it’s a boy!

it’s official: oscar is a boy. unlike hurricanes, who now get the gender-neutral treatment, oscar remains firmly and solidly a member of the male sex. this is an extremely fast comment, which probably is unfair given it is the first comment on the oscar nominations! so please, pace arnab, feel free to open a whole new thread about the nominations and all that. all’s i want to say is that, as i scrolled down my screen to read who got nominated for what, i realized none of the actresses is a) in any of the best pictures, b) directed by one of the best directors, (with one exception) c) acting with one of the best actors or even d) acting with one of the best supporting actors! and i haven’t even heard of two of the movies in which best actresses are nominated!!!

this is the year of boy movies, for sure.

48 thoughts on “it’s a boy!”

  1. more confusingly, there are no civil rights or holocaust films in the “documentary feature” category. in fact, it seems like africa may have become the new holocaust/civil rights for the purposes of oscar nominations.

    (let’s just have one place to discuss the nominations–i’ll see if i can attach a poll to the blog for doing picks)

  2. I cannot give two figs for the oscar, especially since I have not seen a single one of the “best picture” nominations–in my mind Sin City was the best movie I’ve seen, as far as Hollywood goes–especially because it was very much a movie. but I’m very interested in the Vegas odds on the main categories–soon as I find them, I’ll post them.

  3. The Oscars mean as much to me as the Grammys. That is, they are not only useless, they probably do direct damage to the art form.

    I do however like it when they run through the list of people who died in the previous year with sad music playing (so we know to also be sad.)

    As a kid, my mom would say every few seconds during the montage: “Ooohh…. Did he/she die?”

    So, this will be my last posting on this topic.

  4. I’m interested to see how Jon Stewart will handle hosting the Oscars. I trust he will do more than poke fun at the whole affair in a lighthearted, Steve-Billy-Whoopi kind of way. But even he does do something interesting, no one will care or remember. I can’t recall one single thing Chris Rock did last year.

    I always look forward to the awkward and the embarrassing (music coming up while someone is giving an acceptance speech, people flubbing their lines because they didn’t bother to rehearse, painfully mismatched co-presenters like Judy Davis and Melmann, the giraffe from Madagascar, presenting the nominees for best sound mixing).

    I think we should have, during the Oscars, a list of folks who aren’t dead but should be.

  5. you don’t remember rock ripping poor jude law apart and then sean penn drunkenly defending him?

    billy crystal is my oscar host of choice. the oscars are an unpretentious, self-congratulatory celebration of the middlebrow and crystal fits it perfectly. i enjoy oscar night tremendously. i mean all these statements unironically. i rarely agree with the award/nominee choices but it is good television.

  6. I would also like some side-bet action on which relics will receive the lifetime achievement award as a foreign director (I have no idea what it’s called)-who’s still alive? did Bergman already get it? and which relic will receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian award (Lana Turner?).

    as for Jon Stewart, I expect a lot of gay cowboy jokes about riding the range,not much about munich, a johnny cash impression and more gay-themed jokes about capote.

    some initial thoughts: Munich will not win, because it presents Israel in an ambiguous light–many liberal jews may be sympathetic to it, but not from spielberg; Brokeback Mountain will not win because many of the academy are elderly and, though liberal, are not ready to make this movie “best picture.” Good night and Good luck will not win–too many might feel compromised regarding their own lack of action or collaboration with HUAC. That leaves Capote and Crash. Capote–again, too gay and too “small.” So, surprise upset winner Crash–because, it has the correct dose of righteousness without “going too far.” best actress Reese Witherspoon (a sop to the epic biopic, which for some strange reason has been spurned by the academy, usually so quick to adopt this genre–johnny cash too corny, too ambiguous, what?); best actor Philip Seymour Hoffman (because “too gay”does not apply to the best actor category–there the elderly members of the academy will feel that protraying a lisping Truman Capote is on the level of portraying a desperate paraplegic or unstable alcoholic personality) best supporting actor–jake G. (again, honoring the film, but in a less overt way); best supporting actress: I have no damn idea, probably Brokeback Mt again. Biggest surprise: 9 trounces Badgered in the Short Animation Category.

    For more, buy my tipsheet “Handicapping Hollywood” for $6.95–there you will find Past Peformances (Philip Seymour Hoffman doing 6 furlongs in a remarkable 1:10 3 weeks ago at Golden Gate),notes regarding which Hollywood stars are using Lasix for the first time and an in-depth interview with Judi Dench’s trainer, who remarks that “she’s one hell of a horse. Can she do a mile and a half? Definitely!”

  7. Yes, drunken outbursts are always good.

    I agree with Gio, and I wonder if this is a general trend, or if this is, indeed, a boy’s year (I kinda wonder this: when is it NOT a boy’s year for movies?). It certainly will be something to keep in mind when the awards are doled out (for instance, will the best supporting actress award go to Michelle Williams/Rachel Weisz/Catherine Keener, or to Frances McDormand/Amy Adams?).

    Michael, how much is shipping & handling for your tipsheet?

  9. 1.75 for shipping and handling, but no shipping to Louisiana, Washington and Maine.

    and I forgot to mention that Jack Valenti makes the switch from dirt to turf.

