Category Archives: oscars

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Thoughts on the Golden Globes

When an awards show host is really bad, it’s reassuring to know that following the opening monologue you’re really not going to see much more of him.

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Last night’s Golden Globes had the opposite problem. Hosts Tina Fey and Amy Poehler set the tone so perfectly in their opening — every joke was a slam dunk — that once they left the stage it was all downhill. Given the time constraints and all those pesky awards to give out, I’m not sure how exactly Fey and Poehler could have been integrated into the rest of the show, but their absence was sorely missed.

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Random thoughts on the Oscars

– The choice of hosts was interesting but ultimately a failure. The pre-taped bit inserting them into the movies was cute (though it’s been done before, and better) but the opening monologue was uncomfortably lame. There’s a reason they usually get comedians or stage performers to do this.

James Franco said he was able to rehearse only on weekends due to his school obligations, and it showed. He seemed completely out of it and wasn’t trying at all. Anne Hathaway, on the other hand, was trying like crazy, sometimes too hard. Overall she had the right spirit and she’s very personable so she came off pretty well.

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Is it finally Deakins’ year?

Cinematographer Roger Deakins has been nominated for nine Academy Awards (including this year for True Grit) and he hasn’t won once.

Five of those nominations were for Coen Brothers films and he probably deserved to win every one of them. I’m hoping (and predicting, in this year’s Oscar pool) that he’ll finally take home the prize next month.

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Golden Globe nominations

This has been a pretty lackluster year at the movies, a point underscored by the fact that the Golden Globe nominations came out last week and I didn’t even know it. Further, nothing in this list stands out to me one way or the other.

I’m glad to see Robert Downey Jr. recognized for Tropic Thunder (as well as Tom Cruise in the same film). Having just seen Milk, I’m surprised it didn’t make the cut for Best Picture. Nice to see Kate Winslet nominated twice.

On the TV side, the absence of Friday Night Lights is so completely expected that it’s hard to summon any outrage anymore. It’s more of a surprise to see Lost left out, with House as the only network show in the lineup. I’m happy to see Mad Men with several nominations, and it should be the easy winner.

Full list of nominees follows…

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