And the winners are...

For those of you who didn't stay up late...


Winners CHRIS COOPER, CATHERINE ZETA-JONES, NICOLE KIDMAN, and ADRIEN BRODY

PICTURE: Chicago
DIRECTOR: Roman Polanski, The Pianist
ACTOR: Adrien Brody, The Pianist
ACTRESS: Nicole Kidman, The Hours
SUPPORTING ACTOR: Chris Cooper, Adaptation
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Catherine Zeta-Jones, Chicago
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Pedro Almodovar, Talk to Her
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Ronald Harwood, The Painist
DOCUMNTARY FEATURE: Bowling for Columbine
ANIMATED FEATURE: Spirited Away
FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM: Nowhere in Africa
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Connie Hall, Road to Perdition
EDITING: Chicago
COSTUME DESIGN: Chicago
ART DIRECTION: Chicago
SOUND: Chicago
SOUND-EFFECTS: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
VISUAL EFFECTS: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
MAKE-UP: Frida
ORIGINAL SCORE: Elliott Goldenthal, Frida
ORIGINAL SONG: "Lose Yourself", Eminem 8 Mile
DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT: "Twin Towers"
ANIMATED SHORT: "The ChubbChubbs!"
LIVE-ACTION SHORT: "The Charming Man"


Plenty of surprises and upsets, the biggest being Brody for Best Actor and Polanski for Best Director! Happy to see both, though I didn't even consider picking them - not based on their work or talent, but because I thought they had no shot at all. Good to be this kind of wrong sometimes. The Pianist is a powerful and subtle movie, artfully and emotionally crafted by Polaski and company. Roman waited a lot of years to finally make his Holocaust movie (he's a survivor himself of course, though the rest of his family was not as lucky), and he found the right material in Szpilman's truly remarkable story.

Some excellent film recommendations in this year's winners that most will not have seen or maybe even heard of: The Pianist, Frida, Talk to Her, Spirited Away, Nowhere in Africa. And yes, Chicago is indeed a worthy choice for Best Picture...for once (even if it isn't mine).

__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

What an absolute shame though. Gangs took home nothing at all.

__________________
"We are all worms, but I do believe I am a glow-worm."
--Winston Churchill

h well at leat i can finally go to bed now. it's nearly 6am here

__________________
instrumental rock band that I am in.

I love Gangs of New York, but even so it isn't Marty's best work, and even as a mega-fan I know damn well if he had won, it would have been for career acheivement, to try and correct past gross miscarages of awards justice (Rocky over Taxi Driver, Bob Redford and Ordinary People over Raging Bull, Kevin frippin' Costner and *YAWN* Dances with Wolves over GoodFellas?!?!?) and less for Gangs of New York itself. It was too devisive a picture. I happen to love the thing, but I know at least just as many really despise it. That suprisese me a bit, the level of hatred towards it, but whatever. Marty's got more great movies in him, and one day the Academy will recognize him.

Of course, try telling that to Hitchcock and Kubrick, still rolling in their graves knowing Ron Howard and Mel Gibson are Oscar-winning directors and they never were.


Charlie Kaufman losing for his just flat-out brilliant Adaptation script is the snub of the night in my book. Sadly, I've come to expect it for Chuck. Being John Malkovich, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, Adaptation - too bad the guy can't pen a decent script...that the majority of the silly Academy recognizes as so anyway.

Whuddareyagonnado?

But for me, many more positives than negatives this 75th Oscars. Decent show too, moved right along. And Adrein Brody and Peter O'Toole gave free classes on how to properly accept Oscars.

DANIEL DAY LEWIS WAS ROBBED FOR BEST ACTOR!

martin shoulda got it.im sorry i would have to disagree martin went to town with gangs of new york.although roman is the right guy to win over martin.Raging bull was good.
but the topic at hand is my thread that i have up "Daniel Day Lewis Robbed" need i say more

Personally, I would have voted for Jack, then Cage, then Day-Lewis, but Brody really did do a remarkable job in The Pianist. I was quite glad to see the underdog win in this category (very rare). All five were masterful performances, including Nic Cage's seemingly overlooked perfection in Adaptation. Caine was good too, but like Nicholson I think hurt by the fact that the movie the performance came in was less than the sum of the brauva acting. Plus, they've got multiple Oscars already (Caine two, Jack three). Day-Lewis and Nic Coppola have theirs on shelves too, so for me it was terrific to see Brody win - and for great work to boot!

naw im kinda oposite with that.i think brody has more chances of oscars.danial day was fanominal.i mean you couldnt even tell it was him.

golum is a better actor than brody

This seems a silly question based on your tone, but I'll ask it once just the same: have you even seen The Pianist?

