My Oscar Batting Average
Posted on February 25, 2008 Posted by John Scalzi 30 Comments
Four out of six this year — not as good as some years, but not as bad as others. And I’m delighted to have been wrong in the Best Supporting Actress category, since I’ve been a huge fan of Tilda Swinton since Orlando, and I am thrilled she’s been recognized in her awesomeosity. I don’t feel bad about missing Best Actress, either, since lots of folks were surprised. I’m pretty sure this is the first foreign language Best Actress win since Sophia Loren, too.
Your Oscar thoughts can be placed below, if you are so inclined.
First of all, Kate Winslet was wrong. She explained to Ricky Gervais on Extras that the way to win an Oscar is by “playing a mental.” Julie Christie came up short. Unless Edith Piaf was a mental; I haven’t seen that one.
Second, how classy an act is Jon Stewart? Giving the girl from Once a second chance to speak was the feel-good moment of this year. It kills me that her partner was the lead guitarist in The Commitments, one of my all-time favs. Good for them.
Way back when I saw a movie called Ordinary People. I came home and saic, “That will get the oscar for best picture next year” and it did. That is pretty much the only time I ever called it. So your record isn’t bad at all.
I’m swooning over the Once win. I’ve loved Glen Hansard for years and even though I find his friendship with Marketa, who is half his age (possibly less) a bit suspicious, especially since they claim to have known one another since she was 13, I’m so happy they won. Really, really. It won against three songs from the same movie, and Hollywood etiquette dictates the Disney monster should have won, but for once, the Oscars surprise us (even if it wasn’t Persepolis taking the surprise win in Animation). Take THAT, mass-produced happy pop sap.
Sophia Loren was the first to win Best Actress for a non-English speaking role. Marion Cotillard is now the second to do it…
That’s what I said.
I was in an Oscar pool, and I got nine out of twenty right. I am surprised that Away From Her, The Diving Bell and The Butterfly, and Into The Wild didn’t receive more love from the Academy, but that’s just me.
Jon Stewart was/is an inspired choice for host. I hope they have him back.
Javier Bardem won. Yes, it’s only in the supporting actor cathegory, but today Spain doesn’t care about any other cathegory. Yes, everyone’s talking about it. Yes, it’s going to be a looong day.
Btw: I’m glad the Coen brothers got candy too.
See, this is why I don’t get into the Oscars – it’s not about the best performance, else Ellen Page would’ve won. As she would’ve won for Hard Candy. As Elisabeth Shue would’ve won for Leaving Las Vegas. If Ellen Page had been ten years older, the kind of performance she gave in Hard Candy would’ve been a shoe-in. Same for Juno, but it’s too much a comedy for the morons in the Academy. Bleh. At least Diablo Cody won for Best Screenplay. I’m surprised they were willing to give it even one little bone; it was too good. :(
And people wonder why Hollywood makes so few original movies.
Tilda Swinton is indeed awesome, but her performance in _Michael Clayton_ was only indifferent. Not her fault, the script just didn’t give her all that much to work with.
I’ve been a fan of Swinton’s work since Constantine (she played the vengeful, greedy man-bitch angel). I loved her! My nine-year old son squeaks in terror whenever he sees her on TV (“It’s the evil ice witch! Eeek!”). I guess Narnia made an impression.
Diablo Cody won! I think it is important to note that Juno was her first screenplay. Somebody read her blog and told her that she should write a screenplay, she did, and there she is.
That’s what I said.
I was just clarifying that they are the only two to have won Best Actress for a foreign-language role.
Tilda Swinton is indeed awesome. Not only that, she was gorgeous as the White Witch in “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.”
1 I suppose it depends on your definition of “mental”: Edith Piaf wasted her potential talent through substance abuse (and poor taste in compositions, but that’s hardly a surprise in popular music). In many ways, La Vie en Rose really is The Rose (pick your version) in French. Gee, maybe the titles have some meaning? I wonder which came first?
And hats off to the backstage people who helped Stewart smooth over their screwup without blaming anyone. If you watched closely, what happened is that Glen finished so quickly that his “get on with it” music had not yet played; the person responsible for that wasn’t paying enough attention, and so as Markéta stepped to the microphone, she heard the note and the ushers continued the confusion. Stewart could have tried to blame someone, but graciously kept the focus on Markéta’s opportunity to speak instead of pointing a finger… and that, in turn, required the backstage people to suck it up as a group.
8 I disagree that a ten-years-older Ellen Page would have won for Hard Candy. Perhaps a five-years-younger Ellen Page might have done so, but a ten-years-older Ellen Page would have been compared to Jodie Foster and found wanting… not for the quality of performance, but because Foster is a well-liked producer. I’m not saying that makes much, if any, sense, but it is Hollyweed.
Generally, I am so pleased that Transformers got shut out of a category it was widely expected to win. I’m not a big fan of many of the technical awards, because too often those aspects of a film get used to overcompensate for crappy writing, acting, directing, and/or editing. (Exhibit A: Every technical award to every Star Wars film.)
And the less said about the purported fabulosity of the red carpet, the better.
I’m waiting for Lou Dobbs to do a special about how all those foreigners took Oscars away from American actors.
