Progressive Boink

[zack hoagie!]

"Honest to Blog!" just won an Academy Award.

wheres my gun

get me my gun

[DJ Jazzy Jeff]

I'd like to think that got snuck in by that particular actress.

Sorry, that was in the original screenplay. Hrm...

Also, god bless John Stewart for letting Marketa Irglova come back onstage. That made my week!

[Hirsby]

Once got the biggest ovation of the night. Even more than the dead people!

Michael Clayton didn't get snubbed...Tilda Swinton won supporting actress. And gave that hilarious speech mocking Clooney about Batman & Robin. Awesome.

[Captain Hot Stuff]

How the fuck did the Bourne Ultimatum get best film editing? The average shot length was .2 seconds and it felt like the camera was stuck in a tumble dryer.

[Hanstock]

Apart from No Country NOT wining Editing, everything else was the RIGHT ANSWER for once in a fucking blue moon.

The correct film won Best Picture, Supporting Actor, Director and Screenplay, There Will Be Blood won Cinematography and Actor, Brad Bird picks up another Oscar, and Once wins Best Song.

I approve of this Academy Awards.

[Matt W]

Would have jumped out my window in joy if Ratatouille won screenplay, but animated film was sufficient, and I thought Bird gave one of the best, most heartfelt speeches of the night.

[Casey]

yeah, the only crime in my eyes was Ratatouille and Michael Clayton not beating Juno for original screenplay.

[Hanstock]

puttin' it out there that juno is all-around a way better film than little miss sunshine even though you guys are panty-bunched over a couple of lines

[Randy Jones]

yeah a handful of minutes at the top that show how realistically and irritatingly adolescent the characters are before their lives change makes it a terrible script and anyone who likes the movie that comes from it is a worthless pile of trash.

also it appears that many people were not once teens who thought they were either way cooler or way less cool than they actually were.

[Matt W]

didn't see this but crazy busey is always good for a laugh http://youtube.com/watch?v=xQYeL7RInsg

[SayWhatNow]

Goddammit, I was rooting for Surf's Up.

also Three 6 Mafia

[Casey]

Hanstock, I felt pretty unsettled about LMS. In the case of both Juno and LMS I think that the script is probably the greatest obstacle to the movie being great-- both had good composition and fantastic performances but the scripts were not as good as people made them out to be. Are they both good movies? Yes. Is the Juno screenplay good? Not half as good as Michael Clayton or Ratatouille.

I realize I'm going to get told I'm wrong because I don't know shit about film or whatever but I'm just telling you my personal opinion-- I like a lot of movies that I don't think deserve Academy Awards for being the best in a given category and I think LMS and Juno are both good movies that get unfair hype AND unfair backlash.

[Hanstock]

I think that Michael Clayton and Ratatouille are both fantastic scripts but Ratatouille removed from how incredible the film looks is incredibly paint-by-numbers and while Michael Clayton is amazingly well-written, if David fucking Mamet can't win an Oscar for fucking Glengarry Glen Ross or Wag the Dog, it doesn't have a chance in hell.

The Academy tends to award scripts that do something different, and if this is considered a three-horse race, Juno certainly was different. The other two films were outstanding, yes, but revolutionary (in terms of script)? Certainly not. And while I'm not suggesting that Juno is revolutionary, it was the only one of the three films where if you set it up and asked me where it was going, I would have been wrong. This is the category which almost universally awards the critical darling and/or younger contingent. Winners past: LMS, Eternal Sunshine, Lost in Translation, Almost Famous, Pulp Fiction, Sling Blade, Good Will Hunting, Fargo, The Usual Suspects, etc etc. The movies that we arthouse fags are constantly on about but they can't abide giving them more than one Oscar. This is where they get their moment.

[Casey]

I guess I'm too busy seeing the screenplay award as focused on the actual specific writing and not the broader strokes. I can appreciate the flow of Juno and the approach she took with the end. However, I think the dialogue is only okay, the music reference choices are bizarre and disjoint to people who are familiar with what they're referring to, and yes, there are a number of moments in the first part of the script that I think are weak. Just because lots of people are complaining about it too much doesn't make it an invalid complaint.

I don't think it's fair to judge a movie like Michael Clayton against Glengarry Glen Ross or Wag the Dog because those movies didn't come out this year. The Academy Award is a choice between the films that were nominated for that year. Are they ever going to stand up there on the day of the nominations and go "welp, we thought all of the original screenplays weren't that great this year compared to the past 80, so there are no nominees"?

Anyway. I'm not saying that I'm going to go out and burn any houses down. I'm sorry if I phrased my initial post too strongly. What I was trying to say was that I was personally disappointed because I didn't think Juno's original screenplay was the best original screenplay of the nominees.

[Hanstock]

And that's totally fair. I was just trying to provide the historical context of brilliantly-written legal/morality dramas never, EVER winning a screenplay Oscar. I think that looking at how the Academy has consistently voted is a valid point in the argument.

Two further points: Ellen Page was responsible for a lot of the band-name-droppage, and there is a lot more to "screenplay" than "dialogue". The most touching and poignant scenes in Juno had no dialogue, and although the actors did a brilliant job in conveying the subtext and telling the story, someone still had to write it.

and i'll stir the pot a bit by saying that the juno basement dance scene was incredible and michael clayton ended with a two-minute shot of george clooney sitting in a taxi

[emily]

I haven't seen Michael Clayton (though I do intend to check it out, because I love Tom Wilkinson and Clooney tends to make good choices), but man . . .I knew my girl boner for Tilda Swinton was justified.

[Casey]

And that's totally fair. I was just trying to provide the historical context of brilliantly-written legal/morality dramas never, EVER winning a screenplay Oscar. I think that looking at how the Academy has consistently voted is a valid point in the argument.

yes, you had a good point in that regard

Two further points: Ellen Page was responsible for a lot of the band-name-droppage, and there is a lot more to "screenplay" than "dialogue". The most touching and poignant scenes in Juno had no dialogue, and although the actors did a brilliant job in conveying the subtext and telling the story, someone still had to write it.

This is something I'm now coming to terms with. I still think the dialogue was weak but I am starting to recognize the significance of everything else.

and i'll stir the pot a bit by saying that the juno basement dance scene was incredible and michael clayton ended with a two-minute shot of george clooney sitting in a taxi

I liked the taxi ending. Im going too cut you're head off with a sword

[webber]

And that's totally fair. I was just trying to provide the historical context of brilliantly-written legal/morality dramas never, EVER winning a screenplay Oscar. I think that looking at how the Academy has consistently voted is a valid point in the argument.

yes, you had a good point in that regard

i dont see how this is a good point. i thought the argument was whether juno deserved to win over michael clayton. if the argument was whether it is likely that juno would win, we already know how that turned out

[emily]

That wasn't the entirety of the argument. Though Hanstock, I think, does believe that it deserved to win, he was also pointing out that nerds like us who pay attention to this sort of thing didn't doubt for a second that Diablo Cody was taking home a statue, because of its context within the larger event.

[Randy Jones]

movies that deserve to win usually don't - juno won because the academy members are saps and love diablo cody's story of whatever her story is