this machine will not communicate

Oof, beefed this year's predictions.  I made the bold prediction of Get Out thinking this year might be similar to 2016, when Mad Max and The Revenant were the head-to-head favorites but Spotlight sort of beamed in to win with only an Original Screenplay win.  But if I hadn't gone No Guts No Glory, I would have picked Three Billboards as the likely winner, so it was sort of a double beef.

Also was predicting at least one actor upset, which tends to happen most often in Supporting Actor (see: Adam Arkin, Mark Rylance), but all four categories went right down the line according to precursors.  Ah well.

An okay show.  I was surprised by one of the montages, the sort of overall Movie montage; I'll have to see if it gets uploaded to YT later on.  There was a line of dialogue about how hope (I think it was hope) never dies, that was cut over a shot of Anton Yelchin from Star Trek.  Caught me completely off-guard and out of nowhere; I just started blubbering.

I enjoyed The Shape of Water and am always happy when something of a genre-bent wins big, but I have to admit, it just didn't come together as a film for me.  I think all of the pieces were there except for the actual script itself; there were just some holes, some places that didn't gel.  I always have favorites in the Best Picture race, but it's sort of odd to have a movie I really liked win that I think actually didn't really deserve to win?  I actually only saw three out of nine of the nominees this year, but the other two that I did see - Dunkirk and Get Out - were both better, I think. 

It was awfully cute to see Doug Jones up on that stage, though.

(I'll just keep adding to this post as the night goes on...)

MAD MAX MAD MAX WIN ALL THEM TECHS GO GO GO!

I'm still hoping it wins at least one big above-the-line award, but I'll be happy if it sweeps the techs. (What if George Miller won, though? What if it won Best Picture, though?)

Kinda wanted Jennifer Jason Leigh to win just because she's great, but honestly I hadn't seen any of those movies so it was kind of hard to say.

ETA 1: EHHHH Lubezki won for Cinematography again. I was really hoping John Seale would win for Mad Max (duh). Not only was it an absolutely stunning, gorgeous film, but Seale was also the primary camera operator, which is just some baller shit, let me tell you. The Oscar for Cinematography covers pretty much everything that's the visual component of the film, and Mad Max also had the best color timing I've seen since LOTR. So, disappointing.

Here comes editing...better be Margaret...FUCK YEAH MARGARET SIXEL FUCK YEAH LADY EDITORS FUCK YEAH MAD MAX guys I'm so excited.

ETA 2: Y'all those montages for Sound Editing! That's what sound editing is! For everyone who has ever been like, hahaha what's sound editing what's the difference between sound editing and sound mixing yur yur lol I work in the film industry I don't even know haha THAT IS WHAT SOUND EDITING IS. So obviously I'm glad that one of the nominees that wasn't just Most Gunshots won. MAD MAX HOLLER.

MAD MAX SOUND MIXING tonight has been very shiny and chrome so far, I must say.

ETA 3: Aw, it's my perfect mocap pocket prince Andy Serkis, I love you sweet babby, some day they will properly appreciate your talent.

VFX like any of these movies could win...will it be Mad Max...I mean...it's my movie bae this year...waiting patiently...Ex Machina? Ehhhhhhhhhhh I roll my eyes at obvious "we liked this movie so we'll throw it a win" wins. Like it's fine I guess, but nowhere as impressive as literally any of the other nominees.

ETA 4: Oop we're at the boring part of the ceremony. No offense to these categories and the artists represented therein. But it is boring. I'm cross-stitching.

ETA 5: Holy shit Mark Rylance won Supporting Actor! Wow! That is a fucking shock! I for sure thought Stallone had that locked up. I haven't seen Bridge of Spies, and honestly don't really know Mark Rylance, but I'm so honestly chuffed to have an honest-to-God surprise for a change. With all the critics awards and precursors, there aren't that many surprises in the big categories anymore, so this was quite fun.

ETA 6: I can't watch the In Memoriam this year. I can't.