Don't waste your time, dude. He/she/it didn't even bother to spell "Gollum" properly (which isn't exactly Schwarzenegger, if you catch my drift).

Well, as he can't even bother to really spell Daniel Day-Lewis correctly - and he apparently wuz robbed you see, what hope can we hold out for poor Smeagol?

yes i saw the movie.although it was an emotional portraily i felt the role was insognificant.

HP, i totally agree with you on Kaufman...actually your opinions are always so well put and thought out, they're an absolute pleasure to read

you are the Omnipotent Master of All-Things-Movie

[add] i just saw Brody's winning speech - i'm impressed (the movie hasn't been released yet in Australia, so i haven't seen it - but now can't wait)

__________________
"So you take me for what I am...a psychopathic, schizophrenic, serial-killing, femme fatale?"

I have never been so thrilled after an Oscar ceremony, and considering that most of my predictions turned out to be wrong, that is saying something. In a ceremony that completely redeemed the politically correct tripe of the 74th ceremony, the show that I saw tonight proved that Academy voters not only know good films when they see them, but that they still have the courage to vote for who they truly believe is the best, and not just the most publicized media darling of a favourite [that said, Chicago did indeed blitz the thing. But rightly so].

Before I go on I'd like to address the subject of my failed predictions. The ones that grate at me are the ones that I changed at the last minute, namely Talk To Her for best screenplay [I had that picked for a month! Until three hours before the show began! I changed it to Far From Heaven!] and Twin Towers, the live action short film, which I changed at the last minute, thanks to Ebert. I didn't listen to Ebert when it came to foreign language film, however, and [what do you know?] he got it right. But no matter. I am just as pleased with my failures as I am pissed off; never have I been happier to get predictions in two of the major categories completely and utterly wrong [Adrien Brody gave the most astounding Oscar speech I'd ever heard and Martin Scorsese shall forever remain the greatest unrecognised American director in cinematic history because Polanski won].

This year, for the first time since 1998, I was able to keep myself completely out of reach from Internet, television, radio and carrier pigeon until the show began. It was the first virgin Oscar experience I've had since '98, dammit, and what a glorious experience it was after having deprived oneself of all information regarding the award winners.

I just feel happy after this evening, you know what I mean? The Academy members have proven, I feel, that they're not merely a group of saps who can be bought out and swayed around at the drop of a hat, and that if they have had a dose of bad taste in the past [case study 2001], they've still got it; at least every now and then. An upset is a rare thing, and when the underdog is the cause of that upset, well, it is even rarer. Tonight was the night of the underdog, and the Academy has proven [to me at least] that it still relevant.

The show was not perfect, of course. Steven Martin is no Billy Crystal, and he never will be [although I am not sure that Billy Crystal would have really been the right guy for this year, either]. Martin was good [sometimes very good], but overall he just felt a little, I don't know, detached. His smugness is hilarious to a point, and then it becomes sort of distancing; he never really connects, which would have been fine last year, but there needed to be more between host and audience when the tone for this year was so deliberately somber. I was also pretty disappointed by the usually poignant In Memoriam tribute, which last year was [simply put] beautifully done. This year there were a number of truly important people on the list that did not get the tribute they deserved. It was so nothingy. Bland. Surely Richard Harris, James Coburn and Conrad Hall deserved more than they got! Billy Wilder definitely did.

The worst part of the evening was Michael Moore, and this is coming from someone who agrees with most of what he has to say, and loved Bowling For Columbine. The film is genius and the man is [mostly] right, but his outburst was completely out of line. It was not the time, nor the place for such a demonstration, and the jeers from the audience just added to how disgusting it all was. It was the first time I have covered my face in embarrassment while watching an event that took place six hours earlier on the other side of the planet. It was one of the most disgusting examples of how war ****s up everyone; right or wrong, left or right. No one needed Michael Moore to do what he did. The show didn't need it. I didn't need it. I sure as Hell didn't want it.

However, such things aside, it was the best Oscar ceremony I have seen since, coincidentally, '98 [when Crystal hosted and sang and Hoffman presented that wonderful clip show of every best picture winner up until that point]. The only major mishap [in my opinion] was that the Academy failed to recognise Charlie Kaufmann again [but even then they made it up by recognising Almodovar despite the odds of him winning being slim to none]. All up I am thrilled. Kidman won, and this makes me unbearably pleased. Peter O'Toole proved that he is the most gracious human being alive. Brody delivered an astoundingly resonant speech. Kirk Douglas has still got the touch. And Martin Scorsese shall remain in a league with the Gods.

