The OAO 77th Annual Academy Awards Thread

[Vyce 0]

I didn't even watch these, but I'm glad Freeman won, glad Foxx won, glad Swank won, VERY glad Blanchette won (since I have a thing for her), and I'm satisfied that Eastwood / M$B won.

 

All in all, a pretty satisfying awards show. Not as awesome as LOTR taking the gold last year, but whatever.

[bob_barron 0]

looks like Vitamin X takes his award shows very seriously.

 

the Academy once named "Chicago" the best movie of the year. Keep that in mind.

Will I lose any credibility if I say I really liked Chicago?

[Yuna_Firerose 0]

About Neverland- I thought some of the scenes towards the end seemed like they had a big neon sign saying 'CRY NOW' and stuff like that bothers me. And I didn't like the way they were hush hush over the pedophilia allegations

Ah, yush. That I definetly understand because I myself am annoyed with such things. Mushy movies, especially over melodramatic stuff, just has me looking for something better to do.

 

Although I did read in EW that they tried really hard to keep the scenes real and not overly dramatic or anything.

 

As for the pedophilia accusations... well, they did mention them, but if they were proved completely false, why spend too much time on them? The movie was, after all, about his inspiration for the play. Personally, I think the movie was trying to overreach at times, as it tried to cover so many subjects and subplots and the like all at once.

 

However, what about the kid, Freddy Highmore? Wowser, I thought. I think he should've won at... the GGs, was it? I mean, a Golden Globe award at 12. Come on now, that would've not only proved beneficial to Freddy's career, but also his confidence. Yet Morgan won. Now, having not seen M$B, I cannot say if Morgan was good or not. Still I think Freddy got...'robbed', as the phrase is.

[Guest Vitamin X]

Clint's best movie is still Unforgiven.

ESotSM is my personal favorite film of all time, period, but never in a million years would I suggest that it should have beaten M$B for Best Picture. M$B is the best american film from the past five years, if not longer...I'll have to see it a few more times to decide. Every aspect of it is outstanding, in a very deep way. The film has a ton of layers that you can't even see on one viewing alone.

Et tu, Downhome?

[bob_barron 0]

The previews (which are supposed to make me want to see a movie) just showed some movie about chick boxing, but everyone's all salivating over it like the second coming of Titanic or something

M$B is NOT a "chick boxing" film...it's an emotional, dramatic story of many different layers, that just happens to have boxing as one part of the story. You could replace the boxing with any number of sports, or many other jobs, and it still would have been a fantastic film.

Someone read Ebert's review!

[CBright7831 0]

http://imdb.com/features/rto/2005/gallery/...5-redcarpet/105

 

Emmy Rossum looked nice tonight.

[Guest Vitamin X]

looks like Vitamin X takes his award shows very seriously.

 

the Academy once named "Chicago" the best movie of the year. Keep that in mind.

Will I lose any credibility if I say I really liked Chicago?

Nah, but Best Picture?

 

Then again this is the same Academy that gave an award to the English Patient some time ago as well.... That was a darker era in good filmmaking, however.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

I'm a little annoyed Don Cheadle didn't win (then again its not like I expected him to), but he was really really great in HOtel Rwanda, getting more and more desperate as the movie goes on. Great job and really hope he gets better parts b/c of the nomination.

[bob_barron 0]

Although I did read in EW that they tried really hard to keep the scenes real and not overly dramatic or anything.

 

As for the pedophilia accusations... well, they did mention them, but if they were proved completely false, why spend too much time on them? The movie was, after all, about his inspiration for the play. Personally, I think the movie was trying to overreach at times, as it tried to cover so many subjects and subplots and the like all at once.

I read that too and I commend them for it.

 

I didn't like how they completely dissed the pedophilia accusations as anyone who dares to think obviously has a sick and disturbed mind and shouldn't think such thoughts.

[Downhome 0]

As for the pedophilia accusations... well, they did mention them, but if they were proved completely false, why spend too much time on them?

