Re: Oscars 2017 - Better Late Than Never Edition
Posted: Wed Mar 01, 2017 1:08 am
A few thoughts.
The reason they have two envelopes for every award is not as a backup, as I understand it. The idea is that one sealed envelope is normally given to the presenters and the other one is given to the recipient afterward as part of their mementos in winning. It sounds like Emma Stone just took the envelope from DiCaprio and was not given the sealed memento envelope. So somehow that second envelope wound up being given to Beatty and he obviously had an epic fail in how he handled what happened. I agree with Andy that he should have simply asked for someone to check the envelope. They would have done so and given him the correct one. But he froze instead and we got a moment that will go down in Oscar infamy.
As a person whose brother works most nights in the operating rooms at UCLA medical, I was not offended by Viola Davis. I don't believe that she was trying to demean nurses, doctors, or anyone else. I do agree with Andy that she was very much performing the first part of her statement - it felt like a prepared piece about how she felt about how Fences and August Wilson portrayed the unsung dignity of the everyday person whose life is not celebrated. I can see how her statement could be taken as self-important and even over the top, but I just don't agree that this was intended as an insult.
I did think Kimmel was a really good host. I hope they have him do it again. Some of the bits went on a little long, but he was pretty comfortable up there, and his continuation of various bits from his regular show actually fit in pretty well here. Points to Damon for the extra extension of his leg into the aisle to trip Kimmel and then the "What? What?" expression afterward.
I'm not surprised that the ratings for the broadcast were low. There simply haven't been many movies getting people to really want to watch the awards. There's an appreciable difference between the movies that were submitted for awards back in the 80s and earlier, and the movies we've been seeing over the past decade. In earlier times, studios would regularly put out some larger awards movies in the fall - sometimes epics and sometimes just solidly budgeted dramas and comedies that would showcase this or that performance, or would be the latest offering from a Norman Jewison or a Sydney Pollack or a Milos Forman, etc. Nowadays, we still get those here and there, but they seem to regularly stumble badly. This year, we had Beatty's own Rules Don't Apply, as well as Ang Lee's Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk and even Passengers, as well as Live By Night. All got bad reviews and folded before they got anywhere near the Oscar ceremony. The other movies in the queue this year were almost universally very low budget independent movies that were picked up for distribution at the festivals. And this is the real trend - that most of the awards movies are made for extremely low budgets and only picked up if they get festival attention. We haven't seen a big epic wedding cake Oscar movie in some time - most are much more modestly budgeted. This year, Arrival, La La Land and Hacksaw Ridge had decent budgets but not epic ones. The other nominees were considerably lower on that front. And the subject matters at hand are not what would get an everyday moviegoer to run to the theater. Some were esoteric choices, others were outright downers. I wasn't particularly excited this year about the various choices. But I did enjoy Arrival as a tone poem. And I did enjoy La La Land for what it eventually said about choices in life and love - and I did like the music. Hidden Figures had a few nice moments with Kevin Costner. Manchester had a pair of really good performances in it, in spite of its unrelenting gloominess. Lion had wonderful cinematography but just didn't engage me. Moonlight similarly was executed well but didn't inspire much in me other than admiration for Naomie Harris' performance. Given this group of choices, it's not a mystery that most moviegoers and viewers said "Meh".
It is my hope that we're in a cyclical moment - that we'll see some more exciting choices in the coming years. I had had hopes in that area for Passengers and the Ang Lee film but those just didn't pan out. In recent years, we had some really nice ones - Life of Pi, Gravity and American Hustle are a few that come to mind. But most of what's been on the list have been what we would have only seen in the art houses in the 1980s. Nothing wrong with that, but it's still possible to make a solid mainstream movie that isn't based on a Marvel or DC property, or a remake of something we already saw in the 80s.
The reason they have two envelopes for every award is not as a backup, as I understand it. The idea is that one sealed envelope is normally given to the presenters and the other one is given to the recipient afterward as part of their mementos in winning. It sounds like Emma Stone just took the envelope from DiCaprio and was not given the sealed memento envelope. So somehow that second envelope wound up being given to Beatty and he obviously had an epic fail in how he handled what happened. I agree with Andy that he should have simply asked for someone to check the envelope. They would have done so and given him the correct one. But he froze instead and we got a moment that will go down in Oscar infamy.
As a person whose brother works most nights in the operating rooms at UCLA medical, I was not offended by Viola Davis. I don't believe that she was trying to demean nurses, doctors, or anyone else. I do agree with Andy that she was very much performing the first part of her statement - it felt like a prepared piece about how she felt about how Fences and August Wilson portrayed the unsung dignity of the everyday person whose life is not celebrated. I can see how her statement could be taken as self-important and even over the top, but I just don't agree that this was intended as an insult.
I did think Kimmel was a really good host. I hope they have him do it again. Some of the bits went on a little long, but he was pretty comfortable up there, and his continuation of various bits from his regular show actually fit in pretty well here. Points to Damon for the extra extension of his leg into the aisle to trip Kimmel and then the "What? What?" expression afterward.
I'm not surprised that the ratings for the broadcast were low. There simply haven't been many movies getting people to really want to watch the awards. There's an appreciable difference between the movies that were submitted for awards back in the 80s and earlier, and the movies we've been seeing over the past decade. In earlier times, studios would regularly put out some larger awards movies in the fall - sometimes epics and sometimes just solidly budgeted dramas and comedies that would showcase this or that performance, or would be the latest offering from a Norman Jewison or a Sydney Pollack or a Milos Forman, etc. Nowadays, we still get those here and there, but they seem to regularly stumble badly. This year, we had Beatty's own Rules Don't Apply, as well as Ang Lee's Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk and even Passengers, as well as Live By Night. All got bad reviews and folded before they got anywhere near the Oscar ceremony. The other movies in the queue this year were almost universally very low budget independent movies that were picked up for distribution at the festivals. And this is the real trend - that most of the awards movies are made for extremely low budgets and only picked up if they get festival attention. We haven't seen a big epic wedding cake Oscar movie in some time - most are much more modestly budgeted. This year, Arrival, La La Land and Hacksaw Ridge had decent budgets but not epic ones. The other nominees were considerably lower on that front. And the subject matters at hand are not what would get an everyday moviegoer to run to the theater. Some were esoteric choices, others were outright downers. I wasn't particularly excited this year about the various choices. But I did enjoy Arrival as a tone poem. And I did enjoy La La Land for what it eventually said about choices in life and love - and I did like the music. Hidden Figures had a few nice moments with Kevin Costner. Manchester had a pair of really good performances in it, in spite of its unrelenting gloominess. Lion had wonderful cinematography but just didn't engage me. Moonlight similarly was executed well but didn't inspire much in me other than admiration for Naomie Harris' performance. Given this group of choices, it's not a mystery that most moviegoers and viewers said "Meh".
It is my hope that we're in a cyclical moment - that we'll see some more exciting choices in the coming years. I had had hopes in that area for Passengers and the Ang Lee film but those just didn't pan out. In recent years, we had some really nice ones - Life of Pi, Gravity and American Hustle are a few that come to mind. But most of what's been on the list have been what we would have only seen in the art houses in the 1980s. Nothing wrong with that, but it's still possible to make a solid mainstream movie that isn't based on a Marvel or DC property, or a remake of something we already saw in the 80s.