I’ve got just a few minutes and I thought I’d try to sneak in a few words about the Oscars last night.
I watched very nearly all of ceremony (I snuck off for a half hour and watched something else from 9:00pm CST to 9:30pm). I thought the whole proceedings were pretty sad. Jon Stewart seemed very much out of his milieu. It’s not that his humor was too topical or pointed. Not topical or pointed enough IMO. Which characterized pretty much the whole proceedings.
I was genuinely concerned about both Dolly Parton and Lauren Bacall. Dolly was horribly thin (other than the breast implants, of course) and whatever cosmetic surgery she’s had has left her a grotesque parody of herself. She had no breath support. Was she nervous? Have her 60’s dropped on her like a ton of bricks or is there something else going on?
Where Dolly Parton was desperately hanging on to her 30’s, Lauren Bacall was desperately hanging on to her 50’s. She has head and hand tremors; her gait was faltering; she had obvious recall problems. Are the cognitive, mobility, and motor-planning problems just normal aging or is there something else going on? Parkinson’s?
I thought Jon Stewart’s opening comments were flat. He was avoiding sharp satire and replacing it with just patter. After his Bjork/Cheney comment I turned to my wife and said “The good crack would have been ‘Bjork is unable to attend the ceremony tonight: her dress has come down with the avian flu.’†They’re making polite noises about him this morning but I doubt that he’ll be asked back.
Someone (John Stewart?) said that the theme of last night’s ceremony was “A Return to Glamorâ€. They missed that by quite a bit with the ugly, poorly fitting dresses being worn by women who gave every impression of never having worn anything but sweat pants or jeans in their entire lives. There were a handful of exceptions e.g. Salma Hayek’s gown was gorgeous as was she; Nicole Kidman’s gown was lovely although she looked off (was it just her change of coloring?). There clearly are no Edith Heads anymore: there simply is no venue for learning how to make women look beautiful.
There was a sort of mournful nostalgia that covered the entire proceedings. I thought that the montage of great “message†films of the past was a tactical error: it reminded us that 20, 30, and 50 years ago they made great, interesting pictures with passion, courage, strength, and commitment that people actually went to see unlike the timid, vapid things of today.
UPDATE: I wanted to mention that, while watching the Awards last night, I also followed the liveblogging of the ceremony on a half dozen different blogs include PJMedia. I thought most of the coverage was pretty flaccid (although I was deeply moved by The Manolo’s complaints about the camera-critters’ failure to feature the multi-million dollar shoes being worn by the singer during the fog-obscured human sacrifice number or whatever the heck it was). Anywho, the coverage I appreciated most was from amba of AmbivaBlog.
Stewart’s best crack was the one about all those stars getting together–and no one was being asked to donate to the Democrats. He also asked the crowd how it feels to finally vote for a winner. So, he was doomed from the start.
As for the “message” montage: I’m still waiting for the Academy to say anything at all about Theo van Gogh or Aayan Hirsi Ali.
Maybe I’m morphing into my parents, longing for the “good old days”. It seems to me that what’s missing isn’t glamor or style, at least as an exterior matter. It’s class and decorum. Many celebrities, including their interviewers, portray themselves with Attitude. I hate Attitude. Why isn’t it enough to carry yourself with dignity and propriety? And for those who try, they’re bombarded with inappropriate media questioning. Samples including, “Is your best friend Nicole Kidman getting married?” (of Naomi Watts) and “are you dating Teri Hatcher?” (of George Clooney) or “who would you pick for your gay lover in a gay movie?” (also of Clooney, same questioner).
It’s as if Hollywood’s been taking over by children, by the anti-heroes. Many of us long for the return of the grown ups. God, please let adults and adult attitudes run the show. Things are so much better that way.
You know, the ironic thing is that if a new studio were to rise up and challenge the status quo in Hollywood by presenting adult fare (and not in the X-rated sense) with a more politically moderate-to-conservative sensiblity, it would quickly clean up. Instead, they keep spitting out the same crap as the audience ever-dwindles.
And, let’s face it, Jon Stewart is, at most, mildly amusing. At most.
“There was a sort of mournful nostalgia that covered the entire proceedings.”
Perfect.