Oscar Report

Hey, what fun's having a web site if you can't put stuff on it. So one of my goals for 2007 is to have more stuff.

I'm always a little bit reluctant to blog about the job; I fear too much of the good stuff might upset somebody I wouldn't want to upset. But I'll take my chances on the Oscars.

Oscar night is a really special night here; I see lots and lots of movies, and I look forward to curling up in front of my telly one night a year to celebrate them. I was doubly doing so this year because last year Oscar night came in the middle of London Book Fair, and I missed it.

And it's not just about the TV show. It's about having a nice meal beforehand (this year, I had brunch with Ronald and Jennifer at the Zocala in Grand Central, so I had only a light crepe for my pre-Oscar dinner). And it's about indulging my sweet tooth big time on this special night. This year, I had a chocolate cake with white icing slice from Buttercup Bake Shop, a devil's food cheesecake slice from Junior's, and 2 cans of Whole Foods soda, root beer and orange creme.

Now, that Erroll Morris film with the nominees to start the awards. It was a nice touch, but did they have to have that white background? I kept waiting for PC and Mac guy do make an appearance; Mac guy was in a movie last year. Was it just coincidence that there was an iPhone commercial a few minutes later?

And now Ellen. She seemed nervous. Really, really nervous. Too nervous, so nervous. Not like it was bad, but it wasn't near as good as it should have been because she was so nervous. Snow White wasn't nervous.

What happened to doing one of the Supporting awards first? I didn't much like Pan's Labyrinth; I had no emotional involvement with any of the characters in the movie. It was made so passionately that it kind of bludgeoned me into grudging admiration of it in the final third or so, but that's not the way I like to like a movie. But I had to tell myself this was probably the most deserving of the movies. And in a night when there didn't seem to be some movie destined for a sweep to suck up technical awards it didn't deserve, maybe even going to win. And it did.

9:00; hey, cute kids presenting an award. That's a nice idea.

Oh, makeup. I jotted down as they were reading the nominees that Apocalypto should win, but Pan's Labyrinth would. And did. I really liked Apocalytpo. And that movie sure needed its make-up. I enjoyed Jack Black and Walt Farrell. Now that was the kind of production number Oscar should have more of.

9:10. What are they doing with this musical salute?

9:15. I'd like Apocalypto to win for Sound Effects Editing, I predict Letters from Iwo Jima, and I am right. But this gets me to thinking about the one Oscar nomination more than any other that I think shoulda been and wasn't, which was one for Best Original Score for Letters From Iwo Jima. I'll consider this to be the consolation prize.

9:18. Sound Mixing. I'm still rooting for Apocalypto, but I'm expecting one for Dreamgirls. I wouldn't mind Blood Diamond. You may have noticed I'm not pulling for Pirates in any of these categories. Maybe it was the best in some of them, but it was such a bad movie (sorry, niece Naomi, but it was) that I wouldn't care. I'm right again.

9:21. Supporting Actor is upon us. I totally don't see what the fuss is about Eddie Murphy. I am totally rooting for Alan Arkin, and praying for an upset. It's such a tough category though. Jackie Earle Haley in Little Children, which was one of the best movies of the year? Mark Wahlberg in The Departed, another of the very best movies of the year. Djimon Hounsou was really good in the under-rated Blood Diamond. And the Oscar goes to Alan Arkin. Yay! Yay!! But couldn't he have seen happier in his acceptance speech? Did Ellen have to talk to Mark Wahlberg right after he lost?

9:26. I didn't like Happy Feet. I don't want to see it interpreted as dance.

9:30. I don't care much about any of the nominated songs.

9:36. The Oscars have gone green? Is there any chance my cable box can go green? Do you know that cable boxes are one of the worst energy-draining appliances, whether they're on or not? Feel the heat that comes off the top of yours 24/7. And the cable companies don't want to have Energy Star standards, because they figure they'll pay more for the box, while I'll get the energy savings. Considering how much I pay to "rent" my box each month, should this really be a problem.

9:41. The Gilligan's Island thing is soooo not working.

9:43. Animated features. I hated Happy Feet. So did my younger brother, and even my nephews. Cars wasn't very good. I didn't bother with Monster House. If I have to make a choice, let it be Cars. It's the awful Happy Feet. There would have gone my chances of winning the office pool. But we have gotten 75 minutes in before my first bitter disappointment.

9:50. Adapted screenplay. I can't decide between rooting for Little Children or The Departed. Both are great movies. Both with great scripts. I'm thinking it'll go to The Departed. It's hard not to give some note of Children of Men. Borat was hilarious, but... Notes on a Scandal is overrated. The narration of Little Children, that made me think some of Barry Lyndon? That great scene at the pool. The Departed seemed entirely and fully fresh even though I'd seen the Korean movie it's based on. And it goes to The Departed. I feel bad for Little Children, but I can't complain. Interesting trivia note: Little Children director Todd Field once had an option on a book by JABberwocky client James Robert Baker.

