Song of the day:
Let’s Talk Oscar…
Today’s song of the day was the winner of Best Original Song during last night’s Oscar ceremony, and I personally think it deserved to win. It was the lone Oscar for the nine-time nominated Barbie, which is a bummer but not unexpected. As usual, by the time we get to the Oscars, after all the other award shows have aired, there’s little suspense as to who the likely winners will be. One big surprise was Emma Stone winning Best Actress over Lily Gladstone, and I can’t say whether that was deserved or not since I didn’t see either performance. I honestly had no interest in either movie, but I’ve heard and read good things about both of their performances.
All in all, Emma’s movie, Poor Things, won four awards, and Lily’s won zero. I honestly thought the nominated song from Killers of the Flower Moon, which was beautifully performed live during the ceremony, had a chance to win, but Billie Eilish and Finneas’ song was just too big to be defeated. What truly would have been amazing is if they’d given the award for Best Song to I’m Just Ken. At minimum there should be a special award given to Ryan Gosling for his magical performance during the show. If you missed it, have no fear; the internet is your friend. It was truly glorious.
As for the other movies and awards…as expected, Oppenheimer won quite a few including Best Picture, Best Director (Christopher Nolan), Best Actor (Cillian Murphy) and Best Supporting Actor (Robert Downey, Jr.). In total it won six awards, and it deserved all of them. I would have liked to have seen Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction) or Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers) win for Best Actor but had a feeling it was Cillian’s night. As expected, because she’s swept the entire awards season, the fantastic Da’Vine Joy Randolph took home the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Mary in The Holdovers. And as always, she looked fabulous and gave a truly heartwarming speech.
I was thrilled that American Fiction won for Best Adapted Screenplay. It’s truly an exceptional film, which I would love for more people to see. And while I rarely watch the nominated documentaries, I actually did see the one that picked up the award for Best Documentary Short: The Last Repair Shop. I highly recommend it. Seeing the Ukrainian team win for Best Documentary Feature, 20 Days in Mariupol, was heartbreaking and special. It was the first Oscar the country has ever won, but as the director was accepting the award he said he wished he’d never had to make the movie. I’m sure it was a bittersweet win.
It seems clear that I need to The Zone of Interest, though I know it won’t be an easy film to watch. Multiple people have told me how good it is, and it picked up a couple of awards last night, so I’ll add it to my list.
I actually saw six of the ten movies nominated for Best Picture, which is way more than usual. I would have liked to have seen a little more recognition for Past Lives, which I finally watched Saturday night. It was a beautiful movie…sweet, funny, touching and heartbreaking. But I was pretty sure Oppenheimer was going to win this award. It wasn’t a given of course, as The Academy has often chosen something different than what’s expected, but this time around it made sense. It was a big, important movie, and it deserved to win.
Overall I thought Jimmy Kimmel did a good job hosting, though some of the jokes were rather cringe, especially in this day and age. But he kept things moving, and the show didn’t drag on as it has in previous years. The Ryan Gosling performance was most definitely the highlight of the night for me, followed by Billie and Finneas’ beautiful performance, and I absolutely loved the way they introduced the acting nominees. Having prior winners talk about each of the nominees was brilliant. And I loved that they mostly talked about who they were as people, not only about the role they were nominated for. It made everything a little more personal, and I hope they continue doing that going forward.
Did anyone watch? What were your thoughts?
Now on to other things…
Other Movies
As I mentioned above, I watched Past Lives on Saturday night. It was one of many movies I watched this weekend. I started by rewatching Kung Fu Panda in preparation for seeing the latest installment yesterday. So I watched movies one and two on Friday night, and finished it up with the third movie Saturday morning. I also decided to watch the first part of Dune, which came out a year or so ago. I’d been hearing how good the second part was, so I decided I needed to see it. The movie was as I expected - long, confusing in a lot of places, and very dark and dusty. I’ll see what the second part holds later this week.
I did see Kung Fu Panda 4 yesterday, and it was fun. The prior weekend I saw Perfect Days and Kiss the Future, both of which I highly recommend. Perfect Days is a nice little movie, unassuming and quiet. There is very little dialogue for most of the movie, and it’s just lovely. It’s subtitled, but as the dialogue is minimal, you barely even notice. Kiss the Future is a documentary about Sarajevo during the war in the early 90s. It’s excellent, but it might make you mad, as it did me. Especially when you see what’s happening in Gaza.
Books
The Royal Game: A Novel by Linda Keir - I loved this ripped-from-the-headlines, romantic-comedy-mixed-up-in-a-mystery book. The characters were well-written, in both timelines, and it definitely took some twists I wasn’t expecting. And I’m a sucker for a good royal story. Highly recommend!
Once More With Feeling by Elissa Sussman - I wanted to like this more than I did. It had a slow start, but got going after a few chapters. From the premise I thought I would love it, but I didn’t find the characters all that likable, and that made it frustrating at times. I didn’t hate it by any means, and I still think the premise is a good one. I did love that it was set primarily in the world of musical theatre, and since I finished it I’ve been listening to a lot of Broadway soundtracks.
The Princess and the Grilled Cheese Sandwich by Deya Muniz - I loved this graphic novel! It’s a fast read, but the story is a good one - some elements based on Deya’s real life. The illustrations are fabulous, and there’s a lot of cheese references, as well as actual cheese, so what could be bad? Highly recommend!
Currently Reading: Take Two, Birdie Maxwell by Allison Winn Scotch - So far I’m enjoying it. The high level summary: “Hollywood’s biggest rom-com star tries to recover from her damaged reputation by staging her own rom-com and following a lead on a lost love.” The premise is good, right? I’ll keep you posted.
Hockey
It was a sad day in Sharks Territory on Friday when we learned that one of the fan favorites - Tomas Hertl - had been traded to our worst enemy - Vegas. A number of other players were traded as well, which wasn’t unexpected, but ugh. The Hertl trade hurt. Before the sadness, I did enjoy one of our games last week, even though we lost. There are only a handful of home games left, and since it is my last season as a season ticket holder, I’ll get to a good number of them. And I’ll still cheer from afar next year and try to go see them when they roll through Denver.
Okay, I think that’s it for today. Hope you all had a nice weekend. Have a great Monday, and a great week ahead, and I’ll see you again soon.
Video of the day:
I saw this story on the CBS Sunday Morning show yesterday, and I’m wondering how many of you watch everything with closed captions? I don’t unless it’s for translation from a foreign language, but I know a number of people who do.
Hey, it’s my first poll! Please vote!
I watch with captions on except for live programs; I have trouble understanding the dialogue without the captions. I think one of the biggest issues is that tv shows and movies prioritize the music and SFX over the dialogue.
It's really hard to follow captions on live programs though as they usually can't keep up with the dialogue - I usually leave the captions on all the time unless they become distracting during live programs.