Pre Nomination Articles:
Holding Patterns -The Buzz / NBR / God I love This Town: NYFCC Pick / Boston & LA / Globe-a-thon / Golden Globe Analysis / Is Best Actress "Lock"ing Up? / Spotlight on Best Pic / The Eve of Balloting /
Pic /Dir / Screenplays / Tech Categories / Actress / Actor / Animated / Supp Actor / Supp Actress / Foreign / Guest Article: Boyfriend Thinks I'm Crazy / Final Nomination Predictions: Curse of the Vote Split
Post Nominations through Post Ceremony Articles:
Pic /Dir / Screenplays / Tech Categories / Actress / Actor / Animated / Supp Actor / Supp Actress / Foreign / King Kong: The Actor's Race / The Moulin Rouge! Experience/ DGA & SAG / Which Year is it Again? / Oscar Diary 1: March 16-19 / Oscar Diary 2: March 20-22 / Final Oscar Diary March 23-25 / Oscar Night Review

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Oscar Review 3/27/02

 

I'm too tired to seriously go into this so this will be a quick rundown:

Best Moment: Woody Allen's appearance. A total shock. And a welcome one. Loved the film compilation clip of New York from Nora Ephron too. It was the only 9/11 inspired moment of the show that I could stomach. Let it go people... you're only trivializing the tragedy and the resilience of the city.
Worst Moment: Opie's expected smugness. So very proud of himself... for what exactly? His long illustrious career: The Grinch, Splash, Gung Ho, The Paper, Far and Away. Now explain to me again why he deserves a career win? OK Splash is fun and Parenthood is good... but a career Oscar? Why? I am now letting this go because I can't remain pissed about this forever.
Funniest Moment: Owen and Ben's costume design intro.
Second Funniest Moment: Ryan Phillipe's unexpected jab to his wife "you make more than I do" which clearly surprised her and cracked up the crowd.
Third Funniest Moment: "Just clean up when you're done."
Most Historic Moment: Halle Berry's win. Incidentally her speech was nearly 5 minutes long which is something of a Greer Garson feat in and of itself.
Best Acceptance Speech: Denzel Washington. Poised. Elegant. Classy. Grateful. Everything an award recipient should be.
Worst Acceptance Speech: Jennifer Connelly. She's an actress. Couldn't she have rehearsed this? She had months to prepare for this. We knew she was going to win for the past 3 months.
Moments #1 That I had Mixed Feelings About: Halle's win. I'm glad the barrier was broken. Oscars are given for ALL sorts of non performance reasons and this is a better reason than most of those (like sympathy, death scares, makeup awards, etc...) And Halle's honest emotion was touching. But I couldn't help but feel a pang of regret that it couldn't have been for someone with a more singular talent like Angela Bassett or Alfre Woodard. It's a minor complaint but it just once again reminded me of how badly the Academy needs their women emotional and fluttery rather than powerful and poised. Halle is along the same lines as Gwyneth. They like the princesses. Plain and simple. That's how Oscar wants his women.
Moment #2 That I had Mixed Feelings About: Jim Broadbent's win. I LOVE this actor. He won the FiLM BiTCH award in this same category for Moulin Rouge! this year... and he was also Oscar worthy in 1999 for his role in Topsy Turvy. But by calling his name on Sunday night the Academy continued their ban on openly gay actors and the frontrunner Ian McKellen lost out again, much like he did in 1998. Halle broke down one barrier and dented the Academy's racism but their Homophobia still runs rampant. Ian brings his boyfriend to awards shows (God bless him) is a political activist and is unapologetic. Oscar probably won't give in until there's an award caliber actor or actress who only brings their relatives to awards shows and doesn't talk much about their lifestyle or fight much publicly for their rights. It's the sad hard reality that Oscar likes to feel safe...and integrity and honesty isn't the quickest way to get Hollywood's pat on the back. Playing their game is. The Academy still worships 'the closet.'
Moment that had nothing to do with "race": Denzel Washington's win. Side by side with Halle's win it raised all sorts of media eyebrows and garnered talk of 'a statement' ... but let's pretend Halle hadn't made Monster's Ball this year. Denzel STILL would have won -and nobody would be talking about him being black. Please. This is one of the great modern movie stars. Nobody thinks about his skin color. His career is too large and he is too respected as an actor for anyone to be harping about this being a token vote. The man is a GREAT actor with a long and stellar career. End of story. He should have won this 9 years ago... but at least he got it now for his latest electric performance.
Moment that proves that the Academy still has no imagination: A Beautiful Mind wins best picture. Proving once again that subject matter is all in literal minded Hollywood. It's about mental illness. Therefore, it must be BETTER or at least MORE IMPORTANT than films about elves, singing lovers, feuding spouses, or shooting parties. Right?

This is also Dreamworks third straight win. They've now officially surpassed Miramax as the Oscar champs. Out of the frying pan into the fire...

 

And now the important stuff for such a fluffy event: Best and Worst Dressed...

 

Best Dressed
#1 Kate the Great	#2 Halle Berry	#3 Nic'	#4 Marisa Tomei
Kate Winslet has NEVER has looked better. One of the world's greatest actors is also one of the great beauties. Simple, elegant, ravishing.	There's no question that the girl can play dress up with the best of them. She does it with great imagination and glamour.	It was her year. She didn't win (much like Pfeiffer in hers back in 89) but she was extraordinarily lovely on Oscar night.	At first I didn't like it...but it kept growing on me and now I really do. Not unlike how I feel towards Marisa's career.
Also looking Spiffy...
Helen Mirren Beautiful in white.	Marcia Gay Harden Black ball-gowned girl.	Reese & Ryan Hollywood's most adorable power couple	Uma Thurman and her glorious breasts
Naomi Watts lustful in black.	Denzel Washington "Pure class."	Halle's Hubby Gorgeous man.	Sharon Stone all fun and fashionable again suddenly

 

Worst Dressed
#1 Gwynnie	#2 Paul's Girl	#3 Sally "Camera Whore" Kirkland	#4 Faith Hill
How a pencil thin girl can find an outfit that gives her rolls of fat is beyond me. Plus it looked dirty (and I don't mean that sexually)	A floral middriff? Did she think she was going to the MTV Awards. Ug-ly. I just don't understand what she was going for...	Sally is to the Oscars what earthquakes are to LA. Ever present and expected but still jolting and scary. She needs her very own E! True Hollywood Story.	A plastic person in a rainbow dress. Something about this is just very very very very very very wrong. Not to mention dumb. And a little frightening.
Also Looking Rough Around the Edges...
Jada Pinkett Smith Just too much in yellow. Not as bad as her metallic green number but still...	Josh Hartnett such a cute boy but such a mess on the big night.	Russell Crowe packing on the pounds and the hair but less surly.	Jennifer Connelly Looking stoned or overwhelmed. Think Requiem for A Dream.