Because that aspect of his life is one of the most talked about, most well known. The film should have been just a tad bit longer, adding in a few more scenes that dealt with the accusations. It would have helped the overall story in my opinion, added much more tension to certain parts of the movie.

 

Either way though, FN is a f'n great film also.

[Guest Askewniverse]

I could have seen a number of actresses in Swank's place...but I can't say the same thing for Winslet. She owned that character, it was made for her.

I agree about Winslet in Eternal Sunshine. After watching the movie a few times, I can't imagine anyone else as Clementine. Winslet's Clementine was my favorite female character in a movie released in 2004, followed by Portman as Sam in Garden State.

[Downhome 0]

Someone read Ebert's review!

I bet that's true, but it wasn't me!

 

I purposesly didn't read Ebert's reviews for the films I thought would be nominated for best picture. I'm going to do so later tonight though.

 

All I know is that he freaking loves the flick, because I saw him for just a minute on Conan the other night...and most of that interview was about his porn lovin'.

[Downhome 0]

Winslet's Clementine was my favorite female character in a movie released in 2004, followed by Portman as Sam in Garden State.

Clementine is my favorite female character EVER put to film. Nothing else can even touch that character.

[Yuna_Firerose 0]

I didn't like how they completely dissed the pedophilia accusations as anyone who dares to think obviously has a sick and disturbed mind and shouldn't think such thoughts.

Ja, indeed. Sickening how society likes to immediately twist and distort innocent things.

 

Because that aspect of his life is one of the most talked about, most well known. The film should have been just a tad bit longer, adding in a few more scenes that dealt with the accusations. It would have helped the overall story in my opinion, added much more tension to certain parts of the movie.

*nods in agreeance* It definetly could've benifited from a much longer length, showing more of the stressful aspects of his life.

 

Wasn't he proved to be asexual, though? It was either asexual or impotent; I'm not sure which it was I heard.

[Guest Vitamin X]

Worst part was Giamatti and Carrey both getting worked over in the Best Actor category, although that was tough competition and they still probably wouldn't have beaten Ray.

[bob_barron 0]

I went to an Ebert book signing and he talked a lot about the controversy Million Dollar Baby has recieved and his own opinion on the matter. Very nice, funny and intelligent man.

 

Ebert's review:

 

Million Dollar Baby

 

 

BY ROGER EBERT / January 7, 2005

 

Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" is a masterpiece, pure and simple, deep and true. It tells the story of an aging fight trainer and a hillbilly girl who thinks she can be a boxer. It is narrated by a former boxer who is the trainer's best friend. But it's not a boxing movie. It is a movie about a boxer. What else it is, all it is, how deep it goes, what emotional power it contains, I cannot suggest in this review, because I will not spoil the experience of following this story into the deepest secrets of life and death. This is the best film of the year.

 

Eastwood plays the trainer, Frankie, who runs a seedy gym in Los Angeles and reads poetry on the side. Hilary Swank plays Maggie, from southwest Missouri, who has been waitressing since she was 13 and sees boxing as the one way she can escape waitressing for the rest of her life.

 

Otherwise, she says, "I might as well go back home and buy a used trailer and get a deep fryer and some Oreos." Morgan Freeman is Scrap, who was managed by Frankie into a title bout. Now he lives in a room at the gym and is Frankie's partner in conversations that have coiled down through the decades. When Frankie refuses to train a "girly," it's Scrap who convinces him to give Maggie a chance: "She grew up knowing one thing. She was trash."

 

These three characters are seen with a clarity and truth that is rare in the movies. Eastwood, who doesn't carry a spare ounce on his lean body, doesn't have any padding in his movie, either: Even as the film approaches the deep emotion of its final scenes, he doesn't go for easy sentiment, but regards these people, level-eyed, as they do what they have to do.

 

Some directors lose focus as they grow older. Others gain it, learning how to tell a story that contains everything it needs and absolutely nothing else. "Million Dollar Baby" is Eastwood's 25th film as a director, and his best. Yes, "Mystic River" is a great film, but this one finds the simplicity and directness of classical storytelling; it is the kind of movie where you sit very quietly in the theater and are drawn deeply into lives that you care very much about.

