I had to sit on this blog for 24 hours, as I knew if I wrote it last night it would be way too ranty. Although I cannot promise it will not be ranty.
And if you are just tuning in to see how I went, 16 correct, 8 incorrect!!!
I shall finish up with the debacle of an ending, so strap yourselves in!
Kimmy Jimmel (as I like to call him)
Yeah, not much of a fan, so I had no expectations and he was ok. Bit blah blurgh in parts, but had some halfway decent jokes in his opening monologue.
I liked his black people saving NASA/white people saving jazz joke, it was clever. I really liked his Meryl stuff, that really worked and was a great FU to Tramp without actually being a FY to Tramp.
The lollies was cute, the trying to be cute with the little kid from Lion not so much.
The Matt Damon stuff started off funny, and if he kept it slight throughout, it would have been classic, but it was too much after a while, you could see Damon (ever the good sport) felt so too.
I do not even know what to think of the bring the tourist bus of regular people through the ceremony thingie. I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time and for about 15 seconds it was, but then it felt really really uncomfortable and went on way too long.
And what was it with his ripping of people's less regular names. I found that really disrespectful and unfunny. Geeze Dave was blacklisted after the Uma/Oprah fiasco (which incidentally I found hilarious and thought IT actually worked).
Anyway, he was no Billy Crystal, but then who is?
Other Bits
I really loved the movie experiences and who today's actors looked up to. I thought that was lovely and real and having them both come out to present was really special. These are the kind of things I live for at The Oscars, you want to see a little love for those that came before you and as lover of old Hollywood, it gets me going - happily and a little bit choked up!
They should have cut back some of the 'jokes' above for more of these and I hope they do more in the future.
I loved seeing the old clips of who has won before in the acting categories, it added class to the proceedings.
The In Memorium was perfect, great choice of song (although slightly worrisome given Joni Mitchell was - and still possibly is - so close to death this year) with Both Sides Now sung beautifully by Sara Bareilles. And Aniston did a great job, seemingly choked up about Bill Paxton's death a day prior...what a loss that is, huge huge fan of Paxton and he seemed like a lovely all round guy.
The stars reading tweets wasn't too bad either. De Niro stole the show, lol!
The Music
This is quite often the weakist link in the show but I was rather impressed this year. From Justin Timberlake's great upbeat dancey opening, to Sting's pondiferously amusing stance, the John Legend and La La Land, to the great performance of the Moana song, every performance was king.
The Winners
Well first off, as mentioned above I only got 16 correct, which isn't bad, I have done far worse, but I have also done far far better.
Which means I got 8 wrong, of the biggies Best Picture (fuckity fuck, more on that debacle later), Best Actor (should have gone with my gut and Affleck) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Manchester by the Sea, again, thinking about the depth and 'surprise' of the second storyline it was more deserved). Which means I got 7 out of a possible 10 for the top prizes, not bad really!
I totally had no clue about Hair and Make Up and Costume this year, lol. And I really thought Hacksaw Ridge was lucky to be nominated (the icky - and boy he really is icky - Mel factor) so was gobsmacked and pissed off it won 2 tech awards I was sure La La Land would snag.
And I didn't get Best Short Film right, but out of the 4 shorts/docos, I got the other three, and really they are educated guesses.
They're my excuses anyway and I am sticking to them!!!
But overall I am happy with almost all of the winners (baring above mentioned Hacksaw Ridge wins).
I always love a surprise and seeing the love for other 'lesser' films like Fantastic Beasts, Suicide Squad etc. And thrilled Arrival got something, Best Sound Editing, after seeing it I was blown away by the sound and the first thing my friend J said to me was wow, that's gotta win sound. Yup!!!
La La Land deservedly scored 6 awards, which is pretty darn good, Moonlight 3, Manchester by the Sea and Hacksaw Ridge 2 each.
The Speeches
As always some amazing speeches. The best was the note written by the director of Best Foreign Film, The Salesman, Asghar Farhadi. He was originally not expected to be allowed in due to the new immigration policies, but I believe could have. But he choose not to because of the policies and instead sent a great, eloquent note instead.
