they weren't identified, and I can only take so much self-congratulation!
  
• Most Overdue for a win: Scorcese - you know it's a bad year for movies when you're thrilled Martin Scorcese wins for one of his tier two films.
• Most Overexposed: Jack Black - somebody lock this guy away for a couple of years.
• Funniest Presenter: Jerry Seinfeld - give him the host's job next year. Or put him back to work in some fashion. His riff on trashing movie theatres just may have been my fav moment.
  

Oh well, here's hoping 2007 is a better year for cinema.

-sunday

Last Minute Oscar Predictions

Hey everyone! I'm so running late on this, but better late than never. We just this second got back from a wkend in Winter Park. Thomas boarded and I did the lodge/hot chocolate/book thing (Model Student, in case you're interested about a girl who's a model and a student at Columbia - lots of good makeup and dieting tips;). I cannot believe how much Winter Park has grown! There are actually lots of restaurants/bars/coffee shops there now, and it was only 1.5 hrs away, so it's officially on my good list.

And now, my predictions:

• Original Screenplay: Will win - Little Miss Sunshine. Should win - Little Miss Sunshine
• Adapted Screenplay: Will win - The Departed. Should win - Notes on a Scandal
• Original Score: Will win - Phillip Glass for Notes on a Scandal. Should win - Phillip Glass for The Illusionist (not even nominated)
• Best Foreign Language Film - Will win - Pan's Labyrinth. Should win - Pan's Labyrinth
• Best Film Editing - Will win - The Departed. Should win - United 93
• Best Documentary - Will win - Inconvenient Truth. Should win - anything but (spare me the Al Gore acceptance/presidential announcement speech)
• Best Costume Design - Will win - Dreamgirls. Should win - Marie Antoinette
• Best Cinematography - Will win - Pan's Labyrinth. Should win - Pan's Labyrinth
• Best Art Direction - Will win - Dream Girls. Should win - Pan's Labyrinth
• Best Animated Film - Will win - Cars. Should win - Monster House
• Best Supporting Actress - Will win - Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls. Should win - Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
• Best Supporting Actor - Will win - Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls. Should win - Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine. Should win, but not nominated: Adam Beach, Flags of our Fathers
• Best Actress - Will win - Helen Mirren, The Queen. Should win - Judy Dench, Notes on a Scandal
• Best Actor - Will win - Forest Whitaker, Last King of Scotland. Should win - Leonardo DiCaprio for The Departed (nominated for Blood Diamond instead)
• Best Director - Will win - Martin Scorcese. Should win - Martin Scorcese.
• Best Picture - Will win - The Departed. Should win - The Departed.
  

Caveat: I have not seen Babel, Dreamgirls, any of the documentary nominees and only Pan's in the Foreign Film Category.

Happy Oscar watching! Let's hope the musical numbers and honorary awards are brief, the dresses aren't dull, and the acceptance speeches are off the cuff.

-sunday

Letters from Iwo Jima

Hey everyone! I managed to see one more Oscar nominee a couple of weeks ago, Letters From Iwo Jima, Clint Eastwood's flip side to Flags of our Fathers. Eastwood has received much aclaim for being such an overachiever that he actually made two well-received movies at once. And for the most part, he deserves it. As I recall, the editing and the music in Flags annoyed me quite a bit, though the performance by Adam Beach was worth the ticket in. Luckily, I did not have the same problems with Letters. The film was shot documentary style - very stark, very washed out, not much music at all. It was interesting seeing things from the Japanese perspective and Eastwood was smart in highlighting three sympathetic figures - the General (played by the awesome Ken Watanabe of Last Samurai), his friend Baron Nishi a former equestrian Olympian with a fondness for Americans, and an apathetic foot soldier, Saigo. The rest of the Japanese seemed either angry at the General's strategy or desperate to off themselves once it became obvious Iwo Jima was a battle they would not win. The scene where a group of soldiers each blow themselves up one after the other in a cave was most disturbing. I was especially surprised that they at least did not try to do this kamikaze style and take out an American or two. It is hard to rationalize people who show such a preference for death.

My main quibble with Letters comes not so much from it, but from a pattern I've seen in all of Eastwood's recent films - from Mystic River on. As Spielberg is often accused of being an overly sentimental director, I think Eastwood should face the opposite charge. He's overly cynical. And just as one is a crutch, so is the other. In Mystic River, not only did Sean Penn's daughter die, her accused killer was one of his best friends - but then wait - he actually didn't do it. In Million Dollar Baby, not only does Hillary Swank get paralyzed, she bites off her own tongue in an effort to kill herself. In Flags, not only do three soldiers get exploited in a propaganda machine, one of them ends up killing himself. And finally in Letters, not only are the circumstances so dreadful that a couple of Japanese soldiers actually surrender, they end up getting murdered by a couple of American G.I.s after doing so. Okay Clint, I get it. Life sucks. There's always an unhappy ending if you look hard enough. Yeesh.

