The Conical Glass: Oscar! '08: Attack of the Montages

Monday, February 25, 2008

Oscar! '08: Attack of the Montages

Every time the Oscars are on, I find myself wishing that the ceremony will start with that song Billy Crystal always used to do: "It's a wonderful night for Oscar! Oscar, Oscar! Who will win?" Much as I adore Jon Stewart, Billy really was the best Oscar host, wasn't he?

Last year I made the mistake of attending an Oscar viewing party which obligated me to sit through the entire thing. This year, I looked forward to TiVo'ing it and fast forwarding through the commercials and dull parts, but we're having issues with our TiVo (more on that later, perhaps) and were obligated to -- yes -- sit through the entire thing. At least we could mute the commercials and read the Chronicle Pink Section during the musical numbers that weren't from "Once."

Favorite moment: Every year, it seems like I bitch about those endless Chuck Workman montages, so I have to say the Salute to Binoculars & Periscopes made me guffaw. That was one of the few things that really bore the stamp of the "Daily Show" writing team that went west with Jon (along with the "Gaydolf Titler" joke, which I believe he'd previously used on "TDS," and a little riff suggesting Cate Blanchett is such a versatile actress that she had even played the pit bull in "No Country For Old Men").

Second favorite: Marketa Irglova gets called back on stage to finish her acceptance speech! Since I was an early adopter of "Once," I was really excited to see "Falling Slowly" win. I kind of figured it would, since the three "Enchanted" songs must have split the Disney vote and no one saw "August Rush." It almost makes up for the year Phil Collins beat Elliot Smith and Aimee Mann.

Best dressed: Katherine Heigl. There were so many red dresses at the Oscars, but she stood out. That's what glamour's all about.

Worst dressed: I've seen it on a couple best-dressed lists, but Cameron Diaz's dress looked like a bunch of randomly folded pink fabric to me. I'm sure everyone else will say Diablo Cody and Tilda Swinton, but I'm grateful whenever someone wears an outfit that looks like they picked it out themselves, as opposed to a high-priced stylist's cautious choice.

Worst shoes: Joe is always asking me which color shoes go with whatever pants he's wearing, but now that Daniel Day-Lewis has worn brown shoes with a black tux, all bets are off, and from now on I'm just going say "Eh... whatever."

Biggest disappointment: I'll admit it, I was hoping "Juno" would pull off an upset. I know, I know.

All in all, a pretty meh year. I doubt many moments from Oscar '08 will show up in future "Greatest Oscar Moments" montages.

posted by 125records @ 1:13 PM

4 Comments:

At 2:14 PM, jfruh said…

I saw August Rush. It was one of the most appalling awful and contrived films I've ever seen. I saw it more or less by accident -- we were taking a friend out to dinner and a movie for her birthday, either she or we had seen virtually everything else that was out, for some reason I didn't want to see Across the Universe (dear God, why did I say no to this?) and the names of the people in August Rush that my wife could rattle off were all good (Terence Howard, Freddie Highmore, Jonathan Rhys Meyers). Only when we saw "Robin Williams" flash up unexpectedly in the opening credits did we get an inkling of the horror that was to come. Robin Williams is Bono as Fagin! So, so terrible.
At 2:33 PM, 125records said…

I have a friend who saw it at the Denver Film Festival, where it was the closing night selection, and she said it was "AWFUL" (yes, in all caps). But really, "Across the Universe" looked pretty bad too. I don't think there were any good choices to be made that day.

Re: Robin Williams, I loved this letter which appeared in yesterday's Ask Mick LaSalle column: "Dear Mick LaSalle: While bored on a flight, I had the misfortune to witness that train wreck 'License to Wed.' The scariest thing was that, while I cringed, a normal-looking gentleman in a suit, sitting across the aisle, was laughing out loud constantly while watching this mess. I tried checking him for a wristband or some other evidence that he was an escaped mental patient. For years now, one of my hard-and-fast movie rules has been this: Avoid Robin Williams at all costs."

Since Robin is one of our few true local celebrities people here bend over backwards to be nice to him, but really, no one can defend the likes of "License to Wed" and "RV."
At 7:16 PM, 2fs said…

Robin Williams was convincing the two times he's played psychotic killers. That should tell you something.

And wait: August Rush isn't a story of a long-lived Canadian power-prog trio and the peak of their summer concert touring season? Ah well - not my taste anyway, really. Since I like Mark E. Smith, I've put Legends of The Fall in my Netflix queue...
At 7:47 PM, yellojkt said…

The best part about Marketa getting to do her speech was that it was good. The most touching thing I've ever seen at the Oscars.