I don’t think I saw any of the films this year. I do want to see some of the ‘Best Foreign Film’ nominees, especially “Katyn” and the Kazakh movie about the Mongols.
Generally, an interesting awards show (though an awful lot of people are knocking it). I believe Piaf was an alcoholic, so Kate Winslet was right again.
I liked but did not love Juno. I hate that Jason Reitman got an Oscar nomination instead of David Cronenberg. I think Ellen Page will have a fine career; she’s supposed to be great in the upcoming Smart People (filmed here in Pittsburgh last year).
I’ve been sick this weekend, and fell asleep between the time the Best Song Oscar was announced and the time the Best Actor Award was made. I hope SOMEONE replays Marketa’s acceptance speech. I was so annoyed that she was rushed offstage like that, and am glad Jon Stewart fixed that problem after the commercial.
I just about choked on my diet Coke after reading Buck’s comment. You know Lou Dobbs will claim Javier Bardem is an illegal.
The Minnesota media are in a minor state of orgasm what with former resident Diablo Cody winning and hometown boys Joel and Ethan sweeping up their major awards.
Yes, it was predictable in most categories. I would have preferred to see Viggo get some recognition but I suppose the nomination will do that as well. I wish Epiphany from Sweeney Todd had been nominated for Best Song – they could have had the delicious spectacle of Johnny Depp striding down the aisles swinging his blades and shouting “You sir”.
I was thrilled for the Coens. It’s about time they got some recognition from those jokers.
Well, they did win screenwriting Oscars for Fargo.
You all secretly thought all Minnesotans were Garrison-Keillor-like, didn’t you. DIDN’T YOU!? Well we are not. Many of us are more Coen Brothers and Diablo Cody like. So there.
You gotta remember that Neil Gaiman moved here BY choice, people
We need to have a new state motto: “Minnesota: It’s cooler than you think. And no we don’t mean the winters, dammit.”
Some of my favorite people live in Minnesota, actually.
I was working last night so I missed out- sounds like the right choices were made. You know, I am almost sure I found your 2003 Oscar predictions via google and used some of your picks to win the Oscar pool that year. So thanks! I think I won a dvd rental.
17 Nothing from Sweeney Todd could have won for music. Under the AMPAS rules, if it’s not composed specifically for the film, or has a premiere — even in another form — before the film’s premiere, it’s not eligible.
Laurie Mann:
I found the acceptance speech by Marketa on youtube. Go to youtube and search for Marketa and Oscar, and it will show up as one of the links.
She gave a very eloquent one minute speech.
I was really happy about two awards:
First, the song from “Once” (even though it wasn’t the best song from the movie), because it’s a wonderful small independent movie that is well written, honestly performaed; andmanages to look and sound great (makes me miss Dublin… even the crappy bits… but not the skangers).
Also, I think it’s been important for the movies success, and certainly for my enjoyment of it; that it’s not either too arthouse or at all preachy.
Oh and of course, because I love “The Frames” and Glen Hansards singing and writing.
A side note, Julia, he’s 37, shes 20 (or rather she turns 20 on Friday), and they’ve known each other since she was 14; but they are pretty adamant they did not become romantically involved until last year. Apparently when she said “I love you” to him in Czech, and he didn’t understand it’; it was an ad-lib that just came to her, and a few months later she realized that it was true.
Very romantic really.
Second, I’m delighted that Tilda Swinton was recognized; though honestly, for this role? It seems somewhat misplaced.
Two nominations I was very happy about; even though neither had any shot this year (possibly one reason why they were nominated) were Casey Affleck, and Viggo Mortensen.
Personally, I thought Viggos portrayal of Nikolai in “Eastern Promises” was absolutely perfect. I was less impressed with Afflecks performances in “…Robert Ford”. I think perhaps he was given the nomination more in recognition of his performance in “Gone Baby Gone”, but the academy didn’t feel he was “best actor” worthy.
I was delighted to see the nominees’ reactions this year. There seemed to be some genuine respect and admiration among the groups, and it was touching to see, for example, Cate Blanchett’s rapture when Marion Cotillard’s name was announced. Classy all around.
Wait. The Oscars were on recently? Wait. Didn’t those already happen? There was some movie about cowbos or something.
Yeah, I’m that out of it with film these days.
Chris Byrne – Oh god, they ARE now? *facepalm* Why am I seeing Elvis and Priscilla in my head?
Agreed that Falling Slowly wasn’t the prize jewel of the movie…for my money it’s When Your Mind’s Made Up.
I watched a recording of the Oscars last night and enjoyed them, which is a rarity. Yes, Jon Stewart calling back Marketa was an awesomely classy thing to do. I was shouting at the screen “you cut her off!” as the orchestra was doing that a lot for this show. So having Jon Stewart do that was so ridiculously excellent.
I was watching No Country For Old Men… keep in mind, I’m French.
I was able to comprehend like 10 words that were spoken by anyone. Everyone drawled.
It’s funny, because
A) While I’m French, I’ve also lived on Cape Cod for like 2 decades. I should be able to understand Southern American English.
B) I’m a rabid sports fan. I mention this because I was able to live my whole life without any of those obligatory “woman asking dumb questions all the way through the Super Bowl” moments…. until that movie.
Now, I’m just another ditzy broad.