 

Morgan Freeman is the narrator, just as he was in "The Shawshank Redemption," which this film resembles in the way the Freeman character describes a man who became his lifelong study. The voice is flat and factual: You never hear Scrap going for an affect or putting a spin on his words. He just wants to tell us what happened. He talks about how the girl walked into the gym, how she wouldn't leave, how Frankie finally agreed to train her, and what happened then. But Scrap is not merely an observer; the film gives him a life of his own when the others are offscreen. It is about all three of these people.

 

Hilary Swank is astonishing as Maggie. Every note is true. She reduces Maggie to a fierce intensity. Consider the scene where she and Scrap sit at a lunch counter, and Scrap tells how he lost the sight in one eye, how Frankie blames himself for not throwing in the towel. It is an important scene for Freeman, but I want you to observe how Swank has Maggie do absolutely nothing but listen. No "reactions," no little nods, no body language except perfect stillness, deep attention and an unwavering gaze.

 

There's another scene, at night driving in a car, after Frankie and Maggie have visited Maggie's family. The visit didn't go well. Maggie's mother is played by Margo Martindale as an ignorant and selfish monster. "I got nobody but you, Frankie," Maggie says. This is true, but do not make the mistake of thinking there is romance between them. It's different, and deeper than that. She tells Frankie a story involving her father, whom she loved, and an old dog she loved, too.

 

Look at the way the cinematographer, Tom Stern, uses the light in this scene. Instead of using the usual "dashboard lights" that mysteriously seem to illuminate the whole front seat, watch how he has their faces slide in and out of shadow, how sometimes we can't see them at all, only hear them. Watch how the rhythm of this lighting matches the tone and pacing of the words, as if the visuals are caressing the conversation.

 

It is a dark picture overall: a lot of shadows, many night scenes, characters who seem to recede into private fates. It is a "boxing movie" in the sense that it follows Maggie's career and has several fight scenes. She wins from the beginning, but that's not the point; "Million Dollar Baby" is about a woman determined to make something of herself, and a man who doesn't want to do anything for this woman, and will finally do everything.

 

The screenplay is by Paul Haggis, who has worked mostly on TV but with this earns an Oscar nomination. Other nominations, possibly Oscars, will go to Swank, Eastwood, Freeman, the picture and many technicians -- and possibly the original score composed by Eastwood, which always does what is required and never distracts.

 

Haggis adapted the story from Rope Burns: Stories From the Corner, a 2000 book by Jerry Boyd, a 70-year-old fight manager who wrote it as "F.X. Toole." The dialogue is poetic but never fancy. "How much she weigh?" Maggie asks Frankie about the daughter he hasn't seen in years. "Trouble in my family comes by the pound." And when Frankie sees Scrap's feet on the desk: "Where are your shoes?" Scrap: "I'm airing out my feet." The foot conversation continues for almost a minute, showing the film's patience in evoking character.

 

Eastwood is attentive to supporting characters, who make the surrounding world seem more real. The most unexpected is a Catholic priest who is seen, simply, as a good man; movies all seem to put a negative spin on the clergy these days. Frankie goes to mass every morning and says his prayers every night, and Father Horvak (Brian F. O'Byrne) observes that anyone who attends daily mass for 23 years tends to be carrying a lot of guilt. Frankie turns to him for advice at a crucial point, and the priest doesn't respond with church orthodoxy but with a wise insight: "If you do this thing, you'll be lost, somewhere so deep you will never find yourself." Listen, too, when Haggis has Maggie use the word "frozen," which is what an uneducated backroads girl might say, but is also the single perfect word that expresses what a thousand could not.

 

Movies are so often made of effects and sensation these days. This one is made of three people and how their actions grow out of who they are and why. Nothing else. But isn't that everything?

[bob_barron 0]

Ja, indeed. Sickening how society likes to immediately twist and distort innocent things.

But since there were accusations and rumblings about it- they really should've touched on it instead of whitewashing his life to make him seem like a great man.