ETA 7: ENNIO MORRICONEEEEEEEEE. Bitch gets an honorary Oscar in 2006 because he's a bamf who's never won and they're like, he's old let's give him one, he'll die soon, and he's like FUCK Y'ALL I'LL WAIT TEN YEARS AND WIN ONE FOR RILL AND GIVE MY SPEECH IN ITALIAN AND IT'S GOING TO BE KILLER AND Y'ALL WILL HANG ON EVERY WORD AND THEN I SHALL ASCEND INTO THE HEAVENS ON A BEAM OF LIGHT I'M ENNIO MORRICONE ASSHOLES LISTEN UP.

ETA 8: *angrily weeping about Inarritu (I'm on my tablet so I can't do diacritics) winning Director damn it he won last year and like normally I would say whoever was the best should win regardless of other considerations but DAMN IT I WANTED GEORGE MILLER HE DESERVED IT INARRITU GOT IT LAST YEAR I'M NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS* no it's okay it's okay I was prepared...I didn't...still...have hope...*weepily weeping*

ETA 9: Brie and Leo, no surprises there.

Best Picture...

...

Spotlight?



I mean, first of all, if a movie about child sex abuse in the Catholic church was gonna win Best Picture, why couldn't it have been Doubt? Second of all, eh. I'm sure it's good, but eh. Third of all...at least it wasn't The Revenant haha.

Goodnight, folks!

I could have sworn I'd posted sometime more recently, but I guess not.

Anywho!  My November final NaNoWriMo word count total was 31,000.  Which I was totally happy with, and is a good, sustainable monthly average for me.  I'm at around 13,000 thus far, which is actually pretty good considering how much time I've spent editing Part One.  Which is still going on, as I decided after reading through it that I needed one more chapter at the end.  Originally it was just going to be 3-4 pages, a character-based chapter rather than a plot-based one, more in the line of an epilogue than anything else.  It's about five times that length now, and I finally finished it yesterday.  So now I need to edit/polish that up, and maybe give a quick once-over to the last quarter or so of Part One.

But it's coming along!  I'm well-pleased.

About halfway done with Christmas shopping.  I don't understand how it, like, sneaks up on me each year.  I've got three stores to hit this weekend, and my goal is to get up early Saturday morning and get going, try to beat the crowds, if that's even possible the weekend before Christmas.  I decided to make gifts for my co-workers, and was planning to be done long before now, but I'll have to finish them up tonight.  Mini-pallet coasters! Though I made mine with popsicle sticks, cut to length and then glued together double or triple thickness.  A box of popsicle sticks is a lot cheaper than buying like actual wood.  A pretty easy craft, even for someone as relatively uncrafty as I am, but it took much longer than I was anticipating.

I finally saw Gravity yesterday.  I'm glad I got to see it on the big screen, and it was a really great movie, and Sandy did a wonderful job, but I guess my expectations were way higher, because I wasn't particularly wowed.  Beautiful, and science-y, and it's nice to see a clear, simple, straightforward story for a change, but it wasn't the technological oh-my-God marvel everyone had blown it up to be.  But still very good, and the clear winner this year for SFX.

Speaking of awards, I'm pretty happy thus far with how the award season is playing out.  I don't really have a favorite I want to win everything, except maybe Cate Blanchett for Actress, and that seems in the bag.  I haven't seen a lot of the major contenders yet, either because they haven't come out (American Hustle, Her), I don't really care (Wolf of Wall Street), or I'm not comfortable seeing it in the theater and will wait till DVD (12 Years a Slave).  I feel like the upcoming Oscar nominations won't have a huge amount of surprises, but this year that doesn't seem to be a bad thing. 

Is there anything better than watching an award show, eating chocolate, and drinking wine?

THE ANSWER IS NO.

And I've got horchata and cold-brew coffee working in the fridge, and bread dough rising on the counter, so tomorrow's gonna be awesome, too.  Though no awards show tomorrow.  I'll have to eat bread and drink iced coffee while, like, reading about the Golden Globes.

