My thoughts on this year’s Oscars, as distilled into Twitter-sized chunks for your reading pleasure:
Like Kate Winslet, I too practised my acceptance speech in the mirror, except I was holding a Toilet Duck. I fear this is where I may have gone wrong in life.
Beyonce, you look like something that fell out of a jaysis box of Dairy Milk. Great arse though as always.
Lest I be derided on here by some twatty alpha male type for being too bitchy against the sisterhood, I’m gonna go equal opportunities on this. Sean Penn, you looked like a right knob too.
The gowns are ridiculously underwhelming this year. Points off Angelina for missing a great opportunity to go batshit, sartorially speaking.
Do not seem to be alone in my appreciation of Dustin Lance Black. Very sad Mike
Leigh did not win, but was more than happy to ogle at the very cute Black. KILLER speech.
Michael Shannon got absolutely fucking robbed. That is all.
The amount of mutual arse-licking and backslapping going on during the ceremony always turns my stomach. You’d think I’d change the channel to spare my digestive health, but no.
Surprised that Departures won best foreign feature , as I reckoned Waltz With Bashir would walk it. But anything as long as the Baader-Meinhoff poxy-arsed Complex didn’t win.
Benjamin Button is wholly deserving of visual effects award…after all, they’ve made Brad look like a ride again.
Slumdog, Slumdog, Slumdog. Delighted film did so well, even if the audience were at risk of falling into a hyperglycaemic coma after its first 20 mins.
Hugh Jackman. Christ on a bike. Blummin’ Pat Kenny could have done a better job.
Anthea McTeirnan
Croí na Duibhlinn
Aoife Barry
Aoife McLysaght
Arlene Hunt
Attracta McCarthy-McKenna
clairehennessy
Ann Cronin
Amanda Brown
Eleanor Fitzsimons
Edel Coffey
Anna Carey
Lauren Murphy
Jennie Ridyard
Jude Leavy
Hazel Katherine Larkin
Léan Ní Chuilleanáin
Leigh
Lisa McInerney
Laura Slattery
Maman Poulet
Megan McGurk
Clare Kleinedler
Molly
Rosita Boland
Catherine Crichton
Sinéad Gleeson
sarahefranklin
siobhandowling
Susan Daly
theantiroom
Nuala Ní Chonchúir
Whatever about Sean Penn, Philip Seymour Hoffman looked like he’d slept in a skip. And I think Tilda Swinton fulfilled the batshit quota for the ladies…
Watching “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is like listening to a Barack Obama speech. It’s obviously something of a higher quality than the norm, and it induces a not-unpleasant trance-like state as it goes on and on, but it’s hard to remember what the point was.
pilfered
I was quite disappointed by SWINTON – I expected to see her in something more awesomely deranged.
@Catherine, Seymour Hoffman always looks like that. Have you seen Doubt? I’ve only seen the stage version at the Abbey which was brilliant.
TCCOBB is dreary, too-long and bereft of a decent story. Which is a shame as the original Fitzgerald story is quirky and doesn’t rely solely on the aging backwards device.
Visually it’s strong, so I get the Effects nod, but that aspect of it overshadowed anything else about it.
Oh, and I loved Danny Boyle’s Tigger moment.
This was the first year of my adult life that I missed watching.
But it was worth it.
I didn’t see all the gowns but not one of them wowed me.
Yeah, the frocks were very disappointing this year. But I think Dustin Lance Black’s speech kind of made up for it. It made me bawl. And I love Danny Boyle, too. I always like it when people who started out making smallish, idiosyncratic films make it really big. He’s second generation Irish, as well – I’m surprised the media haven’t claimed him as one of our own!
What can I say, I loved all that musical malarky. And, dare I say it, Sean Penn made a good point about the future shame of people who voted against Prop8. Hope he’s right, the nasty righters. Dresses were indeed dull – what’s with all that off white malarky. Cream/beige bleugh.
John Givings is a revelatory performance. Nothing was ever going to beat out The Joker but I loved the way the acting awards were presented because it brought it all back to the work. I’m keeping my eye on Shannon because he was extraordinary in that movie. And I hated the movie.
In a year that WALLE and MILK came out, I can’t agree with Slumdog as the Best Picture nor that Danny Boyle’s achievement was greater than Fincher or Gus Van Sant.
Q – yeah, I’ve always wondered what the skinny was with entering animated films in the Best Film category. I’d have ranked Wall-E right up there.
(also, will lend you Revolutionary Road if you haven’t read and aren’t now put off by the film, which I thought paled in comparison…)
Well the film, for me, was about two deeply unappealing people yelling at each other for two hours. One of whom still looks like a 12 year old lesbian and isn’t played by Kate Winslet. Michael Shannon was outstanding though. I’ll pass on the book.
Danny Boyle is claimed – his Ma was from Ballinasloe (where I live!) so it’s all hail Danny in the ‘Sloe lately.
Penelope Cruz surely deserves a mention, for acting ability, beauty, and all round humanity. I was thrilled she won.
Am I the only one who hated the book The Reader? I love Kate, but am avoiding the film…
I absolutely loathed the book and movie of The Reader: it’s trite, tacky and even offensive. Winslet is good in it, and I was cautiously behind her for the Oscar – though I still think Meryl Streep gave a far better performance in Doubt, and Anne Hathaway should have been better rewarded for showing such new depths and range.