Reason Magazine
- reason.com
- reason.tv
- reason.org
- Donate
- Site Search:
Reason on Facebook
Reason on Twitter
Reason on YouTube
Reason RSSGet Reason E-mail Updates!
Manage your Reason e-mail list subscriptionsadvertisements
Oscars: The Open Thread
The political overtones are there—There Will Be Blood and Michael Clayton are good, old-fashioned terrors-of-capitalism tales—so there's justification for an omibus Oscars thread. Chime in with predictions, peals of joy, or bleats of anger.
|2.24.08 @ 8:43PM|#
I'm not watching it, nor am I going to, but I imagine there will be Heath Ledger tributes every ten minutes.
|2.24.08 @ 8:47PM|#
Do you have to be some kind of wild eyed Marxist to think that in the pursuit of profit people will do stupid, evil things? Yes, it would be nice if more movies noticed, a la the Aviator, that pursuit of profit can bring us many, many nice things indeed, but the mindless pursuit of it is, in fact, pathological. Michael Clayton and There Will Be Blood, aside from being well shot, well acted films (though WTF was up with the final scene in TWBB? Nuts), said no more than that imo.
Brandybuck|2.24.08 @ 8:52PM|#
Is Hollywood still in business? I have no clue because I haven't been to a theater in years. It's not that I'm boycotting them, it's that there's nothing they release that interests me.
|2.24.08 @ 9:09PM|#
No Country for Old Men is a great, great movie. So it will probably lose Best Picture to Atonement, as the Academy loves them some Masterpiece Theatre-level films.
|2.24.08 @ 9:18PM|#
No Country was far too awesome to win best pic. Speaking of Cormac McCarthy, is anyone else excited for the movie adaptation of The Road?
|2.24.08 @ 9:24PM|#
All the cash in my pocket says that Sicko wins best documentary.
Just a hunch.
Oh, and it's cool to see that Juno is nominated for best picture. I
don't know if movie is worth a shit, but Jason Reitman is a
libertarian. Thank You For Smoking was a good movie.
x,y|2.24.08 @ 9:34PM|#
John Stewart: I hope you've all evaluated the candidates, examined their positions, and decided which Democrat you're voting for.
x,y|2.24.08 @ 9:37PM|#
MNG,
I'm much more concerned about the pursuit of power sought by our
politicians than the pursuit of profit sought by shareholders and
corporate execs.
Ombibulous|2.24.08 @ 9:41PM|#
I'm starting a collection to save up and buy Tilda Swinton another sleeve.
NP|2.24.08 @ 9:43PM|#
"There Will Be Blood and Michael Clayton are
good, old-fashioned terrors-of-capitalism tales..."
IOW, period pieces (sorry for the Harold Bloom term). Those who
hold such tripe in high regard deserve as much attention as the
other useful idiots in history.
Eddy|2.24.08 @ 9:45PM|#
Mr. Nice Guy,
I don't get it, weren't Michael Clayton and There Will Be Blood
made by movie companies in the pursuit of profit? Granted the
political push is there but should it be considered irony,
hypocrisy or both? Taking it further, inasmuch as the Oscars is
merely a public meeting of the mutual pious admiration academy
trying to drum up business for their own agenda, would it not
qualify as a political action group and would McCain Feingold
influence the program or does the media exception kick in?
Ombibulous|2.24.08 @ 9:54PM|#
Am I the only one who doesn't care if people want to vilify capitalism? Seriously it's like willing the sun not to rise. My father used to say if you wish in one hand and crap in the other we both know which one will get full first.
Free Market Guy|2.24.08 @ 9:56PM|#
No one has ever suffered as much under capitalism as the poor buggers who lived in hunter-gatherer societies. Getting shot with an arrow can mean a long, painful death. I'd rather get shot with an assault rifle any day. The free market in fire arms has meant quick, relatively painless deaths for millions. I'd much rather be hit by a speeding car (kudos to Mr. Ford) than trammpled by a heard of bufflo. Ours is the best of all possible worlds.
alisa|2.24.08 @ 9:57PM|#
JLM -- I didn't know Jason Reitman was libertarian (though, given some of the lines in Thank You for Smoking, I'm not surprised.) Juno's good, though. Very self-consciously cute, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. And nice acting and music.
|2.24.08 @ 10:02PM|#
I'd much rather be hit by a speeding car (kudos to Mr. Ford)
than trammpled by a heard of bufflo.
It should be kudos to Mr Nader, as speeding is caused by delusions
of grandeur produced by antilock brakes and airbags. See thread
below.
x,y|2.24.08 @ 10:05PM|#
Holy fuck, LoneWacko is going to blow a gasket. The guy from No Country for Old Men just gave half his acceptance speech is spanish.
|2.24.08 @ 10:12PM|#
alisa,
Here's a link, and if you snoop around the net you can find several
interviews and quotes where he makes reference to it.
http://www.theadvocates.org/celebrities/jason-reitman.html
Jacob|2.24.08 @ 10:20PM|#
Holy fuck, LoneWacko is going to blow a gasket. The guy from
No Country for Old Men just gave half his acceptance speech is
spanish.