I don't understand the show Girls?  Everything I've seen of it looks awkward and unfunny.  And I'm not here for the body shaming of Lena Dunham, but dear God she styles herself so unflatteringly.  Blech.

This awards season though, it's so bizarre.  Ben Affleck wins the GG for best director but isn't even nominated for an Oscar whaaaaat?  It makes no sense.  I do feel like Anne Hathaway and Daniel Day-Lewis are pretty much set in stone at this point; if Lincoln gets BP/BD at the Oscars, then maybe Sally Field sneaks in.  But I don't really see a viable dark horse candidate in Actor, so DDL gets number three.  Actress is tricky; it's definitely between Lawrence and Chastain, and having the category division at the GG doesn't help clarify matters at all.  I'll be interested to see what happens at SAG.  And Supporting Actor is just completely up in the air; Waltz isn't nominated at SAG, so he won't be carrying any momentum forward.  Arkin's the only nominee from Argo, so it depends on what kind of support that movie has from the actors.  Tommy Lee Jones?  Again, depends on how much Lincoln pummels its way through, I think. 

Watch Philip Seymour Hoffman win, lol.

WOW ARGO WINS I was not expecting that.  I don't know why not, after Affleck won, but I wasn't.  Interesting, interesting.

I feel like there is going to be a lot more interest than usual in what the guilds end up doing; the Academy Award ballots were due before the guilds announced their nominations, which I think accounts for a lot of the weirdness this year.  So if Argo takes home PGA, for instance, that's a huge deal.  (OMG, if Affleck wins DGA, I don't even know.)  I think bottom line a lot of people appreciate that Lincoln's good, but I don't really see that many people all that passionate about it.  And Spielberg's not really winning all that much, honestly.  I kinda am thinking that DDL is going to end up the only major win for Lincoln; but again, my guess may change depending on the guilds.

Wow that was some unexpected talky meat, sorry.  I just really like awards you guys.

11:02 pm - The show's been over for awhile.  Am still basking in wonderful TKS-wins glow.  I do think, though, that tonight's show was the second-worst Oscar show in terms of production and pacing that I've seen.  (The worst is still the one where they gave out awards in the audience, or had the technical award nominees all cluster on the stage together, to save time - because God knows things like sound mixing and cinematography are totally unimportant when it comes to making movies.)  Like, everything was just so painfully unfunny, except for the rare few presenters who actually have some natural comic timing and were able to save themselves, if nothing else.  The set was weird, the homages to past films that had won was scatterbrained and confusing, the introductions of the nominees was boring, and on and on.  I mean, is it really that hard to put together an entertaining show, where pretty people in nice dresses win shiny things?

They should just hire the people on YouTube who make the awesome montages.  And skip the host, and just have people present without dumb scripted chatter.  And actually, like, TALK ABOUT MOVIES.  I swear, that auto-tuned turning dialogue into songs thing about halfway through rivaled Rob Lowe singing with Snow White for I'm Going To Seriously Kill Myself, This is Too Embarrassing to Live moments.

10:45 pm - I'm happy with both lead acting winners.  Natalie is not my favorite actress in the world, but she was amazing in Black Swan.  And Colin Firth of course was brilliant and perfect. 

And The King's Speech wins.  I knew True Grit, which was my other favorite movie of the year, didn't have a chance in hell, so I was obviously enormously pleased with the outcome.  I was still so nervous, though; goodness.  And for the first time since 2003, my favorite movie of the year, and the one I truly felt was the best, actually wins the Best Picture Oscar.  Tonight ended up a whole lot better than it started.

10:08 pm - TOOOOOOOM HOOOOOOOOOOPER FINALLLLY THANK YOU GOOOOOOOOOOOD.

I think some of the happiest moments in my life have been when people I like when awards.

9:57 pm - Hi, Sally!  Bye, Sally.

I'm incredibly glad they turned off the Death Clap-o-Meter for a change.  I still can't quite believe Dennis Hopper is gone.

9:49 pm - Thanks a lot, Oscars, for reminding me that Jennifer Hudson has won one of you.  Also, what is wrong with her boobs.