 

Not a huge deal- just something that bothered me.

[Slayer 0]

Well, I have to agree on one thing

 

I'd take MDB as a Best Picture over Chicago (which I did have the misfortune of seeing)

[bob_barron 0]

Well, I have to agree on one thing

 

I'd take MDB as a Best Picture over Chicago (which I did have the misfortune of seeing)

But it's not a boxing movie. It is a movie about a boxer. What else it is, all it is, how deep it goes, what emotional power it contains, I cannot suggest in this review, because I will not spoil the experience of following this story into the deepest secrets of life and death. This is the best film of the year.

[Guest Vitamin X]

But the question is was Gangs of New York worth Best Picture over Chicago?

[Hank Kingsley 0]

But the question is was Gangs of New York worth Best Picture over Chicago?

The Pianist was.

[Slayer 0]

Well, I have to agree on one thing

 

I'd take MDB as a Best Picture over Chicago (which I did have the misfortune of seeing)

But it's not a boxing movie. It is a movie about a boxer.

You dumbass, I wasn't even making an argument

[Downhome 0]

Worst part was Giamatti and Carrey both getting worked over in the Best Actor category, although that was tough competition and they still probably wouldn't have beaten Ray.

If only they could allow two more to be added to the race. Both of those guys deserved nominations, but there were quite a few great male lead performances this year. Still, even if they were in there with the other guys, they wouldn't have beat out Jamie Foxx.

 

Just as I predicted the MOMENT I saw the trailer for Ray, he did indeed get nominated, and then eventually won for best actor. It was something that we just couldn't get around.

 

http://forums.thesmartmarks.com/index.php?...=58729&hl=jamie

[Guest Vitamin X]

But the question is was Gangs of New York worth Best Picture over Chicago?

The Pianist was.

True, and everything except the collective creaming over Chicago pre-Oscar night could have pointed to The Pianist winning. I would have said Gangs of New York was better than the two, except the ending really killed the movie for me.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

The highpoint was the Maria Full of Gracie chick on the red carpet.

 

There ya go.

[CBright7831 0]

BTW, that tatoo on the back on Foxx's head is a temporary tatoo for his upcoming film.

[Guest Posada20]

I was pretty happy with everything but Best Actor and Foreign Film. I would have enjoyed anyone but Foxx. I'm alright with Morgan Freeman winning because I like him although I like Clive Owen in Closer more. Foreign film was crappy as A Very Long Engagement with the lovely Audrey Tautou (Don't jump on the bandwagon downhome, I see you have Amelie) wasn't even nominated.

 

IMO Sideways was better than Millon Dollar Baby and I'm a boxing fan although I know boxing fans that thought it was the best of the year.

[Guest Askewniverse]

Winslet's Clementine was my favorite female character in a movie released in 2004, followed by Portman as Sam in Garden State.

Clementine is my favorite female character EVER put to film. Nothing else can even touch that character.

Now that I think about it, Clementine is probably my favorite female character ever too. Other than Sam and maybe Ripley, I can't think of any other character who even comes close.

 

 

But it's not a boxing movie. It is a movie about a boxer.

In a way, I guess you could compare it to Raging Bull. While both films contain boxing as a major component, they're more about the characters. The Rocky sequels were boxing movies. Raging Bull and MDB were movies about boxers.

[bob_barron 0]

Well, I have to agree on one thing

 

I'd take MDB as a Best Picture over Chicago (which I did have the misfortune of seeing)

But it's not a boxing movie. It is a movie about a boxer.

You dumbass, I wasn't even making an argument

I know- I was just showing you what Roger Ebert said about the movie not being a 'boxing' movie

[Downhome 0]

Foreign film was crappy as A Very Long Engagement with the lovely Audrey Tautou (Don't jump on the bandwagon downhome, I see you have Amelie) wasn't even nominated.

The foreign films nominated were fine, but it is a sin that we didn't have HoFD or AVLE in there. Engagement is an outstanding film, I can't wait to own the DVD!

 

Audrey Tautou, oh yes...