What did he win?
|2.24.08 @ 10:26PM|#
Predictions:
Best Picture: No Country for Old Men
Best Director: The Cohens
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis
NP|2.24.08 @ 10:31PM|#
Jesus Christ, has there been a more soporific song in Oscar history than "Once"? What a worthless piece of sonic excrement.
|2.24.08 @ 10:32PM|#
Michael Clayton was well-acted shite. John Grisham drivel - in other words, no nuance: corporations bad.
|2.24.08 @ 10:46PM|#
Jesus Christ, how many songs did Enchanted have?
The only one of the big movies I've seen this year is No Country,
which was amazing.
|2.24.08 @ 10:47PM|#
Jacob: Yes, but going by screentime he's on the border between leading and supporting.
Eric Dondero|2.24.08 @ 10:49PM|#
Watched Vantage Point with Dennis Quaid opening night last
Friday. Unbeliveably good.
And believe it or not, Hollywood actually made a movie where the
Terrorists are indeed Radical Muslims, not some rogue White guys or
mad Russians.
paleo|2.24.08 @ 10:51PM|#
-so there's justification for an omibus Oscars
thread.
Justification? I thought the Oscars was like the SuperBowl for
cosmotarian limpwristers.
NP|2.24.08 @ 10:56PM|#
NotThatDavid,
Three. All the nominated songs sucked. Which confirms that any org
that starts with the word "Academy" sucks as well (or as
badly).
NP|2.24.08 @ 11:19PM|#
Nice tribute to the troops, but why didn't the geniuses at the Academy at least add short clips from the documentaries? Amazing.
Islamofascists|2.24.08 @ 11:22PM|#
convert or die you Infidels
Barack Hussein Obama for Grand Mufti!
|2.24.08 @ 11:25PM|#
So Sicko didn't win documentary? What did? I'm just following the Oscars web page and they're apparently not updating very quickly. I hope it was Taxi To The Dark Side.
The Wine Commonsewer|2.24.08 @ 11:26PM|#
Michael Moore......Doesn't Win. Yippee!
Aside from that, I've barfed a few times, my ears are bleeding from
listening to the tripe, and I can't find the remote......Wait,
that's because Mrs TWC has it.
Jesus Chrysler, Tyler Cowan is right....impotent puppets, indeed.
Well, except, Harrison Ford that is.
And WTF is with all those hideous dresses?
Bah-Bah Wah-Wah is on next and she's lookin' mighty good. In an
anticipatory sort of way.
|2.24.08 @ 11:26PM|#
Oops - right after I posted I went back to oscar.com and it was up. Way to go, Taxi!
|2.24.08 @ 11:26PM|#
The word is like an agreement to not think.
How about an agreement to not split infinitives?
|2.24.08 @ 11:27PM|#
Thanks, Brian. I posted without seeing yours; I guess I'm slow on everything tonight....
|2.24.08 @ 11:27PM|#
Agreed Calidore. I thought if anything regarding libertarianism it showed the drug war as unwinnable. I don't recall there being anything remotely capitalism related in the film.
|2.24.08 @ 11:28PM|#
"How about an agreement to not split infinitives?"
Or an agreement to spell grammar correctly?
The Wine Commonsewer|2.24.08 @ 11:38PM|#
Or a pipe bomb under the seat of every member of the Grammar
Police?
BTW, Spark, that was classic. Nice one.
|2.24.08 @ 11:44PM|#
From my earlier post:
"All the cash in my pocket says that Sicko wins best documentary.
Just a hunch."
Somebody has $1.43 coming. Somebody? Anybody?
|2.24.08 @ 11:48PM|#
Somebody has $1.43 coming. Somebody? Anybody?
I guess I was hoping the trifecta paid a bit more, but I guess I'll
take what I can get... :)
Brian Courts | February 24, 2008, 10:26pm | #
Predictions:
Best Picture: No Country for Old Men
Best Director: The Cohens
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis
Ali|2.24.08 @ 11:54PM|#
Brian- Good job! I was betting on There Will be Blood to take it all. I guess not.
|2.24.08 @ 11:59PM|#
Good call, Brian. I figured DDL and the Coen brothers, but like
Ali I had There Will Be Blood winning best pic (in one of those not
uncommon situations where the best director and best pic are
different). But of course I didn't put my $1.43 on the line like
you did.
And thanks, TWC. Just doing my part to stick it to The Man.
|2.25.08 @ 12:08AM|#
Crimethink, this is English, not Latin. We can boldly split our infinitives all we want to.
|2.25.08 @ 12:12AM|#
You are free to split your infinitives, indeed. And I am free to criticize you for doing so.
|2.25.08 @ 12:18AM|#
Thanks Ali and Sparky, though I guess I should confess that the only reason I didn't include a prediction for Best Actress was that fortunately the award was given before I got to the computer tonight which prevented me from getting it wrong. :)
|2.25.08 @ 12:23AM|#
Well, sure, you're free to criticize. And don't get me wrong, I criticize all the time -- my taste in punctuation is pretty much equal to that of Lynn Truss (except for with regard to the serial comma). But criticizing the split infinitive isn't the hallmark of a discerning grammar nerd, it's a hallmark of seventh grade grammar teachers. And you've always struck me as way cooler than that.
