Academy Awards 2016

[Neo]

I know what Rock and the writers were trying to do last night, but the continual bombardment made it very unfunny after a very short while.

+1.  Personally, I'm going to tune out the whole debacle of the host, and move on to the great works of the year.

Tho I really liked the opening, CGI-animated sequence. Very well done, and classy, imo.  

Indeed.


It was cool to see the wins for animated and action shorts, go to Bear Story, and Stutterer.  There were several other good ones, and both of these are exceptional, IMO.

Good to see that Ex Machina won an award.

Interesting that the best actor and actress, and supporting actor and actress, were all first-time winners, as well as several other first-time winners.  I'm looking forward to see more of their work, as well as the other nominees, etc., in the future.

[Starling]

I know what Rock and the writers were trying to do last night, but the continual bombardment made it very unfunny after a very short while. And when other presenters or winners also began to chime in, on more serious notes about the so called "snub," the Oscar show-boat was then nose diving.

Tho I really liked the opening, CGI-animated sequence. Very well done, and classy, imo. 

Yeah, I completely agree.  Of course, he needed to touch on the subject, but it didn't need to be the ENTIRE night. 

SO SO SO happy Spotlight won best pic over Revenant, such an important and powerful film.  Also happy Brie Larson won for Room, a much deserved win.  I wish Carol, my favorite of the year, would have won/been nominated for more.  Haynes is long overdue for a Best Director nom.

All in all, a strange night, but many deserved wins. 

[erik1925]

This 'joke' of Rock's was probably one of the lowest (imo). And not funny, in the least:

“Why are we protesting this Oscars? It’s the 88th Academy Awards, which means this ‘no black nominees’ thing happened at least 71 other times. You got to figure that it happened in the ’50s, in the ’60s. One of those years, Sidney [Poitier] didn’t put out a movie. I’m sure there were no black nominees some of those years, say ‘62 or ‘63. Black people did not protest. Why? Because we had real things to protest at the time. We were too busy being raped and lynched to care about who won best cinematography. When your grandmother’s swinging from a tree, it’s really hard to care about best documentary foreign short.”  


Maybe this, then, is no surprise. (from deadline.com):

"The Oscars were all given out last night at the 88th Academy Awards but it turns out there is no gold, nor silver or bronze for ABC. With 34.3 million total viewers watching the Chris Rock hosted shindig from the Hollywood and Highland on Sunday, the Oscars took a tumble this year to hit an 8-year low."

[eatbrie]

Oscar ratings: Chris Rock’s Return As Host Draws 34M Viewers In 8-Year Low.

No surprise here.  I wanted to turn it off after 1/2 hour of oscarsowhite bashing.  Like I said, they did themselves way more harm than good.

T

[Harry Caul]

I'm pretty sure the poor viewership had little to do with Chris Rock's performance and was more a product of the significant calls to boycott the Oscars... could just be me though.  

[eatbrie]

I'm pretty sure the poor viewership had little to do with Chris Rock's performance and was more a product of the significant calls to boycott the Oscars... could just be me though.  

I don't think the so-called boycott had any impact on viewership.  I talked to 3 of my friends today, all members of the Academy, and they all turned it off.  I was watching it with my father-in-law and his wife and they both walked away.  I stayed because I love this shit, but I was close to turning it off too.  I'd love to see an hour by hour breakdown.  Not only was Chris Rock's speech overbearing, but I felt like they tried to find as many black presenters as they could, from Kerry Washington (love her, but TV actress) to Lou Gosset, Jr. (a remarkable actor who hasn't made a significant movie in decades) to Quincy...  All heavyweights, but really, Oscars?  I'm surprise Sidney Poitier was not included.  Anyhow, maybe I'm over reading it because I have a strong point of view on the matter.  The media seems to endorse the ceremony.

T

[Crazy Vick]

Collectively white Hollywood did a very good job taking well deserved punches for 2.5 hours yesterday.  Chris Rock had a few jokes that weren't very classy although overall he was pretty funny, but you gotta be a fan of Chris Rock to begin with.  

[Crazy Vick]

Anyhow, maybe I'm over reading it, but I have a strong point of view on the matter, because the media seems to really endorse the ceremony.

I agree, it was almost insulting.  A well-balanced show would have been fine, but they clearly and overtly loaded it with black actors at every opportunity.  Was it on purpose or they just don't know what they're doing? 

[erik1925]

Vick..it was on purpose. As though the Academy had something to make up for, all because no black performances were deemed oscar-worthy. Pathetic that the Academy felt the need to cow tow like this. 

[Crazy Vick]

I meant, is it on purpose in the sense that they were trying to stick-it-to-the-Smiths?  A la "you want blacks then we'll give you blacks"

Or, did they genuinely want the show to be more inclusive, but had complete and total absence of tact to accomplish that without it looking so freeking obvious.  Someone who knows what they're doing should have weaved in those elements without it looking so blatantly patronizing. 

[50s]

Yes on reviews... keep 'em coming.
Yes on Vikander... still, I wonder if she would have won without ex_machina in the mix.

I thought she was great, plus I have never seen her ever before.

It was the only Academy nominated movie I saw (a friend had free tickets)

[erik1925]

I think it was Hollywood's overt attempt to show that they are not racist, nor were they snubbing anyone on purpose.

So it seemed and looked like PURE overkill, to me.

[50s]

Maybe to the black audience, it was the funniest thing ever. I didn't see the show though