The other thing that was a bit unsettling for me was the effort to show the Japanese side and make some type of statement that no matter what side you're on, war is hell. I firmly believe that this is true, but I still think the side you're on is vitally important. I realize that the intent of Letters was to show the Japanese side of things, but is this really something we need an American to do? One of the things that made the movie Downfall (the story of Hitler's last days and the best war movie I've seen in years), so great is that it was all done by Germans. I would have found Letters to be more potent had it been an all Japanese production. I do see that both the story and screenwriting were done by Iris Yamashita, who I'm assuming is at least of Japanese descent, but still. A lot of critics are calling this an anti-war film. I don't know if I get that. Any story of war other than Hogan's Heroes always makes war look horrid and brutal. But as long as there are people in the world who are intolerant, uncompromising, envious to the point of violence or power-mad, it looks like war is something we're stuck with. I'm still waiting for the a movie or a miniseries that tells me the full story of Iwo Jima. Both sides or not, Flags and Letters just didn't do this for me.

Boulder Bumpersticker of the Day : Except for Ending Slavery, Fascism, Nazism & Communism, War Has Never Solved Anything

-sunday

Painted Veil and Pan's

Hey everyone! Last weekend I saw two more good movies I can happily recommend:

Pan's Labryinth - Pan's is currently in running for the Best Foreign Language pic at the upcoming Oscars. And though I have yet to see any of the other contenders, it's hard to imagine a more original film in this category (I do hear truly fabulous things about The Lives of Others, but it has yet to grace my local cineplex). Pan's is set in mid 1940's Spain and tells the story of a young girl, Ofelia, and her pregnant mother who move to the countryside to live with her new stepfather, Capitan Vidal, one of Franco's henchmen. This guy is a sadistic monster, so Ofelia chooses to escape from her reality by imagining a fantasy world. Unfortunately for Ofelia, even her fantasy world is a dark and disturbing place, full of hideous creatures. The movie has two parallel stories going on. One is set in Ofelia's fantasy world, and the other is in the real world where a group of rebel's are in conflict with the militia led by Capitan Vidal. On the side of the rebels is the Capitan's maid, Mercedes, who becomes Ofelia's ally. Both storylines are equally compelling, and the visuals in the fantasy storyline are especially creative. It got distracting reading the subtitles during these scenes because I was so interested in what was going on onscreen. In the end, Pan's is a very dark, graphic and sad movie. The first of the year that made me cry. Not one for kids, but definitely one for adults.

The Painted Veil - The Painted Veil is based on the William Somerset Maugham novel that I have not read. It focuses on the lives of ill-matched English married couple Kitty and Walter Fein, played by Naomi Watts and Edward Norton in the 1920s. Norton is a bacteriologist stationed in Shanghai. Thanks to a brief affair with the British Vice Consul (Liev Schreiber), Walter decides to punish Kitty by dragging her to an isolated village to help with a cholera outbreak. He actually tells her she has a choice: she can do this or he will divorce her. I have to say, I would have chosen divorce, given the extremely horrific conditions of the cholera-beset village. I started off the movie not at all blaming Kitty for her liaison, so wooden was Walter. The movie succeeds in turning this view on its head as the two battle wits and eventually come to see the good in each other. By the end, Walter and Kitty had both won me over thanks to excellent performances by Watts and Norton. I understand the book's ending is quite different from the movie's, but I found it very pleasing and ultimately romantic (though once again sad) nonetheless. This felt like a movie that should have been made a few decades ago - and I mean that as a compliment. Not enough movies like this are made anymore. Related gossip of the day: Current Hollywood couple Naomi Watts and Liev Scheiber got together on this movie. They've been together a year and Watts is rumored to be pregnant.

Boulder Bumpersticker of the Day: I'm already against the next war.