The Doco winners were pretty fine too.
But the Supporting Actor/Actress of Mahershala Ali and Viola Davis gave great impassioned speeches that had everyone on their feet and in tears!
The presenters
This can be a difficult task, to come out, say a few cheesy lines and hand out a golden boy. Mostly the presenters look good, but seem, well dumb.
Shirley and Charlize were all class, as were Michael J Fox and Seth Rogan (and funny). Kate McKinnon and Jason Bateman were funny, as were John Cho and Leslie Mann.
The pairing of Javier Bardem (loving Meryl in The Bridges of Madison County...sigh) and Meryl Streep was unexpected and lovely.
And the best presenters were the gorgeous trio of Octavia Spencer (man, I love her), Janelle Monae, and Taraja P Henson with the added bonus of a real life Hidden Figure, Katherine Johnson...oh how we wept!
The Debacle...I mean ending
Well they dragged out Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty to present Best Picture as a homage to 50th (feel old???) anniversary of Bonnie and Clyde, which is kinda cool. Although both looked weary of age, which is fair enough.
And then it happened, Warren, opened the envelope, played around, looked back inside, and gave us all the impression he was mucking about the build suspense. He handed it to Faye with a quizzical look. I was like, what on earth is going on, maybe he couldn't see or read it properly??
So Faye announces the winner as the totally deserved (IMHO) La La Land, Damien Chazelle and Emma Stone had just won awards, everyone involved with the film traipsed up on stage and celebrations ensued....
...well, until the producer of La La Land was told there was a mistake and he had not won at all...
...how fucking awful, what an embarrassment, I felt physically ill for them.
Moonlight had won, awards were handed over to their group and the original La La group had to move to make room for the rightful winners.
In the middle of all this, Warren stepped up to say he wasn't having a seniors moment or trying to stretch things, he could tell something wasn't correct as the sheet in the envelope read Emma Stone La La Land.
sigh...
Why didn't he say something then...who knows.
So, how could something so awful like this happen?
There are two people from Price Waterhouse, the firm doing this since the 30s, each has a stack of the envelopes, the main stack and a back up stack in case something goes awry. It would appear the dude looking after the main stack was too busy instgramming back stage and picked up the top envelope off the back up pile which was the Best Actress one.
There are close ups of Warren indeed holding that as he walks out.
And so you have it, one of the biggest upsets and fuck ups in Oscar history.
Nd what do I think of the winner???
I really enjoyed and like Moonlight, but I honestly cannot see what the fuss was about. Yes I get it that it shows certain minorities on film, that's great, but does that make it film of the year, in my opinion, no!
I think La La Land should have won, it has every element you want in a film and will hold up in years to come. Following or possibly even better than La La Land was Arrival, and then Manchester by the Sea. Moonlight possibly comes in fourth. I think it is mainly people trying to prove they are not racist. But really, being nominated was more than enough for Moonlight. I liken it to Ordinary People (a supposedly ground breaking Family drama from the 80s that won Best Picture), it seemed like a good idea at the time, but when you look back you raise your eyebrows.
I am sure a lot of people will disagree with me, and that is ok. To me it is not about the colour of people's skin (who wins best picture that is. I do believe we need and must have all sorts of representations on film generally) but the quality of the art. And that can be such a subjective thing.
And it is times like this I truly wonder about the functionality of The Oscars, how can 1 film or 1 actor be matched against others, when they all produce such very different outcomes.
So yeah, this year made me question my love for The Oscars, I am sure I will be back next year, but this year I feel I need a little distance as I still feel rather queasy.
The Fashion
Finally a look at the fashion:
The nudes, loved Kidman and Stone not so much the other.
The fuller skirts, just lovely
the edgier ones, also love
the older ladies, rocking it!
the boys...suave
The what on earth is going on, tsk tsk!
And the best dressed, Janelle and Brie had it goin' on!!
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