5:15 In preparation for walking the taupe carpet, I have donned my Green Lantern shirt (again). Partly because, well, why not, and also the movie was not as horrible as people make it out to be, but it certainly speaks to a film that didn't live up to its potential. See you in a couple of hours.
Just got my neck pillow; better to be prepared.
7:26 - neck pillow - check, ice pack - check, cold beverage - check, handy reference links - check. Okay, enough pre-show warm up, let's get this show on the road. Bring on Chris Rock.
They're showing a montage of 2015 films, I've seen so many of them, they all become a blur. I have seen 49 out of 57 entries this year. Chris Rock just started, making #Oscarsowhite jokes in his monologue. He is not holding back at all. I thought he was funny and on point.
This is the category for writing, Best Original Screenplay. Straight Outta Compton, Bridge of Spies, Ex Machina, Spotlight, and Inside Out. The winner is Spotlight. I thought it would be between Spotlight or maybe Ex Machina. Best Adapted Screenplay is next and my hope is that Room wins. Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe are presenting and they are actually pretty funny. The Big Short, Brooklyn, Carol, The Martian and Room. The Big Short won. I am a little disappointed, but I really liked The Big Short; a little too close to home as far as I and many of my friends are concerned, but a must see movie. I liked all of the nominated films, they told different stories, different points of view, but I left satisfied after all of them (surprised in the case of The Martian).
They have inserted black actors into the very white movies, including Whoopi Goldberg in Joy, Leslie Jones in The Revenant, Tracy Morgan in The Danish Girl, Chris Rock in The Martian.
Sam Smith is going to sing "The Writing's on the Wall" from Spectre, present by Sarah Silverman. I thought she was kind of funny, but the audience was a little flat. Oh, the song is more whiny than I remember. It's no "Skyfall" that's for sure. It's over. Thank god.
Clips for Best Picture, The Big Short and The Martian are first up.
JK Simmons (Whiplash) is presenting for Best Supporting Actress. My hope is for Alicia Vikander in The Danish Girl. I didn't see The Hateful Eight (Jennifer Jason Leigh), not in a big hurry, but I will in time. Rooney Mara in Carol was underwhelming to me and my friend. Rachel McAdams in Spotlight was good, but I don't think it was the best performance, and it was more of an ensemble piece in my mind. Vikander was amazing and to me she was a lead actress nominee, she was phenomenal. Kate Winslet in Steve Jobs was good, but again, not great and in a movie I hated. Vikander just won! I am so happy. It's a beautiful movie and she was amazing.
Forty-five minutes and three categories down. I think another nominated song is up next and maybe Best Supporting Actor.
Best Costume Design is being presented by Cate Blanchett. The nominees are so different, I don't know how you pick: Sandy Powell is nominated twice, Cinderella and Carol, The Danish Girl, The Revenant, Mad Max: Fury Road. Jenny Bevan won for Mad Max: Fury Road, which was a stunning visual piece all the way around.
Best Production Design presented by Steve Carell and Tina Fey, which could be a new comedy team. Bridge of Spies, The Danish Girl, The Martian, The Revenant, Mad Max: Fury Road. I think Mad Max may take this one, or The Martian. Both pretty spectacular. Mad Max: Fury Road wins another technical award.
Jared Leto and Margot Robbie are presenting Hairstyle and Makeup. This is where my underdog is nominated, The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window and Disappeared, Mad Max: Fury Road and The Revenant. Mad Max is three for three. Damn. You should still see the 100 year old man.
Benicio Del Toro and Jennifer Garner are presenting two more nominees for Best Picture, The Revenant and Mad Max: Fury Road.
The good thing is the pace seems pretty quick tonight. Maybe that's because I'm trying to process, type, add links, correct typos. But I think this happened last year. They're merciless to the 'little' awards, but when the high profile awards get going, the speeches go on forever. They're using a scroll on the bottom with pre-loaded 'thank yous', but the print is so small, I'm not sure who can actually see it.
Rachel McAdams and Michael B. Jordan (Creed) are presenting the Best Cinematography: Hateful Eight, Carol, Sicario, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Revenant. Emmanuel Lubezki won for The Revenant, which was a beautifully filmed movie, if it didn't last 45 minutes too long and so many other reasons.
Best Film Editing is up next: The Big Short, Spotlight, The Revenant, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Mad Max: Fury Road. Mad Max: Fury Road just won its fourth Oscar of the night.
Angela Bassett just hosted the Oscars Black History Month Minute, and I thought it was going to be for Will Smith, but it was for Jack Black. And then we go to commercial. Some of these are better than the Super Bowl ads.
