It could have been the drugs I was on, but this was simply the worst award show I ever saw on TV. The hosts lacked talent in extemporaneous acting, and were too young and unestablished to really be in your face or iconoclastic. So she took to costume changes at the drop of a hat (reportedly advice from Shirley McLaine) while he probably took tranquilizers (no other way to explain that bit in the dress).
That was hardly all that was wrong with the show – other than one beeped out moment, all was PC and hunky dory in Oscarland. The musical numbers were inane and took more time to set up than was spent in the performance. I am sorry Rahman fans, but his rendition of If I Rise was sleep inducing, and not helped much by the woman in the orange hair.
The awards themselves were exactly what one would expect from an academy full of fuddy duddies who date back to Citizen Kane (or maybe even earlier). The best foreign language film was a lock as soon as I saw one film with a clip of little black children running behind a truck with white people in it! And we expect them to honor our strides in film-making in out country’s context? Arre forget it yaar – they are still stuck in the holocaust and colonialism! If you want to wow THEM stick to the colonial oppression script, if you want to make your own kind of films, forget about them.
The actors and actresses were all awarded as scripted and predicted for days – no surprises. The King’s Speech won all the major accolades, telling us yet again that while the Americans gained independence a long time ago, it may take another couple of hundred years to get them mentally free of the British.
The audience was worthy of some notice. Darren Aronofsky looked benign, but David Fincher looked like he was waiting in the dock for a sentence to be pronounced. Warren Beatty looked suitably proud of his wife, while the only crowd looking suitably smug and satisfied was the King’s Speech gang. A brief glimpse of Penelope Cruz showed us a radiant confident woman, and Scarlett Johanssen in that lace gown looked divine.
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The high points were Bob Hope (in a video clip) saying Oscars were called PASSOVER in his family, and the guy taking the best song award and saying could they not find a fifth to nominate? :D
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I hated Scarlett Johanssons dress; I'm sorry :).
ReplyDeleteThe show was ok, well, it might have been better with older hosts.