February 25, 2019

Did you watch the Oscars?

I did — in bits, popping forward to skip all the commercials and all the swanning out onto the stage and the introductions and clips and most of the song-singing and all of the kissy-face and walking up to the stage except the many parts where females in thick, inflexible upholstery struggled to hoist themselves up the stairs — up the stares — to the swirly vertiginous stage. I wasn't really interested in anything or rooting for anyone. I found myself merely mischievously hoping for upsets, and I got some good jolts — "Green Book" for Best Picture, Olivia Colman for Best Actress.

Oh, I see Spike Lee showed his disturbance at the "Green Book" upset. Deadline Hollywood reports:
Our Pete Hammond reported from the Dolby Theatre that Lee clearly was furious, got up and walked toward the back of the auditorium in a huff. He then turned back and appeared to get into an intense conversation with Jordan Peele, who was behind him. Lee paced the aisle and stormed to the back of the auditorium. When he came back, he turned his back to the stage during the speech....

Asked backstage at the Dolby Theatre if his Adapted Screenplay win makes up for Do the Right Thing loss at the 1990 Oscars and the Academy overlooking it for a Best Picture nomination, Lee quipped in reference to that year’s Driving Miss Daisy Best Picture win and this year’s Greek Book [sic] Oscar in the top category: “I’m snake bit. Every time somebody is driving somebody, I lose – but they changed the seating arrangement!”
I'm afraid he's jinxing himself. The voting is secret, so the you owe me! message is unlikely to work.

ADDED: I did watch the "In Memoriam" montage. I'll confess that when it ended, I said out loud, "It was a slow year for death."

103 comments:

Danno said...

My answer is still no. Saw a headline on that Spike guy but didn't take the bait.

Jersey Fled said...

I wouldn't watch those fools preen for all the Bitcoin that was lost yesterday.

Mr. Majestyk said...

"Did you watch the Oscars?"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

Oh Lordy, that was a good one, Althouse.

mezzrow said...

Thanks for the update, Althouse.

There days, should I get the urge to watch a current film I sit down and wait until the urge passes. I'll see who won for best film score/adaptation.

Kevin said...

Imagine if Spike were white and throwing a tantrum because his film lost to The Green Room and it was his turn to win.

You can’t.

His career would be over.

Black privilege.

mezzrow said...

*These

Howard said...

Nobody is in the same multiverse as Kubrick

Ralph L said...

I haven't heard from my Pete Hammond yet.

David Begley said...

Spike Lee: Sore loser.

I have never liked this guy or his movies other than “Inside Man.”

Scientific Socialist said...

Spike Lee isn’t 1/10th the filmmaker that Stanley Kubrick was and Kubrick went to his grave without Oscars for Best Director, Picture or Screenplay.

tim maguire said...

Spike Lee has done some great work, but he's always been too full of himself, too arrogant to show any grace.

David Begley said...

“It was a slow year for death."

Not for those who died!

Fritz said...

Nope; I maintained my streak of never watching the Oscars.

Jack Klompus said...

Spike Lee is still an overrated petulant little douche. Shocking.

Mr. Groovington said...

For theatre north of the border, Trudeau could (technically) lose his job today.

https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/jody-wilson-raybould-has-trudeau-in-checkmate/

For the entire story, click through to the authors two previous pieces.

traditionalguy said...

The history of the DEM's Jim Crow South from HST's Presidency to JFK's is a great story to tell. It is the signature achievement of the Baby Boomers. But now the young folks want to send it down the memory hole and postulate a History that ignores the real problems of that era and the courage that it took to end them.

Hint: While the Dem politicians and their KKK enforcers also preached hate for all Jews and Catholics ( a hate that has re-emerged in the Dems today) their purpose to suppress all of the black was primarily carried out by terrorizing the whites who dared to semi-defend the blacks.

Mr. Groovington said...

Author’s

Robert Cook said...

I would have liked to see BlacKKKlansman win Best Picture.

I would really have liked to see Sorry To Bother You be nominated for Best Picture.

