I think Brady Cor"bay" (there is something about a plodding name like Corbet being pronounced like someone classing up Target which is funny) did an excellent job of mentioning his adorable child and then they cut to her because giving a speech off an iphone lacks a certain amount of charm and class, I find. (But it was nice that he mentioned Aubrey Plaza and her late husband Jeff Baena.) And I wonder if Ariel Levy, who ghostwrote her memoir, or someone like that shaped Demi Moore's acceptance speech, which was great. Her acting was superb when she was pretending it was off the cuff but that thing had shape and a THEME.
I love your writing and reading what you have to say even when I so vehemently disagree with many of your takes. Andrew Scott is my guuyyy unfortunately even in a suit I did not like.
i have to really chew and savor this post at a later point, but i want to say that it makes me so happy to read a strong jab at EEAAO, which is perhaps one of my least favorite acclaimed movies of the last decade. Listening to people sob and sing the praises of EEAAO drove me absolutely nuts, especially when on MULTIPLE occasions i had people tell me ~to my face~ that i was a bad person for not liking EEAAO (lol). Anyways thank you lol i’m ’feeling seen’, ‘i feel less alone’, etc etc
it’s easily the worst acclaimed movie i can remember. illegible and also really annoying. plays to a part of culture now (you must be nice above all else) that i think is harmful, and gives its fan license to use a cancel card if you rightfully question it. boring, no talent involved. music video phone poisoned “movie making” that everyone has already forgotten. i think we live in a post eeaao world, too, in that people don’t understand how it was a harbinger of the way new voters and “cinema fans” think and behave. really not good
I think Adrien will win Best Actor and probably Brutalist will get editing (if there's one issue I actually don't have with that movie, it's that the editing is basically pretty good....) but otherwise I agree on all counts
Zoe getting up because her song won really had me jbol
i think adrien is a better threat than we thought, but i still think academy voters will think the brutalist is too impenetrable to see that there is acting in it
That's true....... but I don't think he's ever been counted out (Brody nearly going full DTV/Peaky Blinders villain) so much as he's been considered "above" it, maybe...
i just think that europeans and brits and americans all prob feel the same way about conclave but euros care way more about brutalist than americans or brits, and brits care way more about ralph than americans or euros care about brody
Ke Huy Quan and Michelle Yeoh are very bad actors with a lack of a career?? While Ke Huy Quan hasn't had much of a career for reasons that I'd wager don't have to do with him being bad at the craft, you can't possibly say this about Michelle Yeoh. While I respect the take on EEAAO apart from that, it is a bit of an oddly racialized thing to lament.
yeoh's oscar narrative was that, like glenn close being nominated for the very bad The Wife, she deserves an oscar because her career has been long and good enough already, and it doesn't matter what she's nominated for. the difference is that, like demi moore, michelle yeoh has almost exclusively been in blockbuster slop. now that is a perfectly valid career to have: you don't need to be an artist or in high brow movies to be good or likable or important to movies. but the narrative put on yeoh and moore that they have never been adequately appreciated for their art because of racism or sexism is jumping 10 conversations ahead: they are barely actors, at all. demi moore and michelle yeoh are serviceable performers to stick in blockbusters, but they have never been artists or even framed to me as artists. the difference is that the substance is a thoughtful movie for adults, and eeaao is a childrens' movie with marvel logics. now, whether or not those women wanted to be artists and were less able to because of industrial racism and sexism is a different question--if they say that's the case, i'm sure it's true. but angelina jolie is another great example of the oscar stuff i'm talking about. angelina jolie isn't even serviceable... she's awful and has been awful forever. she doesn't deserve an oscar based on an artist's career like glenn close or angela bassett (i wanted her to win for a marvel movie) because of one movie (Maria) that sucks.