Twitter|2.25.08 @ 12:25AM|#
That Click 'n' Learn guy has great taste in movies! Thanks for the link. In return, I'll make sure I spit on a couple of Mexicans on the way to work tomorrow.
|2.25.08 @ 12:39AM|#
I mean, I say this to you as a fellow libertarian and
grammar/syntax/punctuation purist. Being libertarians (and
Anglophones) we can recognize the stupidity of an exercise like the
Academie Francaise, but being purists we can also recognize the
need for criticism of peoples' mistakes. We need to target our
criticisms in ways that will maintain the utility and readability
of the English language, and not waste time on shibboleths that
never mattered anyway. We should spend less time on split
infinitives and prepositions at the ends of sentences and much,
much more time on misused apostrophes, confusions of
their/there/they're, and the depressingly ubiquitous replacement of
the word "lose" with "loose".
Oh, and, uh, No Country for Old Men rocked. Juno
was pretty excellent, too. And despite its vaguely anti-capitalist
sort-of plot (I think it was really more a condemnation of Tilda
Swinton's character's drive to avoid detection than anti-capitalist
per se), I thought Michael Clayton was good.
|2.25.08 @ 12:55AM|#
Calidore | February 24, 2008, 11:15pm | #
Does There Will Be Blood villify capitalism? I don' think it necessarily does.
I don't think it did, either. Admittedly, part of me was cheering
Daniel Plainview on in the last scene. He's a hero. I almost said
he's an antihero, but he's not pathetic, lazy, unsuccessful, or
dumb...he's just a psycho. :)
A very attractive psycho.
Its over they\'re|2.25.08 @ 1:04AM|#
We should spend less time on split infinitives and
prepositions at the ends of sentences and much, much more time on
misused apostrophes, confusions of their/there/they're, and the
depressingly ubiquitous replacement of the word "lose" with
"loose".
Their is some sound advice and it's following would be wise since
its difficult to really loose with. :)
|2.25.08 @ 1:11AM|#
I'd like to dedicate this comment #69 to Daniel Day Lewis for his portrayal of Daniel Plainview. Without him, this comment wouldn't have been possible. And I'd like to thank the Academy.
|2.25.08 @ 1:13AM|#
How about an agreement to not split infinitives?
If by infinitives, you mean your ugly, ugly face, then no. I can't
agree to that.
stephen the goldberger|2.25.08 @ 1:15AM|#
That Amy Ryan didn't win for Gone Baby Gone is bullshit. That was the only award i really cared about and they fucked it up.
|2.25.08 @ 2:30AM|#
I'm still trying to figure out the proper use of semi-colons. Is that about a partially completed surgery?
|2.25.08 @ 2:45AM|#
Grammar Freedom Fighter:
Forget about split infinitives; Arkady is right.
You'll have your job cut out for you just trying to stem the tide
of misplaced apostrophes. Thank Bill Gates for that.
Oh, and Michael Moore really looked grossly obese. Kinda like Jabba
with a baseball cap on.
|2.25.08 @ 3:26AM|#
I'm a little disappointed that Hal Holbrook and Persepolis didn't win in their respective categories; otherwise, I couldn't care less. Did I mention I slept through the whole thing...
|2.25.08 @ 4:38AM|#
If ewe can't get English to work, try Latin; (warning,
semi-colon just used gratuitously )
semper ubi sub ubi
always where under where
green mamba|2.25.08 @ 4:52AM|#
Yeah, Persepolis should have won, not the insipid Ratatouille. And it's a crime that Philip Seymour Hoffman wasn't nominated for either of his two amazing performances this year (in Charlie Wilson's War and The Savages).
|2.25.08 @ 7:02AM|#
green mamba,
PSH was nominated for his role in Charlie Wilson's War for best
supporting actor.
|2.26.08 @ 2:35AM|#
Another reason Michael Clayton sucked: it was completely
predictable. I knew at least a half hour before it happened how
Clooney would set the corporate wench up. That's been done too many
times in a number of movies. Also, I wouldn't think it's a problem
that a Hollywood movie takes aim at corporate greed (or worse) but
it just seems so overdone and simplistically done. Why not at least
include the tension between the need to be responsible to share
holders and other sorts of values. Dramatizing that tension could
make for an interesting story, if done well.
"How about an agreement to not split infinitives?"
Shouldn't that then read, "How about an agreement to split not
infinitives?"
Site comments/questions:
Media Inquiries and Reprint Permissions:
(310) 367-6109
Editorial & Production Offices:
3415 S. Sepulveda Blvd.
Suite 400
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 391-2245