SayAahh said...

I did watch for the first time in decades. I tried to put my political bias aside and not be offended by digs at the administration. I was mostly successful.
My take on the entire night is four words: A celebration of diversity.

Shouting Thomas said...

Do the Right Thing was filmed in my neighborhood in Brooklyn, Ft. Greene Park. It's on the border of all black Bed-Stuy. This was back in the late 70s, early 80s.

The shopkeepers did business thru 1/2" plexiglass barriers. They "shopped" for you on the shelves behind them and then passed the money and the goods thru a sliding drawer.

Spike Lee, that racist motherfucker, thought it was the right thing to burn down those businesses and terrorize the shop keepers.

He still continues to try to incite arson and terror against "gentrifiers" in his interviews with the press.

Spaceman said...

Oscars started black reparations program early

Robert Cook said...

"Imagine if Spike were white and throwing a tantrum because his film lost to The Green Room and it was his turn to win."

Lee's fit of pique was not just for losing the Best Picture award, but for losing to GREEN ROOM, a movie about a white man driving a black man, which he and many other blacks (including, apparently, family members of the black character portrayed in the movie) feel is condescending to the black character. Lee's reference to DRIVING MISS DAISY was because it was the same scenario: he was up for Best Picture and lost to a movie about a black man driving a white woman, which some blacks saw as condescending to blacks.

FIDO said...

Spike Lee can find anything to be offended about. That is his core competency.

Larry J said...

The Academy Awards are just another in a seemingly endless series of "Aren't We Wonderful!" celebrity awards shows. I don't watch any of them. To be honest, I've never even heard of half the movies that were nominated. Hollywood seldom makes a movie that interests me anymore.

Curious George said...

Nope. And I'm not alone Ratings continue to tank.

Kevin said...

which some blacks saw as condescending to blacks.

Everything is condescending to some blacks.

And whites, and Latinos, and Asians...

“People are offended” was the beginning of fake news. They’re always offended.

We only hear about it when it fits the preferred narrative.

Ann Althouse said...

“'It was a slow year for death.' Not for those who died!"

Those who died are slowed down in the extreme.

But I wasn't talking about them. I was talking about Death. Death conquered Penny Marshall, Burt Reynolds, and Albert Finney, and then the list was padded out with a few directors, a lot of technical people, and there was even a publicist in the montage. A publicist!!

Kevin said...

I tuned in and out just in time to hear them celebrating menstrual equality.

Big Mike said...

Spike Lee is still an overrated petulant little douche, particularly by himself. @Jim Daniels, FIFY.

Saint Croix said...

I haven't seen a Spike Lee movie in a long time, but the trailer to Blackklansman is funny, so I'll probably watch it.

I'm afraid he's jinxing himself. The voting is secret, so the you owe me! message is unlikely to work.

That's how he got to direct Malcolm X, by throwing a fit that a white guy was directing the movie.

I don't think Spike Lee actually cares about the approval of white people. It's not like he would be crying or choked up on the stage. Maybe, but I doubt it. He thrives on racial animosity and opposition. It's his m.o. to be the little guy who is oppressed. He's a millionaire, but that's not his m.o. He likes to be the center of attention and get free publicity. Sure, winning would be nice. But he has a lot of fun losing, too. All part of the show.

steve uhr said...

I didn't see the movie but I'm happy that Colman won. She seems like a decent real person, and she was great in Broadchurch.

Ralph L said...

There's a BBC in She's Gotta Have It.
It's almost in silhouette, which may explain how it got past the MPAA.

Temujin said...

I loved Spike Lee's first three movies. (She's Gotta Have it, School Daze, Do the Right Thing). But at that point he thought (with the media pumping him) that he was another Scorsese or Sidney Lumet. He's not. His scripts have a bit of bite and a lot of sophomoric rants. He plays on race and demands to be heard. Demands to have the world work the way he wants, and has become a whiny little punk about it. Spike Lee is about Spike Lee, which in itself isn't evil. We're all about ourselves. But he preens as if he's got a larger cause. He doesn't. Spike wants to win awards bestowed on great movies when he consistently produces good movies. Not great, but good. And it pisses him off that his movies are not viewed as great. The awards are supposed to go to the great, not the good. But does really happen any longer?

roesch/voltaire said...