i agree with ke huy quan' lack of opportunity being out of his control. but his oscar narrative was that he was deserving of an award merely because of those struggles.... maybe i would buy that if the movie he were in were good. but eeaao is formally muddy, ideologically confused, and aesthetically aligned with topical slop like marvel and short form content that i think is harmful to the cinematic medium. just because it has a good heart (The Brutalist does, also) or hit a cultural nerve w people (also The Brutalist), doesn't mean it's an inherently good or moral or historically important movie
also fwiw i wanted yeoh to win bc blanchett already has 2 oscars and if she won that would have been so racist and sad. but this conversation just becomes impossible to have because eeaao is so awful, there's nothing to back yeoh up. i wish the big "i'm a serious actor" role she had would have been in a real movie
Thanks for taking the time to explain, I understand much better where you‘re coming from now. I agree that Michelle Yeoh isn‘t known to be an actress that embodies what the very character-centric craft of acting can be and do in the same way Cate Blanchett or let‘s say someone like Yoon Yeo Jong are. Then again, she brings a strong presence to her roles and is a magnificent action performer. I guess one can say she isn’t most deserving of an award that is largely intended to acknowledge a specific kind of performance which she hasn‘t dabbled in. But I‘m not sure I would call her bad because she hasn‘t dabbled. I don‘t have a sound typology of „good kinds of acting“ to back this up though haha
What is considered good acting in the academy is culturally contingent and shaped by Anglo-Saxon, Western, maybe more than anything specifically US American ideas and not the only conception out there.
Maybe an overarching issue is more that due to the US‘ immense international cultural prowess (still), there is this urge for non-US films and actors to seek acknowledgment for their achievements from the Oscars. It‘s a weird spot these awards are in, having and seeking global influence and legitimacy, operating not with global ideas of merit in film, wanting to be „open-minded“ and „diverse“ or feeling the pressure to at least, esp from minorities within the US it seems
I did want to add: what is more US American than giving Ke Huy Quan an award because he gave a lovely performance as the emotional core of a movie that I personally really liked after a long hiatus due to feeling unwelcome and uncastable? Getting to play multiple roles in one movie. You gotta admit it‘s the kind of heartwarming comeback story the US gobbles up, and while I‘m not sure, I‘m guessing awards have been given to actors for sillier reasons!
Based on last night, I think that Corbet will win the screenplay Oscar over Baker. If he doesn’t, that’s just Neon getting a pity award.
Also, best moment of the Globes, for me, was VD stopping mid-presentation to say “Hey Dwayne.”
i kind of agree, but saying neon will get nothing at this juncture is still too idealistic for me. i will re-eval after baftas
i liked when the rock did the eyebrow
I think this too
I think Brady Cor"bay" (there is something about a plodding name like Corbet being pronounced like someone classing up Target which is funny) did an excellent job of mentioning his adorable child and then they cut to her because giving a speech off an iphone lacks a certain amount of charm and class, I find. (But it was nice that he mentioned Aubrey Plaza and her late husband Jeff Baena.) And I wonder if Ariel Levy, who ghostwrote her memoir, or someone like that shaped Demi Moore's acceptance speech, which was great. Her acting was superb when she was pretending it was off the cuff but that thing had shape and a THEME.
going so far into the act of being european that you pronounce your name like that is crazyyyy
I love your writing and reading what you have to say even when I so vehemently disagree with many of your takes. Andrew Scott is my guuyyy unfortunately even in a suit I did not like.
crying at “brady bunchers”
cred to bf
i have to really chew and savor this post at a later point, but i want to say that it makes me so happy to read a strong jab at EEAAO, which is perhaps one of my least favorite acclaimed movies of the last decade. Listening to people sob and sing the praises of EEAAO drove me absolutely nuts, especially when on MULTIPLE occasions i had people tell me ~to my face~ that i was a bad person for not liking EEAAO (lol). Anyways thank you lol i’m ’feeling seen’, ‘i feel less alone’, etc etc
it’s easily the worst acclaimed movie i can remember. illegible and also really annoying. plays to a part of culture now (you must be nice above all else) that i think is harmful, and gives its fan license to use a cancel card if you rightfully question it. boring, no talent involved. music video phone poisoned “movie making” that everyone has already forgotten. i think we live in a post eeaao world, too, in that people don’t understand how it was a harbinger of the way new voters and “cinema fans” think and behave. really not good
btw I love "Jon Mediocre Chu"
bf cred
I think Adrien will win Best Actor and probably Brutalist will get editing (if there's one issue I actually don't have with that movie, it's that the editing is basically pretty good....) but otherwise I agree on all counts
Zoe getting up because her song won really had me jbol
i think adrien is a better threat than we thought, but i still think academy voters will think the brutalist is too impenetrable to see that there is acting in it
zoe canto la cancion!
Adrien sorrrrrrt of ideologically aligns w Demi - comeback narratives... perhaps that will appeal to them
ralph doesn’t have an oscar tho….