It's 10PM. Do you know where your children are? Presenting the award for Costume Design. I'm guessing this will go to The Queen. I don't have a real favorite. Real life costumes, the guys are all wearing very conservative black tie to tonight's Oscars. I'm stunned to see it going to Marie Antoinette. I totally wouldn't be winning the Oscar pool. It's hard to begrudge, though. Winner Milena Canonero we are told won for Chariots of Fire, which was one of the first movies I ever really rooted for on Oscar night, and for Barry Lyndon which is one of the best movies by one of the best directors. And how many other times has she been nominated. And she even thanks Stanley Kubrick in her speech, which wins mega-brownie points from this Stanley Kubrick and Barry Lyndon fan. Have you seen Barry Lyndon? Chariots of Fire doesn't hold the test of time very well; definitely one of those times when the adult me wonders what the little me was thinking. I still remember driving down with my younger brother to see that at the RKO Stanley Warner Route Four Paramus Quad, and driving back in a light snow. But other than the eternally great score by Vangelis I don't still hold much for it. But I loved Barry Lyndon from the day I saw it for my freshman film class at U-M, and 25 years later I still love that movie, and still enjoy every few years getting to luxuriate in it for three hours.

10:10. I have no pictures of me with Clint Eastwood on My Space.

10:13. Cinematography. I didn't see Black Dahlia. I kind of regret not. I think Children of Men should win, even read an Oscar article that said that it would, but the two earlier wins have me thinking Pan's Labyrinth will, and not undeservedly. The Prestige was a better movie than The Illusionist. And I'm right; Pan's Labyrinth continues to sweep up the technical awards.

10:21. I hated all three movies nominated for Best Visual Effects. Pirates probably wins, as the biggest grosser of the three. It does.

10:25. Foreign language film. I didn't want to see Water. I haven't yet seen The Lives of Others. One must assume Pan's Labyrinth will be the rare movie to win this category, in spite of having actually been seen by large numbers of moviegoers. The nominee list is preceded by a time-wasting series of shots of earlier winners that by and large were not seen by large numbers of moviegoers, and will continue not to be in spite of their 15 additional seconds of fame this evening. I'm reluctant to even give credit to the producers for having their hearts in the right place. But no, I'm so not doing well in the pool tonight, the well-seen Pan's Labyrinth does not win, and the highly praised Lives of Others does. I've been planning to see it, no reason to change my plans. The winner seems much more excited than Alan Arkin did.

10:34. Supporting Actress. Please not Babel lady. Self-indulgent. Notes on a Scandal, overrated. 8-yr olds shouldn't win Oscars. Jennifer Hudson was the best thing about Dreamgirls. And since there are two Babel people, they can split the Babel vote. And not unexpectedly, it's Jennifer. Her joyful acceptance speech brings a smile to my face.

Do we need to talk about the documentaries?

My defining Ennio Morricone score is probably The Untouchables. Which I think had costume design from Milena, yes? From the director of Black Dahlia.

11:07. As discussed above, I want Letters from Iwo Jima in this category. It's not. I hear rumors this will be a category for The Queen. But it goes to Babel. I guess it has to win something. If you want to know why I don't like this movie, take a look at the scene when the stretcher with Brad Pitt's wife is moved to the helicopter. This scene goes on forever, every step of the journey from room to helicopter, from 29 different angles with cameras for coverage on everyone in the village. Please. It's up there on my self-indulgence scale with the fruit market scene in that dreary follow-up movie from the director of Amelie, the title of which I've happily blocked from my brain.

Tobey Maguire is one of the few men doing the stubble thing, As to the nominees for Original Screenplay, this is another really tough category. For some reason, I'm thinking Little Miss Sunshine even though I may lean just a tad bit in the direction of The Queen. But will this be a customary consolation prize for the picture that doesn't win Best Picture? So when I'm right that it's Little Miss Sunshine, I instantly start thinking it'll be The Departed for Picture. It's hard to be upset with this win. Little Miss Sunshine takes a lot of cliches and does something really fresh and offbeat with them, and was one of those movies that I ended up liking a lot lot lot more than I'd expected when things often go the other way. And I'm still happy for Alan Arkin, even if he didn't seem to be for himself.

I also don't want to talk about the songs.

11:41 Film Editing. Maybe one for United 93, which should win something, but I think it will go to The Departed, and maybe it should. Though this would also be a nice appropriate category for Children of Men to win something. Blood Diamond is also well-cut. Re: Babel, please see above. And it's The Departed.