Spike Lee called for love not hate seems racist to me but he is right about the winner which should’ve been Roma.

joshbraid said...

Oh? The OSCARs were on last night? Sorry, I was busy living.

Jupiter said...

What do the doctors say? Is Spike gonna get over it, or is it all over for the Little Piton?

mockturtle said...

No, I didn't.

Wince said...

The NYPost said the Oscars stage resembled Trump’s hair.

https://nypost.com/2019/02/24/the-oscars-stage-this-year-strongly-resembles-donald-trumps-hair/

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

I tuned in and out just in time to hear them celebrating menstrual equality.

Somewhere out on the West Coast I was walking through the room where my wife was watching when some strangely coiffed person was saying "...menstrual equality" and I dropped a WTF and asked my wife what she was talking about. "I have no idea," she said.

Does anyone on here have an English translation for WTF that actress (or whomever) was trying to say?

SeanF said...

Ann Althouse: Death conquered Penny Marshall, Burt Reynolds, and Albert Finney, and then the list was padded out with a few directors, a lot of technical people, and there was even a publicist in the montage. A publicist!!

Sonda Locke? Douglas Rain? Verne Troyer?

But Albert Finney died this year, so if we're doing that we can include Morgan Woodward, Peter Tork, Julie Adams, Dick Miller, and Carol Channing.

Jack Klompus said...

"I would have liked to see BlacKKKlansman win Best Picture."

Predictable as a clock.

MayBee said...

Maybe it was a slow year for Famous Death. In our country, the average age at death is ticking downward.

Andrew said...

Even in Spike Lee's good movies, there's a preachy arrogance that really rubs me the wrong way.

For example, Malcolm X was a terrific movie. But then it ended with school kids standing up and shouting "I am Malcolm X!" and a guest appearance by Nelson Mandela. Thrn you hear "By any means necessary!" Cut to black. Just an insulting ending.

Lucien said...

But John Lewis. . Really— John Lewis?

Limited blogger said...

All I was interested in was Gaga/Cooper performance. Watched it on Utube. Fantastic!

rehajm said...

It was a slow year for death.

Trump hate keeps old lefties full of vim and vigor.

rehajm said...

Oscar is dead to me.

MadisonMan said...

I didn't watch the Oscars. I like Olivia Colman, what I've seen of her, so I'm glad she won. Other than that, I'm not really caring.

mccullough said...

Andrew,

That’s why Spike doesn’t win. He beats the drum too much in his films.

He treats his audience as stupid because he thinks he’s brilliant.

Most of his films have very good scenes and some good acting but he ruins it with his Afterschool Special heavy-handed messaging.


Kay said...

“Mo’ Better Blues” is my favorite movie from Lee, though I haven’t seen all of them. He definitely deserves to win an Oscar because he’s made so many classic films, but the right people never win the award. Oscars are pretty horrible at predicting what films, actors and filmmakers will be deemed important by current and future generations. “Green Room” looks pretty awful, boring, as well as condesending to me. I imagine it’ll be just another in a long line of forgotten movies deemed worthy by the Academy.

Kay said...

So forgettable in fact that I can’t even remember its title correctly. ��

Leland said...

Of all the movies even nominated for an Oscar; I've only seen Black Panther (only purchase) and Incredibles 2 (on an international flight). To rift, it was a slow year for Hollywood.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Unless the entire theater burned down, I'm not interested.

Dude1394 said...

No, a complete waste of time these days. The movies coming out are so "woke" that I just get ill.

narciso said...

Black panther was ok I caught on Netflix free trial, but it was over praised like avatar.

Harold said...

We had a friend over for supper and she wanted to see the opening so we had it on through that and a couple of the technical awards. Then we decided it was boring and switched off the tv and chatted.

William said...

