Whitechapel - Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T10:48:29-08:00

While I liked Juno, at no time during my viewing did I once think, man, this screenplay is so good. Mostly I was thinking about how great Michael Cera is. And I basically stopped listening to the cheerleader character after she said, "Honest to blog."

There was a special on after the Oscars about Diablo Cody and the director, Jason Reitman, spoke about how keen an ear she has for the way teenagers speak. Really. Miss Cody must hang around different teenagers than I do, because none of them have ever, ever said "honest to blog" or "silencio."

This is a long way of asking, how the hell did Diablo Cody win for best screenplay?

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T10:53:58-08:00

Err... cause it was a good, well written, nicely structured screenplay? Its (lack of) authenticity as 'the voice of youth' is neither here nor there...

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T11:40:21-08:00

Err... cause it was a good, well written, nicely structured screenplay?

So I take it you haven't read it, right?

At least No Country cleaned up.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T11:55:12-08:00

I thought Juno was ok, but the dialogue was too 'clever' for its own good, far too film-studenty, and it didn't deserve and Oscar. It felt like it could have come out any time in the last 20 years. Also I thought the use of the Moldy Peaches on the soundtrack was lame.

I don't even really know what the Oscars mean anyway. This year apparently the general interest in the Oscars was down because the films involved weren't big money-makers, which says it all really, it's supposed to be prestigious, but it's not at all.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T11:55:50-08:00

I saw only two of the movies nominated for Best Picture, but I think the most deserved win last night was for Javier Bardem's Anton Chigurh. He disturbed the shit out of me.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T12:16:03-08:00

Everyday I pray Diablo Cody burns alive in a motel meth explosion. Anyone who enjoyed Juno is to hand in their badge and gun: You're out of the man club.

Fucking The Golden Compass for best special effects? Are you shitting me?

And oh, surprise, Cronenberg gets shunned yet again.

You'd think we'd have learned the Oscars are utterly meaningless back when Titanic won 11 of them. What a fucking joke.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T12:17:16-08:00

The assasination of Jesse James was also one that could have won at least one oscar for... anything... It was the only movie I saw that was in the nominees list. A friend of mine told me that Juno was incredible. I've not seen it yet, I'm saving to go see Eastern Promises.
One thing is true: you don't have to see wich movie is nominated for the oscars to know if it is as good as Heaven or as bad as shit!!! Take Titanic fer instance: it sucks, yet it won a lot of oscars. Fuck it, who cares? If I had to give a movie an award, I have my personal list and I don't give a shit what the academy thinks.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T12:24:12-08:00

@Hickman

At least No Country cleaned up.

No doubt. The Coen's personally going home with six statues was one of the few highlights of the night. Wonder if the Brothers would have had to share one statue if they (Roderick Jaynes) would have won for Best Editing?

For those keeping score, the only other good things coming out of the 80th Oscars were Javier Bardem winning Best Supporting Actor, Tilda Swinton winning Best Supporting Actress, and Once winning for Best Song.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T12:32:46-08:00

Marion Cotillard was adorable.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T12:38:27-08:00

Speaking of Eastern Promises, Viggo Mortensen's clip was the best that they showed for Best Acting category. Still, I was rooting for Clooney to win. Daniel Day is way, way overrated. I think Bill Hader proved that once and for all last Saturday night.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T13:01:52-08:00

Daniel Day is way, way overrated.

Funny skit. Couldn't disagree more.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T13:13:43-08:00

I think Bill Hader proved that once and for all last Saturday night.

Because a half-way decent parody proves that someone is truly a talentless hack.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T13:14:25-08:00

"Honest to blog."
Okay so I'm no teenager, but the closest I say to this is thus:
Honest to Dog spelt backwards.
I've never heard any of my co-workers say Honest to Blog, or Silencio. They do, however tend to say fuck a lot.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T13:18:18-08:00

I didn't get to watch the Oscars due to work, but was quite impressed that Bourne was 3 for 3, wishing it were up for more than just editing/sound awards :(

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T13:20:59-08:00

Since when is realism a requirement for something being good?

But, beyond that, I find it baffling that there are still people who are surprised that the Oscar's aren't as relevant as they act like they are.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T13:36:55-08:00

The assasination of Jesse James was also one that could have won at least one oscar for... anything...

Amen Sunshine Jack!
That's the only movie that really blew me away this past year. Absolutely incredible and sadly unrecognized.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T13:47:10-08:00

Um.... there's a pretty big difference between creating a performance and imitating one, and Daniel Day Lewis pretty clearly knocked the balls off of every other actor in that category.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T13:59:28-08:00

Do I have to break out the Roo boys again?

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T14:05:17-08:00

From the thread title I thought they had replaced the statuettes with bags of faeces.

