Surprisingly, I'd seen 3 out 5 best picture nominees this year.  Can't remember the last time I sported a .600 "seen it" percentage going into Oscar night.  Juno was cute, No Country for Old Men was good-not-great, There Will Be Blood was insanely fucking awesome.  I now wish I had posted those opinons a few weeks ago, and then maybe the Oscar voters would have gotten it right.

The ceremony itself was pleasantly lame.  I believe "stumblebummy" is the technical term to describe it.  But so many excited foreigners, that was sweet -- especially the Irish singer-songwriter dude, who will always be the gross-yet-awesome lead singer of the Commitments to me (bet he wants to punch people who say that).

Barbara Walters has passed into an Andy Rooney-esque senility.

I dated Sarah Polley. 

Years ago, a fortune teller said to me, "Kevin," she said, "One day, out of nowhere, an acquaintance will tell you that he once dated Sarah Polley.  Later that year, a black man will become President of the United States."

I now wish I hadn't said, "You're a lying slut, give me my money back."

I only saw four films of all of 'em together, which has to make me some kind of especial artistic cretin.  Well, true only up till the halfway point of the broadcast, when I went to bed--maybe there were some sleepers thrown around at the tail end.

Bourne Ultimatum got best sound editing, which it deserved for all I know, but one of the scenes I best remember is watching the blonde lady shuffle papers, and thinking they really left none of the audio to chance.  Here, every crease and tap and fluff was rendered with the overplayed tension that's usually reserved for characters cocking their guns and clicking their safeties in anticipation of a shootout (e.g., speaking of barely remembered).  I mean none of this as a compliment: it may have been skillful sound editing, but I don't think it's exactly the sort of thing that's supposed to draw attention to itself. 

Bourne lost something in this installment--the action was as powerful as ever, but it lost its sense of surprise, and of consequence.  Here, I felt that the lead and the baddies could have whaled superhumanly on each otehr all day and walk away, just like every other action movie.  Bourne's plot mechanics didn't seem to be very logical, but I might have been buzzed or nodding off.

Anyway.  Other flicks I saw that got noms were Norbit, and Pirates 3.  It's hard to say which of these sucked harder.  Pirates certainly sucked more spectacularly.

Ratatouille was the best of the bunch I saw, but it lacked something in the storytelling coherence.  It just kept going, even after it reached its logical conclusion.  I think the thing about that movie, is that some individual scenes are so particularly well done as to induce love, and the rest of it doesn't suck quite enough to bring it down.

I was struck that (1) Helen Mirrin looks great for her age, (2) how much Daniel Day Lewis looks like Peter Sellers, at least in that one clip, (3) how none of the first three musical numbers could hold my attention, (4) how nervous Jon Stewart was (couldn't decide if it was charming or off-putting), and (5) that for all the glamour, the actors all looked like normal everyday slobs on live tv.

K (Sheesh, I go away for a day, and the board's all lit up with interesting stuff.  Obviously, I should go away more often.)

and unlike you, I think the right film got the Oscar last night. I think TWBB is the most overrated movie I have ever seen with almost zero dramatic arc or expectation, though Daniel Day-Lewis is, indeed, a force of nature and the cinematography was great.

I totally love the song that won, and indeed, thought it was the only candidate that actually resembled a song, as opposed to a set-piece.

Me, I adored Ratatouille. Because it gets at the essence of food -- emotional response. I've seen it since at home, and loved it even more.

Finally, I watched last night in full 1080p for the first time. Man, it was strange. First, Cameron Diaz has really, really terribly skin. That is one serious acne problem under about a pound of concealer.  Amy Adams (who I think is astonishingly adorable), has very blue veins on the underside of her arms. Jennifer Garner is perfectly gorgeous. Travolta could not be more gay. Helen Mirren does have wrinkles, but they look good on her. George Clooney is unbelievably good-looking, and his girlfriend has small eyes and terrible taste in clothes. Renee Zellwegger has no eyes at all.

I wish to call an end to all production numbers at Oscar. Other than the year when Whoopi Goldberg descended on a trapeze, I can't remember ONE I thought didn't look like a horrid update of the "Up With People" halftime shows that used to rule at the Super Bowl.

Blood sucked (hi, bacon). Really mediocre stuff (loved the score though, and without that you would've thought it sucked too). DDL at the Oscars looked almost embarrassed, and why shouldn't he .. shameful over-acting a nothing plot. Viggo should've gotten his hardware.

No Country rocked. Smart movie. Treated us like adults. Lots to think about.

Sarah Polley. You Go girl. Quite a talent. And Bardem, I don't even know what he said to his mother, but hung on every word anyway.

Sigh.  Et tu, daveto?  See above to run, but I'll add: "overacting is underrated."

Again, nothing against Old Country, but for me, Blood was on an Apolocalypse Now, once-in-a-few-decades kind of plane.  Am I alone here on this, really?

The only anticipation was in the first maybe 45 minutes of the movie (which I thoroughly enjoyed).  Then it became clear Plainview was never, ever, going to lose. He's rich when Paul Dano visits him. Then it becomes a repeat of: Man versus well? Winner, Plainview. Man versus other man? No contest, and never was. Plainview wins.  Plainview never overcomes, Plainview only wins. HW does become a significant setback and he deals with it by abandonment. Does not overcome. Gets him back (under duress) but never really moves anywhere emotionally. His outbursts seem to be inorganic and inauthentic. End of movie? He's richer, abandons his son (totally this time), and murders (not for the first time).

Honestly, it felt like a less interesting prairie version of "Citizen Kane." 

I don't remember ever checking my watch so much during a movie, and sorry dave, I don't even like the score. I loved it at first, until it became positively intrusive, like a big fat musical arrow pointing to each scene: "here, did you miss the dread? DADADADA"

swit: I loved (loved, loved) Magnolia .. agreed it's a near perfect movie. Not so with Blood. Plainview's character was all over the map. The thing is, there's no pattern, no logic, no nothing .. he says he's driven by hate and anger, but we don't see it (the why or the genesis). He says he's nuts (hunt you down in your house) but we don't see it. There's no coherency, he's a pastiche. (Not so with the Magnolia gang, that was brilliant. Cruise in the interview, the old guy breaking down, etc, inspired, genius stuff.)

I know part of my problem with Blood is that I was expecting a lot. No problem with DDL by the way, I think he's done brilliant stuff. And I wanted it to be good. The explosion and fire scene, to me that was hokey, I've seen B-horror movies more riveting than that. Think of all the stuff that was introduced but never went anywhere, the conflict between the church and the oil guys, the faux brother and the second-in-command, the "womanizing" (what womanizing?), etc. Just a lot of stuff thrown out there, see what sticks. (And run, I know a lot of people are down on the score; I liked it, only because, well let's say on the daveto scale out of 10, it brought it from a 5 to a 6.5.)

Well, well.  Colour me bemused.  As with Ratatouille, I begin to feel like I saw a different movie from everyone else -- kind of like a Bizarro-Jerry-episode-of-Seinfeld thing.

Total grossout.  Sorry, but the idea of rats in the kitchen is nauseating.  Well-animated, mind you, but disgusting.