My fantasy life drifts more toward a walk off homer in the deciding game of the World Series or a modest speech where I thank my coach while accepting the Heissman Trophy. I never, not in any any mood, dream about walking the red carpet in a tuxedo.......I didn't watch the Oscars, but I saw the news about it this morning. Apparently Spke Lee was the only celeb who acted like a true asshole. That's disappointing. I like to hate watch Hollywood people striking silly poses in expensive clothes..........I'm glad Peter Farrelly won. Dumb & Dumber and that other movie, Mary something, were truly great. So many great directors never achieve recognition in their lifetime. Alfred Hitchcock, Ingmar Bergman, and Oren Welles never won a best director award at the Oscars......I'd like to see The Favourite. Some of the other movies I will actively avoid.

MountainMan said...

Not a fan of Spike Lee but have become a big fan of Mahershala Ali. Did not watch the Oscars - never do, can't stand the show - but instead we were watching the final episode of the third season of "True Detective" on HBO, where Mahershala gave a truly great performance as an Arkansas state police officer investigating the unsolved disappearance of a little girl over a 35 year period. By far the best of the three seasons of this show, mainly because his character - appearing at different stages of his life and career in 1980, 1990, and 2015, with scenes from the different times inter-mixed to develop the details of the story - was so fascinating. My wife and I now plan to go to the matinee to see "Green Book" on Wednesday.

Lewis Wetzel said...

"And here, to present the best actor ward to its first transsexual recipient, is Billy Crystal, in blackface."

Andrew said...

@mccullough,
Well put.

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

I watched a movie instead, Mystery Street, from 1950, starring Ricardo Montalban as a Boston police detective. #MysteryStreetSoNoir

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

"Spike Lee is still an overrated petulant little douche."

That's unfair. Lee is a human turd.

rcocean said...

Some of the famous who might die this year:

Eastwood/Duvall/Hackman - 89
Doris Day - 96
Jane Fonda and Robert Redford - 82
Michael Caine - 85

rcocean said...

Spike Lee did some good early movies: SHe's gotta have it, School Daze, Mo better blues, Crooklyn, Jungle Fever.

And then he got serious...

rcocean said...

Spike reached peak idiocy when he attacked Eastwood for not showing more Black Marines in his Iwo Jima picture.

Evidently, Spike doesn't read much.

Ann Althouse said...

"Sonda Locke? Douglas Rain? Verne Troyer?"

They didn't even make the "In Memoriam" montage. And I don't even know who Douglas Rain is. (Looked it up: The voice of HAL.)

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

Spite Lee couldnt produce if he wasnt offended.
...and what's this about Death getting a publicist?

Ann Althouse said...

"All I was interested in was Gaga/Cooper performance. Watched it on Utube. Fantastic!"

I watched part of it. I genuinely don't get the excitement. It doesn't feel like much of a song, and the performance seems conventional and cheesy.

Are the song performances ever any good on the Oscars?

Here's an attempt to list the best, ranking Bruce Springsteen as best for "Streets of Philadelphia." The only one I want to click on and watch is #6 — Michael Jackson singing "Ben." I tried but couldn't put up with Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warren singing "Up Where We Belong."

I've always regarded the songs as slowing down what is already a too-slow show.

Rosalyn C. said...

No, I didn't watch last night but I did see an article about a guy named Billy Porter who wore a tuxedo gown to protest Trump. Tuxedo jacket on top and huge unmanageable (pun intended) skirt on bottom. Transwoman? I don't know. The thought that Trump was able to make a man look that ridiculous and absurd gave me laugh. tag:TDS

Kevin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

@RJ
bitter Klinger

William said...

I wonder if Lady Gaga will become a movie star. With due respect to her musical talent, she doesn't look like a movie star. Well, neither did Streisand. Debbie Harry looked like a movie star, but it didn't happen......Doris Day seems to have been the most successful cross over music to movie star. Her music and movies have held up, and this without anyone paying any special attention to her.

FullMoon said...