How disappointing.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T14:09:19-08:00

Eastern Promises deserved to get shut out, it was not the best in any category. I love The Fly remake as much as the next guy, but History of Violence and Eastern Promises did not deliver for me. I didn't see Michael Clayton or There Will Be Blood, sadly. But No Country was easily the best of all the movies I've seen this year so I'm glad it cleaned up.

Be that as it may, I'm still annoyed that Dances With Wolves beat out Godfellas and that Sean Penn's Mystic River performance beat out Lost in Translation's Bill Murry.

Also, Bourne was the most poorly edited and shot movie I've seen in recent times. How it even got a nomination is beyond me, let alone leave with a statue.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T14:51:45-08:00

The Oscars may be horribly out of touch and myopic and self-congratulatory drivel (how good was Stewart's response after the president showed that "How we vote on the Oscars video"), but you can't say they're not relevant. For better or for worse they play a huge role in what gets made and who gets to see it.

Realism isn't a requirement for something being good - but it is a requirement for praising someone's work as being "authentic." Diablo Cody's script may be a lot of things, but authentic isn't one of them.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T15:09:29-08:00

You missed my point. I know that they're very relevant when it comes to people making money - studios, producers, actors, directors, writers, etc. They're great advertising and can make a small movie into a bigger one.

But they're not nearly as relevant culturally as they think they are. They're not the end-all, be-all of a film's quality. They are, just like any other award, the opinion of a relatively small group of people. Winning one means nothing more than you impressed that group of your peers enough for them to give you a statue. It's basically an invitation to a club of other film-industry insiders.

Which is what makes me shrug my shoulders when people bitch. You're complaining because someone's opinion about a movie was different than yours.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T15:12:55-08:00

It could have been worse.

I Am Legend could have won best film.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T15:24:55-08:00

I liked Juno and it didn't bother me it won (although being nominated for best picture and best director is fucking ridiculous). I think that's because I haven't watched any of the other nominees (I know, I know, shame on me). What bothers me is that Sweeney Todd's wonderful, clever cinematography was replaced by There Will be Blood's, which has nothing of interesting or especially clever. And Daniel Day-Lewis is magnificent, but so is Johnny Depp in a much better film. Third time he walks empty-handed. But I have a strong feeling he'll win it for Michael Mann's Public Enemies, where he'll play John Dillinger. Viggo Mortensen also was amazing in Eastern Promises.

Despite this year's incredibly bad ceremony (Jon Stewart, stay away from Kodak Theatre from now on), I still like the Academy Awards. But it was a bad ceremony, because of:

- Jon Stewart (Wii jokes? WII JOKES?!)

- Golden Compass winning Visual Effects (oh, fuck off...)

- There Will be Blood winning Cinematography ("Right, Daniel Plainview is a bad man, so let's show him covered in shadows all the time, that should do the trick...")

- Those fucking songs from "Enchanted".

- Javier Bardem not considered the leading actor of No Country for Old Men, which for the hundredth time, HE FUCKING IS.

- Johnny Depp, who's been ignored by the academy for years (Donnie Brasco, Ed Wood...) walking out empty-handed for the third time.

Most of the winners were well-chosen, though, the presentation of the ceremony is what ruined it.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T15:25:16-08:00

@shawnclark - While your points are well taken, I don't think I missed your gist. I'm complaining that someone's opinion is different than mine, granted, but not just because it is different. Rather, I'm complaining for the very reasons you point out - that the Oscars have an extended influence based on their decisions.

So I guess I should have written - damn the Oscars for awarding Diablo Cody's questionable narrative skills, thus dooming us to "quirky" teenage drama after quirky teenage drama for the next 12 months.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T15:26:04-08:00

I Am Legend could have won best film.

Not in a million years, Kosmopolit. Sorry. I like I Am Legend, but it's way too flawed. And I think the academy still regrets giving Akiva Goldsman the award for A Beautiful Mind.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T15:28:15-08:00

The problem with Diablo Cody is that everyone's considering her amazing for being an ex-stripper. I liked her script and narrative fine, I liked Juno, but the fact she used to be a stripper is not influencing my judgement. Juno tries to be an adorable film and it is, no more no less. Everyone's putting Juno's script under a spotlight because it was written by someone who danced naked on a pole for a living.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T15:32:23-08:00

- Golden Compass winning Visual Effects (oh, fuck off...)

ARGHH!!! I KNOW! That film was a fucking travesty. Every single frame of it. I mean< i could care less who else won it -- a lot of fanboys are seething over Transformer's loss, but I could care less. But the GOLDEN COMPASS? UGH.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T15:38:15-08:00

Daniel Day is way, way overrated

Like Jonathan, I disagree on that too. But I do think There Will be Blood was way overrated. Yes, the "milkshake" thing is great. The rest of the movie isn't.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T15:50:07-08:00

So I guess I should have written - damn the Oscars for awarding Diablo Cody's questionable narrative skills, thus dooming us to "quirky" teenage drama after quirky teenage drama for the next 12 months.

