February 2nd – 22 Sleeps To Go
- ...but the big question on everybody's lips...
- On their chapped lips...
- On their chapped lips, right: Do ya think Phil is gonna come out and see his shadow?
-Punxsutawney Phil! -
Thats right, woodchuck-chuckers - it's --GROUNDHOG DAY!
All a long and draw-out way of welcoming you all to this day. Mine hasn’t been especially exciting so far, so I’m kind of hoping it won’t be repeated. But according to Groundhog.org (yyyep) Punxatawny Phil has yet to emerge from his warm little bed, so I’ll keep you posted re: the weather for the next six weeks.
Back to the Oscars! Yay!
So the Screen Actors Guild Awards were given out on the 27th, and….mostly they were as expected, with the exception of Ruby Dee winning for American Gangster instead of favourite Cate Blanchett in I’m Not There. Hmm. A little worrying for Our Cate, especially since she’s got two nominations—if ever there was a death knell for Oscar hopes, it's the double nomination… So I wouldn’t say she’s got it wrapped up—especially since Amy Ryan is winning a lot of independent awards for Gone Baby Gone… Hmm.
Otherwise, Daniel Day-Lewis, Javier Bardem and Julie Christie kicked everyone else’s collective ass.
So this week I saw Charlie Wilson’s War, whose sole Oscar nomination this year goes to Philip Seymour Hoffman, otherwise known as IckyMan, for Best Supporting Actor, and who to my astonishment is pretty good in this (A theory has been put to me that the reason is that what with his big spectacles and fraying moustache, parts of his face are…how to put this…not immediately visible? I’m just saying.). On the pro side, the movie’s major plus is the fact that Aaron (The West Wing) Sorkin (who is not, we shall note, nominated for ANYTHING at this year’s Oscars) wrote the script. It’s moments like this you need a really withering one-liner. And so today’s BEANIE is:
Best Withering One-Liner
(I’ve got to work on these award names)
Anyway, today’s BEANIE goes to…
Charlie Wilson’s War, for “Can we just take a moment to reflect on all of the ways in which you are a douchebag?”
I know, I’m as surprised as the rest of you that this is going to a line uttered by Philip Seymour Hoffman, but then I’m even more surprised that I watched the whole of Charlie Wilson’s War without him irritating me. Yay. And it’s lovely to have Aaron Sorkin back writing again (how I’ve missed him).
Other nominees included:
Hot Fuzz, for “Playtime’s over”
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, for “If I may lend a machete to your intellectual thicket…”
The Simpsons Movie, for “Rats can’t be trapped this easily. You’re trapped like…carrots.”
Juno, for “Oh yeah? Well I still have your virginity!”
So what kind of chance does the Hoffman have at this year’s Oscars? Well…not much, to tell the truth. Sorry, PSH, but you’d better thank your lucky stars for your other little statuette, because if anyone’s going to take out the Best Supporting Actor Award, it’s going to be Javier Bardem for No Country For Old Men, and in the (slightly unlikely) event that it’s not him, then it’ll be Hal Holbrook for Into the Wild, or Casey Affleck for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.
Another reason this particular BEANIE is relevant (well, you know, as relevance goes) is that the writer’s strike continues, picketing, marching…jotting down anything vaguely witty so that when this is all over they can go up to the networks and say “SEE? THIS is what you almost missed out on!” Don’t get me wrong, I love the writers, I want them to be paid fairly (well, you know, the Hollywood version of “fairly”), but I also want a purty little Oscar show. You can see my problem. I say we blame the networks.
Right. Gotta go. A merry Groundhog Day to you all!
O
PS—As of the time this email was sent, Punxatawney Phil was still snug up in his little groundhog bed, refusing to tell us anything about his shadow until the sun had actually risen. Lazy bastard
No comments:
Post a Comment