Showing posts with label Katherine Helmond. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Katherine Helmond. Show all posts

Monday, February 10, 2020

About last night

When it comes to the Academy Awards, I'm like Charlie Brown with the football. Every year I think they'll get it right, and the show will move at a fast clip and be at least half as entertaining as movies they're honoring.

Needless to say, it never turns out that way.

The good news is last night's Oscars clocked in at only three and a half hours—a good fifty-three minutes shorter than the longest show ever, hosted by Whoopi Goldberg back in aught-two.

The bad news is it felt like it went on forever.

In no particular order, and even though absolutely no one asked for it, here are a few things I liked and didn't like about the show.

Liked Brad Pitt winning and his speech. Funny, humble, genuine. Plus he took a shot at the GOP, so always a plus in my book. And I loved the line about riding Leo's coattails.

Loved that Renee Zellweger won. From the minute I saw Judy, I knew the award was hers. She rambled on a bit too long in her acceptance speech, but the Texas twang she tried not-so-hard to hide was pretty charming.

Loved Steve Martin and Chris Rock. After the Kevin Hart debacle last year the producers started doing the show without a host of record, but Martin and Rock were very host like. And very funny. They'd be perfect non-hosts for next year.

Loved that Parasite swept the big categories. It's a great film and well deserved, even if it did beat out JoJo Rabbit—my personal favorite.

Speaking of JoJo Rabbit, loved that director Taika Waititi went home with an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. I hope that helped make up for his movie being nominated for Best Picture without him getting a Best Director nomination.

Without a doubt, for me the standout moment of the night was director Bong Joon Ho—in the middle of his acceptance speech for Best Director—paying tribute to Martin Scorsese. And then Scorcese getting a standing ovation. It was heartfelt, spontaneous and genuine. It brought me to tears, and almost did the same for Scorcese.

Hated Eminem performing Lose Yourself. Sure it won Best Original Song—seventeen years ago. It had no relevance at all to the proceedings, and seemed to cause more confusion than entertainment.

Still undecided about James Corden and Rebel Wilson in their Cats costumes to present the Best Visual Effects award. I like that they were trashing the movie in a funny way, but I thought it went on a bit too long.

Liked Joaquin Phoenix winning Best Actor. Didn't like that it was for Joker, which I thought was a terrible movie. Yes he was good, but he has so many great performances he could've won it for before this.

Didn't like the way it ended or how Jane Fonda wrapped it up. At least I think it was Jane Fonda. It looked more like Katherine Helmond in Brazil. Anyhow, it seemed awfully abrupt and not well thought out.

On the bright side, after three and a half hours there was no risk of leaving anyone wanting more.