Not to mention many more Diablo Cody-written movies, all with the tagline: "From the Oscar-winning writer of Juno ..."

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T15:56:08-08:00

These two frames alone beat the cinematography of There Will Be Blood.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T16:17:03-08:00

@Andrenavarro - Christ I feel like a retard now, No Country = Rivet gun dude! I'd seen the trailer some time ago but the title didn't stick and I'd wondered what happened to it. Now I really do need to see it.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T16:18:11-08:00

Since when is realism a requirement for something being good?

I don't believe that was ever an issue here.

But whether it's an ode to solipsist anti-realism or not, Juno is still horrendously written trash. I don't see how stripping as anything to do with it.

Mac: No one cares, - nor do the Oscar's, ha! - those Cronenberg films were godly.

And yeah, Depp keeps getting shafted. He's got fangirls, though!

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T16:39:15-08:00

You'd think we'd have learned the Oscars are utterly meaningless back when Titanic won 11 of them. What a fucking joke.

CAN I GET AN "AMEN"?

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T17:39:02-08:00

I don't see how stripping as anything to do with it.

It makes a better story. It's been my experience that people mostly connect with and understand the world by the stories they can tell about it. The story of a young woman who danced naked (oh the tragedy) for money writes a screenplay that goes on to win academy awards makes a great story for people to tell one another. People, especially Americans, have long been suckers for the rags to riches, hauled themselves up by their bootstraps sort of story.

This understanding has become so common, that people, especially talented ones, are starting to use their past as a form of marketing (see Brittany Spears.) They burn up their past to make the jump to noteriety or fame before everyone becomes bored, sort of like a 3rd world country trying to ramp up industrial production by burning up all the local natural resources in order to make the jump to a 1st world economy.

In a couple of years, most people will have forgotten Diablo-Cody's story or replaced it with a new one, if she's good, she'll be able to make a career before her 15-minutes run out, otherwise, she'll end up like the rest of out temporary hero's.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T18:28:15-08:00

People, especially Americans, have long been suckers for the rags to riches, hauled themselves up by their bootstraps sort of story.

In no small way due to the fact that it's pretty much how one would describe our cultural ideology. And yet there's the largest rich/poor gap since the turn of the century. How ironic.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T18:56:44-08:00

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T19:00:33-08:00

what happened to the Beastie Boys?

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T19:04:49-08:00

Full points to Pete, and with that I think we'll let this slip on down the page. Making room to talk about Creating New Good sounds more fun than dissecting old fail.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-25T21:02:10-08:00

I want to get the feature length animated films off my chest.
Freakin' "Surf's Up" gets nominated but not "Bee Movie" or "Beowulf" what kind of crap is that. It's not like they didn't have room for two more nominees. Just nominating "Beowulf " in the category would have pulled the category from more child-like fare into a new realm, but I guess they missed that opportunity when they failed to nominate "A Scanner Darkly" last year. I don't understand how they can be so myopic. I'm no Hollywood entertainment industry person yet I can see what they insist on missing. I must say though, I'm interested in seeing "Persepolis" at the first opportunity

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-27T17:15:58-08:00

I'll concede that Juno's dialogue was inauthentic, but it's depiction of teen pregnancy in the early 21st century was the most refreshing and, yes, authentic treatment of the subject I've ever seen. There is no preaching, no moralizing; she is not a good girl gone astray, nor a bad girl who got what she had coming; it avoids the usual "excuses" of teen pregnancy stories, that the condom broke, or it was her first time; it mocks pro-lifers, it mocks pro-choicers.

And Cody gets bonus props from me for the way she wrote the adoptive parents as a foil to Juno herself: Jason Bateman originally came off as cool but was revealed to be pretty immature and selfish, whereas Jennifer Garner originally came off as uptight and WASPy, but we end up seeing her as an independent woman with a lot of love to give. At first Juno identifies with Bateman, because they're on the same maturity level, but she matures past him and ends up identifying with Garner, realizing that she herself has a lot of love to give (to Michael Cera).

Oh, and Dracko:

Anyone who enjoyed Juno is to hand in their badge and gun: You're out of the man club.

Thanks for letting me know, but I think my vagina has kept me out in the first place.

Oscar demonstrates edginess by awarding crap

2008-02-28T11:33:04-08:00

@AlexaDickman

Yeh I pretty much agree with you on Juno, and I liked it, but I still didn't think it was as good as people made it out to be. It's not an Oscar movie, it's the kind of movie I would have been quite pleased to come across on DVD or on TV late at night. And I found the dialogue too be rather too 'clever' and sassy for its own good, and the character of Juno to be rather annoying. That and the use of 'kooky' Orange-ad music (mostly from The Moldy Peaches) made me think that although the treatment of the subject was interesting (although it was her first time wasn't it?), the screenwriter herself was maybe quite young and fresh out of film school. I was not surprised when I saw her accepting her Bafta that she was sporting a very art-student look.