Chadwick Boseman and Chris Evans are presenting (Boseman will be the Black Panther in the upcoming Captain America movie) Best Sound Editing: The Martian, The Revenant, Sicario, Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Mad Max: Fury Road. Guess who won? Mad Max gets another technical award, a big night for Australia. Best Sound Mixing: Bridge of Spies, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian, The Revenant, Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Mad Max wins another.
They are showing clips of Andy Serkis doing his various performance capture roles, like Golum/Smeagle, characters from Planet of the Apes. He is now presenting the Oscar for Best Visual Effects: Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Ex Machina, The Revenant, The Martian, Mad Max: Fury Road. Ex Machina won. Kind of a surprise given the run that Mad Max was having. The effects for Ex Machina were really pretty cool (that also starred Alicia Vikander).
Olivia Munn and Jason Segel are presenting the Sci-tech segment, which was hosted separately. She is really funny and was great in Newsroom (watch it, it's only three seasons). C3P0, R2D2 and BB8 just came out. Everyone loves droids. Not sure what that was for, but it got John Williams some screen time. "Earned It" from Fifty Shades of Grey is coming up. I can't believe I had to watch that movie.
Chris Rock is trying to sell his daughters' Girl Scout cookies.
Best Animated Short Film is being presented by The Minions (a personal favorite of a friend of mine). The nominees are Bear Story, Prologue (hated it), Sanjay's Super Team, We Can't Live Without Cosmos, World of Tomorrow. Bear Story won. I did like that, the story was bittersweet and the animation was very well done and clever. This was the first Oscar for Chile (I thought they might have won a foreign film, but maybe not).
I think Best Animated Feature is next. Buzz Lightyear and Woody are presenting, but I don't think it's Tom Hanks and Tim Allen doing the voices. I had mixed feelings about this category, I hope Inside Out wins. The nominations are Shaun the Sheep, Anomalisa (hated it), When Marnie was There, Inside Out, Boy & the World (didn't see it). Inside Out wins! Awesome. I think it was the best; Shaun the Sheep would have been better as a hort film; Marnie was painful and I have no more words for Anomalisa.
Kevin Hart is presenting "Earned It" by The Weekend from Fifty Shades of Grey. Meh. I'm very distracted by his haircut. My brother tells me I'm too judgmental. I can't help it. I earned it.
Kate Winslet and Reese Witherspoon are presenting Best Picture nominees: Bridge of Spies and Spotlight. I liked both movies, I think I'm partial to Spotlight because it is still in the headlines. It was a great ensemble performance as well.
Chris Rock goes to Compton to see about the lack of diversity in the movies. It's pretty funny. I don't know how much is scripted or him just riffing with the people, but it's on target - again. None of the black people interviewed had seen the nominated 'white' movies.
Patricia Arquette is presenting the Best Supporting Actor category. She is either bored or having trouble reading the teleprompter. I don't even know about this category, it will probably go to Tom Hardy from The Revenant or Mark Ruffalo of Spotlight; I think Liev Schreiber should have been nominated for Spotlight. I did not see Creed and Sylvester Stallone may pull out the win as the sentimental favorite. Mark Rylance won for his role in Bridge of Spies. That's kind of a surprise; he was good, but his role was so understated compared to the others. Maybe that's why he won.
We still have the documentary categories, a couple more songs, Best Actor/Actresses, Director and Picture, so I'm guessing we won't be done by 10:00, maybe 10:30. The pacing is still pretty good, Rock's bits don't seem too long or dragging and the audience seems to still be engaged. I wish someone could get me something to drink.
Louis CK (who was in Trumbo) is presenting the award for Documentary Short. There were so many powerful documentaries in this category. Hopefully you can still see them. The nominees are Body Team 12, Chau, Beyond the Lines, Claude Lanzmann: Specters of the Shoah, A Girl in the River, Last Day of Freedom. They all made me cry. A Girl in the River just won. Wow. That's great. The director/producer also directed the Oscar winning short: Saving Face. Hopefully this will help those girls who face the risk of honor killings.
Daisy Ridley and Dev Patel are presenting Best Documentary, another strong category. Amy, Cartel Land, The Look of Silence, What Happened, Miss Simone? (my favorite), Winter on Fire (another favorite). Amy just won. I am a little disappointed; I didn't think the documentary was strong even though its main character was larger than life. Watch them all, they are all available online, through your library, Netflix, Amazon. You will say thank you.
I think we are due for another song. Or the total of money raised by selling Girl Scout cookies, over $65,000.
Whoopi Goldberg is presenting the Governor's Awards from last November. Gena Rowlands, Spike Lee (who is boycotting tonight), Debbie Reynolds won the Jean Hirsholt Humanitarian Award.
Louis Gossett, Jr. is speaking before the In Memoriam piece, with music by Dave Grohl "Blackbird" by The Beatles. There's always outrage the next day about who was overlooked. I'm naive enough to think it's never malicious, just a timing issue and trying to include people from all aspects of movie making. Maybe there should be a page on the Oscars website that is more inclusive? That was very tastefully done.
