Oscar Thoughts
Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2024 9:19 pm
-- A very predictable night overall with relatively little in the way of controversy. The John Cena Best Costume Award was the comic highlight of the evening.
-- The only suspense was for Best Actress. I thought Lily Gladstone should have won for a career performance. Emma Stone's work was stagey; Gladstone was sincere.
-- Much as I liked Oppenheimer, I really wish Paul Giamatti had won Best Actor. I've seen The Holdovers twice and it's broken me up both times. It tugs at the emotions and one scene in particular I really relate to.
-- Last night, Ariana Grande was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live in New York and was onstage until 1:00 am. Tonight, she presented the Best Score and Song awards with Cynthia Erivo at the Oscars. The show started at 7:00 eastern time and she lost an hour because of the daylight savings time crossover. That's really hoofing it.
-- The best new touch was having five former winners in each acting category give a little speech about one of the nominees in that category. The best moment was when Nicolas Cage noted that Paul Giamatti wore an opaque contact lens to simulate his character's droopy eye condition so he couldn't see through one eye. Cage then said, "Would I do something like that?... Hell, yes I would."
-- Steven Spielberg (who would later present the Best Director Oscar) had won of the best moments when Kate McKinnon was told the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park and Jeff Goldblum weren't real. She then asked "who have I been sending the tasteful nudes of myself to, then?" Spielberg pointed to himself.
-- Jimmy Kimmel's best moment is available in the political lounge in my Oscar category there.
-- They screwed up the In Memoriam segment again. To get more people in the segment during the available time, they switched to showing five names and pictures at one time that were projected on five columns at the back of the stage. These were behind-the-scenes people, most of whom I had never heard of. Then at the very end, they showed a single card in the background that probably had 20 to 30 names on it that flashed up quickly and were gone in about five seconds. Cormac McCarthy was the only one I had a chance to identify before they disappeared. They will get a lot of flack for this one. A better note, the segment opened with Alexsey Navalny, who was the subject of last year's winning documentary.
-- The only suspense was for Best Actress. I thought Lily Gladstone should have won for a career performance. Emma Stone's work was stagey; Gladstone was sincere.
-- Much as I liked Oppenheimer, I really wish Paul Giamatti had won Best Actor. I've seen The Holdovers twice and it's broken me up both times. It tugs at the emotions and one scene in particular I really relate to.
-- Last night, Ariana Grande was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live in New York and was onstage until 1:00 am. Tonight, she presented the Best Score and Song awards with Cynthia Erivo at the Oscars. The show started at 7:00 eastern time and she lost an hour because of the daylight savings time crossover. That's really hoofing it.
-- The best new touch was having five former winners in each acting category give a little speech about one of the nominees in that category. The best moment was when Nicolas Cage noted that Paul Giamatti wore an opaque contact lens to simulate his character's droopy eye condition so he couldn't see through one eye. Cage then said, "Would I do something like that?... Hell, yes I would."
-- Steven Spielberg (who would later present the Best Director Oscar) had won of the best moments when Kate McKinnon was told the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park and Jeff Goldblum weren't real. She then asked "who have I been sending the tasteful nudes of myself to, then?" Spielberg pointed to himself.
-- Jimmy Kimmel's best moment is available in the political lounge in my Oscar category there.
-- They screwed up the In Memoriam segment again. To get more people in the segment during the available time, they switched to showing five names and pictures at one time that were projected on five columns at the back of the stage. These were behind-the-scenes people, most of whom I had never heard of. Then at the very end, they showed a single card in the background that probably had 20 to 30 names on it that flashed up quickly and were gone in about five seconds. Cormac McCarthy was the only one I had a chance to identify before they disappeared. They will get a lot of flack for this one. A better note, the segment opened with Alexsey Navalny, who was the subject of last year's winning documentary.