....we were watching the final episode of the third season of "True Detective" on HBO, where Mahershala gave a truly great performance as an Arkansas state police officer investigating the unsolved disappearance of a little girl over a 35 year period. By far the best of the three seasons of this show, mainly because his character - appearing at different stages of his life and career in 1980, 1990, and 2015, with scenes from the different times inter-mixed to develop the details of the story - was so fascinating. My wife and I now plan to go to the matinee to see "Green Book" on Wednesday.

I agree that the actor is good in True Detective, but let's be honest, the series sucked. Not sure if it was worse than last year because I have blocked that turd from my memory.
First season set the bar a little too high, I guess.

Mark said...

Here's a vastly superior "in memoriam" from Turner Classic Movies, both in content and presentation.

Mark said...

I don't know if the Academy uses a calendar year or some crazy made up "Oscars Year," but the video from TCM (which uses a calendar year) contains a lot of people not in the Oscars video.

Mark said...

Looks like the Oscars video cribbed a lot of the movie clips, using the same scenes, from the TCM video.

FullMoon said...

Ann Althouse said...

“'It was a slow year for death.' Not for those who died!"

Those who died are slowed down in the extreme.

But I wasn't talking about them. I was talking about Death. Death conquered Penny Marshall, Burt Reynolds, and Albert Finney, and then the list was padded out with a few directors, a lot of technical people, and there was even a publicist in the montage. A publicist!!

Makes me wonder if family pays for those mentions . Maybe the obscure people are voted in by Academy members ?

Robert Cook said...

"Debbie Harry looked like a movie star, but it didn't happen."

She wasn't a very good actress and lacked a compelling screen presence.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

The Oscars happened?

Missed it. Oh well....who cares anyway.

Big Mike said...

@rcocean, “Hanoi Jane” has been dead to me 1972. There are some things so vile no apology will ever suffice.

M.K. Popovich said...

The menstruation movie that won an Oscar is a documentary short film called "Period. End of Sentence" about girls in rural India dropping out of school when they get their period because of stigma and lack of access to pads, among other problems. Somehow a group of girls get a sewing machine and start producing low cost pads and the girls are able to continue their educations. I guess Netflix was involved.

Sam L. said...

Lost interest years ago.

Yancey Ward said...

I was shocked to see Olivia Colman was even up for the award- I don't pay any more attention to the nominations than I do to the show itself, but I am a big Olivia Colman fan through her television work, like Broadchurch and The Night Manager. I was very happy when I saw her name mentioned as a winner.

Yancey Ward said...

If you see Deborah Harry in "Videodrome", you will understand why her acting career never really took off- she can't act. She was somewhat improved in the show "Wiseguy" done sometime near the end of the 1980s, but still pretty wooden. The last thing I ever remember seeing her in was "Cop Land" in the late 90s.

Freeman Hunt said...

I did, however, watch "Leave No Trace," which was good.

Freeman Hunt said...

People I know in real life are always surprised that I don't watch the Oscars. But I love the art of film, and that's not what the Oscars are about, so I'm not more likely to watch the Oscars than I am to watch anything else.

Darrell said...

Mark at 10:53 gave the definitive link for who was lost in 2018.

bagoh20 said...

It's a night where the entertainment industry shows us how non-entertaining they can be. I would rather watch anything else. People walking up on stage, thanking people for hours on end. I guess it's designed for the star struck.

bagoh20 said...

I can see why they might have an award ceremony, but why it's considered an entertaining event is beyond me.

BJM said...

William said

So many great directors never achieve recognition in their lifetime. Alfred Hitchcock, Ingmar Bergman, and Oren Welles never won a best director award at the Oscars.

After watching The Favourite I wasn't sure what the hell I just saw...it was so not what I expected. I've now watched it again and find it even more enjoyable. Coleman was mesmerizing and her chemistry with Weisz completely convincing. I had a problem with Emma Stone, not her acting or spot-on accent, and she definitely went toe-to-toe with Coleman and Weisz (her ironic snort was delightful), but just as Diaz will always be Mary, so too will Stone be Jules.