__________________
www.esotericrabbit.com

Some Oscar thoughts.

THE GOOD: First off, Adrien Brody stole the show with his award and acceptance speech. It was one of the best moments in recent Oscar history. He spoke well, what he said was heartfelt and wasn't contrived, and he got to plant a big wet one on Halle Barry. So life is good for Mr. Brody. And I've already seen a few of "this guy was robbed" remarks on the board. My thoughts are, well, someone had to get robbed this year. The Best Actor race was one of the best in ages this past year, with all the candidates deserving their nominations. My personal preference would have been for Day-Lewis, but Brody is a good choice. I loved the Pianist, so kudos to him.

Nicole Kidman stopped herself just short of blubbering, got it together, and gave a nice little speech as well. She's deserving as well, though I thought her role was much more a supporting role in The Hours, at least more so than Julianne Moore's was in Far From Heaven.

Chris Cooper gets props here as well. Do yourselves a favor and check out some of his previous work. American Beauty and Tombstone both are top notch stuff, and Adaptation is no exception. Both he and Kidman made nice jestures toward peace, something not everyone can say.

While I'm at it, I'll also throw a bone to Steve Martin, who was a riot at times. Overall, he did a good job keeping the show moving, even if his "gay mafia" gag with someone throwing a phone onto stage went over my head.

THE BAD: Not much. But how sick is everyone of hearing "And All That Jazz" after last night. Chicago was a fun movie and all, but it has a huge soundtrack with plenty of options to choose from. Enough already.

The Oscars can quickly drop to cheesy levels when they attempt to be cute. First, all you had to see was the musical montage of those goofy "Hooray For Hollywood" song and dance numbers that used to plague the Oscars every year. That they decided to even put together a montage of these things hopefully says that they are also sticking a fork in 'em as well. But not to be outdone, here comes the Who Framed Roger Rabbit part of the show, with Jennifer Garner embarassing herself while pretending to talk to a computer generated Mickey Mouse. Beyond silly, Garner stopped just short of singing a duet with Snow White. She later found her dignity backstage.

The In Memorandum part could always be dealt with better. I say a lot less time spent on the technical stuff none of us understand anyway, and a longer, more suitable tribute to those who passed away. Sound Editing? Art Direction? Who needs it? This show could be made so much better by cutting some of the fat.

Finally, what was with all the shots of Ted Danson(sp?) and Harrison Ford? And to Sean Connerry, there are two nominees named Catherine, so feel free to state the last name next time to help avoid confusion. Moron.

THE UGLY: Two things that really, REALLY bothered me. First, I too am a huge Michael Moore supporter. I love his work, I love that he is always stirring things up. And I knew he would have something to say about current affairs at the awards show. He starts out in a touch of class by bringing fellow documenters on stage with him, and then just goes off the deep end in his speech. Look, I even agree with what he said(enough with the duct tape and color coded terror warnings), but this was just not the time or place for a tirade or outburst like that. Subtlety and dignity can be useful tools in radicalism. Michael Moore probably did more to turn people off to his message than he did to help it. Which is a shame, as he's one of the last still fighting the good fight. He just needed a better approach. Kudos though to Bowling For Columbine, one of the best films this year bar none.

And second and lastly, I know Jack Nicholson and Bono of U2 are cool and all. But for cryin' out loud, enough with the shades already!!!! It's nighttime AND you're both indoors!!! Man, I'm so glad Jack didn't win just because of this. That, and he would have used the word "Baby" at least three times during his acceptance speech. For those of you who don't know, "Baby" is one of those words people say after they've said something they think is cool. And to Bono, would you please stop being such a freakin' sell-out!! He spends all his free time protesting against corporate globalization, but happily takes checks from the two largest, and global, corporate events in the world: The Super Bowl and the Oscars. All he needs now is a Nike Swoosh tatooed on his forehead, and he'll be set.

All in all, a good show overall. Any thoughts?

Shouldn't this thread have been called "And the Oscars went to..."?

I'm glad Nicole Kidman recieved the award for Best leading Actress, I knew she could do it!

__________________
The only man who can decode the Complex Tapestry of Femanine Emotion!

i got that one sexy!! 10 points for cleverness

No, I'm Old School, and just as Kirk overrode Michael who was doing the now "proper" way of opening the envelope, let's be clear that the person the Oscar goes to is the winner.

So no, I titled the thread exactly as I wanted. Screw the Academy.