Matt's Super-Crucial Oscar Awards: Best dude -- Adrien Brody, in a landslide. He makked Halle Berry because he could, he shouted down the speech-is-over-music-cops, he delivered tasteful and heartfelt concern for a world at war, he gave a holler to a homeboy serving in Kuwait, and he looked weird. He also deserved the award, in my opinion, though, ah, I didn't see three of the other movies. Others I'm glad won: Chris Cooper, whose performance was fantastic; Eminem, whose movie got jobbed; and Peter O'Toole, whose speech was classy. Movie I Now Want to See: Frida, also in a landslide, based entirely on the music ... though two hours of Salma Hayek could be worse. Honorary Award: To local boy Steve Martin, of Long Beach State and Disneyland, who always makes me laugh, even if I'm the only one. Biggest Post-Show Question: How long will it take my wife to drive the 3.5 miles home from the Kodak Theater? Show ended at 9 PDT, it's 9:15 now ... I'm guessing 10:30.
Posted by at March 23, 2003 09:17 PMPlus, Brody was a major upset in a field that looked predictable in either Jack's or Daniel Day's direction. Plus, he didn't do the standard agents, studios, blah, blah, blah stuff.
O'Toole did a simple thing: demonstrated a feel for language and timing. Damn rare.
Posted by: Eric at March 23, 2003 09:47 PM
makked???? Please translate.
What, Farris, they didn't carry it live in Poland?
Um, that's Matt's Bad Attempt At Slang for "made out with, in a much more convincing way than Al Gore smashed his face against Tipper's gate at the 2000 Democratic Convention."
Posted by: Matt Welch at March 23, 2003 09:56 PM
"What, Farris, they didn't carry it live in Poland?"
Yeah but a nine-hour time difference (I have to get up at 6.30 am) and having to listen to voice-overs full of bad translations dim my enthusiam.
"Slang for "made out with, in a much more convincing way than Al Gore smashed his face against Tipper's gate at the 2000 Democratic Convention."
I thought it might be something like that. Lucky guy.
I'm just a little bummed one of my personal goddesses Julianne Moore didn't win anything.
Posted by: Michael Farris at March 23, 2003 10:34 PMToo bad Polanski couldn't be there to pick up his award. Man, people hold a grudge, huh?
Posted by: Jim Treacher at March 24, 2003 07:00 AMWhen Brody did his serious mouth-to-mouth on Halle, my response was "you magnificent bastard." When I saw that before he went up he got a kiss from Diane Lane as well... he got upgraded to "glorious sunnuvabitch." Some guys have all the luck.
Don't worry, I always laugh at Steve Martin, too. Especially what he said about Michael Moore.
Posted by: Ian at March 24, 2003 09:21 AMUpdate -- Wife made it home around 12:30.
Posted by: Matt Welch at March 24, 2003 11:25 AMIt's not really a grudge against Mr. Polanksi. Click on my URL to see the testimony against him.
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/polanskicover1.html
Posted by: Xmas at March 24, 2003 02:29 PMI saw a pic of Adrien Brody smooching Nicole Kidman too. Hey, could be a once-in-a-lifetime thing, might as well make the most of it.
Posted by: Jim Treacher at March 24, 2003 03:17 PM"I saw a pic of Adrien Brody smooching Nicole Kidman too. Hey, could be a once-in-a-lifetime thing, might as well make the most of it."
Bet SNL next weekend will have a gag involving "Adrien Brody" wandering randomly into sketches and laying serious liplocks on whatever female cast members are there. If not, too bad: it would be funnier than a lot of the stuff they've been doing the last few years.
Posted by: M. Scott Eiland at March 24, 2003 10:34 PMWhat's Steve Martin's connection to Disneyland? I thought he started in that little theater at Knott's BF.
Posted by: Greg at March 25, 2003 12:34 AMYes, Frida musica e buena. Or something like that.
And I still giggle over Michael Moore lecturing other people on fiction.
Posted by: MoronWatch at March 25, 2003 08:11 AMGreg -- Unless my memory is a liar, Martin worked at the magic store at Disneyland, then graduated to playing banjo over near the Pirates of the Caribbean...
Posted by: Matt Welch at March 25, 2003 10:26 AM