The Oscars!

I love the oscars. it's not because i think they important or significant the way, say the nobel peace prize is, but i do love movies, and i love competitions and trivia, and i love seeing beautiful people in dresses i cant afford and which oftentimes are totally ridiculous. it also gives me a free activity and excuse to party with friends and make up nicknames for our snacks that are tenuously related to movie titles and actors names and whatnot. so, without further ado:

the weekend started with charity and me watching as many oscar nom movies as possible before the ceremonies. started with half nelson and the prestige on friday. half nelson is a good movie with no ending. the kind of movie my father would rail against, mostly because he gets sucked in and feels screwed when he has to make up a happy ending instead of having it shown to him. i feel similarly. that said, shareeka epps is adorable and heartbreaking and ryan gosling is the same. can a movie be good w/o a happy ending, am i some simpleminded idealist? no. but, a) it has to be more compelling than the nightly news on which every single day ends shittily, and b) it has to be worthwhile. this brings me to saturday when chares and i debated *endlessly* about whether to watch united 93 or go see letters from iwo jima in addition to seeing babel--see, in both united 93 and iwo jima you have real events in which everyone dies. we can only take so much total annihilation in one night. to spare you the patheticness, we ended up settling on babel and united 93, which my family owns. united 93: best movie i've seen this year. period. paul greengrass is amazing and was my sentimental pick for director. marty should have won for the aviator but hey.

the tv coverage started with this horrifically awkward red carpet commentary by richard roeper and some other totally forgettable dude who kept yelling the stars names to get them to come and do their obligatory interviews. It was during this painful segment that Ryan Gosling overcame the awkwardness of unmemorable guy and richard "i should never have done this, please stop yelling at the actors, you are *humiliating me*" roeper. ryan came up with an assortment of lady relatives, i believe, and shared about a pin he was wearing to be auctioned off to help rehabilitate child soldiers in uganda where he had just been last week. I believe this is when Charity and I shared a moment of "my love for ryan gosling has reached the level of bursting physical pain!" at which point forget-o man said "so this whole night isn't about the jewelry and the dresses and glamour is it, ryan?" to which ryan gave an awesome look saying, "you are a total effing moron" and then he hiccoughed and said "no."
Fast forward to Ellen's lackluster opening. I really wanted a billy crystal-esque performance where she is in all of the best picture noms. still, at least she wasnt awkwardly offensive. she was sort of adorable throughout. her standup is hilarious, but the oscars have to try and make everyone sort of milquetoast.

jack nicholson is bald, diane keaton finally isnt wearing damn gloves and some magician suit with necktie, she looks gorgeous, they flirt--they need to end up together in real life like they did in something's gotta give.

the best part of the ceremony was the song by will ferrell and jack black, "i thought i'd get to have dinner with jeremy irons..." and "ryan gosling you're all hip and now, but i'm gonna break your hip, right now!"

hi, i'm jennifer hudson's breasts.

alan arkin won for best supporting actor! and sunshine won best screenplay and the writer says his family actually did drive a broken down vw bus one summer and it was the best family vacation they ever had.

all in all, another fun year.