-sunday

Winter Book Reviews

Hey everyone! Since it's been bitterly cold in Colorado, there's not much one can do. Thankfully we have books. Here are a few that have kept me from going stir-crazy:

City of Falling Angels by John Berendt - I'm usually not a huge fan of non-fiction, but I fell in love with Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Berendt's first book. It was given to me by Martina. She cited its study of the various stata of society in Savannah, GA as similar to Thorton Wilder's book, Mr. North on Newport, RI. Knowing my love of Mr. North, she thought I should give it a try and boy, was she right. If you've just seen the Midnight movie, don't judge the book by it. Go out now and check this one out. Anyway, in City, Berendt give Venice, Italy the same treatment. Once again he immediately captured my interest with a cast of real life characters that only a city like Venice could host. If you've been to Venice, City makes you want to return post haste and if you haven't, get ready to call your travel agent. I first went to Venice about ten years ago with Cyd and was captured by both the beauty and the oddity of the place. It's the kind of city where the directions to your hotel go something like this: Go to xxx square. Find the statue. Walk 64 paces in the direction his sword is pointing and turn left, etc. Basically it was a scavenger hunt for adults and who doesn't love that. It's also the kind of place where you ask a waiter for a cool place to go and he directs you to Il Picolo Mondo (The Small World). After almost giving up finding it, you notice a couple of people knock on a black door. A hidden window slides open and they are eventually let in. You walk up to the door and read in 10 point font, Il Picolo Mondo. After getting in, you learn the tango from mad Italians. And the list goes on....

City tells the story of several of Venice's residents and expats. The story is kicked off by the mysterious burning of the oldest opera house in Italy, the Fenice, and continues with the effort to determine who is responsible and how it should be rebuilt. Basically the amount of red tape involved makes the movie Brazil look tame. Other chapters are devoted to exiled poet Ezra Pound (who knew that he was found a traitor during WWII and sentenced to an asylum for the criminally insane for 13 years?), dueling glass blowers, various aristocrats and artists, a world class killer of rats, and many, many more. City is an entertaining read and an interesting look at Venice from the inside.

A Year in Provence by Peter Mayle - I continued my travelogue with this book, given by my brother to my mother for Christmas. I got to read it first. Year tells the story of Mayle and his wife as they buy a house in the countryside in Provence. Each chapter represents a month of the year so Mayle spends a lot of time talking about the changing seasons and the different foods each season brings. Early on he makes it clear that life in Provence revolves around food and drink. His description of some of the meals he eats got my mouth watering and me longing for a trip to L'Atelier, our local French restaurant. Mayle also describes the challenges they faced in doing some remodeling of their house. Lots more red tape to be found. This is a mood book for me. When I was in the right mood, the month Mayle was writing about flew by. Towards the end, I started getting a bit bored. I can say that if I were to travel to Provence, this is a book I'd bring.

Jane Austen in Scarscale by Paula Marantz Cohen - I made a triumphant return to fiction with this book, the second of Cohen's that I've read. The first is Jane Austen in Boca, a take on Pride and Prejudice set in a Florida retirement community. Trust me it works. Scarsdale works just as well. Cohen structures the plot on Austen's Persuasion, a novel whose heroine (Anne Elliot) I didn't enjoy near as much as those in P&P or Emma. Scarsdale focuses on another Anne, Anne Ehrlich, a guidance counselor at a highly competitive high school. Much of the book is spent on Anne's dealings with her highly motivated students and their obnoxious parents as they battle to get into the Ivy League schools of their choice. After reading about the effort Anne puts into all of this, I could not help but feel hugely cheated by my own high school guidance teacher - Caroline Roberts, a woman who didn't help me one iota with a single college applicaiton. Where was Anne when I needed her? Anyway, when Anne's not at school, she's helping out her beloved but infirm grandmother and her newly impoverished family. One day in walks Ben Cutler, Anne's first love whom she spurned at her family's request because he wasn't of their class. Ben has made it big and Anne's feelings have not diminished after ten years. I won't spoil the rest. This was a super quick read for me and Cohen is an excellent writer - very insightful.

-sunday

On Groundhogs and Wizards

Hey everyone! It's official: there is hope! Sure, I woke up this morning to find out we broke a record at 4:44 a.m. - -18 degrees outside with a -40 degree windchill factor. And sure, it still has yet to hit zero, but I was saved by two things. The first is my new fav animal, Puxatawny Phil! In case you missed the broadcast, he did not see his shadow, so that means Spring is coming early! I have never been so happy to hear this news and I never thought I could put so much faith in a groundhog. But that's what happens when you live in the frozen tundra of Colorado where we've had snow for SEVEN weeks in a row and the snow from pre-Christmas has yet to melt. But all of that's behind us because Spring is officially just around the corner. I've promised Thomas I won't complain a whit about the heat this summer, so ready am I for it. He remains skeptical. Ha!

And now I have an even better reason to look forward to July. What's that? The final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is being released on July 21, 2007. Making that one of the happiest days of the year. This is much sooner than I'd expected. I thought we'd have to wait at least until 2008 for this gift from J.K.! I already have my Amazon pre-order in. Can't wait!

Boulder Bumpersticker of the Day: Avaholic

-sunday