  11. i just had the distinctly unpleasant experience to see Mrs. Henderson Presents. I know. It’s absurd. This friend of ours swore that it was really good, so we went. He’s a nice guy, he really is. Breaking our friendship, tempting as it is, would be entirely too much. In any case, I’m horrified to have my suspicion confirmed: judi dench is nominated for an oscar for best actress! if there is any justice at all left in the world, and after today’s senate hearings with attorney general gonzales one frankly doubts that, she will not get it.

    you’ve got to hand it to the brits though. they’ve figured out the americans. give ’em loads of british accent, middle-to-golden-aged women saying dirty things (“pussy,” and “fuck” on judy dench’s lips brought down the house), naked bodies where there shouldn’t be (a la The Full Monty and Calendar Girls), and you’ve got it made. the americans will just luuuuv it. and they do. they really do.

    a question: what is christopher guest doing in this movie? he’s playing an upper class bureaucrat, very tight-assed, very british, rather daft. the looks are fine, but simon tells me that the accent is sad. he apparently pauses before each word to make sure he got it just right. just wanted to know if you guys think he’s friends with stephen frears or something.

  12. guest’s father is an english baron–where the hell does a prole like simon get off telling the aristocracy how to sound english?

  13. Not only that – Guest himself was a peer in the House of Lords for a few years.

    Wiki sez: “Guest became the 5th Baron Haden-Guest, of Saling in the County of Essex, when his father died in 1996. According to an article in The Guardian, Guest attended the House of Lords regularly until the passage of the House of Lords Act 1999 barred most hereditary peers from their seats. In the article Guest remarked:
    There’s no question that the old system was unfair. I mean, why should you be born to this? But now it’s all just sheer cronyism. The Prime Minister can put in whoever he wants and bus them in to vote. The Upper House should be an elected body, it’s that simple.”

    Guest is thereforre certainly more qualified to take the role in that film than some working-class uncouth tradesman.

  18. send me an email address to use–it is probably being flagged as spam by your msn filter. ditto for anyone else who hasn’t received it.

  19. so, has anyone other than mike actually joined the pool i sent an invite out for? there are currently five people in the pool. two of them are not folks from the blog. i don’t know who dissy is (why the hell don’t you people use recognizable names, dammit?!). are the rest of you not interested, or have you not received the invite, or have you just not gotten around to it yet?

  23. I’m pondering the short subject category at the moment. I’m going to have to dig a little bit deeper before I’m willing to commit. But I will soon.

  24. which one of you people is “bonegrinder” in the oscar pool? why don’t you use your real names, people? it’ll give me more satisfaction when i beat you.

  25. I use the name “bonegrinder” because I will grind your skeleton to a fine dust in the pool….figuratively speaking of course. I resist the idea that any name is “real.”

  28. so, bonegrinder = frisoli; gaycowboylvr = christina wilson; i’m guessing dissy tation = marci mcmahon; who the fuck are starkwell and sacheen l? if any of these people win i’m going to claim to be them.

  29. I’d have no problems claiming to be gaycowboylvr, win or lose. But alas, I am stuck with the nickname Sacheen L.

    Starkwell, as in Virgil? My guess is Jeff. With “reynolds” I’m stumped. And who is Nina? Is she Hootie McBoobins? And “arnab wins” couldn’t possibly be Arnab, judging by his performance in this season’s Pigskin Pick ‘Em. So I’m guessing it’s Sunhee.

    I’m not sure if bonegrinder = frisoli. I think bonegrinder = NotLaughing, Schmucko!, or possibly 3timesthenbackwards.

    But I am sure of is this: take one frisoli, add a surly chauffeur, stir in one klutz of a cook and two wacky housekeepers, and you’ll have 30 minutes of non-stop laughs!

  31. Ooh and Duke loses two in a row. I don’t even need to watch the fucking Academy Awards. My award is the look on Reddick’s parents faces.

  34. Congratulations Sacheen L, its an honor to share bragging rights with you.

    I’m kicking myself for not sticking with my gut and going with Six Shooter (I had a hard time imagining a film as darkly comic and absurdly cruel with its police gunfight, exploding cow, matricide, sudden infant death, suicide, attempted suicide, rabbit-cide, and death by cancer–in 28 short minutes–would appeal to the older members of the Academy but I’m glad it did). And I’m sorry I didn’t choose “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” (which was, hands down, the best use of a song in a film this year) but, in the end, I deferred to the experts.

  36. i tied for first place in the pool at our oscar party. 9 bucks, baby! that’ll pay for a matinee ticket to nightwatch and an overpriced soda!

  39. I quote myself:

    “some initial thoughts: Munich will not win, because it presents Israel in an ambiguous light–many liberal jews may be sympathetic to it, but not from spielberg; Brokeback Mountain will not win because many of the academy are elderly and, though liberal, are not ready to make this movie “best picture.” Good night and Good luck will not win–too many might feel compromised regarding their own lack of action or collaboration with HUAC. That leaves Capote and Crash. Capote–again, too gay and too “small.” So, surprise upset winner Crash–because, it has the correct dose of righteousness without “going too far.”

    unfortunately I did not bring this degree of insight to the academy awards pool or to my betting. something is definitely changing when a south african movie wins over a movie about the holocaust and when a song like “It’s Hard to be a Pimp” wins. but an essential conservatism prevailed by making Crash the best film.

  43. you watched the whole thing??? I am very impressed. How about any nifty special features? Please post a new thread of the film and its success as historical cinema. does it work as a realist film capturing that time period, etc etc. Does it sink into the morass of spectacle that many period films do? If your discussion is full and good enough I may never have to watch the movie.

  44. Here’s a laugh: the 100 most unsexy men in world. My favorite is putting Clint Howard at number 22. Who is #21 you might ask . . . big brother Ron . . . ouch!

  46. who are alan colmes and chad kroeger? by the way, i don’t know who this clint howard character is either, but judging by the adult pic, he’s like GORGONZOLA CHEESE, and like GORGONZOLA CHEESE he’s an acquired taste.

  47. Alan Colmes is the liberal punching bag for blowhard Sean Hannity on the Hannity and Colmes show–he represents “balance.” chad kroeger i don’t know, but i do like gorgonzola.

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