Oh my gosh a commercial for Coca-Cola. I have not had soda/pop for four years, but that looked so good. Please don't snow tomorrow morning. That would really suck, especially if I'm late getting up because I don't get to bed until 11:00 (yes, I'm old, but the alarm goes off at 5:00 a.m.).
Jacob Tremblay (Room) and Abraham Attah (Beasts of No Nation) are presenting Best Live Action Short: Ave Maria, Day One, Everything Will Be Okay, Shok, Stutterer. I liked all them. Stutterer just won. Okay, that was my least favorite. I wonder if the votes were split, because there were at least three that were better.
The Best Foreign Film nominees are being awarded now. Unfortunately, I only saw one film, which I did like a lot, Theeb. Son of Saul won, and I'm not totally surprised, Holocaust films still resonate very strongly in Hollywood. Perhaps a sense of guilt.
Vice President Joe Biden is presenting Lady Gaga singing the
song from Hunting Ground, from a
documentary about sexual assault on college campuses. (I just lost internet connectivity,
for crying out loud). I'm back. The movie is very powerful and should be watched by all parents sending their kids to college, as well as college administrators. Stop blaming the victims. Sexual assault survivors are on stage. This is kind of like the moment last year with John Legend and Common singing their song from Selma. Powerful and emotion-packed.
Quincy Jones and Pharrell are presenting for Best Original Score: Bridge of Spies - Thomas Newman, Carol - Carter Burwell, Sicario - Johann Johannsonn, The Hateful Eight - Ennio Morricone, Star Wars - The Force Awakens. The winner is Ennio Morricone. The poor guy was up in the loges and had a mile to walk before he came to the stage and he's not a young man. He is getting a standing ovation and giving his speech in Italian. He looks too tired to go back to his seat.
Common and John Legend are presenting the Best Nominated Song: "Manta Ray" (Racing Extinction); "Simple Song #3" (Youth); "Earned It" (Fifty Shades of Grey); "Til It Happens to You" (The Hunting Ground); "The Writing's on the Wall" (Spectre). Ugh. James Bond wins again. That was a horrible song. Seriously?
Olivia Wilde and Sascha Baron Cohen are presenting. He is so annoying. They are actually showing the last nominees for Best Picture: Room (my favorite) and Brooklyn.
I think Best Actress is next. I really hope Brie Larson wins for her performance in Room. I think it showed such a range of emotions and started out perhaps a little dim, but was ultimately so uplifting. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
J.J. Abrams is presenting for Best Director: Adam McKay - The Big Short, Lenny Abrahamson - Room, Tom McCarthy - Spotlight, Alejandro Inarritu - The Revenant, George Miller - Mad Max: Fury Road. Inarritu just won. Ugh. I hope that doesn't mean The Revenant will win Best Picture - BECAUSE IT WAS NOT.
Okay, now I think it will be Best Actress next. Eddie Redmayne will be presenting. The nominees are: Cate Blanchett - Carol, Brie Larson - Room, Jennifer Lawrence (Joy - have not seen it), Charlotte Rampling - 45 Years (blah), Saoirse Ronan - Brooklyn. Fingers crossed. Yes!!! That is fabulous. That makes me happy since I know that I won't be happy in a minute.
This time last year I think I was dying I was so sick. But I feel pretty okay for not having moved in three and a half hours. Chris Rock has done a good job tonight, funny, but pointed, which is what good comedy should be, I think.
Best Actor is next, and I think the whole world will be in shock if Leonardo DiCaprio does not win, but I still don't think he deserves it, sorry. Julianne Moore is presenting now: Bryan Cranston - Trumbo, Mark Damon - The Martian, Leonardo DiCaprio - The Revenant, Michael Fassbender - Steve Jobs, Eddie Redmayne - The Danish Girl. Surprise, surprise. DiCarprio won. Well, at least that's over. Why does he always look like he's got chaw in his lip? I bet this damn movie is going to win the Best Picture. That would be a mistake in my opinion. I will say his speech is pretty frigging awesome.
Morgan Freeman will now present the Best Picture. I think they have him just because everyone loves his voice. He could read the phone book. Do you remember "Easy Reader" from The Electric Company? Brooklyn, Room, Spotlight, Bridge of Spies, The Big Short, The Revenant, The Martian, Mad Max: Fury Road. The Oscar goes to: Spotlight. Hurrah! That is, just, wow. Yeah! I would have preferred Room won, but this is just as good.
What a night. Chris Rock was great, it moved along. I'd like to thank my movie going friends for helping me make this night possible. If you'd like to join me on a movie adventure, let me know. There's always room in the back row.
We'll resume the lists in a couple days.