That's true....... but I don't think he's ever been counted out (Brody nearly going full DTV/Peaky Blinders villain) so much as he's been considered "above" it, maybe...
i just think that europeans and brits and americans all prob feel the same way about conclave but euros care way more about brutalist than americans or brits, and brits care way more about ralph than americans or euros care about brody
tea
I really thought Tim would win but I am seeing the light of him never winning a la Leo in order to keep his career going
totally
Ke Huy Quan and Michelle Yeoh are very bad actors with a lack of a career?? While Ke Huy Quan hasn't had much of a career for reasons that I'd wager don't have to do with him being bad at the craft, you can't possibly say this about Michelle Yeoh. While I respect the take on EEAAO apart from that, it is a bit of an oddly racialized thing to lament.
yeoh's oscar narrative was that, like glenn close being nominated for the very bad The Wife, she deserves an oscar because her career has been long and good enough already, and it doesn't matter what she's nominated for. the difference is that, like demi moore, michelle yeoh has almost exclusively been in blockbuster slop. now that is a perfectly valid career to have: you don't need to be an artist or in high brow movies to be good or likable or important to movies. but the narrative put on yeoh and moore that they have never been adequately appreciated for their art because of racism or sexism is jumping 10 conversations ahead: they are barely actors, at all. demi moore and michelle yeoh are serviceable performers to stick in blockbusters, but they have never been artists or even framed to me as artists. the difference is that the substance is a thoughtful movie for adults, and eeaao is a childrens' movie with marvel logics. now, whether or not those women wanted to be artists and were less able to because of industrial racism and sexism is a different question--if they say that's the case, i'm sure it's true. but angelina jolie is another great example of the oscar stuff i'm talking about. angelina jolie isn't even serviceable... she's awful and has been awful forever. she doesn't deserve an oscar based on an artist's career like glenn close or angela bassett (i wanted her to win for a marvel movie) because of one movie (Maria) that sucks.
i agree with ke huy quan' lack of opportunity being out of his control. but his oscar narrative was that he was deserving of an award merely because of those struggles.... maybe i would buy that if the movie he were in were good. but eeaao is formally muddy, ideologically confused, and aesthetically aligned with topical slop like marvel and short form content that i think is harmful to the cinematic medium. just because it has a good heart (The Brutalist does, also) or hit a cultural nerve w people (also The Brutalist), doesn't mean it's an inherently good or moral or historically important movie
also fwiw i wanted yeoh to win bc blanchett already has 2 oscars and if she won that would have been so racist and sad. but this conversation just becomes impossible to have because eeaao is so awful, there's nothing to back yeoh up. i wish the big "i'm a serious actor" role she had would have been in a real movie
Thanks for taking the time to explain, I understand much better where you‘re coming from now. I agree that Michelle Yeoh isn‘t known to be an actress that embodies what the very character-centric craft of acting can be and do in the same way Cate Blanchett or let‘s say someone like Yoon Yeo Jong are. Then again, she brings a strong presence to her roles and is a magnificent action performer. I guess one can say she isn’t most deserving of an award that is largely intended to acknowledge a specific kind of performance which she hasn‘t dabbled in. But I‘m not sure I would call her bad because she hasn‘t dabbled. I don‘t have a sound typology of „good kinds of acting“ to back this up though haha
What is considered good acting in the academy is culturally contingent and shaped by Anglo-Saxon, Western, maybe more than anything specifically US American ideas and not the only conception out there.
Maybe an overarching issue is more that due to the US‘ immense international cultural prowess (still), there is this urge for non-US films and actors to seek acknowledgment for their achievements from the Oscars. It‘s a weird spot these awards are in, having and seeking global influence and legitimacy, operating not with global ideas of merit in film, wanting to be „open-minded“ and „diverse“ or feeling the pressure to at least, esp from minorities within the US it seems
I did want to add: what is more US American than giving Ke Huy Quan an award because he gave a lovely performance as the emotional core of a movie that I personally really liked after a long hiatus due to feeling unwelcome and uncastable? Getting to play multiple roles in one movie. You gotta admit it‘s the kind of heartwarming comeback story the US gobbles up, and while I‘m not sure, I‘m guessing awards have been given to actors for sillier reasons!
but…but…nickel boys