Those were like four of the worst song nominees ever.  At least Randy Newman was funny?  I just want to know who keeps telling Gwyneth Paltrow she has a good singing voice; it's flat and awful.

9:37 pm - Oh God, The Social Network is going to win, isn't it?  Ughhhhhhh.

Also, WTF is up with Hereafter getting a Visual Effects nomination.  That wave looked like something from a video game from 2002.

9:23 pm - So far, The King's Speech has won a single Oscar, and True Grit has won zero Oscars.

At least Cate Blanchett looked ethereal and perfect and gorgeous.

Also, that Tangled song was the blandest shit I've ever heard.  For this, Jonsi didn't get nominated?  Mmmkay.

8:51 pm - I cannot believe Trent Reznor has an Oscar.  Fucking Social Network, damn it.  This Oscars is balls so far.  Balls!

8:35 pm - Screenplay went as expected, does not clarify the race at all.  I'm happy to see Christian Bale win, even though I would have liked John Hawkes or Geoffrey Rush to win as well.  Helen Mirren's dress was gorgeous and she was stunning, as per usual.  I think she's been in my top three best dressed for about the last five years at this point.

I am so over Oscar hosts and their random, unfunny shtick.  Seriously.  I'd rather have a bunch of random montages; at least they're ostensibly about movies.

8:09 pm - Well, not the best start.  I'm 1/5.  I was hoping this would be the year when the voters realized that the best acting =/= the most crying and yelling, but alas.  No such luck.  And even though I picked Toy Story 3 to win, I wanted How to Train Your Dragon to win - but I knew that wasn't going to happen.  So far, underwhelmed by dresses.  I liked Mila Kunis's color and basic idea, but it was a tiny bit too low-cut for my tastes. 

I refused to watch Melissa Leo's acceptance speech.  I stirred the pizza bites in the oven, and angrily ate some popcorn.  Grr.

Normally I am way more into the Oscar season than I have been this year, but I still made a point of watching the nominations live.  And, of course, I have Important Thoughts.

1) Tron didn't get nominated for visual effects.  Whaa.....?  At least it did get nominated for sound editing, though.  The Academy Award-nominated film Tron: Legacy!

2) I'm sorry, I know it gives her a better shot, but Hailee Steinfeld for supporting actress is ridiculous.  She's in almost every scene.  The movie is about her character.  SHE'S THE ONE WITH TRUE GRIT.  I don't care that she's 14; she should be up for lead.

3) Haha one guy from The Social Network, you didn't get nominated for supporting actor HAHAHAHA.

4) Also, in general, The Social Network is that movie that I inexplicably hate without ever seeing for this year (there's always at least one), so I was pleased it did not get the most nominations.  Also, it lost the PGA to The King's Speech, which did lead the nominations.  I hope this to be a harbinger of things to come.  Because TKS>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>TSN.

5) YEAH JOHN HAWKES YOU GET THAT NOMINATION HE WAS A JEWISH BANKER ON DEADWOOD HE HAS BIDNESS TO DO AND THAT BIDNESS BETTER BE TO WIN SOME OSCARS.

6) (Unless Geoffrey Rush would rather win that supporting actor nomination.  That would work, too.  I actually saw his movie and performance, so.  I just...don't want Christian Bale to win?  IDKW.)

7) The King's Speech for cinematography!  The Coens for directing!  Inception for sound design!  True Grit for costumes!  I'm still pissed that Carter Burwell's score for True Grit was disqualified.  WHO CARES THAT IT WAS BASED ON OLD HYMNS.  IS THAT REALLY ALL WE THINK FILM COMPOSITION BOILS DOWN TO, THE MELODY?!  YOU, PEOPLE WHO DISQUALIFY THE BEST SCORES EVERY. SINGLE. YEAR. ARE NOTHING BUT BALLS.  GIANT BAGS OF SWEATY, GROSS BALLS.

8) I miss when Cate was nominated every year.  :(