(Sorry about Bergman, I couldn't resist)

Jim at said...

Did I watch the Oscars?

Well - as is usually the case - I didn't know they were on until I turned on the computer this morning.

Tom T. said...

there was even a publicist in the montage. A publicist!!

The very fact that he got himself into the montage after his death suggests that he must have been a *really good* publicist.

Shawn Levasseur said...

This Oscars was notable for having no filler segments. Just awards, best picture nominee presentations, best song performances, and nothing else.

Part of that was due to it bing host less. Part of it may be that filler may have been cut to allow for the awards that were going to be presented during the commercials. I think they had fewer incidents of speeches being cut off than usual.

This was the no B.S. edition of the Oscars

Aussie Pundit said...

Is there a silent protest going on in the academy against political correctness? Given the monocultural voice of Hollywood, the only way that insiders get to protest is with their anonymous votes at the Academy Awards.
"Green Room" and "Bohemian Rhapsody" are both very incorrect and guaranteed to cause heartache among the left for different reasons. There was a fair amount of teeth-gnashing when Rami Malek won the Golden Globes, but the twitterati seem to have gotten over that in the meantime and shifted focus.

Openidname said...

"The voting is secret, so the you owe me! message is unlikely to work."

You underestimate the desire of Academy voters to do the politically correct thing. of course, they prefer to be seen when they do it, but even if they are not seen, they still feel better about themselves. (Rather like Green Book in the Green Book jokes.)

It's no coincidence that, after a couple of years of hand-wringing over the number of black award recipients, this year had the highest number ever -- despite a secret ballot.

If Spike can convince his fellow voters that voting for him is politically correct, he'll get his Oscar, secret ballot or no.

BJM said...

This headline perfectly describes last night's self-important, preening display:

Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga received two standing ovations for shallow at the Oscars

ken in tx said...

Why do people keep writing Green Room instead of Green Book? Is that some kind of dig at the movie?

Known Unknown said...

I don’t understand what makes Green Book’s win an upset. It was clearly the best picture out of the contenders that I saw. The only one I did not see was BlacKKKlansman. Yet.

Known Unknown said...

With all apologies to Doris Day, i I believe Bing Crosby was the most successful crossover. Maybe Sinatra.

Lurker21 said...

Some of the famous who might die this year:

Doris Day - 96

Que sera, sera.

Mark said...

I believe Bing Crosby was the most successful crossover

Bing Crosby always played Bing Crosby.

By "crossover," if you mean singers who became substantial actors, there are --

Elvis
Barbra Streisand
Kris Kristofferson
Cher
Will Smith (originally a rapper)
Marky Mark Wahlberg
Julie Andrews

William said...

Crosby won a couple of Academy Awards. That's more a comment on the discernment of the Academy rather than of his acting ability. He did have considerable success in both areas, but when was the last time you listened to a Crosby song besides White Christmas. His star has faded.......Sinatra was the premier singer of the 20th century, but when was the last time you wanted to watch one of his movies.......Julie Andrews had success comparable to Doris Day. I think she was more of a show tunes singer than a pop singer. She was the definitive voice of Eliza and Guinevere. I would have liked her to record some Gilbert & Sullivan songs, but I'm just as glad she never sang any Delta blues.. ......I'm partial to Doris Day. There's a distinctive sunniness to her voice that's life affirming. She owns Que Sera Sera and Sentimental Journey. She was more convincing in her virginal roles than Julie Andrews so she knew how to act.........Well, it's all good. Who knows what judgment posterity will pass on Lady Gaga, but I'm glad to see that Doris Day has outlived posterity.

A to the C said...

Ken in TX — I keep wondering the same thing! I haven’t (& probably won’t) see Green Book, but I can vouch for 2016’s Green Room — an intense, well-acted, and brutally violent horror/ thriller about a touring punk band who witness a murder by nazi skinheads & their fight to survive & escape said skinheads. I’m sure Green Book is far less violent than Green Room, so, as a horror guy, I’ll probably skip it.