During the Oscar film about, what exactly, before this, I was reading an appreciation in the Boston Globe of Mark Wahlberg. Good reading.

11:45. Who have we lost? Glenn Ford. Superman's dad in Superman: The Movie. Don Knotts from Three's Company. Richard Fleisher. Joe Barbera. Maureen Stapleton. Reds. James Doohan, Mr. Scotty. Peter Boyle. Jack Warden was so good in so many movies like Heaven Can Wait and muy more. Jay Presson Allen. Robert Altman. These last two require a little more comment. Robert Altman was in my opinion one of the most overrated directors of the past 20 years, with some flashes of genius but so many movies so highly praised that weren't very good. He went out with a nice grace note in Prairie Home Companion. But for all my dislike of Altman's films professionally, he also gave me one of my warmest personal memories of anyone in Hollywood. In the same film course where I saw Barry Lyndon, we saw a couple Altman movies including Nashville and the weird strange wonderful Images with a hauntingly gorgeous score by John Williams. Our prof, Hubert Cohen, was a big Altman fan, and had Altman come as a guest lecturer, and I asked about that wonderful score for Images. And Altman promised and indeed did dig out from his personal supply a copy of the original soundtrack album, which I don't think was actually released commercially. Wow!

Best Actress. We all know it will be Helen Mirren. A great performance. Another of the best movies of the year. Too bad for Kate Winslet in Little Children and Meryl Streep in The Devil Wore Prada, one appearing in another of the year's best movies and another giving one of her very best of many brilliant performances, but it'll be Helen Mirren.

So getting back to Altman, I'm in Stanley Kauffman's camp in thinking him overrated as a director, but as a person I have to think from my little experience that he was very much something of a mensch.

And Jay Presson Allen. She was the wife of producer Lewis Allen, and her daughter Brooke did the stage adaptation of Tedd Thomey's The Big Love, which was my one involvement as an agent with the live stage. I kind of inherited involvement with an option Lewis Allen had taken out on this book about Erroll Flynn's scandalous relationship with a nymphet (would anyone think anything of this today?), and I got to go to the workshop production and to see it on Broadway on Opening Night. Dinner at Orso beforehand with Tedd and my boss Ted Chichak, which I worried about missing when my subway decided to put its brakes into emergency heading into Manhattan. And I got to go to the cast album. It was a nice night. Back then the NY Times was printed up in Times Square at around 9:30. The night would have been better if I didn't have to grudgingly agree with the not-very-nice Frank Rich review that I could pick up on my way home from the party that night. And the show didn't last long.

But this year there are personal stories to tell, quite directly with Altman and of family with Allen, and why not tell here.

Actor. Everyone says this will go to Forest Whitaker. I didn't see this movie, which most people said was a not-so-good movie with a brilliant performance in it. I did see Venus, of which the same can be said, and regret that. Pursuit of Happiness was a good performance in a less good movie. I probably root for DiCaprio, Forest Whitaker will win, and to me it will be his consolation prize for being overlooked for his excellent performance in Body Snatchers. And I still won't see Last King of Scotland. All five nominees wearing the same very conservative tux. Oh; don't see Half Nelson. I like Gosling, but this movie is very very flat. Oh, I'm not kidding about Body Snatchers.

Director: Well, this isn't the place for a consolation prize for United 93. Can we please give this to Scorcese? The Departed isn't as good as Goodfellas, which is one of the best movies ever made in this country, but it's a really good movie, and the guy's like earned this. I think Scorcese is a little like Altman, because he's done some movies that have been not very good that have been wildly overpraised, and I'd even put Raging Bull and Taxi Driver in that category. And at the same time some things like After Hours and King of Comedy that are little gems. But he's directed Goodfellas.

And so we come to Best Picture. I'm going to say this one's going to The Departed. I'd like either that or Sunshine. Babel, see above. The Queen was really good, really really good and you should see it. But not here tonight. Iwo Jima is really good too, but if you've seen one war movie... And The Oscar goes to The Departed. Well, OK. It's an award he should have won for Goodfellas 20 years ago, but he's winning it tonight for a really good film, and I am happy. Well, he's not winning it; the producer is. And the producer gives such a wonderful acceptance speech. He's right about DiCaprio.

So pre-credits, we've been at it for 3:47.

That Best Costume thing would have killed me. Killed me. I'd have liked for United 93 to win something, for Children of Men and for Little Children to have won something. But all in all, this year isn't one for complaining. This isn't like Amadeus losing to Gandhi.

Final shout-out: Departed good, but so is Infernal Affairs, the Korean movie it's based upon.

2-26-07